RAF Hockley Heath

Hockley Heath is a large village and civil parish in the Arden area mostly within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. It incorporates the hamlet of Nuthurst, and has a history dating back to the year 705 AD as a wood owned by Worcester Cathedral. The parish, known as Nuthurst cum Hockley Heath, is to the south of the West Midlands conurbation, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Birmingham 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from Solihull town centre and 13 miles (21 km) north of Stratford-upon-Avon. The village forms part of the border with Warwickshire and the District of Stratford-on-Avon to the south, with some parts of the village on either side of the border. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 6,771, being measured at the 2011 Census as 2,038.

Umberslade Baptist Church is a redundant Baptist church southwest of the village of Hockley Heath, Solihull, West Midlands, England (grid reference SP147721). The church, attached school rooms, and the church hall were originally recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building in 1972, but on 9 July 2014, the grading was raised to II*. The building is under the care of the Historic Chapels Trust.

The Umberslade Obelisk is a Grade II listed monument in Warwickshire, England constructed by order of Thomas Archer, 1st Baron Archer, on his estate of Umberslade Hall in 1749. The obelisk is constructed from grey limestone and stands 70 ft (21 m) tall. The reason for its construction is unknown, but it may have simply been to enhance the view from the hall windows. The obelisk lies near the M40 motorway.

Monkspath Meadow is a 1.2 ha (3.0 acres) ancient hay-meadow and a biological site of Special Scientific Interest in the West Midlands. The site was notified in 1986 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is on the south-eastern edge of Monkspath. The site has recently been targeted for development for houses but these plans have been met with uproar from locals in Monkspath and nearby villages, such as Cheswick Green and Hockley Heath, as it would destroy such a special natural site. The site has probably been used as a hay meadow for over 800 years, and has not been ploughed for at least 200 years. It was originally at risk of development from the construction of a new local supermarket and garden centre in 1986. A little over half of the site was saved from development by a campaign led by Members of Warwickshire Nature Conservation Trust when proposals for the new supermarket were outlined. The remaining 1 ha (2.5 acres) of meadow was dug up by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust when the supermarket was built and relocated in 9 in (23 cm) deep turves to a new site at Temple Balsall. this involved destroying the existing orchid filled wildflower meadow at Temple Balsall and replacing it with the turves from Monkapath Meadow which were also destroyed in the process resulting in a field of poor quality rush and creeping thistle instead of an important wildflower meadow. Neither site is now accessible to the general public and The Warwickshire Wildlife Trust take no interest in either site having now removed it from their nature conservation handbook as one of their nature reserves. Today Notcutts Garden Centre manages the site under the direction of English Nature. The meadow supports a diverse level of flora with over 150 recorded species, including various grass species such as common bent (Agrostis capillaris), red fescue (Festuca rubra), Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus) and tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa). Herbs include cowslip (Primula veris), betony (Stachys officinalis), great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), dyer's greenweed (Genista tinctoria), meadow thistle (Cirsium dissectum), saw-wort (Serratula tinctoria), heath grass (Danthonia decumbens), heath spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata), and common spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). Fauna includes for small heath (Coenonympha pamphilus), meadow brown (Maniola jurtina) and common blue (Polyommatus icarus) butterflies..

