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Bridges
There were probably footbridges across all the Cole fords by the end of the
18th century. These timber structures were not infrequently swept
away by floods, which worsened as the destruction of woodland caused faster
run-off from the clay, though they subsided as quickly as they rose. Even
today the river can rise as much as six feet from its usual six inches in an
hour, but it falls just as quickly. Only one wooden footbridge, and that
dating from the late 1930s, can be seen today - at Green Road ford. All the
others were replaced early last century, but by brick footbridges only
except at Titterford. Four Arches Bridge, narrow and with a low parapet to
permit packhorses to cross without catching their loads, was built and
maintained by the Yardley Great Trust. Bridges over millraces had to be
repaired by the tenant millers. Paving of fords, after centuries of merely
dumping more gravel into the potholes, was confined to the turnpikes: only
this century have the local ones been concreted.
Watermills
The watermills of the Cole and its tributaries are dealt with in my
"Watermills of the Cole and Blythe Valleys". Sarehole Mill has its own
history/guidebook.
Swanshurst Quarter has had three Cole mills and one on a side-stream. Two
others were fed by the brooks on the southern boundary but were sited in
Solihull. Of all these only Sarehole survives; of nearly sixty mills once to
be found within the borders of Birmingham (1974 additions) very few
buildings still stand, and of these Sarehole is the only one to have
restored waterwheels. They do little practical work, but shake the building
quite considerably.
Greet Mill is known to have been in existence from at latest 1261 until
about 1840, with at least one rebuilding. It was the manorial mill of Greet,
whose manor house was three-quarters of a mile downstream. Greet's open
fields lay over Sparkhill, fairly near the mill but separated from it by the
boggy valley of the Showell Green Brook.
The chosen millsite was at a small break of slope, a minor waterfall on the
Cole, which could be weired to create a good 'head' of water. When this had
been done, with a bank of clay and stone, there would usually be a shallows
below, and this combined with the gravelly riverbed (the gravel still piles
up and creates an island above the modern bridge and must be removed
periodically) made Greet Mill a favoured fording-place, whether or not it
had been so originally. Little is known of its early history. Always a
grist-mill, it also used waterpower for blade-grinding, sub-contracting
during the Civil War and later for army and company suppliers. In 1775 Greet
was advertised as a newly-erected Corn Mill with regular supply of water,
adjacent to the turnpike road. An estate of 75 acres was attached, for
milling was not a full-time occupation in this pastoral region. Supply was
directly from the Cole. The new mill was built over a brick culvert which
lay between the river, falling over a weir on the west side, and a side-race
for flood-water which rejoined the Cole 200 yards north of the turnpike -
that is, too far downstream for the excess water to back up and 'tail' the
wheels. The ponded Cole, a pool of about three acres surface area, stretched
upstream nearly to Green Road ford. That was a right of way which could not
be drowned, so the pool's size was restricted - and much water went to waste
down the side-race. In drought the reserve was insufficient, and it was not
replenished until upstream mills had refilled their pools by diverting the
river into them: Greet received water from these only when they were
working.
After being engaged in steel-rolling during its last years, Greet Mill was
out of use in 1843. Economic or other factors may have contributed to its
closure, including the availability of steam power at sites much nearer the
sources of iron, but lack of water was probably the main reason. By 1868 the
pool had fallen below the top of the weir, the river wound through a bog to
find its way down the side-race, and the mill buildings had been demolished.
Rubble filled the dry culvert, nettled silt covered the site, and the mill
was quite forgotten - though the name Greetmill Hill (Shaftmoor Lane)
outlasted it - until excavation of a new central channel for the Cole in
1913 disclosed the culvert. Long-buried brickwork from the mill buildings
went to fill the old channels, along with material from the two humped
bridges, and a wide two-arched bridge was given a stone balustrade to show
Birmingham's intention to do its new territories proud.
Next in age was probably Sarehole Mill, property of Maxstoke Priory before
the Dissolution. After rebuilding in 1542 it still received water only from
the Bulley (Coldbath) Brook. In 1768 a half-mile was cut from the
'whirl-hole' on the Cole to the small pond. Three years later a rebuilt mill
was advertised for letting. This was the building we see today, built
against the pool dam, though it then lacked barn, engine house, and chimney.
