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Ancient roads
The first roads
in this unattractive region of forest, swamp, and stony heath, were not
important routes for human movement but purely local tracks going only as far as
their makers needed them. The first to tread the ridgeways and terrace tracks
were animals, and men followed them - first to hunt and later to settle. These
ways were not 'made' in any modern sense: after the Romans there were no
road-builders but only road-menders in Britain until the Turnpike Trusts.
Trodden routes became fixed if they served a purpose, but were never planned.
They took the easiest way, which meant avoiding woods, bogs, streams, and steep
slopes wherever possible. Their linking-up to form a system of communication
with other manors was a slow process related solely to need: the concept of
regional or national highways did not emerge until medieval times.
The old roads of Yardley were clearly
influenced by geology and drainage. It is notable that there are few ancient
riverside roads, because the clay and alluvium made too hard and heavy going
except in driest weather. The exceptions are Priory Road in Yardley Wood, the
bottom stretch of Wake Green Road, and the two Stoney Lanes, all of which are on
gravel. Beyond Titterford the main route through Yardley climbs to Highfield on
boulder clay, and stays thereon, following the dorsal ridge-top between the
Tyseley and Broomhall Brooks (Fox Hollies Road). It is possible that the
original track continued via Broad Road, Flint Green Road, and Dalston Road,
which occupy the crest, rather than along Stockfield Road: this crosses
Stockfield Brook and descends to the Redhill Brook valley, probably originating
as a perimeter track of Stockstile Field as Yardley Road was of Acocks Green
Field.
It is not clear why Church Road
continues the main route north of Coventry Road. The ridge, with a last
northward extension of boulder clay upon it (Oaklands Recreation Ground) is
approached by Graham Road (Mad Cat Lane), and this would seem a drier higher
route than Church Road, which not only lies on clay but cuts across the head of
the Smarts Hill Brook. In later times the impassability of this lane
necessitated its raising above the surrounding level on the 'Long Causeway'. At
the 'Yew Tree', Stoney Lane diverges to take the gravely east side of the ridge
between the Cole and Stitch Brook, while Church Road ploughs on over the clay
ridge between the Stitch and Yardley Brooks. Probably the first tracks therefrom
were the field-bounding paths by Hillhouse and Flaxleys (Flaxley Road) and the
way to Lea, whence tracks to Lea Ford and Kingshurst diverged on the boulder
clay patch.
Of the cross-Yardley roads, the first
to be recorded are Dagardingweg and Leomanningweg in 972. The former was Pool
Lane (Meadway, Pool Way, path in Kents Moat Park), which was the Sheldon-Yardley
boundary. The latter was Stratford Road, but its termini must have been quite
local. It occupies the boulder-clay ridge between the valley heads of the
Shirley, Primrose and Robin Hood Brooks on the south side, and the Broomhall and
Tyseley Brooks on the north. Beyond Greet ford it crosses largely sand and
gravel, but a drift-free patch with two brooks at the foot of Sparkhill must
have caused trouble to travellers.
Warwick, Coventry, and Stratford Roads
appear on John Smith's map of 1603, providing first evidence of Warwick Road's
existence. It uses the same ford on Spark Brook as does Stratford Road, notably
joining the latter just at the north edge of the Sparkhill gravelly patch. This
provides firm going for the road to the northernmost of the two Greet fords:
beyond it the road has to curve round a steep slope between the Cole and Tyseley
Brook, which must have been a real obstacle after bad weather and much use. On
the east side of the brook the road makes straight for a small outlying patch of
boulder clay, and then goes directly across the main ridge, curving on the
farther side of Westley Brook, then continuing south-east out of Yardley.
Coventry Road, first referred to in
1226, was a trail that used the east-west extension of the main ridge and its
cap of boulder clay: the convenience of this, 1.5 miles of good going, made up
for the trouble at each end. The still-existing holloway beside the road near
the top of Red Hill testifies to the condition into which all these clay-slope
routes degenerated: presumably the trench was bypassed in Turnpike (1745)
reconstruction.
Yardley Green Road, leading to Rotyford,
and including the eastern end of Blakesley Road, can be placed in 1383. Some
bounding lanes, like Stoney Lane, Belle Walk, Billesley Lane, Gospel Lane,
Lincoln Road, Gressel Lane, can be identified in the Boundary Presentment of
1495, and Baldwins Lane is found in 1540. But there are 17 road names in
documents to the 16th century which cannot be placed, and the drawing of a
road-map for any period earlier than the 18th century must be largely
conjectural.
Henry Beighton's Map of Warwickshire,
published in 1725, shows most of the Coventry, Warwick and Stratford Roads in
Yardley. Intersections are mapped and can be identified, so that a tentative
road pattern can be drawn, including lanes serving known farms and mills. The
first Ordnance Survey sheets, drawn between 1812 and 1817 on a scale of 2 inches
to the mile, provide the first accurate maps, showing roads and field
boundaries. By 1834 the First Edition of the OS One-Inch Map Series for the
region was published and in 1847 the Tithe Map, at 10 inches to the mile, gave
the most complete detail.
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