| Ecclesiastical history
The Kingdom of Mercia became Christian,
in name if not in fact, after the death of Penda in 655 AD. Chad, Bishop of
Mercia from 669, centred his huge diocese at Lichfield: but in 680 the See of
Worcester was detached from it, being allotted an area largely co-extensive with
the sub-kingdom of the Hwicce, whose capital was Worcester. These were the West
Saxons who had colonised north from the Severn and Avon, and the fact that
Yardley (with many other manors in what is now west Warwickshire) was included
in Worcester Diocese suggests that it was a Hwiccan settlement despite its
nearness to the Anglian immigration route up the Tame.
The Abbey of St. Mary at Pershore came
into existence in the 9th century. The manor of Yardley came into its possession
before 972, for in that year King Edgar confirmed its title to 5 hides in 'Gyrdleah'.
This is the first written evidence of Yardley's existence.
There is no evidence of a church in
Yardley before the 12th century and the present building contains no Saxon or
Norman work. The Domesday Book records no priest in Beoley and Yardley, which
are lumped together in the survey. The dedication of Yardley Church is to St.
Edburgha (pronounced Edburra), which was one of several dedications of Pershore
Abbey, made when bones of the saint, a grand-daughter of King Alfred, and an
Abbess, were brought thither after her death in 960. Proofless tradition has it
that some relics of the saint were re-interred beneath Yardley Church.
In the 12th century the church was
claimed as a chapel of the church of Aston by the latter's owner, the Abbot of
Tickford. The very large parish of Aston included several manors, and was
Yardley's neighbour across the Cole. Litigation over the church's ownership
lasted for some years. In 1239 the Earl of Warwick acquired a Charter Warren in
Yardley and also the advowson, which he bestowed on the Priory of Studley. In
1329 the Convent of Catesby had the right of presentation, appointing the Rector
of Yardley. Thereafter the advowson was acquired by William de Clinton; and
given by him to Maxstoke Priory which his family had founded: from the 14th
century to the Dissolution, Maxstoke provided priests and schoolmasters for
Yardley.
The wealthy Pershore Abbey, a
Benedictine house from 984, was responsible for Yardley's being allotted to
Worcestershire when the shires were created at about that time, although it was
geographically part of Warwickshire: the Abbey's insistence on even its most
distant possessions being in the same shire created an anomaly that was to last
for nine centuries. Its wealth was its undoing, for Edward the Confessor took
half its estates to endow his new Abbey of Westminster. Yardley remained in
Pershore's possession until the 13th century and was still an odd outlier of
Pershore Hundred until 1760. Thereafter it was in Halfshire Hundred. It remained
in Worcester Diocese until 1905, when Birmingham Diocese was established, and in
Worcestershire until six years later when it became part of Greater Birmingham.
Yardley Church is the usual mixture of
periods and styles. The chancel is 13th century; the nave, north aisle, and
Becket Chapel are 14th-15th centuries; and the porch, tower and spire are 15th
century. The roof is modern. Despite its inconvenient location for most of its
congregation, and though neighbouring parishes had chapels-of-ease by the 15th
century, St. Edburgha's remained the only church in Yardley until Marston Chapel
was consecrated in 1704. This was perhaps due to the fact that there was no
nucleated settlement other than the village by the church - elsewhere population
was scattered, and probably sparsest in the most distant and still wooded south.
Job Marston of Hall Green left £1,000
for the building of a chapel near the Hall where he lived. The small brick
structure was enlarged a century ago, but it did not then acquire the status of
a parish church as so many chapels did about that time: this was because a
second parish church had been created in 1849, centred on Christ Church, Yardley
Wood. It was built and endowed by Sarah Taylor on land acquired from Yardley
Wood Common at the final enclosure a few years earlier.
Christ Church received a parish which
included a part of Kings Norton as well as the southern part of Yardley.
St. Mary's in Acocks Green was built as
a chapel-of-ease to St. Edburgha's in 1866, and became a parish church the next
year. St. Cyprian's began as a mission of St .Edburgha's in 1864, the church
being built in 1873 by James Horsfall of Hay Mill, whose fancy it was to place
it over the millrace. Five years later St. Cyprian's acquired its own parish out
of St. Edburgha's.
In that year, 1878, an iron mission
church was opened on Sparkhill, following one at Stechford. St. John the
Evangelist was first to be rebuilt, on the same site at Sparkhill in 1889, and
it became a parish church in 1894 prior to enlargement. All Saints' at Stechford
was so called from 1892: the iron building was replaced by the present building
in 1898. It was a Conventional District in 1905, and a parish in 1932.
The ancient parish of Yardley had thus
far been shared among its own daughter churches, but in 1884 a chapel-of-ease to
St. Mary's Church, Moseley, was built on Wake Green, just inside Yardley.
Similarly, the Church of Emmanuel, built in 1901, acquired a parish in 1928
which took in Sparkbrook.
St. Christopher's, Springfield, was
consecrated as chapel-of-ease to St. John's in 1907, receiving its own parish in
1911. St. Bede's (1907) remains a mission of St. John's in Greet. St. Chad's
mission was built by St. Cyprian's in South Yardley the following year. The
parish of St. Edmund Tyseley, assigned in 1931, has had three places of worship
in its short history: beginning as a mission of St. John's in 1895, and the
present brick one alongside in 1940.
Meanwhile, Marston Chapel had at last
acquired its sown parish, in 1907: it remained proud of its lack of dedication,
as Hall Green Parish Church, until the creation of a Conventional District for
St. Peter's in 1954, when it became the Church of Ascension - thus having three
names within the lifetime of many worshippers. In the same year St. Michael's,
Pitmaston, was consecrated as a mission and, on completion of the permanent
church (1971), this became a Conventional District.
Holy Cross, Billesley, was consecrated
as a parish church in 1937. With the creation of a new parish in Highters Heath,
Christ Church also lost that part of its parish which was outside the Yardley
(now Birmingham) boundary, and is now only average-sized. St. Edburgha's was
further reduced when St. Michael and All Angels, South Yardley, built in 1912 as
a mission, became a separate parish in 1956. That year a mission opened in the
Bishop Lightfoot Hall; it became St. Richard's, Lea Hall, in 1963, as a
Conventional District, and became a full parish when the new church was built a
few years afterwards. St. Peter's became a parish in 1964.
There were Methodist, Congregational,
and Roman Catholic meetings in Yardley in 1830, in Hall Green, Tyseley, and
Acocks Green, respectively. By 1911 there were 7 Methodist, 4 Congregational, 3
Baptist, 3 Salvation Army, 1 Christadelphian, and 12 Anglican churches including
missions, 1 Church of Christ, and 2 Friends' meeting houses. Roman Catholics
built one church and a convent in the first decade of this century. By 1964, the
total number of places of worship to have been opened in the former parish of
Yardley was 65, but some of these have closed in the interim. Others have moved
to new premises, but have been included only once in the total.
Places of worship in Yardley:
Before 1704: 1
In 1704: 2
To 1850: 6
To 1880: 15
To 1890: 19
To 1900: 29
To 1911: 38
To 1964: 65
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