Station Road, the main shopping street of Balsall Common

Balsall Common is a large village and one of the larger rural settlements in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull , situated between the cities of Coventry 7 miles (11 km) to the east and Birmingham 13 miles (21 km) to the west, to which it serves as a commuter village in the West Midlands. It is currently undergoing rapid suburbanisation and is increasingly considered as a minor town in terms of its population. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 720 pixel, file size: 99 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Station Road, Balsall Common, West Midlands (traditionally in Warwickshire). ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 720 pixel, file size: 99 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Station Road, Balsall Common, West Midlands (traditionally in Warwickshire). ... The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. ... The Precinct in Coventry city centre. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... A Commuter village sits in a rural area, formerly inhabited by people who worked in, or who had worked in, the village or close to it, now inhabited mainly by people who travel to work in a nearby town. ... The County of West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a population of around 2,600,000 people. ... Suburbanization is a term used by many to describe the current residential living situation in the United States, and it is related to the phenomenon of urban sprawl. ...

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 (2001 census), and the parish of Berkswell. As of 2006 the population was approaching 7,000 residents. A civil parish (usually just parish) in England is a subnational entity forming the lowest unit of local government, lower than districts or counties. ... Church of St. ... Chadwick End is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English West Midlands area. ... Berkswell is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, county of West Midlands, England. ...

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 6 to 12 houses each and a few scattered cottages - as 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, 3 miles (5 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. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... A hamlet is (usually — see below) a small settlement, too small or unimportant to be considered a village. ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

It is served by a rail station on the Coventry-Birmingham line. The station is called Berkswell after a much older, and now smaller, village to the north (now essentially a suburb of Balsall Common). It has two schools, one primary and one secondary. Nearby towns and villages include Solihull, Kenilworth, Warwick, Meriden, Hampton-in-Arden and Hatton. The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 until 1846, at which date it became a constituent part of the London and North Western Railway. ... Berkswell is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, county of West Midlands, England. ... Solihull (IPA: , or , or some combination of the two; occasionally ) is a large town in the West Midlands in England with a population of 94,753. ... Statistics Population: 22,582 (2001) Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SP295715 Administration District: Warwick Shire county: Warwickshire Region: West Midlands Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Warwickshire Services Police force: Warwickshire Police Ambulance service: West Midlands Post office and telephone Post town: Kenilworth Postal district: CV8... Warwick (pronounced or War-ick (silent w in middle)) is the historic county town of Warwickshire in England and has a population of 25,434 (2001 census). ... Meriden is a village in the metropolitan borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, midway between Birmingham and Coventry, approximately 5 miles away from Birmingham International Airport. ... Hampton-in-Arden is a small village in the metropolitan borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England, although previously it was in Warwickshire. ... // Hatton may refer to: Places United Kingdom Hatton, Aberdeenshire Hatton, Warrington Hatton, Lincolnshire Hatton, Derbyshire Hatton, Shropshire Hatton, Warwicks Hatton, London in the Borough of Hounslow USA: Hatton, North Dakota Hatton, Washington a small community in north Alabama located near the cities of Town Creek and Moulton. ...

Since the late-1990s, plans for a bypass, a large national supermarket and larger swathes of new housing have so far been circumvented.

Famous occupants

Home for many years to the recognised scientist Andri Ford who is know for his 2006 breakthrough research on microgel electrophoresis in particular two-dimensional strandness dependant electrophoresis.

Several Premiership and Championship footballers live (and have lived) in the Balsall Common, especially those playing with Coventry City, Birmingham City and Aston Villa. Coventry City Football Club, otherwise known as the Sky Blues due to the traditional colour of their strip (which itself is sky blue in honour of the sky blue cloth traditionally made in the city), are a football team based in Coventry, England. ... Birmingham City (BCFC) is one of Birminghams two professional soccer teams (the other is Aston Villa F.C.). Originally known as The Small Heath Alliance, they became in 1905 and Birmingham City F.C. in 1945. ... Aston Villa Football Club play at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. ...

External links

• http://www.balsallcom.com : BalsallCom.Com community website with forums run by local people.
• A brief history of Balsall Common (from balsallcom.com).
• http://www.ucbalsallcommon.co.uk: A commercial business search facility. ]
• grid reference SP238771

Coordinates: 52.39141° N 1.65169° W The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using latitude or longitude. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...