Cheswick Green: The Village of the Seventies

Municipal Boundary changes in 1964 elevated Solihull to County Borough status and at the same time transferred Hockley Heath to the Stratford-upon-Avon Rural District Council. On surveying their newly acquired lands the ‘new owners’ were shocked by what they found. The Stratford Herald of 5th June 1964 reported that they included the Mount Estate, a badly run-down area that Solihull had neglected. The Chairman of the Rural District Council reported: The county borough of Solihull can gain little credit for having been able to unload that colony of shacks without any main water supply, main drainage or roads on a less fortunate council. To us with our limited resources, it is a gigantic task. It is a problem that cannot be faced without much careful thought, work, planning, consultation and advice. It is a problem that we cannot turn a blind eye on as has been done for the past 30 years. The dreadful situation with which the Mount residents then found themselves facing was only eased when the Greaves Organisation purchased the 143-acre site and built the Village of the Seventies. This is the story of the events of that time, how that new village and its community developed over the next 40 years.