Alvechurch Village - Location

Alvechurch is in the valley of the River Arrow a few miles south of Birmingham. Redditch is our nearest large town but we belong to Bromsgrove District and most of the older villagers feel more at home with the rural Worcestershire views of Bromsgrove than with the industrial attitudes of Redditch.

The parish of Alvechurch is a large one, a reminder of the days when the Bishop had his palace here. The village itself is compact. It lies between the River Arrow and the Worcester and Birmingham canal which curves around the North and West sides of the village. These natural boundaries have prevented the village growing too large. Most of the older houses and the shopping centre of the village lie between the mill on the river and St Laurence church on the hill to the West. Estates of newer houses were built to extend the village in the fifties and sixties and a few houses are still being built as land becomes available, on a derelict factory site or in the gardens of larger houses.

Some of this new building is welcome; a small terrace of a dozen starter homes on the site of an old garage has provided affordable housing for young couples but large and expensive houses squatting on the few remaining green spaces within the village are less welcome.