OPEN FIELDS

The comparative dryness of the soil on the large drift patch (covering about 200 acres) south-east of Stichford, and its relatively light tree cover explain its use for the first communal fields. It comprised two ridges, that between Yardley and Stich Brooks being the higher and so sometimes called Upper Field, and the lower that between Stich Brook and the Cole, called Nether Field - otherwise Church Field and Stichford Field.

Later clearances would extend to the edges of the drift - north to and beyond the site of Hillhouse, south perhaps nearly to Blakesley, west to the line of Albert Road, east to Church Road. A small drift patch east of Stichford was cleared and later extended down to the valley bogside : this was The Riddings.

A second field-system was begun on drift (boulder clay) between Lea Village (the lane so called) and the boundary, extending south across clay later. Keuper Marl is potentially more fertile than sandy drift, and its tree-cover was to be gradually removed over many centuries by ringing, burning, and felling : but lack of sunshine, abundance of rain, and the heavy going for plough team and reaper were to prevent the land's being fully used for agriculture.

With a ready market for meat, hides and wool, Yardleians tended to be husbandmen, enclosing their hard-won land for pasture. The 'great timber' was in demand for building houses and ships, while the loppings went into clay kilns to make charcoal for Birmingham's hungry furnaces. So the Yardley lumberjack and charcoal burner laboured until they had created a landscape bare of trees.