The oldest sites have been named above:
few buildings survive upon them. Those which do are St. Edburgha's Church,
the Trust School, Blakesley Hall, and Hillhouse Farm. The church is the
usual mixture of periods and styles. Starting at the southwest corner and
going anti-clockwise, we have the great contrast between the massive blocks
of important sandstone that make the tower and the rubble masonry of the
south wall and transept, which may well be of local stone from the Glebe
Farm outcrop. The fragments certainly suggest that the supply of stone was
limited. Within the south wall, the only part of the 13th century
church to survive except for the re-set south door, are two Decorated
windows of the next century, with the porch between them. The timbers of
this are 15th century, like the tower and spire, but the
stonework below is modern.Transepts and nave were newly built in the 14th
century and the chancel was lengthened. The three-light window on the end
transept wall is contemporary with these works, which created a new
cruciform church. A recent boiler-house in the angle between transept and
chancel obscures one of two Decorated windows and the priest's door between
them. There is a 13th century lancet window above this, in its
original position. The south chancel wall is a history in stone - rubble 13th
century, irregular masonry 14th century, and uniform courses of
rough-hewn stone at the end which, like the great East Window, date from
1890. On the north side of the chancel an arch infilled in 14th
century stonework shows the site of a Decorated window of two lights: a
large one near ground level indicates the former furnace-room. The cross
plan of the Decorated church was lost when the north aisle was added in the
15th century and further hidden with the vestry addition in 1890.
The original end window of the transept survives in situ. A lancet window
was re-set in the vestry wall, whose other windows are late Victorian. Two
Decorated windows from the former nave wall were re-set in the new outer
wall, and later a Tudor doorway was cut between them. This had the
pomegranate of Aragon and the Tudor rose in its spandrels, said to celebrate
the marriage of Catherine to Prince Arthur. The aisle's south window is
Perpendicular, like the great windows of the tower, which are offset because
of the spiral staircase in the south-west corner. The four-stage tower, with
pinnacled parapet and crocketted spire, was the work of Henry Ulm, a
master-mason who built similar ones for several parishes hereabout. The
grooves in the tower's south wall were apparently caused by the sharpening
of knives and implements: Yardley lacks suitable stone for that process
elsewhere.
In 1926 the church needed a new roof. Steel girders support it but the
ancient beams were bolted beneath them. New courses were set on the top of
the aisle walls, and carved corbels there included the two oldest spellings
of Yardley's name, diocesan, royal, and family arms, the pomegranate and the
rose. The church contains monuments of local families, notably that of
Humphrey Greswold who was Lay Rector in Tudor times. Of the pre-Reformation
rood screen and six altars nothing survives and the interior has suffered
many changes. The arms in the chancel are those of St. Chad, Canterbury,
Worcester, Pershore Abbey, Tykeford Priory, Catesby, and Maxstoke - the last
four being claimants to ownership of the church in the Middle Ages.
The Trust School may have been built with a bequest of 1512, although
there is no certain reference to it until 63 years later. The generous use
of timber argues for the earlier date. The four-bay house has oversailing
first floor and gable, decorated sills but plain brackets. Of the original
building only the west front and sagging north side with five brackets
survive. Beyond this the building line continues with brick buildings - the
eastmost surviving bay of the old school has been bricked on the ground
floor - which are 18-19th centuries. The first Georgian extension
provided a home for the bachelor schoolmasters who had formerly lived on the
first floor. The porch is modern, enclosing the original side door. The
south face has been drastically repaired. Timbering survives over the porch
and at the east end, but brickwork and large windows between are probably
Victorian like the chimneys. Since World War Two the brick houses have been
enlarged. The school remained in use for boys only (girls had ceased to
attend when fees were demanded) until 1908, though there may have been a
break in the 16th century. It is now used for parish meetings. A
bequest had built it, and rent from many gifts of land maintained it. In
time the income from sixteen pieces, eight in Church End, was enough to
permit the opening of a school in Hall Green and help bridge maintenance.
Nearby Blakesley Hall was originally a moated farmhouse as were all
dwellings any size. The site used to be visible just to the east of the
Tudor Hall but has been levelled for use as a car park. Richard Smallbroke
built the present hall beside it in about 1590. Though not built to the
fashionable E-plan, supposedly in honour of Elizabeth I, having but one main
wing, the hall reflects Smallbroke's wealth in its decorative timbering:
herring-bone and quadrant woodwork was showy and costly in a period of
declining woodland. Whether the school and hall were originally thatched is
unknown. The great weight of later tiles may explain the sagging floors of
both. Local tile-making had continued, as we know from the excavations of
West Hall (Kents Moat) half a mile away in Sheldon.
A humbler house survived until two decades ago. Vintage Cottage in
Blakesley Road appeared to be 17th century chequerboard
(square-frame open timbering) infilled with brick, dormered, high-chimneyed.
Hillhouse Farm, a three-storeyed house with shouldered gables, is the last
building on a site that may have been occupied for a thousand years or more.
Pebble-dashed and dilapidated, long since abandoned as a dwelling, it cannot
long survive. Lea Tavern, also Stuart in date, was demolished this century.
Such buildings as last long enough to be photographed were, except for those
described above, always of brick, Georgian or later, replacing the earlier
timbered ones.