OLD NAMES

The first recorded spelling of Yardley's names is as Gyrdleahe in the AD 972 Charter. Victor Skipp, author of 'Medieval Yardley' and leader of the 'Discovering Yardley' Group 1960-7, plumps for its meaning as 'stick clearing' or 'yard (in the sense of small) clearing'. Neither is really satisfactory.

Gyrd(an) gives other terms the extant word 'gird' meaning to surround or encircle. The sandy patch on the ridge-end that was the heart of Yardley was certainly encircled, by dense woods and water courses. However, speculation about the prefixes of old names is rarely fruitful.

'Colle' (Cole) appears in the Charter and may mean 'hazel' : but the hazel is not natural to clay or alluvium, only to drier soils, so that this seems an odd name for our stream. Incidentally, though Colle is the oldest name, 'Hay Mill Brook' is one of several names for different stretches of it.

Lay subsidy Rolls for 1275 - 1327 provide the next oldest names in the Quarter, those of Stichford, Flaxley, Lee, and Rotyford, Lyndon, and Gilbertstone, Rudyng (Ridding) is recorded earlier (1345) than Stichford and Church Fields, but that does not necessarily mean that it was earlier in existence, only that its record has survived. Blakleistoles (bleak clearing where pollarded trees provide withies ?) is the first reference to Blakesley. A number of closes and lanes are named during that C 14th and 15th. (See Map 5.)

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