Bournville Village Green

Boureville Green is the centrepiece of the lush and lovely Bourneville village. It’s a smallish space, probably just bigger than a football pitch, but broadly circular and is on a hillock that means all roads (paths) lead up to the middle, where there is a small building that doubles as an information centre and vantage point to view the lovely buildings that surround it. You can also get a pretty good view of the famous chocolate factory from here. Bourneville as an area is well worth a visit and this green is a pleasant place to sit and contemplate how you’ve managed to travel back in time to the 1950s when all you did was jump on a bus.

As I used to be a Bournville resident I would spend many hours sitting by the rest house (the small house in the center that is a monument to George Cadbury) watching the people pleasantly wandering around and smell the chocolate cooking in the chocolate factory.
As village greens go, Bournville’s is perfect, surrounded by mock tudor shops, an art college, a primary school, a park, a church and of course the famous chocolate factory. The Bournville Trust do a great job of keeping the place clean and tidy and free from trouble, this certainly isn’t Moseley Village with it’s collection of local drunks. In fact, there are no pubs or off licenses allowed in Bournville so it would be tough for any drunks to crawl down there.
You should definitely go down there around Christmas time, if it’s snowing it is probably one of the most picturesque places in Birmingham. Regardless, it’s a beautiful neighborhood to visit anyway.
If you want bohemia go to Moseley village, if you want a more peaceful vibe and picturesque scenery Bournville is definitely the village to head to.

I love the Bournville Green. Every time I have been here it has been tranquil and pleasant. I have often sat on one of the benches here after browsing around the few shops opposite the green. Last time I saw a squirrel comically hoping from one bin to another, scavenging around for bits of leftover food. It is a great place to come and sit and watch the world go by. It is well kept and is always clean and tidy when I have visited. There is also a nice view of the clock tower and church, where you can see the bells and the beautiful houses nearby are certainly not an eye-​sore. There are plenty of benches, although on a nice day I could imagine that it would be nice to bring a picnic and a blanket to sit on. Overall, it is a lovely green!

Bournville Village Green is, of course, the centre of Pleasantville. Bournville itself is a model village, so the village green is, naturally, the epicentre of all things quaint, leafy and civilised — with its little rows of Tudor-​style shops, the church and the carillon… It’s everything a village green ought to be really. It’s a triangular-​shaped green, which is perhaps a little odd, but beautifully kept and managed by the Bournville Village Trust, whose duty it is to keep all things Bournville in a typically olde-​worlde and spick & span manner.
The green, as well as offering a bit of green space (although Bournville has a decent amount of that) also hosts various events, such as the Bournville Village Festival, Jazz Festival and Christmas Carols — where local churches host residents, all singing together under a fairly impressive Christmas tree, accompanied by the famous carillon in the belltower at St. Francis’ church: an instrument consisting of a number of bells that are played by a kind of keyboard, rather than being rung.
All in all, a very old-​fashioned and genteel sort of place — as you would expect from Bournville.