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Old houses
Among the jurors of 1495 were John Dolphin and Thomas Lowe. The site of the
Lowe residence is not known, but it may have been Sparkhill Farm. The
Dolphin home was Swanshurst Farm. There had been a family taking its name
from that place in the 13th century. In 1392 John Swanshurst was
schoolmaster and chantry priest at St. Edburgha's. The Dolphins succeeded
them, and it may have been the 1495 John who built the main hall at
Swanshurst which survived until 1917 - though it cannot be claimed that this
stood on the same site as the original farmhouse. To the 15th
century hall, which was open to the roof, a first floor with dormer windows
was added, and in 1600 a close-studded wing was built alongside. About that
time Ashfield Hall and Little Sarehole were built or rebuilt, both in
chequerboard timbering. Grove Farm was erected perhaps as early as the 14th
century, being then called Fulford (foul ford ?) Hall. A parlour wing was
added in about 1600, and a service wing a half-century later. Coldbath
Cottage on the Greethurst estate was probably a Stuart hunting lodge. It
has, or had before its drastic modernisation, a carved Jacobean fireplace.
Oldhouse Farm and Longfield Hall were of the same period. Evidence about the
other known buildings is lacking, but that they were all half-timbered with
thatch or Yardley tile roofs and moated may be guessed.
Local government
It was necessary in the mid 16th century to replace the lapsed
manorial system of administration. Two Acts established the Civil Parish of
Yardley as the body collectively responsible for local government,
answerable to the county magistracy. Each parish's major concerns - keeping
the peace, highway maintenance, and poor relief - were thenceforward
overseen by appointed and unpaid officials chosen from among the chief
tenants. So large a parish as Yardley could not be managed by a single team
of Overseers, and initially there were three divisions, each with its own
officials. All of the manor south of the Warwick Road was called Broomhall
End. In Stuart times the south-west had become sufficiently populous to
justify a further division, and Swanshurst Quarter came into being.
Rate-collecting was to prove so onerous that a final sub-division into Near
and Far Ends was made. The Quarters were still in being until the
amalgamation of Poor Law Unions in 1912.
Tudor to Georgian times
Detailed evidence for a view of the Quarter between the 16-19th
centuries awaits the reconstitution of the disbanded Discovering Yardley
Group or at least the production in some form of the material we extracted
during five years' work. The early evidence was published as 'Medieval
Yardley' by the group's leader V. Skipp (1970) with maps by the present
writer.
A
steady increase in the number of farms and a shrinking of wood and waste may
be assumed. Enclosure of Greet Fields (on both sides of the Stratford Road
over Sparkhill) took place early. Holdings were exchanged to permit grouping
of closes near the farmhouses at the edges, vacant strips were taken up by
neighbours, and the whole expanse was hedged and ditched. But total
enclosure came late to the rest of Swanshurst Quarter and was not complete
until the 1840s. Squatters continued to establish themselves on the edges of
the commons, eking out a living by labouring or nail-making. No early hovels
survive, but their brick replacements remained on Brook and Wheelers Lanes
until recently, and a cottage row still stands beside the last remnant of
Showell Green, but recently obliterated by the new dwellings of Fernside
Gardens.
The first bridge
over the Cole around here was at Greet Mill, recorded in 1620. It was for
foot travellers only. Horsemen and waggoners continued to use the ford - and
some of them paid the penalty for trying to cross through the sudden floods
to which the river has always been prone. Timber footbridges at the other
four fords of the Quarter were washed away on occasion: brick replacements
were not provided until the early 15th century.
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 |
