Michael Byrne
21 Sept 2015
Yardley was a very large parish (7,355 acres) in the diocese of Lichfield until 1905 (the Spark Brook was the boundary between Lichfield and Worcester). It was in Worcestershire until 1909. Yardley’s Charter dates from 972 and other important documents delineating its boundaries exist from 1495 and 1609. The Tythe Map of 1747 is also important. The parish’s southern boundary mainly follows small watercourses, whereas the north western side uses the River Cole. The priest with his parishioners would walk the bounds annually after Easter, and they were often mirrored on the other side of the boundary by a group from the neighbouring parish – this meant Kings Norton, Solihull and Sheldon. In 1972 on the Millennium of the Charter the Discovering Yardley Group, guided by John Morris Jones, walked the whole 20 miles.
The Spark Brook flows into the Cole and beyond Walford Road is now underground. The Brook then turns south under Stoney Lane. Belle Walk (The Greenway in 1495) was built in up in the 1920s, and Billesley (originally Bully) Lane forms the boundary. Bully Hall Farm is now Moseley Golf Course. The boundary goes south down Hollybank Road, on the Yardley side of which there is an earth platform on Billesley Common where prefabs were erected during WWII.
Yardley Wood was the last part of Yardley Manor to be cleared of forest and replaced by farms. Yardley Wood Road was called Days Lane in 1747. Christ Church was built in 1847 and made a separate parish out of Yardley. In 1877 James Ferne Webster, a metallurgist entrepreneur, built the Crown Works at Yardley Wood where aluminium was made for the first time in the world in 1881. The factory was demolished after manufacture was switched to Oldbury in 1888. The line of trees at Highters Heath Junior School marked the boundary, but it was altered later when the adjacent area around Hytall Road was transfered to Solihull. The boundary continues down the middle of Priory Road, but makes a curious narrow blip northwards mirroring the former long tailrace to Colebrook Priory Mill. Nethercote Gardens stands on the site of the mediaeval Colebrook Priory. Bampton Pool was originally its fish pond, but was also the back up to Yardley Wood Brook which served the mill (first recoded in 1495). The latter closed in 1919 and was demolished in 1965.
The boundary follows the Shirley Brook, now hidden between houses. It crosses the Stratford Road south of the Robin Hood roundabout (and the former tram terminal), and then goes NE up the Bridle Path to the middle of Redstone Road and Gospel Lane. The parallel Langley Hall Road was recorded as Langley Lane in 1609. Fox Hollies Park contains a Burnt Mound dating from 1500 BC. There are various theories as to what these were - a sauna, or used for a religious/medical purpose. Olton Boulevard was created in 1928. The boundary continues northwards across the Warwick Road, up Lincoln Road and across the Coventry Road. Then it runs along the back of the gardens in Wychwood Crescent. It went through the middle of Gilberstone House, occupied in 1495 by Richard Acock. Rebuilt in 1866, it was demolished in 1937 and replaced by an estate of houses costing £415 - £550. The Manor of Lyndon was a detached part of Bickenhill parish (which was transferred to Solihull only in 1874) and the Gilbert Stone – recorded in 1609 – was a parish boundary marker. It stood at 72 Saxondale Avenue, but is now at Blakesley Hall. The junction of Moat Lane with Elmscote Road, where the Gospel Oak (felled in the 1840s) marked the boundary where three parishes met – Yardley, Lyndon/Bickenhill and Sheldon. Lyndon Manor House was demolished in 1961. The Bilton Grange Road estate was built in 1935.
The boundary then goes up Barrows Lane to where an old entrance lodge still exists, and thence to Partridge Road, due east of Yardley Parish Church, near which ridge and furrow still survive.