Manors of Greater Birmingham 1086 - C.1830

The were 22 manors and part-manors large and small in the City of Birmingham, 13 in Warks., 5 in Worcs., and 4 in Staffs. prior to the joining with Sutton Coldfield in The Metropolitan District, 1974. Historical geography known in detail for SHELDON and YARDLEY, due to long research by groups, but for no others. Much work to be done on documents, maps, field-work: many sources lost due to fragmentation of manors, changes of ownership, administrative changes, and urbanisation. Accessible information is summarised here, and may be found for certain areas of the city in greater detail in my booklets:- Walks In Yardley Wood, Mainly About Moseley, Bordesley & Deritend, Highgate & Balsall Heath, Handsworth, Sparkhill & Greet, The Manor Of Yardley, Rotton Park & Roundabout, Hall Green & Hereabout, Saltley & Little Bromwich, Acocks Green & All Around all in Birmingham Reference Library and some branch libraries.

All local manors were alike during the Middle Ages in having fields, meadows, streams, pools, waste, and a manor house. Except for Birmingham and its nearest neighbours which were affected by industry, the manors developed in not dissimilar ways. There were no free tenants in the city area when Domesday Book was compiled, but by the end of the C15th villeinage had gone completely and all rents were paid in money with perhaps token payments in kind. Apart from Edgbaston, every manor had open fields which were added to as population grew: Birmingham was unusual in having few assarts away from its village: in most manors much of the enclosure and clearing of the waste was done by
individuals and families. From the C15th there was piecemeal enclosure of the fields, but pieces of common arable and
pasture survived into the Victorian period. Early manor economy was mixed subsistence farming and self-sufficiency
in most things: arable land exceeded pasture. As the amount of waste declined through the centuries of clearance, however, the proportion of pasture to arable increased. Wool was a cash crop and required less labour, so much land was given to sheep-rearing. Cattle had to be sold off for slaughter in autumn for lack of winter feed. In the C17-18th flax was grown locally for sale. Wheat, beans, oats, roots and fruit, milk products, and rural craft-work were produced
for consumption and to supply Birmingham market. Local manors were to become steadily more dependent economically on the town, supplying materials, products, and labour: from the Georgian era they were to receive emigrants from the reeking town, the wealthiest first.