Birch Hill is a southern suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 of Bracknell

Bracknell

Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...

, originally part of the now-defunct civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Easthampstead

Easthampstead

Easthampstead is today a southern suburb of the town of Bracknell in the English county of Berkshire, although the old village can still be easily identified around the Church of St Michael and St Mary Magdalene...

, in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

.

The Birch Hill estate was built in the 1970s on the slightly higher ground above South Hill Park

South Hill Park

South Hill Park is a site that lies in the Birch Hill estate to the south of Bracknell town centre, in Berkshire, England.-History:The original South Hill Park mansion was built in 1760 for William Watts for his retirement from service as a senior official of the Bengal Government...

, a Georgian

Georgian era

The Georgian era is a period of British history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as spanning the reigns of, the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain : George I, George II, George III and George IV...

 and Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 country house in beautiful parkland with two lakes (known locally as North Lake and South Lake), now an arts centre

Arts centre

An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for musical performance, workshop areas, educational...

. Birch Hill is bounded by Hanworth

Hanworth, Bracknell

Hanworth is a southern suburb of Bracknell, originally part of the now-defunct civil parish of Easthampstead, in the English county of Berkshire.The Hanworth estate was built in the 1970s upon the site of the wooded Hanworth Plantation...

 to the west, Crown Wood

Crown Wood

Crown Wood is a south-eastern suburb of Bracknell in the English county of Berkshire, and formerly part of the parish of Winkfield.Originally a small new town type development on the outskirts of the town, the area grew considerably but is now hemmed in by Forest Park to the east, Harmans Water to...

 and Forest Park to the north-east, Easthampstead village to the north and the Nine Mile Ride

Nine Mile Ride

Nine Mile Ride is a length of the B3430 road in the English county of Berkshire, running from the south of Bracknell to Finchampstead, near Wokingham.-Character:...

 and the Crown plantations of Swinley Forest

Swinley Forest

Swinley Forest is a large expanse of English Crown Estate woodland mainly within the civil parishes of Windlesham in Surrey and Winkfield and Crowthorne in Berkshire.-Coverage:...

 to the south. Birch Hill Primary School and a large Sainsbury's supermarket store are located within Birch Hill, together with a shopping centre at the centre of Birch Hill (containing a McColls newsagent, dry cleaners, chemist, Coral betting shop, a Chinese restaurant and an Aldi

ALDI

ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...

 store), as well as Bracknell Hockey Club, the Esporta Royal County of Berkshire Club, Coral Reef Water Park nearby. The Look Out Discovery Centre, being across the road, is actually in the parish of Crowthorne

Crowthorne

Crowthorne is also a suburb of Johannesburg, South AfricaCrowthorne is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district of south-eastern Berkshire. It has a population of 6,711...

.

The streets in Birch Hill are named in alphabetic order. For example, the southernmost area includes from east to west Naseby, Northcott, Nutley, Oakengates, Octavia, Orion, Qualitas and Quintilis. Other streets include Herondale, Hillberry, Inchwood, Jameston, Jevington, Juniper, Kimberley, Knightswood, Madingley and Melrose.

Local facilities (other than the shops mentioned above) include: toilets, a hairdressing salon, the Silver Birch public house, Ringmead Medical Centre, a library, South Hill Park Pre-School, a play park for small children (called Hedgehog Park), the hut of the 9th South Bracknell Scout group and a community hall used by a number of small groups.

Birch Hill was featured in an episode of Road Wars that was shown on Sky 3 on 12 November 2009.