| It is quite likely that Deritend began as a grazing ground across
the Rea from Birmingham, and that herdsmen's huts were built just
above flood level there to establish a claim when other Anglian folk
started to move into the area. The effect of the prior claim was the
cutting-off of Bordesley from the Rea except at the extreme north
and south ends of its territory. This must have been a great disadvantage
to the Bordesleians, denied summer grazing and winter hay, since the
three miles of Cole meadows available to them were on the far side
of thick woods and soggy clay. Deritend was a source of timber and
fuel for Birmingham, which manor of sandstone and pebble beds was
not heavily wooded. As the first cluster of huts about a small green
grew it extended up the track that led to the ford, becoming a street
village. The existence of a green at Deritend is confirmed by the
name of a known C14th resident, Robert o'the Green, and the widening
of the street from the Old Crown westward.
Where was the settlement based on a farm established in a forest
clearing by one Bord(a), who may have moved south from Aston ? There
is no evidence other than Tomlinson's map: ribbon building is shown
along High Street into Bordesley, and two hamlets appear at the
foot of Kemp (Camp) Hill - one at the junction of Coventry and Stratford
Roads, the other at the Watery Lane/Sandy Lane crossing on Coventry
Road beside Bordesley Brook. There, on Beighton's 1725 map, stood
Brook House. Was this the site of the original farm ?
Meadows beside the brook, which could provide a moat, easily-cleared
if rather steep slopes above, and heathy land for first fields immediately
to the north, made this a reasonable site. On the hill to the east,
in the right-angled bend of Coventry Road, there is a blank space
on Tomlinson's map whereon Bordesley House (later called Bordesley
Hall) was shortly to be built and emparked. Was this the manor house
site ? Was there ever more of a village than the two hamlets, or
were tenants' farmhouses built about the open field edges as in
some neighbour manors ? There was no church in Bordesley to provide
a focal point and no green which might suggest an original settlement
site: so the location of first farm and later manor house must remain
conjectural.
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