Kingstanding, on the outskirts of Birmingham...

...presumably takes its name because the Royalist Army massed there during the Civil War.  Today, the inhabitants seem to eat many of their meals out of doors, leaving the chip wrappers, beer cans and expanded polystrene burger-boxes around the Kingstanding roundabout.It's a depressing place in which to shop, but I often go there to get extra coffee because halfway through a Maryvale weekend I tend to run out...pleasant coffee-breaks in the Redford Room with a cafetiere and chat.

Maryvale is  some distance away on Old Oscott Hill...all Catholic territory as a recusant family long owned the land. There is a busy Catholic parish, big Catholic secondary school, convent (now home to the Sisters of the BVM, formerly of Wantage), the Maryvale primary school, and the Institute itself, once home to Bl John Henry Newman and now welcoming students who obtain diplomas in catechetics or missionary work, or degrees or doctorates  in theology or philosophy...

Maryvale is a wonderful oasis...Birmingham with its swirl of motorways, the noise and the traffic...and then the  cheery sense of welcome as you turn in at the drive...