Yardley (Worcs.)

See 'Medieval Yardley' by V.T.H. Skipp, and The Boundaries, Manor, and Urbanisation of Yardley by J.M.J.
Yardley has had many owners, notably Pershore Abbey, the Earls of Warwick, the Grevises of Moseley Hall, and the Taylors - who still hold, the title but little land. The manor covers 7355 acres and is 17½ miles in circuit. The Cole and Spark and other streams provide 11¼ miles of its bounds: Stoney Lane and Billesley Lane are its western limits, Gospel Lane and Lincoln Roads marking the south-east edge. First settlement was from the south. Saxon and Hwiccan, established about sandy ground in the north end of the manor - Stichford, and Church Fields, Stich Meadows between. Dense forest on clay to immediate south, so secondary colony beyond, Tenchley, with own fields, Acocks Green and Stock(stile) Fields, on drift. Greet and Lea also developed communal fields, but other settlements were individual: early ones were Broomhall, Bulley, Tyseley, Billesley, Hillhouse, Flaxleys, Swanshurst, and Hay Hall. Dwellings were scattered, no large village appeared.

The first chapel was built in the north, near a moated site that may have protected a Steward's house. Yardley never had a resident lord. The church of St. Edburgha contains work of C13-14th., and has a fine C15th. tower and spire like others of the same period hereabout, perhaps built by the same master-mason. The Trust School is C15th. and has Georgian additions. Blakesley Hall and Field Gate Farm are Tudor, Pinfold House-is C17-18th.. like Hill House. Cole Hall and Sarehole Mill are Georgian. Marston Chapel was opened in 1704. Piece-meal enclosure and clearance of the waste continued steadily: final enclosures, 1833-47 affected 200 acres of open field (Acocks Green), 600 acres of common (Billesley, Swanshurst, Yardley Wood). The Yardley Great Trust owned many pieces of land, whose income supported schools near the church and at Hall Green. Three Turnpikes crossed Yardley, those to Warwick, Stratford, and Coventry (1726-45), with tollgates at the Mermaid, Cole Bank, Acocks Green. Admin. Quarters separated by highways were Church End, Greet, Broomhall, and Swanshurst. Warwick Canal (1793-9) brought coal, took away bricks and tiles - farm kilns using excellent K.M. clay. Yardley village by-passed, remained tiny. Of many farms and mansions hardly any survive other than those named above and Moorlands. New Bridge 1810, and Four Arches Bridge, Woodcock Lane canal bridge, are the only old ones.