Meriden, West Midlands

Meriden is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. Historically, it is part of Warwickshire and lies between the cities of Birmingham and Coventry. It is located close to the North Warwickshire district border within a green belt of the countryside known as the Meriden Gap and is in the ecclesiastical parish of the Diocese of Coventry.

The village is 7.5 miles (12 kilometres) east-northeast of Solihull, 7 miles (11 kilometres) west-northwest of Coventry and 12 miles (19 kilometres) east-southeast of Birmingham city centre. It was known as "Alspath" in the Domesday Book. The village gives its name to the Meriden parliamentary constituency, which was created in 1955 and covers the Meriden Gap. In the 2011 Census, the population of the Meriden parish was 2,719. The population is estimated to have risen to 3,096 by 2017.

The area has been occupied since the Stone Age, as evidenced by flints in the Blythe Valley. Bronze Age swords have also been found in Meriden. In 43 AD, nearby Corley Rocks marked the southern limit of the cattle rearing Cornovii tribe.

The original name of the village was Alspath, meaning "Aelle's path" in Old English. The village was centred on the site of the parish church, overlooking the current village, at the Coventry end of Meriden.

Alspath is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the property of Godiva, the former Countess of Mercia. For the few centuries after the conquest, the whole area was the Forest of Arden. The importance of the hilltop location of Alspath as the hub of the village declined as the 'king's highway' main route from London to Chester and Holyhead developed—in turn encouraging the development of Meriden. The name 'Meriden' derives from the Old English myrge, pleasant, and denu, valley. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, the name 'Meriden' gradually supplanted that of Alspath as the straggling settlement at the foot of the hill grew in importance.

In the late 11th century, the village was small and impoverished, with a population of only nine families (45 persons). The first mention of it as a separate hamlet was in 1230. By the time of Edward I (1272–1307) there was a thriving community 'worth encouraging' in the eyes of the Lord of Alspath. By the reign of Henry VIII, the village was growing more substantial and stretched from the foot of Meriden Hill to where the Bull's Head is now. Ogilivy's Traveller's Guide Book in 1675 describes Meriden as "... A scattering village consisting chiefly of inns". By 1686 the population had grown to 290 people. By 1772 there were 93 cottages and houses. In 1811 the village had 152 homes, 171 families and 817 people."

Meriden was a local distribution point in the 16th-century cattle-driving trade, with the pool at the centre of the old village used to water the animals. Cattle would rest in Meriden before continuing either to the cattle pens at the top of Meriden Hill for the Coventry cattle market, or towards the cattle market then held in Berkswell.

The path of the London-Chester/Holyhead road gained strategic and commercial importance over time. The section which ran through Coventry to the bottom of Meriden Hill became a turnpike in 1723. Thomas Telford renovated the whole route to Holyhead in 1810, lowering Meriden Hill and thus bypassing the Queen's Head Pub and the 'Old Road'. This 'Telford road' remained the main Coventry to Birmingham Road until 1958, when the village was bypassed by the A45 dual carriageway. The old, narrow road past the Queen's Head is the site of the pre-Telford turnpike.