Balsall Common

Infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Balsall Common
latitude= 52.39141
longitude= -1.65169
civil_parish=
population = 6,234 (2001)
metropolitan_borough= Solihull
region= West Midlands
metropolitan_county= West Midlands
constituency_westminster=
post_town= COVENTRY
postcode_district = CV7
postcode_area= CV
dial_code=
os_grid_reference= SP238771
static_

static_image_caption= Station Road, the main shopping street.
hide_services = yes

Balsall Common is a large village and one of the larger rural settlements in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, situated 7 miles (11 km) west of Coventry and 13 miles (21 km) to the east of Birmingham, to which it serves as a commuter village in the West Midlands. It is currently undergoing gradual suburbanisation and is increasingly considered as a small town in terms of its population. Balsall Common is also considered to be one of the most prosperous communities in the West Midlands region.

The village is split between the civil parishes of Balsall (which also includes Balsall Street), Temple Balsall, Fen End, and Chadwick End, and has a population of 6,234 (United Kingdom Census 2001), and the parish of Berkswell. As of 2006, the population was approaching 7,000 residents. It also lies on the Heart of England Way.

The village is of recent origin; most of the houses and shops were built in the 20th century. Previously, the village consisted of a couple of hamlets of about six to twelve houses each and a few scattered cottages - as GBvosi|e=423800|n=277100|cty=36|txt=this map of 1889 shows. In the 1930s there began the development which linked these isolated buildings, but it was not until after World War II that the village really began to grow. With its proximity to the village of Meriden, three miles (five km) away, Balsall Common is close to the precise (though much-disputed) geographic centre of England and thus is one of the furthest places from the UK coastline. The local secondary school is unsurprisingly named the Heart of England School.

It is served by a railway station on the Coventry-Birmingham line. The station is called "Berkswell railway station" after Berkswell, a much older, and now smaller, village to the north (now essentially a suburb of Balsall Common). It has two schools, [http://www.bcpsonline.org.uk/index.html one primary] and one secondary. Nearby towns and villages include Solihull, Kenilworth, Warwick, Meriden, Hampton-in-Arden and Hatton.

Since the late-1990s, plans for a bypass, a large national supermarket and larger swathes of new housing have so far been circumvented. This is mainly due to Balsall Common being situated at the heart of the West Midlands greenbelt area known as the Meriden Gap, between Solihull and Coventry, and is thus subject to strict planning regulations. Therefore the village/town has so far not witnessed rapid growth given its location, as residents had long-feared that the village would act as a population overspill centre for Coventry, Solihull and Birmingham.

Famous residents

Several Premiership and Championship footballers live (and have lived) in Balsall Common, especially those playing with Coventry City, Birmingham City and Aston Villa.

External links

* [http://www.balsallcom.com: BalsallCom.Com] - community website with forums run by local people.
* [http://www.balsallcom.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=12 A brief history of Balsall Common]
*gbmapping|SP238771
* [http://www.balsallcommontraffic.net: BalsallTraffic.net] - A website highlighting the traffic congestion in this village.