The Meriden Gap is a mostly rural area located in the West Midlands between

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...

and

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

. It serves as a part of the wider

West Midlands Green Belt The West Midlands Green Belt is a statutory green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space within the West Midlands region of England. It is contained within the counties of the West Midlands, Shropshire, Staf ...

, and separates the latter from the large

West Midlands conurbation The West Midlands conurbation is the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the towns of Sutton Coldfield, Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge and Halesowen in the English West Midland ...

, which includes

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

and

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

. The 'Gap' takes its name from the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

central to the area, Meriden, although the largest settlement is

Balsall Common Balsall Common is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, England. It is situated 4.75 miles (7.5 km) northwest of Kenilworth, west of Coventry, east of Solihull and to the southeast of Birmingham, to which it serves a ...

. The highest point lies at 181m / 594 ft above sea level, slightly north of the hamlet of Eaves Green near the West Midlands-Warwickshire border. The majority of the gap falls within the

Metropolitan Borough of Solihull The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in West Midlands county, England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region ...

with a small area falling within

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...

and some of the northeastern part being in the Metropolitan Borough of Coventry. Other villages and hamlets within the gap include

Hampton-in-Arden Hampton in Arden is a village and civil parish located in the Forest of Arden in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England. Hampton in Arden was part of Warwickshire until the 1974 boundary changes. It lies within ...

Berkswell Berkswell ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, county of West Midlands, England. Historically in Warwickshire, Berkswell is situated in the rural east of the borough, approximately 2 miles (3.25 k ...

Barston Barston is a village and civil parish in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands of England. It is approximately 4 miles (6.5 km) east of Solihull and is located inside a large meander of the River Blythe, at the western edg ...

, Temple Balsall, Eastcote, Bradnocks Marsh,

Millison's Wood Millison's Wood is a large English hamlet in the parish of Meriden, situated 1.5 miles east of the village of Meriden (the closest neighbouring settlement) and 5.5 miles (8.8 km) northwest of Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in t ...

, Eaves Green, Four Oaks, Fen End, Pickford Green and Corley Moor. The gap is largely covered by the Meriden parliamentary constituency.

Urban pressure

The area is under pressure from housing and business developments in the surrounding urban areas. The planned expansion of

Birmingham Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borou ...

outlines the need for construction upon the greenbelt to allow the expansion to happen. Despite opposition to the expansion plans, the proposal was granted approval. A motorway service area between J3a and J7 on the

M42 motorway The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Tamworth on the way, serving the east of the Bi ...

has been proposed on several occasions.

References

Areas of the West Midlands (county) Geography of Warwickshire {{WestMidlands-geo-stub