This is a really cool shopping mall with all the stores you would expect and some wicked ones on…read morethe walkway that you wouldn't - I stumbled across a wooden stand which had some fabulous items! As you would expect, its all clean, well maintained but unless you are used to it, it was a bit confusing, signs weren't brilliant in large crowds. Theres plenty of parking and entrances taking you into the lovely market town of Banbury. Recommended for your weekend browsing!!!

For us a new "find" since we just relocated (escaped?) from the USA and moved to our dream home…read morejust 5 miles away from this shopping area in Burton on Trent. We just happened to notice it yesterday as we went for lunch at the Winery nearby (did I say our favorite restaurant in the region?!?!) Today we stopped by to have a browse on a beautiful sunny day. The area is lovely, seems to be a reasonable amount of parking nearby. It is basically an extensive, light and airy shopping arcade. Many wonderful shops like Marks and Spencer's (including their wonderful Food Hall), various clothes stores such as Primark but many upmarket ones too, WHSmiths, Boots, and so much more - eating places galore for pastries, coffee and snacks. Good experience, loved it - we WILL be back very soon (next week we are planning). Rain or shine (since it is all covered) this is a real shopping gem!

I recommen going to Hobbycraft if ur a therian they have felt, paint, masks, feathers, brushes,…read moreeverything you need!

Ventura park although I frequent on occasion is really just a clone of other business parks , it…read morebacks the traffic up completely on a weekend I once got trapped in the Sainsburys car park side for over two hours on a Saturday...with added nandos and pizza express its got a lot of shops to choose from if your an avid spender notice didnt say shopper !

Great little shopping centre.. Has all the big brands and some high end high street brands too…read more Such as river island, h&m ,primary, etc... Good ample cark parking, its free to park after 6pm most evening. Has pub's. Bars, restaurants also has a Cinema. Free parking voucher when u spend £5 or more on shopping in Tesco.

Newly built shopping complex. 1st time I've been here and to sides to the shopping centre. Good for…read moreparking and wide range of shops all big sizes. Deffo check it out and you can waste hours here also just looking around and eating...

This is nothing like your average retail park; most are nearly always home to the usual large chain…read morestores and supermarkets. Okay, so Rubery's has a Morrisons, but it doesn't go overboard on the generic stores (and one supermarket is definitely a necessity for Rubery locals anyway.) At the centre of the park you'll find a Premier Inn, and surrounding that, there's a pub, bowling and cinema. So there's loads of great things for visitors to do, without having to spend too much money on travelling into the city centre everyday of their stay in Brum. However, there are quite a few roads that go through the park, and it's a little bit annoying having to cross each one to go to different store. But the park is home to one of two Empire cinemas in Birmingham, so it's definitely worth a visit to see movies on the big screen (other than at Cineworld or the Odeon) The location of the park is really great too; it's really tranquil and open planned with lots of grassland, so customers staying at the hotel don't have to breathe in the smog of the city centre all day long.

Not the largest of shopping centres, but it is the largest indoor shopping area within Shrewsbury…read moretown centre and it does have some good brands including WHSmith, Primark, Marks and Spencer as well as Costa, JD Sports and a few others, most of the larger stores can also be accessed through street entrances on Pride Hill. There was a lack of signage around the malls, such as a plan, I didn't even realise what floor I was on due to mismatched numbering in the lifts, no "mall staff" around made it a little more difficult. While most of the units were taken up, the same can't be said about the other shopping centres in the town so that's a bonus, the mall just had a bare/empty feel and it felt like there was a lot of blank empty space which could be utilised better. Decent shopping space within Shrewsbury, I do prefer the shops in the town centre and elsewhere, as this only consists of 17% of retail units within the town. 3*

Very clean with friendly staff. Has a range of high street stores as well as a couple of less…read morecommon ones. Easy walkign distance to car park, bus station and train station as well as the pridehill shopping centre and the shops on the street. Also has the tree of light in it for Christmas this year (2008) with the nominated names who sponsor the tree placed on the projector.

The Maylord Shopping Centre has a car park underneath with lots of spaces. The only thing is there…read moreis not enough room to pass cars that have stopped and you want to drive by and get another spot. You end up waiting for ages until they have parked to get by. The shopping centre is light and clean but there are not many shops in the centre itself. It has a good cafe where you can sit and people watch.

