Hagley near Stourbridge is the focus of our Love where You Live feature, where we find plenty of shops, a strong identity, good beer and plenty of smiles.
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00:00We're with Rachel, she's the buttress of the buttress.
00:07Rachel, how long have you had your business here in Hagley for?
00:11We've had this shop in Hagley for about 18 months now and originally we started in Bronze Grove
00:15and then we amalgamated both the businesses into one here because it's such a busy area
00:20and we have lots of retail customers coming in as well as all the wholesale we do and home deliveries.
00:25Wow, busy lady, busy team. What do you love about having your business here?
00:29Lots of people, meeting lots of new faces, lots of other businesses.
00:33You've got the pub next door where you can take the staff to after work.
00:36It's accessible to everywhere, Birmingham, Worcester, Stourbridge, Bronze Grove, Redditch.
00:41The co-op's great, there's a barber's next door so lads can get their hair done.
00:45Everyone's just really friendly and it's a really nice small community.
00:48Yeah, and so what makes this neighbourhood, as well as what you've just said,
00:53is there anything else that makes this neighbourhood particularly so nice to live in?
00:59I live in Worcester. Yes, I'm a bit out of the area which is actually beneficial to me
01:03because I find that work-life balance is better because you don't have to mix work and business.
01:08Good.
01:13Oh, that sounds good. I guess what you say is there's a lovely social community here with the pub.
01:20Yeah, and lots of people are very friendly.
01:23The customers will take BB8s around the pub, send us their pictures and all sorts of stuff.
01:28We do lots of special offers to keep them happy.
01:30Oh, lovely.
01:31Pop sandwiches and everything, so it is a really good community spirit.
01:34If there's any problems, the neighbourhood watch is really good as well.
01:37Oh, good.
01:38Okay, so it's safe as well.
01:39Yes, it is.
01:40I always feel safe.
01:41We start early in the morning at 5 here so it's quite safe to get to and feel safe walking around outside.
01:46There's no crime or any trouble or anything like that so it is quite nice.
01:50Thank you. It's lovely.
01:53Will from Icon Barbers.
01:55Will, you are from Hagley originally.
01:58What do you love about this place? What's so great about this neighbourhood?
02:02It's a great community.
02:03Everyone knows each other and everyone's always smiling.
02:09You walk past people, everyone's saying hello and everyone's nice and kind and everything like that.
02:14It's just a great community.
02:16There's nothing really wrong here, I should say, so everything goes well.
02:20That's nice. I mean, you were already smiling when we saw you earlier so I think it must be a happy community.
02:24So, you're into sports yourself?
02:26Yes, I'm a big football fan and it's perfect around here really.
02:30If I want to go watch the football after work or on a Saturday whenever, I go to West One or Station, wherever really.
02:37It's great.
02:38Yes, it's great. All of it, whatever sports you're into really, they've all got it on.
02:45I don't know if you remember, but when you were at school, what was the school called that you were at?
02:49Haybridge.
02:50Haybridge School. How was it like at school? Did you walk to school and home by yourself?
02:56Yes, it always felt safe. I only lived at the top of Hagley so it wasn't too far to go anywhere.
03:04But it always felt safe walking to and from school and it was a great school as well for my environment.
03:12We're with Dr Chris and little James here. We're at the King Arthur Pub, a lovely pub.
03:18And you guys are Hagley residents. What do you love so much about your town or village?
03:24We obviously love the pub.
03:27We've got everything.
03:28We've got everything, you know, the trains, the buses, in the countryside.
03:34Then you have to walk across the park and get the trains ready.
03:38We've just played football with our grandson.
03:40Was that fun, James?
03:41Yes.
03:42What do you love about Hagley? What do you love about living here?
03:44He doesn't live here. He's from Wollaston.
03:46Oh, from Wollaston. Okay.
03:48So are you James' grandparents, are you?
03:50Yes.
03:51Do you like coming to visit them here?
03:52Yeah.
03:53And can we throw in some nice food at the pub?
03:55And we like the library, where we go to the library quite a bit.
04:00It's nice that they still have the library open because my local one's closed.
04:05And it's so nice for the kids to go there.
04:08But yeah, I mean, so do you feel safe in your community?
04:11Very safe, yeah.
04:12Yeah?
04:13And you can ride your bike around here as well.
04:15And no worries, yeah.
04:16No worries, yeah.
04:17As long as you've got your helmet on.
04:19Yeah.
04:22Oh, thank you, guys. Thank you so much.
