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Boundaries
The west and south boundaries of the Quarter are fully considered in my
essay 'The Boundaries of Yardley' and are shown on Map Five. It will be seen
that the Shirley and Yardley Wood Brooks are natural boundaries in the
south, their swampy valleys making a clear break through the woods. The
Spark and Haunch Brooks do not go far in defining the western border,
however, and it is not possible to decide whether Stoney Lane, Billesley
Lane, and Barn Lane began as perambulation tracks along a negotiated line,
or whether the border was fixed along existing paths. Of the 972
topographical details 'moss moor' may have been the undrained Yardley Wood
Brook valley, and 'cionda' is reasonably identified as the Chinn Brook; but
there is no certainty in placing 'spel brook', 'bull spring', or 'tall oak'.
It can be no more than conjecture that they were the Coldbath Brook, the
source of the Showell Green Brook, and the junction of Belle Walk with
Yardley Wood Road. Why is 'spel brook' not identified with the Haunch Brook,
since that stream provides the boundary for three quarters of a mile? This
is because the Charter appears to ignore watercourses that define the
border, listing only those that cross it. The vagueness of the landmarks
given in the Charter may well be due to the fact that the boundary was
clearly marked on the ground, either by running water or by tracks, blazed
trees, perhaps by ditch and low bank, and did not need to be defined in
written words that very few could read. It was not marked by hedge or fence,
because it was the custom in Arden for stock to be allowed to roam freely on
the common waste of neighbour manors (but not to be driven).
Domesday Yardley
In 1086 Gerlei (Yer-ley) appeared as a 'member' of Beoley, overseen by the
same radman for the Abbot of Pershore. The vital statistics for both manors
are given as one and cannot be separated, but in view of Yardley's greater
size we may claim for it a larger share of population and ploughland. There
were perhaps sixty people in the whole manor, of which about 600 acres
(1/13) were under cultivation, the rest being meadow (much of it unusable
bog) and wood which covered probably a third of the total area. Nothing can
be said of Swanshurst Quarter except that it was fairly thickly wooded,
especially on the valley sides, but this we know from geology and
place-names not from Domesday Book. The area of wood given in there was much
more than the total acreage of both manors! The foundation dates of
Yardley's early sites are not recoverable; there were four communal
settlements including Greet in medieval times, but which of these existed in
1086 must remain unknown. Greet was like at least one of the others in
having no nucleated hamlet, its farmers living in cottages about the edges
of the open fields.
Moats and earthworks
It is probably true that until Tudor times any rural house of fair size
would be moated. A water-filled ditch served as a defence against raiders
and outlaws, as a fish-pond, and as a drain. Most moat sites, deserted, had
fallen into disuse, becoming infilled middens and shrunken duck ponds before
antiquarians could record them. So, few appear on maps and fewer still
survive today. In this Quarter we can be sure of only one, and that is
unrecognisable. 'The Moats', partly obliterated by the widening of Yardley
Wood Road opposite Haunch Lane, seems to have been a ring earthwork at the
foot of a slope, with water defences fed by a rill on three sides. The date
and purpose of this feature are unknown. It is one of several sites on or
close to the manor boundary which may date from the early medieval expansion
into the waste. Even less can be said of a site at Swanshurst, where the
marshy valleys of the Coldbath Brook and a tributary protected two sides of
an eleven-acre earthwork. A line of trees marks the slumped and quarried
bank parallel to the brook, but few other traces have survived destruction
by ploughing in 1821. The probable extent is indicated by the gardens of
houses in Yardley Wood and Windermere Roads. A possible redoubt knoll at the
east end was a later windmill site. At the spring-source of the Robin Hood
Brook, round which Highfield Road curves, a moat survived until the 1930s,
and there must have been others at a dozen ancient dwelling-sites.
Introduction
Geology, Natural vegetation, and relief and drainage
Early settlement, and Saxon beginnings
Boundaries, Domesday Yardley, and Moats and earthworks
Medieval times, and Ancient roads
Perambulations
Old houses, Local government, and Tudor to Georgian
times
Families and houses
Georgian times
Bridges, Watermills, and the Stratford Canal
The Tithe Map
Churches, and Schools
Yardley Rural District, The City of Birmingham, and
Urbanisation
Industry, Between the Wars, and Public transport
Swanshurst Quarter in 1979, and Short bibliography
Maps |
