Минворт: Географический центр Англии и Уэльса и его окрестности.

Minworth is a village situated in the civil parish of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, within Minworth there are three hamlets Wiggins Hill, Peddimore and The Greaves. Minworth lies within the City of Birmingham on its northeastern outer fringe, where it forms part of the Sutton Walmley and Minworth electoral ward and borders the North Warwickshire district, some 4.5 miles southeast of Sutton Coldfield town centre. Minworth interestingly is the centre of England and Wales. The exact centre point is at the grid reference; SP 15322 93007. The village is immediately adjacent to the Sutton suburb of Walmley, the hamlet of Wiggins Hill and the Warwickshire village of Curdworth. The River Tame runs through the south of the area. Minworth has close transport links to the M6, M6 Toll and M42 motorways, while the closest rail station is nearby Water Orton railway station in Water Orton, Warwickshire.

Since the 1980s, the area immediately south and east of residential Minworth has developed as a centre for the industry and the distribution sector, due to its close proximity to the M42 motorway, the M6 motorway and the M6 toll motorway. A large Asda Supercentre is situated near the Minworth border with Walmley. This opened on 3 May 1977 as a Carrefour hypermarket, before being taken over by the Dee Corporation that owned Gateway Foodmarkets and the larger Gateway Superstores in 1987. Since late 1989 it has been an Asda hypermarket, which after Asda was taken over by Walmart in 1999 was branded as an Asda Wal*Mart Supercentre in 2001. By 2007, however, the building was becoming outdated and Asda decided to rebuild it, but after haggling with the local authority Asda decided against this due to the costs demanded for environmental incentives and planning conditions deemed to be excessive by the company. The original store remains, however, the interior has been completely remodelled. By 2008, the store signage had been changed to Asda Supercentre and the Walmart branding removed. The site has a Wickes DIY store. There is also a B&M Bargains store overlooking the adjacent site and a Screwfix opposite. Minworth has four pubs: The Hare and Hounds, The Boat (which lies on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal), the Minworth Social Club is on Water Orton Lane offers bed and breakfast accommodation as well as social club facilities and the Cuttle Bridge which also offers bed and breakfast accommodation. Minworth Convenience is a small local shop on Kingsbury Road and opposite this is Mansells offering MOTs and repair services for motorcycles, bicycles and lawnmowers. Motorcycle training is provided by Spirit Rider on the Kingsbury Road and further motorcycle repair services are provided by Flying on Wings Motorcycle Repair, which is adjacent. Also nearby are: Chili Spice Indian takeaway and Hullternative environmental services. On Forge Lane and Maybrook Road there are industrial units including: Selecta (vending); steelworks; Cooke & Son (furniture); Speedy (hire); Safestyle UK and Selco (building). At Midpoint Park there are major premises for: The Works (books); Cadbury; Hozelock (hoses), All Metal Services and a paper company. There is also an American Auto Center offering specialist services for US vehicles.

Minworth STW Severn Trent’s largest sewage treatment plant, serving a population equivalent of 1.75 million. The works treats sludge from a population equivalent of 2.3 million made up of indigenous sludge plus imported sludge from various works in south Staffordshire and North Warwickshire. Minworth is Severn Trent’s largest renewable energy facility with 8MW CHP capacity and Biogas to Grid which produces 30% of their green energy. MWH Treatment was awarded the Minworth THP project in February 2016, after a two stage ECI project. The initial project cost was £37m, with a 35 month programme. Through our early delivery Severn Trent enjoyed increased revenue from exporting gas on 13 June 2018, 4 weeks ahead of schedule, netting them a further £200k.

The provision of a school in Minworth came late to the village. A small school for infants was opened in 1897 and a 35 year old village woman, Emma Hughes, was appointed the mistress. All other children had to brave the elements and attend schools in the nearby villages. The infant school was situated at the side of the wheelwright's shop but it soon became overcrowded and inadequate. The board of education threatened to withdraw financial support from the school unless new premises were found, and a permanent village schoolroom became a priority. On 29 December 1900 a new building was opened on the opposite side of the green. This proved to be a great improvement on the accommodation that the children had experienced in the wheelwright's shop, yet Minworth still had no provision for schooling children over the age of 7 years. For these children, school meant walking to one of the nearby villages to continue their education. With the growing success of Emma Hughes' infant department the necessity for a new school to accommodate the older village children became essential.

All bus routes serve Sutton Coldfield with the 71 to Chelmsley Wood, X4 to Wylde Green, Erdington and Birmingham and routes 77/77A to Erdington and Walsall. Diamond Bus service 76 provides occasional links to Kingsbury and Tamworth.