04:25Okay, yes, I'm with Tom, the vicar of St Saviour's Church here in Hagley.
04:29And Tom lives nearby. What do you love about being the vicar of this church?
04:35The community, I would say.
04:37Community has been something that has always been quite central to church,
04:40something that has been quite important to really what church has been since the beginning of the Bible.
04:47And it's really important for us because we are a church that sees young and old.
04:53We see through our congregation, but also through the occasional offices we do.
04:57We do baptisms, funerals, we do marriages,
05:01which is a fun little way of saying hatch, match, and dispatch.
05:06It's a way of being connected together.
05:09So, yes, we engage with community, and that's what I really like about this.
05:13We do it within a religious context, within a spiritual context here in the church.
05:17We've got a church hall just around there, and the community uses that throughout the week.
05:22It is so full, and so we get to do that, which is nice.
05:25So you are at the heart of your community here in Hagley, really.
05:29So what do you love about this neighbourhood, this village in itself?
05:34Yes, I'm quite fortunate. I've been here for only about three months now.
05:41So I've got kind of a new perspective rather than someone who's lived here for quite a while.
05:47The thing that I'm most appreciative of is that there has always been a smile and a welcome.
05:53Everywhere you go, smile and welcome.
05:55That lovely question of how are you settling in comes from every corner of our community.
05:59So there is that lovely element of being able to feel welcomed into a community.
06:05They will welcome you with open arms, and that's one of the key strengths about it.
06:10The other one is support. People support and love one another, which is really nice.
06:15They do that through a number of different ways, sometimes in person,
06:19but we've also got a number of social medias.
06:22One of them is the Love Hagley page that we use.
06:25That enables us to be a support for one another within the community if anyone needs anything
06:30or has any questions, there's answers and other stuff that go onto that page from the community as well.
06:35So there's lots of kind of cohesion that happens, I think, within this space.
06:40Is there anything that you would change about it?
06:43Anything that we would change?
06:45If the answer is no, that's fine as well.
06:48Well, do you know, I think there's some things.
06:53Being new here, there's some things that I notice about, for example,
07:00there's always a little bit of a concern around our crossroads,
07:03about traffic around there and accidents happening there.
07:07That's come up quite a bit within the conversations that I've had,
07:10and so there's a bit of caution around there.
07:13There's some kind of interest in our space being a bit for people who like to drive fast, shall we say, sometimes.
07:22That could be a bit dangerous for people.
07:24I think it is later at night, so it's more of a noise pollution thing, I believe,
07:29but it does worry us in terms of, you know, there's a lot of families in Hagley,
07:34and so we do need to be cautious so that we can be safe for them.
07:39I'm with John, who lives here in Hagley. John, what do you love about your neighbourhood?
07:44The fact that you can always walk into the village and meet somebody you know.
07:49There are so many friendly people living here.
07:53I've been here 40 plus years, and I'm just so proud of the village and everything it offers.
07:59And you wouldn't move after all this time? You wouldn't consider anywhere else?
08:03No. My son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren live here as well,
08:06so that's an added bonus for being in the village with us.
08:10What are some nice things that you like to do when you're out with your family here in Hagley?
08:15Playing walking football on the community centre with the Hagley Hogglers,
08:20which is a group of men in their 60s, 60 plus, play every Tuesday, have a great game and great camaraderie.
08:30Also coming to the King Arthur, which is very welcoming.
08:34The shops and all the people in the shops are really friendly.
08:45We're at the King Arthur, and we're with Landlady Georgina, and you live here as well.
08:52What do you love about living in Hagley?
08:54I love living in Hagley. It's a very good community-based support.
08:59Everyone comes together. In Christmas, we have Christmas fairs in the village.
09:06Everyone's sociable, and it's a nice place to live.
09:10This is where your business is, and as you can see, it's absolutely booming.
09:14Why do you think people come here?
09:18By themselves. They do have a good following.
09:22Obviously, as you can see, there's a lot of gentlemen in here today, having pints and cogs.
09:29We are a busy pub.
09:32Lots of chatter. Do you think it's the community are just really friendly, and they'll talk to each other?
09:39Yeah, and people come in here on their own, and they can talk to people.
09:44Everyone gets on, really.
09:46Is it generally quite safe as well?
09:48Oh, yeah, definitely safe.
09:53Would you change anything about it?
09:56No, I don't think I would.
09:58Well, that's up to you, isn't it? Thank you very much.