Local government re-organisation in 1974 transferred the town to Solihull Metropolitan Borough, though responsibility for the housing remained with Birmingham until September 1980.

Permission for the construction of the overspill estate on green belt land was granted by Richard Crossman as Minister of Housing and Local Government.

By the end of the Second World War 12,391 homes had been destroyed by aerial bombing in Birmingham and there was to be no house building in the city for six years[6] so the programme of slum clearance had been halted.

The city council had powers under the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1900 to purchase land out-of- area.

On 21 December 1964, Richard Crossman the new minister for housing sent a letter to Sir Frank Price, leader of Birmingham City Council proposing the scheme.

Such was the scale of the operation that a development company was to design finance and build a complete town centre which was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 7 April 1972.

[7] It was provided with schools, a library and shopping areas, but in the early days there was no local pub, the nearest one being reached by a five-mile bus journey.

Ceolmund Crescent is the name of the road that passes by the police station, and the Post Office Tower in the town centre.

National Express West Midlands operate a number of buses in and around the Chelmsley Wood area.

In Summer 2017, National Express West Midlands extensively rerouted and retimed all of their bus routes that run to/from Chelmsley Wood.

The closest railway station is at Marston Green which is about a mile (1.75 km) from Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre.

It hosts two swimming pools, a sports hall, a fitness suite, studio, crèche and café bar.