This quiet suburb of Wolverhampton has a thriving social scene that has left residents feeling as closely-knit as ever

It is bounded on the north east side by the rail line from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury, on the south east side by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and on the west side by the ridge that rises up to Tettenhall village.

The origins of the suburbs name are unknown, though a 13th-century source names a place called 'Clare' in the area.

As a distinct residential area, Claregate has only existed since the pre and post war housing estate was built between the Codsall and Aldersley roads.

This is partly where the tight-knit community spirit around Claregate comes from. The impression I got was that everyone felt like next door neighbours, or at the very least knew each other fairly well.

That takes us back to the hub of entertainment and interaction in Claregate, the famed Hail to the Ale, a pub set on Pendeford Avenue inside a former post office and grocery store which, since opening in September 2013, has become the go-to place for locals.

Co-owner Angela Morton, along with her husband Gary, will be retiring from running the pub at the start of April, but after nearly 13 years of service she has built up some incredible relationships with locals that she is looking forward to continuing as a punter when the reins of the pub are handed over to her son Peter.

"I just think it's an absolutely fantastic place," she said. "I just think we've got the best customers ever in the best community, and without them we wouldn't be who we are.

"It's very welcoming, you can come in here at any time and everyone is very welcoming and we're all best friends.

"We've made lots of friends, people who have become friends since they first came in here and we're looking forward to spending more time with them when we sit on the other side of the bar."

We were introduced to some of those friends by Angela herself, who took us wandering around the estate to knock on the doors of some of her most loyal and treasured customers.

One of those, Andy Alsop, told us that the variety of people he has met since moving to the area is what has given him the most joy.

"All the people are friendly, and it's a very mixed area with people from a wide range of social and ethnic groups," he said. "Everybody is just extremely cheerful and extremely friendly.

"The pub has become a bit of a bonus for the area, it's become a community hub for the area and I've made lots of friends there since my family moved to the area around 20 years ago.

"I've been on fishing holidays with blokes that I've met in there, we go on pub crawls in different parts of the region, listen to music. I'm an actor and I've had friends from there come and see me in the plays that I've been in or written or directed, and I think that shows how much of a really friendly area it is."

Just across the road from Andy we spoke to another resident with high praise for Claregate.

"It's lovely," Patrizia De Nardi-Gleeve began. "It's a lovely neighbourhood and we know lots of people here, we've made lots of friends and there'll always be someone there for you if you're stuck with anything.

"It's on the bus route to anywhere we want to go to, we've got the shops and the pubs that we need, and it's nice because just up the road you've got the city centre in one direction and the countryside in the other."