| Forming the west and north bound for seven
miles, an obstacle to travel but usable for fishing, power, and perhaps
navigation, the river was of some importance in Yardley's economy, as were
its meadows. When largely bordered by forest which retained water and fed it
gradually to numberless rills and brooks, the Cole was wider and deeper than
now, and less subject to quick flooding and subsiding. Deforestation, piped
drainage, diversion of brooks into sewers, and the aim of successive river
authorities to dispose of flood-water promptly in straight channels, all
cause fast run-off. During the settlement centuries, but mostly during the
last one, the once-replete drift reservoirs have been much drained by
domestic and industrial wells and pumps. Many brooks have dried up or gone
to flush sewers, like Yardley Brook.
No evidence can be offered for the Cole as a navigable river, but as
there were no bankside roads until recent times and water travel was so much
smoother than the use of the abominable lanes, it is quite reasonable to
suppose that flat-bottomed boats like wide punts would have been in use,
carrying goods if not passengers, between Hay Mill and Stichford. East from
there the flood-plain is at its widest, laved by the great meanders, and
full access to it for pasture and hay crops was not gained until earthenware
pipe drainage was installed in the 19th century.
From the 1200s the Cole was being used to provide power. Through most of
Yardley its average gradient is 17 feet per mile, so that a half-mile leat
gives a 'head' sufficient for a nine-foot diameter wheel. (See my Watermills
of the Cole and Blythe Valleys.) Greet Mill was first, Wood Mill (Wash Mill)
second, in 1349. 'Wash' indicates the oft-washed flood-meadow in which it
lay. The last buildings of mill and attached farm stood west of Millhouse
Road opposite Mintern Road. Its triangular pool was fed by a leat from the
Cole at Hay Mill Bridge - still shown on uncorrected street-maps, but long
since infilled. The timbered mill was restored in 1385 by one Roger
Bradewell, who undertook the task in return for a lowered rent. The Cole
mills, like its bridges, suffered frequent damage from floods, less from
water than from material afloat which crashed into them. Wash Mill,
sometimes called Yardley Mill as it was the nearest in the manor to the
village, was in decay in 1525, but the pool was being rented for its fish
crop. At a later date unknown, possibly 1751, the mill was rebuilt in brick
with farm buildings beside it and continued to grind corn until early this
century. The farm was demolished prior to the construction of the municipal
estate nearby in the mid-1920s, the pool being then drained but not infilled.
Rubble from bombed houses was dumped into the bed during the 1950s, the site
was levelled, and Kestrel Avenue now covers the site of the millpool and
lower leat. Stichford Mill, long a corn grindery, made paper after Georgian
rebuilding. It lay across the Cole in Little Bromwich manor, and its ruins
were cleared a few years ago in the making of a recreation ground above
Stichford. There is one known windmill site in Church End : this was south
of Lea Hall, where Holbeach Road approaches the Meadway.
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 |