This place is realy good! Nice big carpark underneath aswell. Nice cafe upstairs. Shops inside are…read moregreat. Love the shops! Has a cheap sweet stall downstairs aswell. Rubarb shop is great for the girls who love pink. Next is also in this shopping centre and thats a nice shop

It is long overdue that I write this review. The Heart of the Country is simply a potpourri of fun…read morethings to do for folks of all ages. In terms of value - unless you decide to buy a meal, drinks or goods from the various stores and restaurants it is free! Even the parking is free. Everyone seems to be friendly and welcoming. There are walks too, especially nice for the kids. And yes all the eating and drinking places are good to excellent!

The pear tree creperie is a small French restaurant specialising in you got it crepes. It is…read morelocated in a small crafts place which is called the heart of the country village. Now me and my sister are obsessed with pancakes anyway so when we heard about this place we decided we had to go and find it. So Saturday off we went in the car and found it. Mouths watering at just the thought of pancakes they had a lot to live up to but they managed it and this creperie is such a little find I think I will go there more often now I know where it is. The address is as follows; Heart of the country village Swinfen Near Lichfield Staffordshire WS14 6QR Now in terms of location it is a great place as it is right by Lichfield city centre which is a great place and as it is practically just off a main road it is quite easy to find. I can't really tell you much about the actual craft village as we didn't go around as this was purely a pancake hunting trip only. It did look very sweet though with lots of furniture, garden and even a bridal shop. The actual creperie is tucked away and has an inside and an outdoor area. Outdoors the wooden tables and trellising around is very pretty. Inside and you get a very French feel about the place. The tables have plastic covers which looks very sweet and the decoration is very nice with antique looking things which is nice. The furniture is all a nice wood and everything just looks nice. The menu is lovely with lots of sweet and savoury crepes on offer. I went for a sweet maple syrup one because I really fancied it but they do so many different ones such as cheese and ham ones, pear and chocolate sauce and ones with alcohol which they light at the table which looked great. The prices are not to bad with the cheapest being about £2 and the most expensive being around £6. Drinks were around £1.20 each. The pancakes did not take long to come out and when they did they were massive and they gave us a lot of maple syrup so they do make sure you get full from them. I noticed people having savoury ones with salads and they looked yummy and definitely filling enough to have for lunch or for tea. The crepes were cooked to perfection and I have to say I couldn't have done any better. They taste so nice that when you have eaten one you always want another. Even though I felt quite sick when I had eaten it I still would have had another if my sister would have let me but she dragged me out of there which I am glad of. The craft village is very sweet and the car park is quite big so you will always be ok to park. I think the creperie is lovely and well worth the visit especially if you do take a look around and then maybe go visit Lichfield to finish off your day. I am going to visit again as it was nice and the food is cooked to a high standard. There are plenty of staff there who are all very friendly and I think that you will have a good time. It might be worth mentioning as well that you can reserve tables there as it does get quite busy and as we left there was only 1 table left. What a little find in the middle of the country. Wonderful! Thanks for reading. xxx P.S .Thsi has been posted on other sites but always by me katygriff

Touchwood Shopping Centre might not be the largest shopping centre, but it's a pretty cool place,…read morewith a good number of brands, making it excellent for a small town like Solihull, meaning people can shop without making the short trip into Birmingham. It can be easily accessed via public transport, with many buses stopping right outside and Solihull Railway Station a short walk away, I do find the buses can be confusing if you don't know where you're going, due to the many different stops even to the same destination (Some buses to Birmingham take longer than others for example) Brands located here include Apple, Footasylum, JD, Nespresso and Lush. There is also a large John Lewis store here, which is all the more useful after their Grand Central location closed. This also features a Joe and the Juice. Food and beverage locations within the mall include Joe and the Juice, TGI Friday's, Nando's, Starbucks, Pizza Express and Wagamama. Most of the shops are on the Ground Level, while the restaurants seem to be on the upper level, there are exemptions to this rule, for example, Starbucks is on the Ground Level. I did like the contrast of the modern and older parts of the mall, I did find a lack of lifts/staff around the centre to be a slight problem. 4*

A very poor experience today!…read more I found myself with 45 minutes to spare in Solihull before my meeting so I walked into the town centre and into Touchwood to take some photos to share with you here and on twitter for my 100 Days of Birmingham photos. I took a portrait photo of the closest shopping arcade and then turned my camera to take a landscape photo. A security guard walked up to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was taking photos to share of the shopping arcade on twitter and he told me that I was not allowed to take photos. Ironic since there are already 12 photos on here. He suggested that I was taking photos of the people in the shopping centre which wasn't the case. He then asked me to DELETE my photos. I tweeted from BrumHour's twitter account about my experience and received a reply back that said they can ask people not to take photos. As its private property they are well within their rights to do so.