A BOOK recounting the building of Cheswick Green is published today (December 6).
Author John W. Pettinger wrote: “Municipal boundary changes in 1964 elevated Solihull to County Borough status and at the same time transferred Hockley Heath to the Straftord Upon Avon District Council.
“On surveying their newly acquired lands, the new owners were shocked by what they found.
“The Stratford Herald of June 5 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 to has been done for the past 30 years.””
Mr Pettinger has spent three years researching an writing his account of the founding of Cheswick Green, which was built in the 1970s on the site of the former Mount Pleasure Grounds.
John told the Solihull Observer: “I have lived in Cheswick Green since it was built. we followed it through from when the area was farmland up to today.
“Philip Baker bought the farm at Cheswick Green, and built a pleasure ground, but this fell into decay. Then in the first world war, he sold the land in small plots to returning soldiers.
“Solihull Council neglected the settlement for many years, in the 1960s it was transferred to Stratford District Council, they came along and were amazed at the lack of water and the lack of power. Eventually they got a new settlement to be built.
“The biggest thing that happened was the continued discussion of whether Cheswick Green is a village, as the builders planned it as a village with shops and a village green, so there has always been the argument if it is a village or not.
“Most of the residents are original residents, and a lot of the kids who grow up in Cheswick Green tend to come back and live in the village.”
“The book is the storyy the events of that time in the 70s, how that new village and its community developed over the next 40 years.
The book is available from the publishers brewinbooks.com or Cheswick Green Parish Council, priced at £9.95.
