The Village of Binley Woods

Binley Woods is a village near the centre of England, about twenty miles (32km) from Birmingham.

Although it is on the outskirts of the City of Coventry, the village is actually in Warwickshire, and is administered by Rugby Council, to whom the residents pay their rates.

Binley Woods Village Hall is one of the centres of Village life. There are a wide ranging number of activities here, such as Brownies, Whist Drives, Dances, Keep fit classes, Play Group etc. Not to mention the Binley Woods Board Walkers of course! The Village Hall is maintained by a vigorous committee, who have recently renovated the hall, after it was extended with the help of money donated by Morrison's supermarket.

The Friends of Brandon Wood is an active group of people who fight to save our local Brandon Wood for the good of the community. Previous proposals to destroy the Wood to extract gravel have been sucessfully opposed, and the first Community Woodland created. They are now raising money to buy the wood from the Forestry Commision, on behalf of the community. The wood is used by many of the residents of the local area.

Binley Woods has its own Library which is open Mondays and Thursdays until 7:00 pm. It is a branch of the main Warwickshire Library service.

Until a few years ago, there were two schools in Binley Woods, a First School and a Middle School. These schools have amalgamated to form Binley Woods Primary School on the original Middle School site. The Youth Club, which was previously on the First School site has now relocated to the Primary School site.

The Parkis a popular place to play football and other ball games: the local football team meet here. There are also swings for the village children.

The Village Green was once part of the First School playing field, and contains play equipment for the younger residents.

There are two Pubs serving the village. The Roseycombe, is in the centre of the village on the main road. Unfortunately, on my last visit there, they had taken out the hand pumps.

The Cocked Hatis just on the other side of the Coventry bypass, and is a free house serving Bass ales (with hand pumps this time!). It has an attached hotel and also serves meals. Across the road from the Cocked hat is the T.G.I. Friday restaurant and the Travel Inn motel.

The village is home to Brandon Speedwaywhere regular gryehound and motor bike racing meetings are held. Once a month during the spring, summer and autumn, Stock car racing evenings are held here. Sometimes Monster Truck meetings and other special events are also staged.

The view from the park to Brandon Wood.