We visit the West Midlands village loved for its atmosphere where locals say summer can be 'chaotic'

Set just on the outskirts of Wolverhampton sits a small but perfectly formed village which has built a reputation as a desirable place to live and work.

Tettenhall sits in a lovely location on the Wolverhampton/Staffordshire border, with rolling countryside on all sides, and plenty of history behind it.

It was the location of the turning point in the battle against the Danish Viking invaders by the united forces of Edward the Elder of Wessex and Ealdorman Æthelred of Mercia in the Battle of Tettenhall in 910.

Additionally, it has a type of pear called Tettenhall Dick named after it, it was part of the original London to Holyhead road and was home to Tettenhall waterworks, a large water pumping station built between 1845 and 1908 which held Bull, Cornish and triple-expansion steam engines.

In modern times, it has become a well-regarded and desirable location for homes, with prices of more than £300,000 per home common, while it also has some of the best rated restaurants and pubs in the city, hosts a regular and well-attended foot festival and is home to the famous pool, a place of play during the hot summer months.

But what is it about the village that makes it special to those who come to Tettenhall to shop, work and live?

On a hot and sunny afternoon the village shone, full of people enjoying a walk, game of football, or a visit to the pool.

Lyn Phillips, visiting from nearby Newhampton with her husband, said she felt it had a lot going for it, from the quality of shops to some good pubs, and said that while it could get busy, it was still somewhere unique.

She said: “I love Tettenhall because you've got the pool here, you've got the eateries, you've got the hairdressers and it's just a lovely environment and we come weekly to the Dog and Gun pub here and have a pub meal.

”We’ll have the fish and chips on a Friday and it's just a really nice, relaxed place and dog-friendly, so we’ll take the dog as well, and it's just a nice, friendly place to be.

“The paddling pool can get chaotic, but I think there's been things put in place this summer whereby there's a bit of monitoring. Particularly the parking is an issue for locals because if you can't park in the locality because people descend from all over Wolverhampton it’s not good.

”We take our grandson as well. The first time we took him, he said ‘are there sharks?’

“I would hope work can be done just to protect it and keep the unique identity as a village, so there aren't too many people descending in the public domain, taking up the parking spaces and that sort of thing, just to protect us a bit.

“We don't want funfairs on the green.”

Another regular visitor to the village was Anne Cooper from Essington, who detailed her favourite parts of Tettenhall.

She said: “I enjoy the community and the shops and the general atmosphere of Tettenhall itself and I usually come to the hairdressers and the beauticians and so forth.

”I think the only problem can be the pool, particularly on Friday as it can be chaotic in the car park and you aren't allowed three hours if you can get a space.

“But, apart from that, everything's fine with Tettenhall and I do like it up here and I would like to live around here, actually.

“At the moment, you know, I've got one or two friends who lived in community houses around here, and they're perfectly happy to have been here.”