Umberslade Hall is a 17th-century mansion converted into residential apartments situated in Nuthurst near Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.The Archer family were granted the manor of Umberslade by Henry II in the 12th century and retained possession for some 600 years. The old manor house was replaced between 1695 and 1700 when Smith of Warwick built the new mansion for Andrew Archer, Member of Parliament for Warwickshire. The estate passed to his son Andrew Archer, 2nd Baron Archer, after whose death in 1778 it was ultimately settled on his daughter Sarah, Countess of Plymouth. In 1751 Horace Walpole visited the estate and called it an odious place.The estate was sold in 1826 to Edward Bolton King, Member of Parliament for Warwick and for the County of Warwick, during whose time the ancient chapel at Nuthurst, near Hockley Heath was rebuilt and land was given for a church and school at Hockley Heath. From 1850 the house was leased by George Frederic Muntz, Member of Parliament for Birmingham. After his death in 1857 his son George Frederick bought the estate and much enlarged and improved the Hall. During this time Muntz junior had a church built on the estate, Umberslade Baptist Church, which exists to this day separately to the Hall. In 1881 the household comprised thirty including thirteen resident servants. Frederick Ernest Muntz who succeeded to the estate in 1898 served as High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1902 and as Deputy Lieutenant. The estate, much reduced, remains in the ownership of the Muntz family. From the 1960s the Hall was leased out to commercial tenants, including from 1967 BSA Motorcycles – Triumph Motorcycles, to merge their various design and development departments at a central point, roughly equi-distant from their manufacturing bases at Meriden, Redditch and Small Heath. Previously, the site had been similarly used by an industrial manufacturer of car components, Wilmot Breedon.In 1978 it was converted into twelve apartments and two mews cottages.

Shelly Green is a settlement in the West Midlands conurbation, although it was not considered as such until the late 1990s. As of 2001 it had a population of 5,702.

Monkspath is a large residential community and light-industrial area of Solihull, West Midlands, England, southeast of the town's Shirley district (and served by Junction 4 of the M42 motorway). Monkspath is in the Blythe ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull.

Cheswick Green is a village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands, incorporating the nearby hamlet of Illshaw Heath. The settlement lies approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south west of Solihull town centre. The civil parish population as taken at the 2011 census was 2,197. It borders Dickens Heath and Monkspath to the north, and Earlswood and Warings Green to the south. The northernmost part of Warings Green lies in the parish of Cheswick Green.

Monkspath Hall was a two-storey Georgian country house in Monkspath, historically in Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire (since 1974 part of Solihull, in the West Midlands), England. It was built circa 1775, in red brick, and demolished illegally in 1980.

Hillfield Park, Solihull, West Midlands is a community open space and play park in Monkspath, Solihull. It covers an area of over 2 acres (0.81 ha) and includes an attractive lake surrounded by formal footpaths, which give walkers the opportunity to explore the open space. It is built on a landfill site, its contours being produced by the earth settling as gases escape.

Lapworth is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, which had a population of 2,100 according to the 2001 census; this had fallen to 1,828 at the 2011 Census. It lies seven miles (11 km) south of Solihull and ten miles (16 km) northwest of Warwick, and incorporates the hamlet of Kingswood. Lapworth boasts a historic church, the Church of St Mary the Virgin, a chapel. Two National Trust sites are nearby: Baddesley Clinton, a medieval moated manor house and garden located in the village of Baddesley Clinton; and Packwood House, a Tudor manor house and yew garden with over 100 trees in Packwood. The church is a building largely of the 13th and 14th centuries. It includes several unusual features: the steeple is connected by a passage to the north aisle and is built sheer with a projecting stair; the clerestory has square-headed windows; and there is a two-storey annex at the west end. In the church the Portland memorial to Florence Bradshaw was the work of Eric Gill and was installed in 1928. It is a Virgin and Child carved in low relief. The village is a popular area for cuisine, with three pubs "The Boot", "The Navigation" and "The Punch Bowl". At Kingswood Junction, the Grand Union Canal joins the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, which has a major flight of locks. Catesby Lane in Lapworth is named after William Catesby (the great grandfather of Robert Catesby of Gunpowder Plot fame), whose family had been settled at Bushwood Hall, in the neighbouring parish of Bushwood, since the 14th century. The manor house was probably at Lapworth Hall, today Ireland's Farm, and in the 17th and 18th centuries the house of the Mander family of Wolverhampton. The furniture designer and maker Hugh Birkett worked from the late 1940s until 1966 in the garage at his parents' home in Lapworth. Examples of his work can be seen at Cheltenham Museum.

Dorridge is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands (county), England. Historically part of the historic county of Warwickshire, the village is encompassed within the electoral ward of Dorridge and Hockley Heath, which had a population of 11,140 in the 2011 census.