House surveys in West Midlands

The West Midlands runs from the Victorian and post-war suburbs of Birmingham and the Black Country out to some of the most rural, historic countryside in England. The conurbation is dominated by red-brick terraces, inter-war semis and big municipal estates, with Coventry's centre rebuilt after the Blitz and new towns at Telford and Redditch. Beyond it, Staffordshire mixes the Potteries with cathedral and market towns, Warwickshire and Worcestershire offer Regency spas, Tudor timber framing and Georgian riverside towns, and Herefordshire and Shropshire have some of the finest black-and-white timber-framed buildings in the country.

For surveys, the region's industrial past is the big theme. The South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, North Staffordshire and Warwickshire coalfields leave a legacy of shallow workings and old shafts, and the Black Country also has limestone mines and fireclay workings. Droitwich has a history of brine-pumping subsidence. The Severn, Avon, Wye, Teme and Trent all flood regularly, and older timber-framed and sandstone buildings need specialist attention.