Solihull

Solihull (ˈsɒlihʌl, ˈsoʊl- or ˌsoʊliˈhʌl) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands County, England. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Forest of Arden area. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census, and its wider borough had a population of 216,240 The town is located 8 miles (12 km) southeast of Birmingham, 13 miles (21 km) west of Coventry and 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Warwick. Solihull itself is mostly urban; however, the larger borough is rural in character, with many outlying villages, and three quarters of the borough designated as green belt. The town and its borough, which has been part of Warwickshire county for most of its history, has roots dating back to the 1st century BC, and was further formally established during the medieval era. Today the town is famed as, amongst other things, the birthplace of the Land Rover car marque, the home of the British equestrian eventing team and is considered to be one of the most prosperous areas in the UK. Solihull's name is commonly thought to have derived from the position of its arden stone parish church, St Alphege, on a 'soily' hill. The church was built on a hill of stiff red marl, which turned to sticky mud in wet weather. 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.