| Saltley's ancient bounds were almost wholly natural. A manor of
1124 acres, it was enclosed on three sides by watercourses - Rea,
Tame, and Wash Brook. On the south side, in the short distance between
the source of the Wash Brook and that of a lost rill which formerly
descended to the Rea near Landor Street Bridge, there was in the C18th
an odd zigzag which took the boundary through the buildings of Garrison
Farm: this is perhaps explicable geologically (see below).
To the west Saltley marched with Duddeston and Nechells, Erdington
was north, and Bordesley south. Wash Brook provided the border line
between Saltley and Little Bromwich, which manor was separated from
Erdington by the Tame, from Castle Bromwich by Bromford and Stichford
Lanes, by the Cole from Yardley in Worcestershire, and from Bordesley
by lanes now called Yardley Green Road, Blake Lane, and Bordesley
Green. Little Bromwich covered 1086 acres: like Saltley it was among
the smallest of the local manors.
In considering the bounds of Saltley and Little Bromwich it should
be noted that the present courses of the Rivers Rea and Tame are
not those of ancient times: they have been so straightened and diverted
that their artificial channels are only along the general line of
the former meandering streams.
|
Previous
Index