Tweenwars

Sale of the Taylor land from 1913 enabled the City to move into the Quarter, the largest area of undeveloped land country in Yardley. 470 acres were bought for housing estates, and between the wars the farmhouses fell one after another - Billesley c.1923, Quagmire & Tittiford two years later, Titterford Mill Farm and Ivyhouse (Brook Lane) c.1930, Little Sarehole 1935, Brook Farm the following year.

The 'Battles' Estate opposite Swanshurst Park was completed in '23 and Billesley largely within the next two years. The houses were non-parlour cottages in two's, fours, and sixes, the earliest being no-nonsense rows but some later blocks designed to look like Tudor or Stuart mansions with projecting wings and eaves. Yardley Wood Estate was built between 1926 - 30. No attempt was made to give a village character to these new villages; they had no central green, no focal point. Shops and amenities were usually peripheral, there were cul-de-sacs but far too many through roads, and the street patterns were complex. On the intended extension of Highfield Road a library and clinic were opened in the '30's.

In contrast to the sweeping curves of council streets, the privately- developed ones were straight or only gently-curved, often following old hedge-lines. Oldhouse, Oaklands, Barton's Lodge, and other farms were demolished; a few like Sarehole, Coldbath, Yew Tree lingered as dwellings only.

Yardley lacked riverside and north-south roads. A 65-feet wide road was planned to go from Highfield Road to Warwick Road, and in the late '20's Cole Valley Road joined up with the extended Sarehole Road. Baldwins Lane / Shirley Road and the Outer Circle route were improved, and dual carriageways were made or provided for. On Yardley Wood Road and others the building-line was set back for all new houses. The city's largest traffic island was made at Six Ways.

In the thirties a new council estate appeared between Brook Lane and Trittiford Road, and there were new semi's on and off Wake Green Road (a new road was made south from Sarehole Farm, the old one being left to return to nature, as it was too close to the Cole for development), off Brook Lane, off Billesley Lane, and at Warstock, Bradnock Close was built on the site of Ivyhouse Farm. Wheelers and Barn Lanes, Phipson Road, Hayfield, Woodlands, and Mackenzie Roads and the roads round St. Agnes' Church were all built or completed in the '20's & '30's. Shops continued to spread along Stratford Road; small groups appeared at strategic points elsewhere.

The first post-war, except for the prefabs on park edges and small off-street sites were like those of the '30's - Greenstead off Springfield Road for example. The first multi-storey blocks were built on the new Hollybank Road beside Billesley Common, and these were to be the only towers in the Quarter, apart from the few which replaced bombed terraces on a small site off Stoney Lane. Later municipal estates - Coldbath Farm, Brompton Pool, Trittiford Mill, Braceby Drive etc. - are of short rows with small gardens or open fronts and garages.