Based on a small village formed in the early 1900s that was originally centred on the medieval Lilley Lane, the majority of West Heath's expansion and growth took place just after World War II.

The suburb is adjacent to rural Worcestershire and a number of public footpaths allow open access to the surrounding fields up to Hopwood, Cofton Hackett and the Lickey Hills.

In early Anglo-Saxon times, West Heath lay at the northernmost border of the lands of the Hwicce, a people who occupied the former territory of the British tribe, The Dobunni.

During the English Civil War West Heath was on the border between royalist Worcestershire and parliamentary Warwickshire and there were regular minor skirmishes and conflicts between the forces of the two opposing sides.

Situated off Turves Green, Hawkesley House, which belonged to the royalist George Middlemore and his family, was besieged and seized by parliamentary forces under Colonel Tinker Fox in April 1644.

After the Civil War, a Parliamentary Survey of "The Manor of Kingsesnorton" produced in 1649 because the manor "was in the hands of Parliament by reason of the seizure of the lands of King Charles I", reported that "The soil of the heaths, wastes, and commons called.... West Heath, and the archery (and all of them do contain in the whole by estimate of 3,000 acres or thereabouts) are the lord's and the trees thereon growing and "the bitt" belong to the tenants".

(son of Edward Frankland, an eminent scientist who discovered chemical valency and also godson of the famous physicist, Michael Faraday) lived at The Dell and Adrian John Brown F.R.S.

Groveley Hall: The earliest building on the site probably dated back to 1530 and had been a religious institution belonging to Westbury College in Bristol but it had been confiscated as a result of The Reformation and handed to Sir Ralph Sadler, Secretary of State to King Henry VIII, in 1536.

Biggs was declared bankrupt in 1883, at which point the estate was purchased by Joseph Billing Baldwin, paper maker of Kings Norton.

Like the Cadbury family who lived in neighbouring Northfield, the Impeys were Quakers and as well as being important developers of local industry, showed considerable interest in improving the lot of their factory workers.

[15] In 1900 visitors arriving via Northfield railway station could visit the skating rink on West Heath Road next to the bridge over the river Rea.

[20] A Catholic Primary School linked to the parish of St. John Fisher was opened in Alvechurch Road on 5 September 1961 on the remaining part of an industrial estate next to Hobbis' Piece to accommodate the large number of local children of Irish Catholic origin (at the time 60% of children attending the school passed their summer holidays in Ireland).

[21] West Heath has a small, somewhat neglected shopping area on Alvechurch Road and there is an Art Deco building which previously housed a Co-Operative store which closed in 2018.

Located on West Heath Road is a primary health care centre, built in 2011, replacing the former surgery which had been situated in a 1930s detached house neighbouring the previous residence of a former general practitioner, Dr Anthony (Antek) Bobak who had set up his practice in 1954.

It was originally held at St. Anne's Church Hall but from the 77th Show in 2011 it was located in Hampstead House in Condover Road, West Heath's Community Centre.

An annual West Heath Beer and Cider festival is held at Hampstead House usually in late September or early October.

There is a green which forms an island around which the roads from Kings Norton to Rednal and Northfield to Alvechurch pass and at the centre of which is a large and old oak tree.

The first flats to be built in West Heath were 3 six storey blocks in Turves Green constructed in 1952 by Deeley for the then Birmingham County Borough Council in an Art Deco style.

Amenities include children's recreation facilities and football pitches and nearby is Oddingley Hall, the second of West Heath's Community centres, though this is located in Kings Norton.

Cofton Park, where Pope Benedict XVI attended a service for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman on 19 September 2010, is situated within the boundaries of the Longbridge and West Heath electoral ward.

Historically, in the Middle Ages West Heath was part of the upper division of Halfshire Hundred that also contained Bromsgrove, Coston Hackett, Dodderhill, Doverdale, Droitwich, Elmbridge, Feckenham, Hadsor, Hampton Lovett, Kington, Kings Norton, Northfield, Salwarpe, Tardebigge and Upton Warren.

Prior to May 2018 West Heath, apart from a small part at the southern edge from 2004, was represented on Birmingham City Council by the three Northfield councillors.

Previous councillors from 1973 when local government boundaries had been considerably altered include Neil Scrimshaw who died in office to be succeeded by his wife, Margaret Scrimshaw (1984-1996 and 1999-2004), Reg Corns (1973-1994, re-elected 2000-15), Les Lawrence (1982-1995 and 1998-2012), Randal Brew (2004-2018 and previously Councillor for Longbridge, Lord Mayor of Birmingham 2007-8) and Edwina Currie (1975-1986, later Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire and government minister and mistress of Prime Minister John Major).

As part of the reorganisation of representation on Birmingham council, the Local Government Boundary Commission England released a report in 2015 which proposed West Heath become a ward of the city with a single councillor.

West Heath is built on a well-drained stretch of gravel and sand that had been laid down under a prehistoric shallow sea and enriched by sediments from ice age glaciers.

The stratigraphic sequence, which is the basis for the area's diversity of landscape and habitat, comprises:[27] The subsoil layers under West Heath and Turves Green also contain a coal seam that would indicate that a prehistoric tropical forest once existed here.

The river rises in Waseley Hills Country Park and after dropping 70 metres in the first mile passes through West Heath and onwards to Kings Norton, Selly Oak and Digbeth in the centre of Birmingham.

Although now often reduced to a sluggish trickle, due to changes in agricultural usage and other demands, the River Rea was once a major waterway and served several working mills in West Heath and provided water for the skating rink and open air lido (now both demolished).

Derek Robinson – "Red Robbo" – at one time lived in Alvechurch Road and he was generally seen as one of the principal leaders of the industrial action that was frequently taken against the management of the company that was then known as British Leyland.

Northfield railway station on the Cross-City Line is located at the north end of West Heath, with trains operating to Redditch, Bromsgrove, Birmingham & Lichfield at a 10 to 20 minute frequency during peak times.