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Medieval Times (Map
Seven)
By 1300 Yardley's population was about 500. Most of the folk lived about
four open field systems, Yardley and Lee (Lea Hall) in the north, Tenchley
(Stockfield/Acocks Green) and Greet (Sparkhill). But there were by that time
many assarts, individual farms, particularly in the southern half of the
manor. Map 6 shows those assarts which can be located because their owners'
surnames have survived in place-names, or because those who lacked a surname
added a known location to baptismal names. Thus we find the Sparks of
Sparkhill, the Lowes of Lowe (Stoney) Lane, and the Pugges of Quagmire Farm,
formerly Puggemire; and taxpayers de (of) Fulford (Grove Farm), Greethurst
north of the Coldbath Brook (possibly Ashfield Hall), Bulley on the site of
Moseley Golf Clubhouse, of the Heath at the west edge of Billesley Common (Hollybank
Farm?), Billesley (Wold Walk off Trittiford Road), Fynchale (Acheson/Watwood
Roads), Waxhull (Webb Lane), and Swanshurst. From other sources we know that
'atte Wodes' lived near Priory Road, Golatres near Formans Road, and
Cotterels at Sarehole. There were three taxpayers living on the sites of
Green Bank, Cateswell, and Cole Bank Farm, de Faucombe, de Clodeshale, and
de Whateley; 'combe' means hill hollow, 'hale' is heath, and 'whateley' may
mean 'wheatfield', so their names give us some topographical facts. There is
no indication of a village. Only four men described themselves as being 'of
Greet', and nowhere else are there more than two names together.
It will be noted that several assarts were on Yardley's borders, as far from
neighbours and interference as possible. The planting of an assart was done
with the approval of the manorial lord (who levied a fine that was in
effect a rent) but not necessarily or always with that of the local
peasantry. 'Swanshurst' might be translated as 'peasants wood'. It was a
partly-cleared common pasture which extended over an area much larger than
that known by the name today. From Saxon times the law of Arden had
permitted the overnight erection of a dwelling therein and the subsequent
enclosure of a small piece of land provided that others' access to the
pasture was not blocked. The making and removal of banks and ditches which
were intended to enclose part of Swanshurst were the cause of several suits
heard at Worcester Assizes in the 13th century. Clearly the
founding of separate farms at the waste edges was seen as a threat to
ancient rights. In 1332 the men of Yardley, Kings Norton, and Solihull
combined to throw down banks put up by order of Roger Mortimer, the manorial
lord in Norton Wood, where the folk of all three manors had inter-common
rights. Most of a huge fine imposed on them for killing Mortimer's reeve in
a brawl that followed their action was later remitted by decision of a court
held at Warstock. The known extent of common land in Swanshurst Quarter is
shown on Map 7, but this may already have been eaten into during many
centuries. A square patch between Yardley Wood and Springfield Roads was
then or later called Greet Common. A part of this became the Yardley Poor
Allotments. Billesley, Swanshurst, and Sarehole Commons had probably been
continuous from there, stretching between the Cole and the west boundary as
far as Billesley Farm. Brook Lane, Coldbath Road, and Yardley Wood Road were
the boundaries of Bulley and Greethurst estates, Billesley, Pugmire, and
Attwood Farms separated the central commons from Yardley Wood, which
occupied the area between the river and the west and south boundaries, south
of Pendeen and School Roads. The named farms began as small assarts which
flourished and later enclosed large areas of common. Swanshurst and Sarehole
Farms thrust into the central commons from the river. Wake Green and Showell
Green were common pastures on the borders of Greet sub-manor. By the 1540s
when the religious houses were dispossessed of their estates, Maxstoke
Priory had acquired Greethurst, Swanshurst, Sarehole, and Fulford. All its
property was taken by the Crown.
Ancient roads
In 'The Leys of Yardley' I have shown that there are many intriguing
alignments of old dwelling sites, and that a number of 'ley-lines' intersect
at precise points on the sites of Swanshurst, Sparkhill, Bulley,
Springfield, and Bulley Farms, and The Moats. However there is a notable
lack of correspondence between the ley-lines and known old roads, so that
whatever the alignments indicate (if anything) they were certainly not
linked by ancient tracks. In fact the routes taken by the old roads were
clearly dictated by geology and natural vegetation, and it is probable that
animals had trodden them out before men found them useful.
Two routes were of greatest antiquity, both ridgeways, and they may well
have been pre-Saxon in use. School Road/Highfield Road/Fox Hollies Road are
part of the through-Yardley way which descends from the flat plateau only to
cross the Cole at Trittiford and Stechford. The Stratford Road winds across
the level between stream-heads until it must dip to cross the Cole. It makes
a sharp bend there to traverse the boggy valley at right-angles before
resuming its north-westerly direction. The crossing point may not be the
original one: before the bend the road points directly towards the Formans
Road crossing, sometime 'foul Ford'. Greet Mill was built in the mid 13th
century, and usually thereafter there was a shallows in the river
immediately below the dam: I suggest that travellers used this ford, and
later the top of the rebuilt weir, so that the road became permanently
diverted. One Roger Fullard was in 1275 the first recorded victim of a Cole
flood: he and his horse were drowned when he tried to cross at Greet Mill
when the river was high and swift-flowing.
The two ridgeways met at Four Ways. It may be claimed that all other roads
in the Quarter until urbanisation began as access tracks between fields,
farms, and mills, developing into through-routes later. Wake Green
Road/Robin Hood Lane linked Moseley Village, Sarehole Mill, and Stillfields
House, for example, and Brook/Webb Lanes linked Bulley, Little Sarehole, and
Longfield Hall. Yardley Wood Road (Stoney Lane, Wildays Lane) was a drovers'
track that linked all the commons from Showell Green to Yardley and Norton
Woods - and incidentally to Berry Mound. Notably lacking was a riverside
road. From Trittiford northwards there was no direct way along the valley,
and none was to be provided until the 1920s. There would obviously be no
track on the marshy floor, but it is odd that there was none on the firm
drift above the thick woods of the valley sides.
It is probable that
by Tudor times the roads shown on Map 8 were all in use. The difference
between field paths and highways lay in the extent of wear only. The first
O. S. maps bear this out, showing little distinction between them. Highways
to elsewhere became worn, degenerating to holloway gorges on valley sides
and to wide strips of morass on the level, because there was no road-making
until Georgian times. Parishioners' grudging labour was used to mend and
infill, but not to lay a firm and dry foundation. Only 'the highway to
Henley' and 'the churchway' (School Road/Highfield Road) to St. Edburgha's
Church in Yardley Village would be given more than the minimum of attention.
From Elizabeth I's reign Highway Overseers had to be appointed annually in
each Quarter, with responsibility for bringing out the poor tenants on six
statutory days to fill in holes and draw harrows over ruts, employing horses
and carts provided by the richer farmers. Work on highways for the benefit
of 'foreigners' was most unwillingly performed.
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
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