Tree surgeons in Solihull, Knowle & Dorridge

Solihull sits on the edge of the old Forest of Arden, and it shows in the gardens. Knowle, Dorridge and Hockley Heath back onto farmland, and many plots still have the hedgerow oaks that marked field boundaries before the houses arrived. Closer in, Shirley, Olton and the town centre have interwar and Edwardian houses on decent-sized plots, while Chelmsley Wood, Kingshurst and Smith's Wood are 1960s and 1970s estates with smaller, simpler gardens.

Almost all of this patch is Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. The exception is the Birmingham side of B37 (Tile Cross and Glebe Farm) and a sliver of B92 around Sheldon, which are Birmingham City Council. Solihull's rules, green bin scheme and tip are different from Birmingham's, so it is worth knowing which applies to you.

Branch and Bramble doesn't carry out any work. We pass each enquiry to one local specialist who covers Solihull, and they confirm a fixed price with you directly.

Tree Preservation Orders and conservation areas

Solihull has 20 conservation areas. Those inside this patch include Solihull town centre, Malvern Hall and Brueton Avenue, Olton, Knowle, Station Approach Dorridge and Hampton-in-Arden, and the borough's list also names Ashleigh Road, Grove Avenue, Warwick Road, White House Way, Granville Road, Walsall End, Barston, Temple Balsall and Bickenhill. The full list is on the council's conservation areas page.

The council says that any tree in a conservation area with a trunk over 75mm across at 1.5m above ground is protected automatically. You must notify the council six weeks before cutting, pruning or removing it (a section 211 notice), which gives it time to decide whether to make a Tree Preservation Order.

Solihull makes checking easier than most councils. There are two online tools, both linked from its Tree Preservation Orders page:

• the Conservation, Heritage and Enforcement map, which shows TPOs and conservation area boundaries together;
• a TPO search by address or case number, which returns the Order documents where they are held online.

If nothing comes back, the council's planning team (planning@solihull.gov.uk, 0121 704 8008) can arrange for you to see the Order. For Birmingham addresses in B37, use Birmingham's TPO map instead. Our guide on how to check if a tree has a TPO covers what the Order documents show.

The local landscape

Knowle, Dorridge and Hockley Heath have the largest gardens in the patch: detached Edwardian, interwar and later houses on plots that often run into paddocks or fields. Old field oaks, ash and field maple in the boundary hedges, beech and cedar in the gardens, and long mixed hedges of hawthorn, holly and privet are typical. Dorridge Wood and the countryside around Hockley Heath bring deer, squirrels and plenty of self-seeding.

Solihull town, Olton and Shirley are mostly 1920s and 1930s semis and detached houses with long rear gardens, plus Edwardian villas on roads such as those around Malvern and Brueton Parks. Silver birch, flowering cherry, sycamore and big Leylandii screens are the usual suspects.

Chelmsley Wood, Kingshurst and Smith's Wood were built in the 1960s and 1970s as overspill housing for Birmingham, with open-plan fronts, compact rear gardens and plenty of mature landscaping on the surrounding green space. Jobs here are smaller but just as often need doing.

Heavy clay is common across the borough. Clay shrinks as trees draw water from it in dry summers, and large trees close to houses on clay can be a factor in subsidence. That is something for a surveyor or insurer to assess, not a reason to fell a tree on spec, and removing a big tree from clay can cause its own ground movement.

Tree work in Solihull

The standout job in Knowle and Dorridge is the old boundary oak: a 150-year-old tree that was in a hedgerow before the house was built, now overhanging a patio or a neighbour's roof. These are often better reduced than felled, and many carry TPOs, so check the council map before you ask for a price. Crown reduction costs are set out in our crown reduction cost guide.

In Shirley, Olton and Monkspath the typical request is a conifer screen or a sycamore that has outgrown a 1930s garden. Removal starts from £280 for a small tree. Leylandii rows are hedge reduction or hedge removal work, and our Leylandii guide sets out the choices.

On Chelmsley Wood and Kingshurst plots, tree felling is rarely possible because space is tight, so trees usually come down in sections. Stumps can be ground out afterwards with stump grinding.

Each enquiry goes to one tree surgeon whose insurance and NPTC chainsaw certificates we have checked. See the Solihull tree surgery page or all tree surgery services.