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Watercourses of Yardley
All watercourses
in the manor of Yardley (excluding canals!) are tributaries of the River Cole,
those on the east side being source streams of Easthall Brook, which enters the
river beside Chelmsley Wood. Very few names are known, so convenient location
names indicating either source or course have been given to them herein. A
number of brooks are visible today only in their lower reaches, some cannot be
found: their former presence has been deduced from relief (dips in suburban
streets), from alluvial deposits shown on the Drift Geology Map, and from
documentary references. No attempt is made to list the many rills which once fed
the Cole and its side-streams: in the Dingle, where their outfall gratings may
be counted, there are six in half a mile and that is probably the general
frequency.
Left bank of
the Cole
YARDLEY WOOD BROOK
rises near Prince of Wales Lane at Gorleston Road. It is nearly a mile long, but
culverted for half its length. It is the Yardley (Birmingham)/ Solihull boundary
as far as the Cole, and is open
beside a surviving strip of Yardley Wood Common. Bampton's Pool is upon it. Formerly
diverted in a Cole-side meadow as the tailrace of Priory Mill, it now enters Cole
directly.
CHINN BROOK rises
close to the Cole on the Alvechurch/Wythall boundary. It may be the original
source-stream of the river. At Titterford it originally joined the river, after
flowing north-easterly for 4½ miles, but from the building of the watermill it
was diverted into the quarter-mile tailrace. A leat taken off the brook near
Yardley Wood Road supplied the millpond beside the horse-chestnut trees, and a
'floating course' from a sluice on its north bank led floodwater into the meadow
below the mill. The brook was called 'cionda' (chin-da) in the Charter of 972,
and 'the Water of Chynne' in 1495. A watermill associated with Monyhull
sub-manor was powered by the brook: Alcester Road crossed the valley on its dam
at the foot of Millpool Hill. For a few yards below the confluence with Haunch
Brook, the Chinn is the Yardley/Kings Norton boundary.
HAUNCH BROOK rises
near Wheelers Lane on Kings Heath. It is a mile long, all but the first
quarter-mile being the Yardley/Kings Norton boundary. A slade upon it west of
Hollybank Road is a bequest to the City as an open space: this is the 'launde'
(glade) recorded in the 972 Charter. The valley has been pleasantly landscaped
at the bottom of Billesley Common. The brook joins the Chinn west of Yardley
Wood Road close to 'The Valley' and the former 'Watersplash' ford.
BILLESLEY BROOK
rises near the Brook Lane/Yardley Wood Road crossroads, and descends half a
mile to the Cole at the Whirl Hole, where the head-race to Sarehole Mill begins.
It is now culverted throughout.
SWANSHURST BROOK
rises near the top of Brook Lane and joins the Cole near the site of Sarehole
Farm. From 1768 to 1934 it entered the Sarehole Mill headrace, but is now
culverted under the new Wake Green Road to the river just below the site of
Robin Hood ford. It supplies Swanshurst Pool and is open through the miniature
golf course, but is culverted from source to pool.
COLDBATH BROOK
rises near the top of Cambridge Road, Kings Heath and is 1½ miles long. After
diversion into Sarehole Mill's tailrace, it enters the Cole near Green Road. It is
open from Billesley Lane eastward. Of four pools and several ponds upon it, only
Coldbath (half-silted) and Sarehole Millpool survive. Lady Mill Pool, osier bed
ponds, and 'Old Pool' have gone, though the bed of the last is the ill-drained
wetland called 'Moseley Bog'. A great tank east of Yardley Wood Road lies
beneath a playing field: it takes the product of street-drainage from Kings
Heath after heavy rain.
SPRINGFIELD BROOK
rises near Moseley School (Spring Hill College), is visible but usually dry
in the Yardley Poor Allotments, and is culverted east of Springfield Road.
SHOWELL GREEN
BROOK rises near the Yardley Wood Road/Wake Green Road crossing and enters the
Cole beside Formans Road. It is open beside Sparkhill Park: a former tributary
from Hazel Dell is culverted: it filled the Park pool, infilled post-World War
Two.
SPARK BROOK rises
in Spring Field, Showell Green, and now enters the Cole just south of the Oxford
Railway embankment. The natural confluence was a quarter-mile north: there has
been much interference with the watercourses due to watermill, canal, and
railway thereabout. For almost its entire length of two miles it is the manor
boundary, Yardley/Kings Norton and Bordesley, and has also separated dioceses,
shires, hundreds, ends, wards, and constituencies. Danford Lake was made upon
it, with Golden Hillock Road using its dam as a causeway. The brook is now
culverted to just east of that road. Although a small stream, it was an obstacle
to travel, described as a 'torrent' in 1511. There were inns strategically
placed at either edge of its boggy valley, the Mermaid and the Angel. After the turnpiking of Stratford Road in 1726-7 (probably about a half-century later),
the highway was raised on a causeway across the valley. Stoney Lane was able to
run parallel and close to the brook because of the firm and dry gravel which
gave its name. The stagnant and rubbish-filled brook was covered and the lane
widened over it in 1896: it remained open east of Stratford Road until the
Barber Estate was built there around the turn of the century. At that time a
feeder to the Warwick Canal north of the brook was also infilled. For half a
mile east from Golden Hillock Road the straightened brook is the south bound of
'The Ackers' leisure complex.
