Solihull, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Solihull, a small town, the head of a petty sessional division, a poor-law union and county court district, and a parish in Warwickshire. The town stands 7 miles SE of Birmingham, with a station on the Oxford, Leamington, and Birmingham section of the G.W.R., and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Birmingham. There are a public hall erected in 1876, a police station, a workhouse, an hospital for infectious diseases, a convalescent home, and an endowed grammar school. It is a seat of petty sessions and county courts. The church, of 1254 date, is a large cruciform edifice, partly Decorated and partly Perpendicular, with a peal of ten bells. There are Roman Catholic and Congregational chapels. The parish includes Copt Heath, Elmdon Heath, and Shirley, and comprises 12,468 acres; population of the civil parish, 6150; of the ecclesiastical, 3387. Malvern Hall and Berry Hall are the chief residences. A Benedictine nunnery was founded in the time of Henry II. at Hen Wood. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £680 with residence. The vicarage of Shirley is a separate benefice.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The Warwickshire County Record Office hold the following registers for Solihull:

Most of the records prior to 1911 have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.co.uk

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Solihull from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Solihull (St. Alphege))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Warwickshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Solihull are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Warwickshire papers online:

• Leamington Spa Courier

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Warwickshire 1619 is available on the Heraldry page.