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Relief and drainage
The slight local relief, varying only between 480 feet at Wake Green and 370
feet at the Cole/Spark confluence, is the work of the natural drainage,
which has shaped the surface. Former level plains, seen most clearly on
Formans Road Recreation Ground and along the Stratford Road through Hall
Green, have been sculptured into gentle undulations by watercourses: these
were not always the trickles of today, and there were once many more of
them. The main stream is the Cole, first documented in 972 as 'colle', known
at other times as Greet Brook and Hay Mill Brook. It has a local gradient of
about 15 feet in 1 mile, with break of slope near the Stratford Road. During
this century the Cole has been somewhat straightened as a flood control
measure.
The Spark Brook, taking its name from a family resident hereabout in the 13th
century, was described as 'a torrent' in 1511, but its gentle gradient and
shortness suggest that it would rarely have deserved that name. It was a
definite obstacle to travel, however, like all streams in this clay country,
because of the undrained bogs which bordered it. The source of the brook was
in a close called 'Springfield' on Yardley Wood Road opposite Woodstock
Road, and its course underlies Stoney Lane almost to the Stratford Road.
Thence it flows still underground between Walford and Benton Roads to join
the Cole just south of the Oxford Railway embankment. Today only the last
half-mile of the brook is visible, in the former B. S. A. sports ground east
of Golden Hillock Road. In the 18th century there was a lake on
the brook, taking its name from Danford, the crossing point. What is now
Golden Hillock Road goes across the site of the lake dam.
The 'Showell Green Brook' is a convenient name for the rill which used to
rise near the junction of Wake Green and Yardley Wood Roads. Its course is
east-northeast, parallel to Oakwood Road along the Park edge, thence in a
culvert to the Cole. A tributary, the 'Park Brook', rose in Hazeldell, a
little wooded hollow now vanished under new buildings of the Women's
Hospital, and flowed south-east across the Park.
Several side-streams fan into the Cole: down Greet Mill Hill north of
Shaftmoor Lane: from Greet Common north of College Road, its willowed course
traceable until recently across the Yardley Poor Allotments; on the line of
Fernley Road; and north of Warwick Road. There were doubtless others,
including tributaries of the Spark. On the east Side of our districts,
Tyseley Brook flowed north from its source near Hall Green Church to join
the Cole close to the Spark confluence. It is culverted for much of its
course, feeding the Hall Green Sewer.
Geology
The area's underlying rock is the reddish-brown clay now called Mercian
Mudstone. It is several hundred feet thick, an impervious material which
holds water on the surface and mixes readily with it to create a soft sticky
mud. Across the clay plain ice sheets of the most recent glaciation
advanced, pushing before and beneath great masses of earth and broken stone.
In lakes pent by mile-high ice barriers, gales blew the water into mighty
waves, which pounded the rocks into smooth gravel. As the ice melted this
drift material was left in thick deposits upon the clay: torrents of
melt-water washed it out of the valleys and scoured them into gorges. 12,000
years of wind and rain have rounded the valley sides, creating today's
landscape. Only the inter-fluvial ridges are flat-topped and drift-covered,
slopes are gentle and valleys silt-filled with mere trickles in their
bottoms.
The natural landscape
Primeval vegetation was dictated by geology. The impervious clay’s moist
surface favoured the growth of water-loving oaks, which tolerated thick
undergrowth of brush and bramble. Forest on clay was so thick as to
constitute an almost impenetrable deciduous jungle. The porous drift of sand
and gravel was dry on top, but acted as a reservoir of water above the
bedrock clay. It supported lighter woodland, or heath where it was stoniest.
The undrained alluvium of the floodplains was too wet for all but willow and
alder. Thus the natural landscape was an unattractive one of boggy valleys
bordered by dense forest on the slopes, which thinned out to fairly clear
plateaux. There were high bogs here and there, but firm going and open
patches on the thickest drift areas, which were also the highest. The
marshes of the Cole and lower Spark were 300 yards wide. Above these 'The
Hill' was largely drift-covered and thus lightly-wooded, probably no more
than ringed with oaks except on the north-facing slope and perhaps in an
area north of Grove Farm, which may have been more densely timbered.
These features must be deduced largely from the O. S. Geology Map, since the
natural vegetation has long since disappeared and much of the ground itself
is hidden beneath brick, tarmac, and earthen bank. Certain old names provide
confirmation. Thus 'Greet' (Old English 'greot' grit or gravel) may be the
oldest name hereabout: it was the presence of gravel drift deposits which
made both settlement and river crossings possible in this area. The precise
location of 'Greet' presents problems which are dealt with below, but the
descriptive name was applicable to The Hill and to the Common further south.
'The Grove' from which Fulford Hall took its name after rebuilding was
perhaps a remnant of wood on clay, though the farm itself was sited on a
drift patch. But the name could as well be that of a tenant farmer or of a
later plantation ! 'Stoney Lane' was well-named, for it was only the
presence of firm gravel which permitted the use of a track so close beside a
brook. 'Greet Field, Gravelly Hill, and Gravel Pit' were the names of closes
west of Percy Road, while 'Hazel Dell and Birch Leys' in what is now the
Park tell of trees which prefer light dry soil.
Forested claylands east of Cole were commemorated centuries after their
clearance by the 'Riddings' of Greet Farm and of 'Reddings Lane', which
indicate land cleared of trees, while the 'Moors' of Greet Farm and 'Shaftmoor'
(moor meaning bog) record wet meadows of Cole and Tyseley Brooks.
It should be noted
that the O. S. Map is in error in showing a drift-free patch in the southern
half of the Park, extending east of the Cole, since close-names listed above
clearly indicate drift cover. The error has been corrected on the map
herein. Similarly, none of the fords is shown to have gravel footings, yet
drift can be seen in the river bed, and at the Stratford Road Bridge it
collects to form an island as formerly it did at the Warwick Road.
Introduction
Preface
Relief and drainage, geology, and the natural landscape
First footers and Anglo-Saxon
settlement
The manor of Yardley, the boundaries
of Yardley, and the 'Manor' of Greet
Ancient roads, ancient buildings, and watermills
Turnpike roads, bridges, and administration
Public transport
Enclosures
Urbanisation, and amenities and services
Churches, schools, and commerce and industry
Between the Wars and since, and references
Maps |