Right bank of
the Cole
SHIRLEY BROOK
rises on Sandy Hill near Stratford Road and flows south-west one mile to the
Cole opposite the confluence with Yardley Wood Brook: it is also the Yardley
(Birmingham)/Solihull boundary, but as its name implies is additionally the
shire bound. It is open until it goes beneath the North Warwickshire line
embankment. There was a mill upon it, whose bed is still traceable.
'PRIMROSE BROOK'
rises near Primrose Lane and flows into the Cole opposite Titterford Millpool.
It is open west of the railway embankment, and (as with other culverted brooks)
its bed is traceable elsewhere in the dips of suburban streets.
ROBIN HOOD BROOK
rises near Highfield Road, which diverts round its spring course, and enters the
Cole just below the site of Robin Hood ford. It is culverted throughout its half-mile
length.
RIDDINGS BROOK
rises near Reddings Lane and enters the Cole south of Formans Road. It is a
quarter-mile long and fully culverted. There were once many such rills which
cannot now be traced.
TYSELEY BROOK
('RIVER LEE') rises near Hall Green Church and flows north to enter the Cole
just south of the confluence with the Spark. The laying of the Hall Green Sewer
two decades ago involved the culverting of the 1½-miles brook, which used to
help power Hay Mill. The laying out of the multiple rail tracks of Tyseley
Repair Yards after 1907 necessitated diversion westward of the brook.
REDHILL and
STOCKFIELD BROOKS are deduced from relief: the former rose near the top of
Amington Road, the latter beside Rushey Lane.
DEAKINS, FAST
PITS, WASH MILL, and BACHELORS FARM BROOKS are rills shown on estate maps: the
first two were diverted into the headrace of Wash Mill, the third into the
millpool. Only the last is not wholly culverted.
STICH BROOK rises
near the Yew Tree and flows north for a mile to the Cole. It is now wholly below
ground. Stoney Lane could follow the brook course closely because of its gravel
bed. Stichford Field overlay the ridge between the river and the brook.
YARDLEY or CHURCH
BROOK rises near St. Edburgha's and flows north for 1½ miles. Church Field
overlaid the ridge between the Stich and Yardley Brooks. The Solihull Rural
Sanitary Authority sewer is flushed by the culverted brook, and Colehall Sewage
Works was constructed at its outfall in the riverside meadows.
Tributaries of Easthall Brook
BROOMHALL BROOK
rises east of Four Ways, Hall Green, flowing from the shallow pond called Bushmere, which
became Bushmore (bog) as it dried out. The brook flows north and east to join
Kineton Green Brook east of the manor bound. Two fishponds were made at the
confluence with a tributary, and used to power a small corn mill. This may have
been working in 1609, when the Boundary presentment called the brook 'the Rasse',
which may mean 'tail race'. Both pools have been drained, and a concrete cascade
descends the slope. The brook is open in Fox Hollies Park.
WHISLEY (WESTLEY)
BROOK rises near Fox Green and flows north then east for one mile into Kineton
Green Brook. En route it serves as a feeder to the Warwick Canal. Two lost
tributaries joined it in Deep More, a bog formerly a pool, dammed by a causeway
used by Clay Lane: this sump was used as a sewage farm last century.
LYNDON GREEN BROOK
rises south of Yardley Church. With its tributaries it forms the manor bound for
¾-mile. The watercourses are now dry.
Canals
The WARWICK CANAL
was begun in Deritend in 1793. It crosses Spark and Cole on a brick aqueduct
approached on high embankments. Summit level is maintained by following brook
courses, curving to run parallel to the Cole, Redhill, and Whisley Brook
valleys. The last two are tapped for water. A deep cutting and tunnel are needed
across the Stockfield ridge. Wharves were made on both sides of Yardley Road,
for the loading of tiles and the unloading of coal respectively. After the
formation of the Grand Union Canal Company in 1929 the canal was deepened, the
banks were concrete piled, and the tunnel was reconstructed. A basin built to
serve War One munitions factories east of the railway viaduct was restored as an
early project of 'The Ackers' Trust, and a marina is to be provided thereabout
as a centre for water activities. There is no commercial traffic on the canal.
Huge dumps of refuse and clinker carried by narrow boat to the confluence
meadows are being landscaped and planted.
The STRATFORD
CANAL began at Kings Norton in 1793. It follows the Chinn valley, and enters
Yardley at Warstock. Leaving, it cuts deeply into Yardley Wood Common, then
follows the bounding brook valley. Wharves for coal and lime at Warstock were
later the venue for townees: meadows between the canal and the Chinn Brook were called
'Happy Valley', a fairground, pavilion, and boatyard being the attractions. Fairly well
maintained by British Waterways as the link between the Worcester and Warwick
Canals, the cut is used only by pleasure craft: for many decades it was not only
a source of fuel and materials but a quick route to Birmingham market by
'flyboat'.
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Watercourses of Yardley
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