Michael Byrne
15 Feb 2016
Yardley Manor House, which was moated, is today marked by a group of trees near the church, which stands on the north east edge of its large parish. Partridge Road, just over the boundary to the east, was named after William Partridge, a builder of the 1920/30s who built several of the surrounding estates. The parish boundary with Sheldon was straightened in 1717 to align with Sir Edward Digby’s deerpark: he lived not in Sheldon Hall – which he used as a shooting lodge - but at Coleshill Hall. Sheldon Hall, built in the 16th century of red and black brick with stone dressings, was moated, and still stands discreetly hidden from the surrounding Sheldon Hall Estate. Kents Moat, off Sheldon Heath Road, now has four Birmingham Council houses. The originally moated site was Kempe’s, after the family that lived there from the 12th-15th centuries when it fell into ruin. Park Lane led to the deerpark, but was originally Pool Lane as recorded in Saxon times. Sheldon was transferred from Warwickshire into Birmingham in 1931, twenty years after Yardley - originally in Worcestershire.
The Yardley Sewage Works opened in 1890 and closed in 1971 (when the sewer to Minworth became operational). It had discharged water into the River Cole whose course had been altered. The southern bank of the River - due to demolition of the Works (now vacant ground) and accumulated spoil - is now much higher than the northern, which has not altered from the original. The Kingfisher Project, begun in the 1980s, has improved the appearance and amenities of the river over the years. Nearby Leycroft Avenue has 24 Prefabs, some of which are unaltered whilst others have had their original metal skin covered in bricks. Lea Ford Road bridge – where the boundary leaves the River to go along Bushbury Road – was originally a Bailey Bridge dating from 1947, but this was replaced by a new bridge (costing £73,000) in the 1960s.
The boundary rejoins the River close to where the Stich Brook enters it. The railway, which arrived in 1844, misspelt the name to Stetchford. The station used to see trains divide, allowing half the carriages to proceed into Birmingham and the other half to go on The Loop to Aston and Wolverhampton. The station was rebuilt in 1882. Eight people, including the driver, were killed here in 1967 when a train collided with a shunting engine; the line was closed for three days. Near the station is Flaxley Road which records the flax originally grown in the neighbourhood and retted in the river water to soften its fibres. The Grumbleberry Pools on the north west side of the Cole were to take up any overflow of the River.
The boundary continues south along the River Cole. The Bordesley Green East bridge was built in 1928, but the Yardley Green Road bridge is far older being recorded in 1346, with a rebuild in 1810. It passes Blakesley Hall, dating from 1590. The Hob Moor Road bridge (1928) replaced a ford. Adjacent to the bridge was a heliport from which in 1951 a helicopter service operated to Heathrow and Northolt airports. The cost was £4-10s return. But, with three seater helicopters, it was not profitable and ceased after a year. The Coventry Road was turnpiked in 1745 until 1800. When it was widened in 1903 the old Toll House was lost, and there was further widening in 1983.
St Cyprian’s Church in the Fordrough was designed by Frank Barlow Osborne in 1873/4. The cost was met by James Horsfall, the millowner whose company Webster & Horsfall had been founded in 1720, and in the 1860s made part of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable. The Church is built on top of a millrace going into the River. To its east is Hay Hall, originally 15th century but its west front was rebuilt in 1810. Part of its land was surrendered to the railways in the 1850s, and the remainder sold in 1948 for the industrial estate which now surrounds it; the Hall is now used as offices.
The boundary crosses the Warwick Canal (constructed 1793-79) part of the Grand Union, beside which is Birmingham’s ‘Cathedral of Waste’ which replaced the Tyseley Destructor in the 1990s. Between the railway (built 1850-52) and the Spark Brook, which now becomes the boundary with Small Heath, was the Birmingham Small Arms factory built in 1861. This was replaced by a trading estate in the early 1990s. The adjacent modern Ackers Trust building, with its ski slope built from rubble, provides sports facilities especially for young people. The Brook flows below Walford Road where there are some interesting buildings although much changed, eg the Dance Hall (1929) now the Sharma Banqueting Suite; the History Palace (1910) which burned down in the 1980s; the Waldorf Cinema (1903) which, after closing in 1983, is now a temple. The roof of an end of terrace house collapsed in April 2015; inside was a mosque, but the house’s claim to fame was that it was the home of Richard Hammond’s grandparents.