| Bounds of the central Quarters
For a detailed study of boundaries and a comparison of listed
topographical features from 972 onward, see my Boundaries of
Yardley. Herein I shall give the bounds in modern terms with
some reference to past landmarks.
From Coventry Road southward, the garden ends on the east side
of Gilbertstone Avenue (former district name, Shawley): the west
edge of Lyndon playing field, ancient open field of Lyndon sub-manor,
and detached part of Bickenhill: a line south between Longley
Crescent and Lowden Croft (in Yardley) and Shalford/Ringwood Roads
in Solihull, across the site of Lyndon Green Farm whose buildings
were just in the latter manor, to the Bosworth Road/Barn Lane
corner: Lincoln Road North and Lincoln Road (formerly Shawley
Lane and Rowe Leasowe Lane) to Warwick Road: a line between Gospel
Lane and Kineton Green Brook to join Gospel Lane just north of
Broomhall Brook: Gospel (Langley) Lane to Leysdown Road: here
in Saxon times was 'hidden ford', a firm path across a boggy stream
known only to local folk, and Foul Slough Meadow in 1843 : from
Leysdown Road a line southwest to Redstone Farm Road at a point
north of Wellfield Road: Langley Hall Farm (the' lang' or long
ley was the strip of meadow beside Kineton Green Brook),and its
buildings stood until recent years where now stands the Hall Green
Social Club: this area was 'bromhale' in 972, meaning 'heath where
broom grows': Redstone Farm Road (a misplaced name, as the farm
was on Warwick Road at the boundary) and The Bridle Path to Stratford
Road.
On the west side of Yardley the boundary with Bordesley Manor
was the (now culverted) Spark Brook from an ancient ford on Stratford
Road just south of Walford Road to Golden Hillock Road, between
Walford and Benton Roads, thence the open but threatened brook
to a confluence with the Cole just south of the railway embankment,
thence the old line of the river to Coventry Road. Flood control
measures have diverted the Cole eastward in a loop beneath the
canal embankment, and most of the water now flows down a former
flood-race of Hay Mill.
The Yardley bounds listed above probably changed little during
eleven centuries, but in 1966 there were small adjustments: now
the city boundary includes the whole of the playing field between
Gospel Lane and the brook (formerly the Sixty Lands or strips),
while the Langley Hall segment east of Gospel Lane has gone to
Solihull.
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