Hockley Heath is a village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England.

It incorporates the hamlet of Nuthurst, and has a history dating back to the year 705 AD as a wood owned by Worcester Cathedral.

William Dugdale found no mention of a settlement before the reign of Henry III (1216–72)[2] but it has been identified with the woodland 'aet Hnuthyrste' given with Shottery to Worcester Cathedral by Offa of Mercia c.

[3] In 872 Werfryd, Bishop of Worcester, granted to Eanwulf, the Kings thane, land at Hnuthyrst for four lives, with reversion to the monastery of Stratford.

[3] The church at Nuthurst - at the time a curate chapel of Hampton in Arden - dates from at least 1216 and was dedicated to St Peter.

[2] During the conflict against Edward II, Sir William Trussell found himself fighting the Despencer family, who were amongst their other titles, lords of the manor of nearby Solihull.

[7] A country house called Nuthurst Grange was built in the settlement in 1882, once serving as home to Walter Higgs.

[4] Originally the area north of Nuthurst was known as "Hocca's Hill" possibly named after a local Anglo Saxon chieftain or landowner.

There are a number of other places across historic county Warwickshire with 'Hockley' in the name, including Hockley in the Jewellery Quarter, so it is possible that Hocca was an important landowner of the area.

Due to its growth Hockley Heath eventually absorbed the settlement of Nuthurst at the south of the village.

[15][16] In 2016 Aylesbury house suffered a devastating fire which destroyed much of the interior following a suspected arson attack.

The wharf supplied the surrounding area with commodities such as coal, stone, lime, bricks, salt and timber.

To remedy this, Umberslade resident and Whig MP for Warwick, Edward Bolton King, gave land for the building of a chapel on Orchard road and a school.

[19] Local industrialist and politician, Mr G. F. Muntz instigated the building of the village institute in 1892, later renamed King George VI Memorial Hall.

This was due to the enterprise and generosity of Mr Harry Mould of Hockley House and grants from Warwickshire and National Playing Fields Associations, Carnegie trustees and by money raising events.

Several hundred pounds was raised by Mr Mould, who acquired a Rhode car, value £235, and took it around the country inviting people to subscribe one shilling to the Recreation Ground Fund.

The car was raffled at a concert held at the institute on 3 November 1923[21] During the Second World War, the village had an air station called RAF Hockley Heath.

Due to its rural location, until at least 1998 the village had its own policeman who resided in the Police House near to the Nags Head.

[22] Nationally, it is part of the constituency of Meriden whose Member of Parliament since 2019 is Saqib Bhatti of the Conservative party.

[23] The ruined Mortuary Chapel of the now demolished St Peter's Church in Nuthurst, and its graveyard, lies on land next to the M40 motorway.

It lies for the most part between two roads from Henley-in-Arden to Birmingham which meet in the extreme north of the civil parish, where the church of St. Thomas, designed by John Cotton, a red-brick structure in the Early English style, was built in 1879[24] and consecrated on 30 June 1880, having cost £2,500.

The core of the Barn is an older listed building, which has been subject to claims of 'haunting', with newer additions built around it, many added after a fire in 1998.

There are a number of listed buildings in and around Hockley Heath and Nuthurst, including Box Trees farmhouse.

[29] The village is situated on the main A3400 Birmingham to Stratford Road, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of junction 4 of the M42 motorway affording links to London and other major cities, whilst 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the village there is a junction off the southbound carriageway of the M40 motorway.

The canal, which runs from Kings Norton, was navigable as far as Hockley Heath by 1798, the remaining link to Stratford being opened by 1816.

Hockley Wharf served the surrounding area and non-perishable goods were unloaded there, including timber, lime, coke, coal, cement, bricks and salt.