Like Greet, this was a speculative venture by one Richard Eaves, who saw
that there was a lack of waterpower in Birmingham for corn-milling, because
the streams there were over-used for industry. He hoped to fill the gap with
his Cole mills, despite their distance from the town. The expenditure
bankrupted him, and others gained the benefit. About 1840 the forge at the
south end, beyond the overshot wheel, was converted into a cottage, the barn
was added, and a steam engine was installed to give extra power. Sarehole
has two twelve-foot diameter wheels, both now restored, a wide breast wheel
for corn-milling and a narrower overshot wheel which powered blade-grinding
and boring machinery. This had ceased work by 1873, but corn-grinding
continued until 1919. Forty years later the son of the last miller, George
Andrew, died and the neglected property passed to the City. Vandals came
close to destroying the unguarded buildings, but thanks to the efforts of
many people the mill was restored and opened as a branch museum (1969). The
workshop has since been restored. The Cole leat, largely infilled, is
traceable in The Dingle. Sluices can be seen at Four Arches Bridge and at
Coldbath Road corner.
In 1783 the finest millpool now in the city was constructed in the Coleside
meadows at the confluence with the Chinn Brook. Titterford Mill does not
appear in records before the advertisement in Aris's Gazette of a new mill
with two waterwheels, four pairs of stones, and garners for 2000 bags of
wheat. A leat from the Chinn came down to a small pond whose main supply was
by leat from the 7.5 acre pool beside the Cole. Only 6 hp was provided
thereby, and in the mid-19th century a 20 hp steam-engine was
installed to work steel-rolling machinery brought from Sarehole. This was to
continue producing pen-nibs until a fire in the 1920s destroyed the mill.
The house and extensive farm buildings survived until Trittiford Road was
made across the site a few years later. The diversion of the Chinn into a
long tail-race to avoid 'tailing' the wheels can still to be seen in the
Dingle.
Titterford Mill's long head-race leaves the Cole just to the south of Slade
Lane, only a few yards north of the spot where the tail-race of Colebrook
Priory Mill enters it. It seems odd that the head-race should start above
the ford instead of just below it, since this made necessary the provision
of a bridge over it for Slade Lane. There must have been a good reason, and
it may be that the ford gravel acted as a natural weir to divert water into
the race. A removable plank weir nowadays performs this function when
required. Bach Mill was in existence when the boundary presentment was
written in 1495: it may have been associated with the pre-Dissolution priory
nearby. Mill, priory, and the later tower windmill were all on the Solihull
side of the border. It was called Bates Mill in 1609. Originally a corn
mill, it may have converted to needle-grinding by 1843, a few years after
its rebuilding in brick. Water came to it by Cole leat into a small pond.
The millpool, Bampton's Pool (Brompton Pool is a map mistake), whose dam
takes Priory Road across the brook valley, was originally a fishpond, but it
must also have provided water for the mill at times. After World War I both
wind and water mill were out of use, replaced by Shirley roller-mill. The
open wheel-chamber was visible on the millside until the building was
demolished a few years ago. Across the Cole on the Shirley Brook there was a
mill which had apparently gone out of use before the Beighton map of 1725.
That showed a pool (with the legend 'Old Mill'), which is still traceable
between Watwood and Geoffrey Roads.
On the Coldbath Brook from at latest the 15th century there was a
mill called Lady Mill, probably because its revenue went to support St.
Mary's Church in Moseley from about 1500, but earlier called Greethurst
Mill. The site was below Coldbath Pool. Stoney Lane (Yardley Wood Road) lay
along the millpool's dam, whose dry bed survived in part the raising of the
road in 1924 until the making of Linkswood Close a few years ago. There are
still prefabs on the site of mill and house, which stood either side of the
brook, now culverted, until about 1830, but former sheltering trees survive.
Having converted to wire-drawing the mill was replaced as a corn-grindery by
a timber post-mill at a corner of the ancient earthwork. This was called
Wake Green Mill, and David Cox drew it in ruin. On Yates's map of 1789 a
post mill is shown on Yardley Wood Common, in what is now a schools' playing
field, but this may be an incorrect siting of the tower mill.
The Stratford Canal
In the 1790s a development of importance to the southern part of the Quarter
was the construction of the canal to Stratford. It began at a junction with
the Worcester Canal near Lifford, followed the valley of the Chinn Brook,
and entered Yardley at Warstock, where wharves were made. Thence it went
south in a deep cutting through Yardley Wood Common and paralleled the
boundary brook for three furlongs before turning into Solihull Lodge. An old
lane which became School Road crossed it on High Bridge, a brick arch which
still impedes traffic.
Not only were
supplies of coal for domestic hearths and mill engines brought by boat, but
also lime for local kilns and iron rods for cottage nailers. There was a
fast flyboat service to Worcester Bar in Birmingham. For most of the
Quarter's folk, however, the fast stage-coach or the slow stage-waggon on
the Turnpike was the only way of reaching the smoky town other than on
horseback or on foot. By 1803 the canal had reached Kingswood and a junction
there with the Warwick Canal. In 1816 the line was complete to Stratford, so
that Swanshursters had access by water to London, the Avon Navigation, and
Bristol.
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 |
