Victorian Names

It is said that when the grass, hedges and trees of a rural area give place to brick, concrete, and tarmac, the old names go too. Where there were once many place-names, one or two only will survive and be wrongly applied to whole districts. The following comes from the Tithe Map of Yardley Parish, Broomhall and Swanshurst Quarters in 1843. At the north end were The Clattens and Rickyard Piece (Bromyard and Leamington Roads). The Coleside allotments were then called Cowsbed Meadow.

Three large pieces called Riddings were just beyond our border, in the angle of Reddings Lane and Spring Road. Between Reddings Lane and Russell Road was the close known as Short Sheets. Big Brow is now the Public Works Yard, York Road, the B28 and Association boundary, follows the line of the Nine-Stiles-Walk route which passed Little Brow, Black Piece (the Greyhound Stadium) and three closes named after the Joneses which lay along Fox Hollies Road.

Across that narrow lane were the three large plots formerly Tibbetts Green, still open today as playing fields. On the left hand beyond Shirley Road (Oakenhurst Playing Field) were pieces called Five and Six Days Work. The Hill and Foredrove Meadow are now covered by Edenbridge, Glaisdale and Woodford Roads.

Moving up Redstone Farm Road we have on the right three large enclosures called The Hogsheads (Lakey Lane to Wellfield Road). There from southward the names are of little interest, though we may note in passing Forty Shilling Leasow, and Cross Piece (Stonor/Sandgate Roads). The old millpool on Shirley Brook has outlasted its watermill, as the name of Pool Meadow (east of Watwood Road) tells us.

On Coleside we find The Grove (Baldwin Lane's west side) and The Ginnocks between Tixall Road and Rowney Croft. Strangely enough, Morris Field Croft does not perpetuate a Victorian name, and its provenance must be more recent. Yardley Wood Station occupies Kettles Close, and other Kettles are crossed by Southam Road's west end. The small undeveloped plot on Sarehole Road is all that remains of Great Gussetts. The top of Southam Road crosses Swinburnes Close, a reminder of the family which provided Hall Green's schoolmasters for several generations.

Other names in the area were Picketty Close (now Hillmont Close), Two Shuts (Stonerwood Avenue), Johnny Green's Pieces (from Highfield House to Sherwood Road), Far Shutts on Robin Hood Lane just opposite, Cocks Field (Littleover Avenue) and Top Tillas (Robin Hood Croft). We can find church properties like Parish Fields (Lakey Lane/Boden Road), Parsons Close (Greenbank Avenue), and First and Second Parsons (Newey Goodman factory site).

Animals have provided a number of field-names. We can find Hares Meadow(middle of Bushmore Road), Horse Leasow (Mapleton Grove) and Horse Pit Close (Larchmere Drive), and Dog Kennel Close (Miall Road, west end). Cow Pastures and Leasows were on Paradise Lane/Highfield Road, Barton Lodge Road, and Miall Road east end. Vanished timber is recalled in Long Wood (Stonor Road, Nayland Croft), Wood Piece (Newey Goodman sports field), Coppice Close (Lakey Lane), and Oaks Fallow (Delrene Road) : and vegetation in Gorsy Piece (Gracemere Crescent), Clover Piece and Clover Close (Dalbury Road and Tixall Road/Smirrels Road), Vetch Field (Sarehole Road/Dunsmore Road), Daisy Meadows (Gresham Road) and Daffodil Close (Newborough Road). The several pits, clay and marl are evidenced by Pit Close and similar names where now are Brooklands Road north end, Acheson Road south end, Robin Hood Lane/Webb Lane and Cambrai Drive.