Balsall Common travel guide

Balsall Common (often known as Balsall Compton) is a large village and one of the larger rural settlements in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, situated seven miles (eleven 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 rapid suburbanisation and is increasingly considered as a minor town in terms of its population.
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. 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 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. (...) more....