Solihull

Sister cities

• Cholet

History

The land now forming Solihull was once covered in the ancient Forest of Arden. The earliest known settlement in the area was at Berry Mound, Shirley, which was the site of an Iron Age Hill Fort, a fortified village protected by earth banks, dating back to the 1st century BC and which covered approximately 11 acres (4.5 ha). The name Shirley means either 'a bright clearing' or 'a border clearing' in the Forest of Arden. During the later Iron Age the River Cole, which feeds the River Blythe, is believed to have been the border between the Corieltauvi and the Cornovii, with Solihull forming the junction of the two powerful Celtic Tribes. Throughout the Roman occupation of Britain it was held that no Roman roads made it through the Forest of Arden because it was so dense. The nearest known major Roman settlements being at Grimstock Hill on the Solihull border, Metchley Fort (around 8.5 miles north west), and Alcester (around 15 miles south). By the Anglo Saxon era, the forest of Arden was part of the Kingdom of Mercia. An assart settlement known as the manor of Ulverlei, meaning 'Wulfhere's clearing' was established, with its centre north east of the hillfort at Shirley. Wulfhere was the first Christian King of all Mercia. The settlement was a clearing in the dense woodland of the Forest of Arden, with the land farmed in common. The older settlement at Shirley was considered part of the new Manor of Ulverlei. This status as a clearing in the countryside is still reflected to this day in the town motto, "Urbs in rure" or "town in the country". Local folklore holds that as part of his campaigns against the Viking invasion in the mid 9th century Alfred the Great fought a battle against the Danes at Berry Mound, Shirley. After the absorption of Mercia into the rest of…

Geography

Solihull is located in the historic Forest of Arden and on the banks of the River Blythe 127 m (416 ft) above sea level. The town, and most of the borough is within the West Midlands Green Belt. The town is southeast of Birmingham, 14 miles (21 km) west of Coventry, northwest of Warwick and northwest of London. The village of Meriden in the Borough of Solihull was historically regarded as the centre of England and marked the dividing line between England's north and south. A listed stone monument commemorating Meriden's status as 'Centre of England' sits on the village green. However, this was discovered to be inaccurate in the 1920s, when the centre of England was in fact calculated to be in Leicestershire.

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  15,128
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  13,039
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,503
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  11,691
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  11,602
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  11,562
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,287
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  8,636

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2023-06-28
  2 km SE of Cheadle, United Kingdom
• M 3.6 — 2022-05-30
  2 km ESE of Prees, United Kingdom
• M 3.2 — 2022-02-21
  5 km N of Hockley, United Kingdom
• M 3.1 — 2020-09-22
  5 km N of Aylesbury, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2015-09-22
  2 km W of Cottesmore, United Kingdom
• M 3.8 — 2015-01-28
  2 km WSW of Market Overton, United Kingdom