Medieval Times

By 1300 Yardley's population was about 500. Most of the folk lived about four open field systems, Yardley and Lee (Lea Hall) in the north, Tenchley (Stockfield/Acocks Green) and Greet (Sparkhill). But there were by that time many assarts, individual farms, particularly in the southern half of the manor. Map 6 shows those assarts which can be located because their owners' surnames have survived in place-names, or because those who lacked a surname added a known location to baptismal names.

Thus we find the Sparks of Sparkhill, the Lowes of Lowe (Stoney) Lane, and the Pugges of Quagmire Farm, formerly Puggemire; and taxpayers de (of) Fulford (Grove Farm), Greethurst north of Coldbath Brook (possibly Ashfield Hall), Bulley on the site of Moseley Golf Clubhouse, of the Heath at the west edge of Billesley Common (Hollybank Farm?), Billesley (Wold Walk off Trittiford Road), Fynchale (Acheson/ Watwood Roads), Waxhull (Webb Lane), and Swanshurst. From other sources we know that 'atte Wodes' lived near Priory Road, Golatres near Formans Road, and Cotterels at Sarehole. There were three taxpayers living on the sites of Green Bank, Cateswell, and Cole Bank Farm, de Faucombe, de Clodeshale, and de Whateley; 'combe' means hill hollow, 'hale' = heath, and 'whateley' may mean 'wheatfield', so their names give us some topographical facts. There is no indication of a village; only four men described themselves as being 'of Greet', and nowhere else are there more than two names together.

It will be noted that several assarts were on Yardley's borders, as far from neighbours and interference as possible. The planting of an assart was done with approval of the manorial lord (who levied a fine that was in effect a rent) but not necessarily or always with that of the local peasantry. 'Swanshurst' might be translated as 'peasants wood'; it was a partly-cleared common pasture which extended over an area much larger than that known by the name today.

From Saxon times the law of Arden had permitted the overnight erection of a dwelling therein and the subsequent enclosure of a small piece of land provided that others' access to the pasture was not blocked.

The making and removal of banks and ditches which were intended to enclose part of Swanshurst were the cause of several suits heard at Worcester Assizes in the C 13th. Clearly the founding of separate farms at the waste edges was seen as a threat to ancient rights.

In 1332 the men of Yardley, Kings Norton, and Solihull combined to throw down banks put up by order of Roger Mortimer the manorial lord in Norton Wood, where the folk of all three manors had inter-common rights. Most of a huge fine imposed on them for killing Mortimer's reeve in a brawl that followed their action was later remitted by decision of a court held at Warstock. The known extent of common land in Swanshurst Quarter is shown on Map 7, but this may already have been eaten into during many centuries.

A square patch between Yardley Wood and Springfield Roads was then or later called Greet Common; a part of this became the Yardley Poor Allotments. Billesley, Swanshurst, and Sarehole Commons had probably been continuous therefrom, stretching between the Cole and the west bound as far as Billesley Farm. Brook Lane, Coldbath Road, and Yardley Wood Road were the bounds of Bulley and Greethurst estates, Billesley, Pugmire, and Attwood Farms separated the central commons from Yardley Wood, which occupied the area between the river and the west and south bounds, south of Pendeen and School Roads.

The named farms began as small assarts which flourished and later enclosed large areas of common. Swanshurst and Sarehole Farms thrust into the central commons from the river. Wake Green and Showell Green were common pastures on the borders of Greet sub-manor. By the 1540's when the religious houses were dispossessed of their estates, Maxstoke Priory had acquired Greethurst, Swanshurst, Sarehole, and Fulford. All its property was taken by the Crown.