| Introduction
The administrative divisions of the large manor of Yardley
in Worcestershire were the Quarters, each with its own unpaid
Overseers of Highways and Poor Relief. In Tudor times Vestries
or Civil Parishes had been established, usually co-extensive with
ecclesiastical parishes, to replace the lapsed manorial system
of local government. Yardley was conveniently cut into four parts
by the highways to Coventry , Warwick, and Stratford: originally
all of the manor south of Warwick Road was administered together,
so sparse was its population, but later Swanshurst was separated
from Broomhall. By the 18th century each of the Quarters had been
sub-divided into Near and Far parts.
For some detail of Church End Quarter, see my Manor of Yardley,
Boundaries of Yardley, and Urbanisation of Yardley.
The north-western parts of Greet, Broomhall, and Swanshurst Quarters
are dealt with in my Sparkhill and Greet. The story of
the southernmost Quarters is told in Wake Green and Greet Common,
Hall Green and Hereabout, and Walks In Yardley Wood.
This booklet is largely concerned with the historical geography
of that area of Greet and Broomhall Quarters which is bounded
by Coventry Road, the River Cole and Tyseley Brook, the Nine Stiles
Walk (York Road to Gospel Oak), and the City/Solihull boundary.
The districts of Hay Hall, Hay Mill(s), Tyseley, Shaftmoor, Fox
Hollies, Stockfield, Flint Green, Fox Green, Westley Brook, 'South
Yardley', and Acocks Green, are included therein. There will necessarily
be occasional references to places beyond the given bounds.
That the Quarter between Coventry and Warwick Roads should
be called 'Greet' seems rather odd, since Greet Fields were in
Broomhall and Swanshurst, while Greet Mill, Greet Common, and
Greethurst were all in the latter Quarter. The reason was that
the manor house of Greet lay just to the north of Warwick Road,
on the site of the present Greet Inn, and that this was the property
of Humphrey Greswold, lay rector of Yardley and a man of power
in the parish. For the three Quarters south of Church End, the
name chosen was that of the residence of the most important family,
who would have to undertake many onerous tasks of administration.
So 'Greet' was preferred to the apparently more suitable Hay Hall.
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