Solihull, Warwickshire

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.