| In 1285 Thomas de Maidenhacche enclosed the waste of Aston Manor
and Duddeston by agreement with Roger de Somery, who did the same
thing in Bordesley: but inter-common rights between them and the other
Dudley manors were to remain unaltered. In 1318 there were said to
be only a hundred acres of arable land in Aston juxta Birmingham.
The four great fields were called Church, Park, Cross, and Further
Fields: the location of these is conjecturally shown on Map 4. There
was much pasture held in severalty, the waste having been enclosed
thirty-three years before, so that already about half the manor was
divided into small closes, and the western woodland was presumably
fenced or hedged. Eleven tenants were recorded in 1332. A widening
of the lane west of the church (1758 Map) suggests a small green there:
houses on the south side may have been demolished when the Park was
empaled about 1620.
There was no market; Birmingham's weekly market and annual fairs,
the sources of Aston's money income from meat and wool sales, were
held only two miles away. The western half of the manor was still
patchily wooded and untenanted. There was a timber bridge at Scrafford
from 1290 (rebuilt in stone by 1536), at Witton 'foul ford' from
1358, and at the Rea crossing between Bordesley and Duddeston in
the C15th. These were on the 'churchways', which had to be maintained
in usable condition by the parishioners. A stone cross stood at
Aston Cross, opposite the pinfold (pound for strayed animals).
Evidently the church of Sts. Peter and Paul was well-endowed and
full of missionary zeal. A charter of 1165 refers to its having
founded chapelries in Castle Bromwich and Water Orton, and also
in Yardley across the Cole in Worcestershire. For many decades Yardley
was reckoned to be in Aston Parish, though in the Diocese of Worcester.
The manor houses of Nechells, Saltley, and Erdington had their private
chapels. In 1382 Deritend/Bordesley, and in 1517 Ward End/Little
Bromwich, were granted chapelries: but their parishioners were still
required to worship at Aston on six holy days of obligation each
year. Henry de Erdington, who built the south aisle, enlarged the
parent church. Tower and spire, 200 feet high, were added in the
C15th, and the former is the only part of the medieval church to
survive. A small moat east of the village may have protected a priory.
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