Fords and Bridges on The River Cole.

Slade Lane footbridge, ref.1769, modern girder replacement
Scribers Lane footbridge. ref.1769, original arches, new walls
Titterford ref.1546, Wain Bridge early C19th, much restoration
Brook-Webb Lane Four Arches Bridge, foot & packhorse, ref.1822. restored 1957-7, low parapets
Sarehole Farm footbridge ref.1820, out of use 1935, now no trace
Sarehole Mill (Colebank Rd) ref.1768, 2-arch brick, replaced 1924
Green Rd footbridge, timber, several rebuildings, original C19th
Greet Mill ford, ref.1275, no bridges shown on Beighton Map of 1725, not certainly accurate. Birmingham to Edgehill Turnpike 1726-7, for
paved ? Horses drowned crossing during floods in 1752 & 1759. County bridge thereafter? Millrace bridge new- or re-built 1775.

About 1860 the Cole flow diverted down race, old channel disused. In 1913 the river was returned to its former course while the race was infilled with rubble from mill foundations, a new central channel was cut through the millsite, deepened & stone-lined, the Cole was turned into it & the old channel was infilled. The two humped brick bridges 70 yards apart were razed & replaced by twin-arched brick-span clad in stone with a noble balustrade, 60 feet wide, able to carry double tramtracks.

Formans Rd

Fomer 1725, Fomen 1821, footbridge swept away by flood in 1766, single-arch brick bridge 1914.

Greet Bridge Warwick Rd bridge of two arches shown on Beightons' Map of 1725, spanning two channels, with causeway between. Bridge rebuilt 1777 four feet wider, with 'two proper & sufficient arches' for the causeway, after flood had damaged it & swept away Fomer Bridge. Later damage made the bridge unusable, & the Yardley Overseers were indicted for failing to repair it (1817).The major reconstruction of that year lasted until the present bridge was built over a single channel in 1902.
Hay Mill mill ref.1495, 'Hemill Bridge' shown on Plate 50 of John Ogilby's 'Britannia' of 1675, but it may have been no more than a footbridge until after the turnpiking of Coventry Road in 1745. Telford's improvements of c.1820 probably included a wain bridge. The tailrace from Hay Mill was spanned by a small humped bridge, which was demolished after waterpower was disused in 1914, pedestrians still paid toll to cross the river.
Hobmoor Road No record, but often painted during the C19th. Footbridge only until Hobmoor Rd extended into Yardley in the 1920's across a wide brick bridge. The ford upstream & the wooden bridge have disappeared.
New Bridge Blakeley Ford ref1383, Rotyford 1435, footbridge 1464 ? present brick wain bridge 1810.
Stechford ford ref.1249, bridge (foot only ?) 1497, present bridge early C20th.
Coleford no ref to ford or (foot ?) bridge before 1405, present bridge c.1960.
Lea Ford ford ref.1544, footbridge replaced by Bailey Bridge post-1945, present bridge c.1960.

Sources of dates are Beighton and early OS maps, the Yardley Charity Estates Deeds (1913), the list of bridges kept in order by the Yardley Trustees (1900), the Mss. notes of W. B. Bickley, some newspaper items, and the researches of the Discovering Yardley
Group 1960 - 7.

Map. Cole Valley Watermills.


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