Barnt Green is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Bromsgrove District Bromsgrove is a local government district in Worcestershire, England. Its council is based in the town of Bromsgrove. It borders the built up area of Birmingham to the north. Other places in the district include Alvechurch, Aston Fields, B ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, England, situated south of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

city centre, with a population at the 2011 census of 1,794.

History

Originating from the development of the railway, Barnt Green has always been a commuter settlement. When the

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) was the first name of the railway linking the cities in its name and of the company which pioneered and developed it; the line opened in stages in 1840, using a terminus at Camp Hill in Birmingham. It ...

was completed in 1840 the only buildings already in existence on an 1880 map were

Barnt Green House Barnt Green House is a building at Barnt Green, Worcestershire, England. It is a Grade II listed building. It was once a residence of the local nobles, the Earls of Plymouth. Queen Victoria is reputed to have spent the night there. The hous ...

, probably the oldest recorded bearer of the name Barnt Green, the buildings which made up the railway station, and Sandhills Farm which dates from the 15th century. The early establishment of Barnt Green as a village began with the construction of ''The Victoria'' a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

that was originally built as a temperance house at the start of the 20th century. A later map from 1905 already shows several buildings, including the ''Victoria'' and many of the

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United St ...

s which skirt today's shops.

Development

The majority of the village is a product of the 20th century. Much of its development occurred between the

World Wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

, with very many houses built between the 1940s and 1970s, and some newer redbrick development. Despite the proximity of the Birmingham

conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cas ...

, the built up area of the city is concealed by hills to the north and the landscape retains a rural aspect. The area provides an environment for wildlife, including

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s, foxes, deer and

badgers Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by the ...

Location

Immediately above (in height) to the northwest are the

Lickey Hills Country Park Lickey Hills Country Park is a country park in England. It is 10 miles (16 kilometres) south west of Birmingham and 24 miles (39 kilometres) north east of Worcester. The park is situated just south of Rednal and close to Barnt Green. It is hal ...

and the Victorian houses of

Lickey Lickey is a 'Linear Development', as opposed to a village, in the north of Worcestershire, England approximately south west from the centre of Birmingham. It lies in Bromsgrove District and is situated on the Lickey Ridge, amongst the Lickey Hil ...

. Almost immediately to the north is the site of the former Longbridge car factory and beyond that

. Northeast are

Cofton Hackett Cofton Hackett is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of north east Worcestershire, England. It is southwest of the city centre of Birmingham and northeast of Worcester. In 2011, the village had a population of 1,893 but wit ...

and the Bittell Reservoirs, with the

Worcester and Birmingham Canal The Worcester and Birmingham Canal is a canal linking Birmingham and Worcester in England. It starts in Worcester, as an 'offshoot' of the River Severn (just after the river lock) and ends in Gas Street Basin in Birmingham. It is long. There a ...

running alongside. To the east, farmland stretches from the edge of the factory right across to Hopwood. This large block of rural land forms a part of the

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which h ...

which encircles the settlement. Southeast is the older village of

Alvechurch Alvechurch ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove district in northeast Worcestershire, England, in the valley of the River Arrow. The Lickey Hills Country Park is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the northwest. It is south of Bir ...

and beyond that

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

. South of the village, across the

M42 motorway The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Tamworth on the way, serving the east of the Bi ...

, is the large stretch of farmland of Cobley and

Tardebigge Tardebigge () is a village in Worcestershire, England. The village is most famous for the Tardebigge Locks, a flight of 30 canal locks that raise the Worcester and Birmingham Canal over over the Lickey Ridge. It lies in the county of Worcest ...

which runs to the ancient seat of the Earl of Plymouth, Hewell Grange (now a prison). To the southwest, the

Lickey Incline The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65% or 26.5‰ or 1.52°) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km). Constructed ...

, a stretch of railway, runs down the Bunter geological formation to Blackwell and

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in th ...

. The

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

lies to the West.

Services

Barnt Green railway station Barnt Green railway station serves the village of Barnt Green, North Worcestershire, England. It is situated south west of Birmingham New Street. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by West Midlands Trains. Barnt Green sta ...

is on the

Cross-City Line The Cross-City Line is a commuter rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New ...

(

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

) and the Birmingham to Worcester via Bromsgrove Line. The area is close to junctions on the M5 and M42 motorways, as well as the nearby A38. In the centre of the village is a linear shopping street and small park. Other facilities include a sports club, a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

club, and separate

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul c ...

and

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

churches. St Andrew's C of E First School is also based in the village.

Notable people

Granville Bantock Sir Granville Ransome Bantock (7 August 186816 October 1946) was a British composer of classical music. Biography Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was an eminent Scottish surgeon.Hadden, J. Cuthbert, 1913, ''Modern Music ...

, composer, spent the last two years of his life in Barnt Green, and his grandson Gavin Bantock was born there. *

Patrick Beesly Patrick Beesly (27 June 1913 – 16 August 1986) was a British author and intelligence officer during World War II. Early life Beesly was the fifth of six children of Gerald Beesly and his wife Helen (née Chamberlain) who was a cousin of Nevi ...

, author and naval intelligence officer, identified with the conclusion that the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of i ...

under

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

was responsible for the deliberate endangering of the ''

RMS Lusitania RMS ''Lusitania'' (named after the Roman province in Western Europe corresponding to modern Portugal) was a British ocean liner that was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906 and that held the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic ...

'', sunk in 1915, was born in Barnt Green in 1913 * Susan Jameson, actress and writer, was born in Barnt Green in 1941 * Jamelia, singer and television personality, lives in Barnt Green with her husband and three daughters *

Ian Lavender Arthur Ian Lavender (born 16 February 1946) is an English stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Private Pike in the BBC sitcom '' Dad's Army'', and is the last surviving major cast member of the series following t ...

, comic actor — notably in the BBC TV series ''

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran fo ...

'' — who was born in nearby

, was wicket keeper for Barnt Green Cricket ClubRichard Webber ''Endnotes - My family values'' The Guardian newspaper Family section p8 9.8.14 *

Margaret Leighton Margaret Leighton, CBE (26 February 1922 – 13 January 1976) was an English actress, active on stage and television, and in film. Her film appearances included (her first credited debut feature) in Anatole de Grunwald's ''The Winslow Boy'' ( ...

, award-winning actress, born in Barnt Green in 1922 *

Jack Grealish Jack Peter Grealish (born 10 September 1995) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for club Manchester City and the England national team. Grealish joined Aston Villa at the age of six, and mad ...

, former

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

captain and England player lives in Barnt Green

References

External links

The Village magazineThe Baptist churchSt Andrew's C of E First School
{{authority control Villages in Worcestershire