The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
The Thirteenth
Century
A subsidy roll for 1275 once again gives us a snapshot of the population of
Yardley. In this year 82 taxpayers were listed in the area. Taking into account
the families of those listed (using an average household number of 5) we get a
population of about 400. However, when those who were not eligible to pay tax
and those who dodged the taxman are considered the population could have been as
high as 750.
With this massive increase in population feeding Yardley's people became not
only a big priority but also big business, and it was in this century that
enclosure reached Yardley. Ancient strip farming and communal farming methods
yielded to larger private farms and common land began to be fenced off, sparking
riots and disputes. In 1221 alone four enclosure disputes were taken to the
justices in Worcestershire from Yardley. These fenced off farms grew wheat,
oats, barley, drage (a mix of oats and barley), and peas. However, the main
agricultural product of Yardley was, and would remain, beef and dairy.
The more land which was bought and fenced off by the more affluent few lead to
the widening of the gap between rich and poor. As the land was absorbed by the
rich, subsistence farming began to give way to a market economy and wage labour
increased.
Marl pits
were dug to produce fertilizer for the growing farms (25 marl pits from the
period were discovered around Yardley in 1847) and the first blacksmith in the
area appears in the 1227 rolls.
As the markets gained importance so too did the routes to them. Wooden
footbridges were built at all the major river crossing points, where there are
still bridges today, to allow access to local markets at Birmingham, Solihull
and Coleshill.
Yardley also got a full church to meet the religious needs of its ever growing
and changing population. This church was the first stage of St. Edburgha's,
which still stands at the end of Church Road, of which the south wall and two
lancet windows survive in the modern building. Yardley's first priest 'Henry
vicar of Gurdeleye' began preaching by the middle of the century.
The systems of law and order, mentioned earlier, while retaining the same shape
became more professional as Magna Carter (1215) shifted its organization from
the crown to the local feudal manor and paid officials including ale tasters and
bread weighers were recruited.
It is important to remember that this century really saw the planting of the
seeds of change and it was the centuries to come which saw the real alterations.
The main difference from the Yardley of 200 years ago were the larger farms and
the affluent farmhouses such as the Swanshurst (first recorded when a burglary
was reported in 1221) which came with them.
The Fourteenth Century
The fourteenth century saw Yardley's population hit its high point, reaching
numbers that would not be seen again until the eighteenth century. It was also
the century that saw this populace plummet. With the numbers rising at
break-neck speed that population soon became unsustainable and the land
over-farmed. As a result, from 1312 onwards Yardley was plagued with bad
harvests until in 1315-17 torrential rains caused massive famine. Even harvests
which did produce grain did so with lower yields and grain prices were 20% lower
than they had been in the previous century: the bottom was dropping out of both
agriculture and markets. Tens of thousands died from hunger and disease all
around the country and in Yardley the 82 taxpayers listed in 1275 dropped to
only 48 by 1327.
The fourteenth century also saw the arrival of the Black Death, and this,
coupled with the famine, lead to mass migration. As a result Yardley becomes not
only a much smaller but also a largely new community.
However Yardley, thanks to its reliance on the highly profitable dairy market
fared rather better than many of its neighbours through these troubled years and
progress was not stopped altogether. Industry continued to grow (although at a
slower pace) and subsidy rolls list Yardley's first cooper in 1300 and the first
tanner (Mr John le Wyte) in 1345. To fuel this growing industry, water mills
began to be built throughout the area. Between 1349 and 1725 seven were built
within Yardley and a further five outside its borders which served the area.
Roads were further developed and began being mentioned in official documents. In
1346 what we now call the Coventry road was mentioned as "the highway leading
from Bermyngham towards Coventre", and in 1350 the Stratford road can be found
as "the highway leading towards Henleye and Bermyngham".
During this period, perhaps because of the Black Death and huge displacement
that the population was suffering a massive church rebuilding programme occurred
all over the Arden area, and Yardley was no exception. St Edburgha's was given a
north and south wing to create a cruciform in the newly popular gothic style;
five windows from this period survive to today. St Edburgha's also became its
own parish by the mid fourteenth century, massively early for a small (but
lucrative) church such as Yardley's, especially when you consider that nearby
Castle Bromwich and Water Orton had to wait until the 1870s to gain their
independence. The liberation of St. Edburgha's is probably due to the contention
which plagued its whole history over the rights to the parish being claimed by,
among others, Pershore and Aston.
In 1361 the justice of the peace act combined with the statute of Winchester,
which had been passed back in 1218 to set up an entirely paid police system.
While the same tenth century structure remained its members were now full time
professional law enforcers and the system was complete, to be untouched until
seventeenth century reforms.
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