Heart Of The Country

Such a peaceful, pleasant shopping experience. I was overwhelmed by the huge variety of shops, restaurants and services offered here. We have visited HOTC on many occasions since, and we always come away satisfied. If you want exclusive, unique, designer goods then this place is for you. Highly recommended if you don’t want to purchase the everyday, run of the mill high street and market stall merchandise.

What a fabulous relaxing place to wonder around, not always to buy either, you can eat, drink and shop to a persons heart content here! A large car park accessed off the A38 southbound at Swinfen, 2miles out of Lichfield via the A5206 out of the city centre. Look for the Brown «Heart of the Country» signs. You have a wide choice of shops here, Paul Martyn Furniture, Heart Galleries (Paintings), La Maison Bleue (everthing you would like in your shabby chic home and more), Ooh la la Boutique (Ladies clothes) John Partridge and Rohan (outdoor clothing), Shruopody (chiropody treatments, shoes, reflexology), Quartz Brewing (bar/​shop/​micro-​brewery serving, selling and producing real ales, watch the beer being made on certain days), Cooks at Heart (everything you could want to accessorise your kitchen and more), Claire Evans Photography, The Barn Restauant, The Creperie, Masie Maxwell Wedding Gowns and Plantation garden centre.
Outdoor seating if you want to bring your own food and drink, wonder through the small woodland to find the pigs!
SPECIAL EVENT: WEDNESDAY 3RD DECEMBER 2008:
WINTER WONDERLAND, ALL SHOP OPEN FROM 10AM UNTIL LATE, FROM 5PM THERE WILL BE SANTA, REINDEER, SPECIAL EVENTS IN ALL SHOPS AND ALL IN AID OF BIRMINGHAM CHILDRENS HOSPITAL

The pear tree creperie is a small French restaurant specialising in you got it crepes. It is located 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

just outside of lichfield, heart of the country village has lots of really interesting individual shops to wander round, i like to go here on a sunday afternoon. the creperie is wonderful and do savoury and sweet delicaces. i like the little gift shops here, always something nice to buy. there is also a micro brewery, furniture shop, and they are open late in the evenings. last year they had a charity christmas evening with foam snow and real reindeer!

The Heart of the Country centre is a couple of miles outside Lichfield, with access from the A38 dual carriageway going south towards Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham — you need to access the A38 from the junction with the A5192 road, which links the A38 with Lichfield centre.
There’s a range of individual establishments here, most of them retail, though there is also a Creperie (The Pear Tree), a daytime coffee shop/​night-​time restaurant (The Barn), as well as interesting gift shops, galleries, garden design service, a chiropodist type service and other businesses. It’s open 7 days a week — although most units are closed on Mondays — so please check before leaving on their website — although hours vary for each business, with most places closed during the evening.
There is an outdoors car park that is a short walk from the shops, and this is also acceptable for wheelchairs. It’s also a delightful place to sit down outdoors — weather permitting — to enjoy refreshments, or just to relax and enjoy the surroundings. The buildings are converted from very old farm buildings, adding an extra touch.
Overall, a recommended place for an alternative to the high streets selling the same old stuff. One the edge of countryside, yet just around 25 minutes from the centre of Birmingham — with the A38 linking the two, this is an ideal getaway location for a more tranquil afternoon out.

One of the best out of town shopping centres around — and not a single high street name in sight. Country crafts and products. Worth a visit.

Situated near Swinfren Hall on the A38 south of Lichfield heading towards Sutton Coldfield, this is a lovely place to visit for a few hours of retail fun. You will find lots of unusual gifts, a great café and craft shops, with something for the whole family to enjoy.