Norman to medieval
times
In 1086 Beoley and its member Yardley (spelt Gerlei, the g being pronounced
as a y) had a population of about 100. As Yardley was much the larger, it is
reasonable to give it 60-70 inhabitants in perhaps a dozen households. Of
these half, the villeins, probably had enough land to support a family: the
rest, bordars, had to supplement the produce of their smallholdings by
working for others. About 600 acres were in cultivation. As the Church End
fields covered only about half of that acreage, it seems likely that
Tenchley and Greet, the other communal settlements of Yardley, were already
established then. But the number of households seems too few, especially as
some of these may have been individual farms, assarts in the waste like
Broomhall, Hay Hall, Tyseley, and Bulley (Billesley). A good third of
Yardley was wooded, the densest forest being a square mile between Blakesley
and the Coventry Road.To get a more accurate picture of the population
scatter, we move on to the tax returns of 1275-1327. The 82 taxpayers for
the whole manor were probably about half of the total number of heads of
households, the prosperous half. There were thirty of them in Church End.
Eight described themselves as being 'of Yardley', which may include
Blakesley, two were at Stichford, two at Hillhouse, one each at Flaxleys,
Rotyford, Lyndon and Glebe Farm (then called Waters, later Walters), four at
Gilbertstone, and ten at and about Lea. So there were a half-dozen either
living near the church or on un-named assarts elsewhere. That was a period
of great population growth: among assarts founded with much labour in the
clay were Blakesley, Waters, the Lea (later Bloomers, not the Hall), Cole
and Cowford Halls, Great and Little Fasts.
Yardley's open field systems had probably reached their greatest extent
by the mid-14th century. All further clearance and cultivation
were the work of individuals and families. Everywhere by fire and axe the
woodland was being destroyed. It is likely that most of the timber north of
the village had been cleared while that to the south was being merely
nibbled at. No medieval names are to be found within it. Assarts at its
edges, Blakesley, the Fasts (moated farms, fast as in 'fastness'?), the
moated farm on Moat Lane, Gilbertstone, gradually ate into the primeval
forest. The land they uncovered, though potentially more fertile than stony
drift, was heavy, cold, and waterlogged. No woodland names survive upon it,
and only one name at its north-west edge: there in 1349 was Wodemilne, Wood
Mill, not a timber structure but one close to the forest. There are some
wood names in the north of the Quarter, which may indicate copses left for
game. The name of Yardley Wood came to rest in the drift-covered south of
the manor, where the woods of Kings Norton, Solihull and our manor met.
St. Edburgha's church
Although Pershore Abbey held Yardley for more than two centuries as a direct
possession and retained residual rights in it for much longer, it seems to
have made no attempt to provide a chapel. Perhaps there was a timber
preaching cross somewhere as a meeting-place for occasional priestly
visitations during journeys between the Abbey and Maxstoke Priory, but no
trace or record of it survives. The manor was in the Bishopric of Worcester,
established in the Hwiccan capital in the late 7th century, but
those who wished for regular blessings of the church travelled to Aston four
or more difficult miles away. That they did so we may assume, because it was
from Aston Church in Lichfield Diocese that a chapelry was established in
Yardley. Presumably the Yardleians built their own small chapel, and priests
from Aston officiated therein. Its dedication then or later was to St.
Edburgha (Ed-burra), grand-daughter of King Alfred, to whom a chapel in
Pershore Abbey had long been dedicated. It is reasonable to suppose that the
first timber chapel stood on or near the site of the present church - so why
was it built there? The usual custom was to build a church near the manor
house. Yardley had few resident lords, but the de Limesi family were
probably living in a house within Yardley Park moat during the 13th
century, when the present church building was begun. The moat may have been
in existence when the first chapel was built in 1165: the Beauchamps of
Elmley were then the tenants of the manor, paying for it with 'one knight's
fee', and it was perhaps William de Beauchamp who had the moat dug as
protection for a house, either for himself or a steward.
Why there? The site had a poor water supply, being on uncapped clay, but
that was probably the reason for its choice. A moat dug in permeable drift
has to be lined with puddled clay to make it watertight. Whether there was a
nearby rill, a tributary of the Yardley Brook, to provide drinking water and
replenish the moat cannot now be discovered. Whatever the reason, manor
house and church were built on a site with disadvantages, as the few
cottagers who settled nearby were to discover. An outer moat, which provided
greater protection and more fish, not to mention a larger cess-pool, was
infilled so long ago as to be untraceable today. No excavation has been done
on the platform, whose last house was untenanted after 1700.
Introduction
Preface
Geology and natural vegetation, and relief and
drainage
The foundation of Yardley, and Boundaries
Old names, and old roads
Norman to medieval times, and St. Edburgha's church
Owners of Yardley
Old buildings
Open fields, and Tudor and Stuart times
The river Cole
Georgian times
The nineteenth century
Churches and schools
The twentieth century
Thirty-five years, and Principal sources
Maps |
