This year Stourbridge topped the list of the happiest place to live in the West Midlands according to Rightmove's annual Happy at Home study. Everyone has a different idea of what makes a happy area though so I'm here on the streets of Birmingham to get people's thoughts.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I've got to say myself, I think in the West Midlands, I might be quite biased, Selly Oak
00:07 is quite nice. It's quiet, it's not too far from the city centre but far enough away to
00:15 feel like you're not in the hustle and bustle of the city. It's quite scenic, it's got some
00:20 nice greenery. In the autumn, autumn is my favourite season so it's nice to go on walks,
00:26 see all the leaves changing colour and stuff like that. It's got some good dog paths and
00:31 things. So I think Selly Oak, I would say.
00:38 I'd say the happiest place to live in the West Midlands is probably Abbots Bromley.
00:43 It's a very sought after place, a lot of big properties in there but it's a very well maintained
00:47 little village. It's very communal, they're very connected, everyone knows each other.
00:56 You go to your bigger towns and your bigger cities and everyone's really just out for
01:01 themselves. There's no politeness, everyone just barges past you, there's no manners used.
01:06 When you get to little rural places like that, then everyone's just a bit more friendly,
01:10 everyone uses the manners, everyone's more willing to help each other.
01:14 I'll say General Shore or Hamle which are the same kind of place, they're little villages,
01:18 there's a real sense of community there. It's not as busy either as big cities, I'm not
01:24 really a massive fan of the big cities, I prefer the more rural places.
01:29 We don't really come to cities do we really? No.
01:32 No, we only come today for shopping, to get her a present and that's it basically. Otherwise
01:37 I would avoid any city all the time.
01:41 Well we live in Pelsall, I'm quite happy, the people in Pelsall are very, very friendly.
01:47 It's quite urban. Also I think Lichfield is a nice area as well.
01:53 I think I'd probably make a judgement that more affluent areas are happier. However I
01:58 grew up in a really poor area of the West Midlands and I found a huge amount of fulfilment
02:02 in that we could reach out to the needy of society as a family and yeah, that would be
02:10 my answer.
02:11 Well originally I'm from just south of Redditch, so part of West Midlands. As Pete said we've
02:17 moved to Herefordshire and we really feel that that is how West Midlands and sort of
02:22 south West Midlands used to be. We've kind of tried to seek what used to be.
02:28 I mean I don't know about the happiest place in the West Midlands because I'm not, again
02:31 I'm not very well travelled, but I mean we've come into Birmingham today to check out the
02:35 Christmas markets and like you know everyone's doing something, everyone's like really busy,
02:40 everyone's kind of, you know everyone seems in a positive mood and you've got some choir
02:42 singers just down there. I'm out kind of doing my own little thing with the photo because
02:46 you never know what you see. So yeah it seems positive I suppose. But in terms of most happiest
02:52 places, I don't know, again I'm not very well travelled. Look at me, this is the face that
02:56 should have gone to therapy, like I should have, it's very rare I'm outside, I usually
03:00 have to carry a passport so it's one of those things.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]