Marston Green

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The Marston Green Tavern, prior to a recent refurbishment

Marston Green is a village of around 8000 residents in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, approximately 7 miles from Birmingham.

The village is adjacent to Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. It lies on the Birmingham loop of the West Coast Main Line railway, Marston Green railway station is served by local trains to Birmingham and Coventry, and a small number of semi fast services to Northampton. Notable features of the area include a number of shops, the Marston Green Tavern, St Leonards Church and Marston Green Infant and Junior schools.

[edit] History

Marston Green began as a small village surrounded by agricultural land in the estate of Coleshill; at this time, the village was known as Merstone. The village grew into a leafy suburb in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, due to the construction of many detached and semi-detached homes in the 1930s, which were typical of many suburban homes in the area. The growth of homes here was encouraged by the presence of a rail station. Following the expansion of the nearby Birmingham International Airport, the construction of the National Exhibition Centre and the local housing estate of Chelmsley Wood, Marston Green has grown largely into a commuter village with many of its residents working in Solihull and Birmingham.

There was a Canadian airforce base in Marston Green during the Second World War.[1] Afterwards, the buildings were used as a maternity hospital and then a psychiatric hospital. They were demolished in the 1990s.

The village is part of the civil parish of Bickenhill.