Hello Solihull Directory Logo
a

History of Solihull

Today, Solihull is a thriving and prosperous town, with a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census.

Property is sought after, and so prices are high, due to the great local schools, the proximity of the motorway network, the shopping and leisure facilities, and the surrounding green spaces.

As the town’s motto ‘Urbs in the Rure’ (‘Town in the Country’) suggests – it’s quick and easy to get out into the countryside and many people prefer the location of Solihull to the hustle and bustle of Birmingham.

Solihull Touchwood Shopping

However, Solihull hasn’t always been quite such a sought-after area. It seems as though it was founded back in the medieval times (from 500 AD) and started out as a small clearing where people would exchange goods. It appears to have been one of the most sparsely populated parts of the country, and so it became a central meeting and trading place for a scattered population.

The name Solihull is said to be derived from ‘soily’ (or muddy) hill. When it rained the hill quickly tuned into a pile of sticky mud and over time, soily hill became known as Solihull.

The main church in Solihull, St Alphege, was found in about 1200 and this led to Solihull really starting to take shape. Approximately 40 years later a weekly market was set up, attracting more and more people to the area. Over the next few hundred years the town grew slowly and steadily and become known for farming and blacksmithing (creating objects from metals)

Solihull Canal

As the population and prosperity started to increase in the area, more homes were built, including large halls for the wealthy.

By the end of the 1700s Solihull had its own county court and a well-respected grammar school. In the late 1800s, it became what we now know as a commuter town, with people choosing to live in Solihull and work in Birmingham.

More houses and small villas continued to be built amongst smaller villages and next to larger houses on main roads, so
Solihull started to lose some of its rural greenery.

However, it’s this scenery that sill attracted more people to the
area and in the 1920s and 30s more and more building work commenced, with the construction of housing estates, schools, factories and playing fields.

Solihull must have had a lucky charm somewhere as it seemed to be left pretty unscathed by the effects of the Industrial Revolution (1760 – 1840) and the Second World War (1939 – 1945) and grew at a steady pace from just 7,500 residents in 1901 to over 100,000 by the 1960s. This was due to a couple of reasons – firstly, many people moved from Birmingham to Solihull as they cleared out the slums, and secondly Rover Cars relocated to Solihull from Coventry. The first Land Rovers rolled off the Solihull production line in 1948.

Today Solihull is well known for its prosperity, for being the birthplace of Land Rover, and is also the home of the British equestrian eventing team.

Solihull regularly appears on lists of the most expensive roads in the West Midlands, with roads like Alderbrook Road, Widney Manor Road, Park Avenue and Knowle Wood Road. Famous people that were born or brought up in Solihull include the news reader Michael Buerk, the actress Felicity Kendal, the TV presenter Richard Hammond, and the footballer Jack Grealish.

Discover More…

Business Directory

Food & Drink

Stay

Shop