A little rural charm on the edge of Birmingham's urban sprawl, Wythall has become an attractive haven for city workers, reports Shahid Naqvi.

Just four miles away from Birmingham, Wythall is a world apart from the urban sprawl of Britain’s second city. Here, on the edge of the Worcestershire countryside, in the county of Bromsgrove, you can find a very different pace of life.

It is a place of horses, animal sanctuaries, country pubs and rural walks. For those seeking to escape the city, Wythall is often the first port of call to those living in the south of Birmingham. It takes about five minutes to get there by car, driving along the A435 Alcester Road South. The route takes you past the amusingly titled little hamlet of Hollywood which essentially blends into Wythall.

Although bearing no resemblance to the Californian capital of the film industry, Hollywood does include a fairly glitzy Indian restaurant called Monsoon among the shops of its main parade on May Lane.

The parade also features a well-used pet shop, Chinese take-away and hairdressers.

It would be easy to miss Wythall’s centre as you pass further along the Alcester Road South. Like Hollywood and many of the small settlements dotted around this area, it consists of a row of shops along the main road.

Other similar nearby residential areas include Dickens Heath, Earlswood and Tidbury Green.

Wythall’s main drag consists of a florist, opticians, hairdressers, family butchers, fish and chip shop, Chinese restaurant, post office and newsagents and an estate agency. For anything more, there’s a large Sainsbury’s supermarket at Maypole, just past Hollywood heading back into Birmingham.

For its residents, however, the small scale of Wythall and its rural location is all part of the charm.

Paul Newall, aged 35, moved with his wife and three children to Wythall five years ago.

"It seemed a really nice place to live. I like the semi-rural feel to it. There is plenty of open space. You are also quite close to the motorway network. We were attracted by the house prices which compared favourably when we moved to Shirley and Solihull. At the same time we are only a ten minute drive to those areas."

Sue Rowbottom, who works in The Flower Exchange, on the main parade, added: "It is very horsy. There are lots stables and people with horses around here.

"A lot of our customers when they come in have riding gear on. The lady who owns this shop had a horse from childhood and so did her sister. Another girl who works here has two horses."

The outdoor life is very much a part of Wythall. Houses tend to have large gardens. There are fields within walking distance and it’s an easy drive to get deeper into the countryside of Worcestershire or Warwickshire.

Among the nearest local attractions is Becketts Farm which features a large shop selling fine meat and cheese as well as other locally produced goods and a friendly family restaurant.

The Transport Museum is also a quirky attraction with its extensive collection of buses dating back to the early days of the last century.

The museum, which is currently under-going a major refurbishment, is something of a hidden gem run by bus

enthusiasts. It offers a pleasant and different day out, with its miniature steam railway for children and regular trips out on one of the working buses.

But what kind of people live in Wythall? The answer is a mixture of people born and bred in the area and those seeking a quieter, perhaps more family-friendly lifestyle.

The latter better have a good bit of capital or earning power though – the average house price for a three bed semi-detached house is around £250,000, according to Tina Appleby, of Darren Blower estate agents.

"In and around Wythall people tend to be middle-age upwards," she said. "They tend not to be first time buyers, but second or third time buyers. We get quite a lot of older folk."

The estate agent gets a lot of people from parts of south Birmingham like Kings Norton and Kings Heath looking to move to Wythall.

"They move here because it is semi-rural and it is under Bromsgrove which means cheaper council tax, cheaper house and car insurance because you don’t have a Birmingham postcode.

"They also move for the schools."

Wythall’s proximity to the motorway network – it is only a couple of minutes drive from the M42 – is a key attraction for some.

It means residents have easy access to all parts of the country and that, coupled with the fact that it has its own train station, makes it a desirable locality for those who commute to work.

But Wythall is not a commuter town – it retains a strong community feel because the majority of people have always lived in and around the area.

"You get people who attended the local schools and are now in their 40s and 50s still living here," said Ms Appleby. "It’s got that community feel to it. I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the UK."

Wythall is referred to in the Domesday Book as Wythworth. It has traditionally served as a stop-off point for travellers on the main route from Droitwich to Coventry.

An RAF base was set up in the area at the start of the Second World War in 1939 and closed in 1959. The area is also where the River Cole joins the Trent, finally entering the sea in the Humber Estuary.

St Mary’s chapel dates back to the 13th Century but was rebuilt in the 18th Century and then in the 19th Century.

Today, Wythall consists of a wide range of housing, with a predominance of large Edwardian semi-detached residences suitable for families. Nearly all of it is owner-occupier, with only about six per cent rented.

There are also many bungalows and a few more modern maisonettes in Wythall. Bromsgrove Council has put a ban on new build apart from affordable housing, which should limit the growth of the area.

One of the things Wythall is most well-known for is its animal sanctuaries.

There’s the Wythall Animal Sanctuary on Middle Lane, the Hollytrees Animal Rescue Trust on Packhorse Lane and the Cats Protection League, also on Packhorse Lane.

These sanctuaries for lost animals reflect the nature-loving character of the area and is testimony to a slight air of eccentricity and appealing quirkiness about Wythall.

In many ways, Wythall is one of the first staging posts between urban Birmingham and the rural countryside beyond. As such, it will always be a key location for "urban flight" for those seeking a different pace of life.

City centre office workers may view it as the ideal retreat, as long as they don’t mind putting up with the heavy traffic heading out of Birmingham along the A435 each day.

It’s a price that increasing numbers of people are prepared to pay for a slice of the good life.