Church Hill
The largest estate in Redditch, occupying the north-east corner of the town, Church Hill Ward has yearly elections of Councillors due to its size and the number of councillors. Church Hill has a distinctive layout similar to the Radburn model, with access roads Paper Mill Drive, Ravensbank Drive and Moons Moat Drive largely encircling the estate. Residences are almost exclusively built around cul-de-sacs. The estate comprises Moon's Moat, Marlfield Barn and Bomford Hill which boasts a Roman amphitheatre. Unlike the many monotenure housing estates in the UK and globally, but in common with many newer estates in Redditch Church Hill is divided into districts correlated with tenure:
- Church Hill North - primarily private residential
- Church Hill Centre - a small commercial centre with a community centre and flats run by the YMCA, a medical centre, dentist, shops and a take-away, and first and middle schools.
- Church Hill South - primarily social housing
with North and South parts separated by Church Hill Way (a buses only road), with Church Hill Centre in the middle. Church Hill's geometric layout, a characteristic of planned new town developments, largely separates private (North) residents from social (South) residents in their day-to-day lives, whilst bringing together the children of both sides of the community at common schools (in particular, at Church Hill Middle School). Church Hill North previously had its own first school, known as Marfield Farm First School, however this has since been closed and demolished. It has been characterised by some as something of a social planning experiment..
The estate is named after St Leonards church and the hill it stands on slightly north of Church Hill at Beoley.
Read more about this topic: Districts Of Redditch
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)