A comparison of the boundaries between 972 and 1962
Sources of Information
a. The Charter of 972.
b. The Presentment of 1609.
c. The Tithe Maps of 1843-7.
d. Ordnance Survey Maps, 1833-1911.
e. Perambulation, 1962.
Other sources are named where used. Modern place-names and locations are
given in brackets.
The last two paragraphs of the Boundaries in 1911 page update
short sections of this comparison.
a. COLLE
b. the water of Cole dothe parte the said parishe of Yardley from the parishe
of Aston from the Lea ford unto the Poole tail of Hay Mill (i.e. to the start
of the Mill's head-race, almost at the confluence with the Spark Brook at that
time: Warwickshire-Worcestershire boundary.)
- Hemill Bridge - Plate 50, Ogilby's 'Britannia'.
c. The Cole-Spark confluence is shown just south of the Warwick Canal in the
same place as on Beighton Map 1725. O.S. Map inaccurate?
d. O.S. 1 inch Map 1833 shows confluence of Cole and Spark near Coventry
Road, and rebuilt Hay Mill waterworks on east bank of Cole - see accompanying
map. O.S.1 inch map 1880 shows diversion loop of Cole between canal and railway
(Banbury Line 1852) embankments: boundary follows old course - see map. O.S. 6
inch map 1902 shows old course dry, but boundary still following it.
e. Confluence just south of railway bank. North of canal bank a small part of
the old course is still visible. Due to clinker piling from Tyseley Destructor
nearby, the river now appears to flow through a 40-foot gorge. Beyond Hay Mill
bridge, the Cole is much straightened and dredged, with open spaces on both
banks.
a. MUNDES DENE (Mund's Dean, a small valley).
b. thence to the Sparke Brooke (named after the Sparke family, ref. 1275,
1327: 'a torrent called Sparkbroke' in 1511: it was the boundary between
Bordesley, part of Aston, and Yardley.)
c. Spark Brook, from Stoney Lane to Cole beside Greet Meadow. The boundary
between Birmingham and Yardley from 1838. Danford Lake?
d. Diversions due to canal and railway building across Cole valley. Upper
brook culverted to Golden Hillock Road, 1896. Benton Road built over brook: ward
boundary still followed brook course. Diocesan boundary until 1905.
e. Brook visible beyond Golden Hillock Road to confluence: flood-meadow now
being raised and developed as factory estate. Brook course still a City ward
boundary.
a. --
b. and so to Sparke Greene (about Stratford Road, between the brook ford and
Warwick Road.)
c. Maule's Green. Between the Turnpike bridge over the Spark and the tollgate
and weighbridge by the ‘Mermaid Inn’ at the Warwick-Stratford Turnpikes
junction, and Golden Hillock Road.
d.e. The district is called Sparkbrook.
a –
b. thence to Lowe Lane (on west side of Spark Brook) the wch lieth betweene
the parrishe of Yardley on thone parte and the parrishe of Kingesnorton on
thother parte (from Highgate Lane southwards).
c. Stoney Lane, boundary down east side, alongside the brook.
d. Following absorption of Balsall Heath into Birmingham, 1891, Stoney Lane
was remade jointly by the City and Yardley Rural District Council in 1896, being
widened over the culverted Spark Brook. Thenceforth the boundary ran along the
centre, almost to Anderton Park Road, where Balsall Heath and Moseley met. There
the boundary of Yardley went parallel to and a few yards from Stoney Lane where
it bent slightly, returning to it after a furlong.
e. Stoney Lane is completely built up: from Esme Road the building line is
set back for eventual road-widening, following the Housing and Town Planning Act
of 1909: the City of Birmingham inherited the Yardley R.D.C.'s plans for highway
improvement and riverside amenities - hence the open spaces beside Cole, Chinn,
and Broomhall Brooks.
a. LANGAN AC (Tall Oak)
b. unto a place called the Gilden Corner (Moseley Yield Corner?)
c. Corner of Stoney Lane and Bulley Lane (Bulleye, ref. 1280).
d.e. Corner of Stoney Lane (Yardley Wood Road) and Belle Walk.
a. --
b. in and by a way called the Greene Waye.
c. Bulley Lane.
d.e. Belle Walk - still a lane without kerbs.
a. BULAN WYLLAN (Bull Spring - source of Showell Green Brook, near St. Agnes
Road?)
b.c.d. --
e. Relief suggests site of Spring.
a. SPEL BROC (Spel Brook - Coldbath or Bulley Brook?)
b. unto a lane called Bulley Lane.
c. Bulley Lane: it bends to cross Coldbath Brook at the ford by Yardley
Meadow.
d.e. Billesley Lane: boundary followed east side, making salient upon Kings
Heath: vestigial earthworks about site of Bulley Hall later Billesley Hall, now
replaced by Golf Clubhouse.
a. --
b. unto the Heathe called Kinges Heathe (Kyngesheithe 1511 - part of the
waste of Kings Norton).
c. a lane (Bulley?) east side (Barn) Lane.
d.e. Springfield Road, Barn Lane (named after Italian-style barn erected by
one of the Taylor ladies in the mid-19th century, west side.
a. --
b. and so directly upon Kinges Heathe unto a piece of land of one George
Middlemore gent. called the corner of the Haunche, next a crofte called the
Rounde Crofte.
c. --
d. The corner of Barn Lane and Wheeler's Lane (named after a poacher who
lived on it). Until 1801 when Alcester Road was turnpiked, and a new route cut
for it directly across Kings Heath, the highway followed the present Valentine
and Springfield Roads, Barn and Wheeler's Lanes. The Round Croft was perhaps
between Holly-bank Farm (demolished post-1945) and the Haunch Brook, where the
boundary went south for a furlong from the lane junction to the brook.
e. Hollybank Road, post 1950, starts from the lane junction.
a. --
b. and so alonge in or by the ditche called the Haunche Ditche and so by a
slade called the Launde (slade - miry ground).
c.d. The Haunch Brook: near Wildays Lane (Stoney Lane -Yardley Wood Road) the
boundary is a little to the west, and south of Haunch Lane a little to the east
of the brook. At the lane junction - 'the Valley' – are The Moats, apparently an
ancient earthwork.
e. The brook is open nearly throughout: new building on streets of Hollybank
Road approaches closely to 'the Launde', a wooded dell which so far survives the
attack of local children: there are prefabs over the brook side boundary north
of Haunch Lane. Vestiges of 'The Moats' survive.
a. CIONDAN
b. unto the water of Chyne
c.d.e. Chinn Brook: now runs through Cocks Moor Golf Course and a Recreation
Ground.
a. --
b. and in betweene certein groundes called the great Mayos and the little
Mayos and so from the water of Chyne upp by the house of John Prettye to a
certain place called Whorstocke (the Mayos were presumably on the south valley
side, the house is reasonably identified with Warstock Farm in Kings Norton, and
Whorstocke was at the junction of Warstock and Limekiln Lanes: the name means
'boundary post'.
c.d. As above. Warstock House at junction. Stratford Canal about 1793.
e. The Golf Course between brook and canal. Bus garage on site of Warstock
Farm.
a. MEOS MOR (Moss Swamp)
b. and then to a crosse on Hoyters Heathe (probably at the junction of the
manors of Yardley, Kings Norton, and Solihull: from ancient times the tenants of
all three had grazing rights in Kings Wood, which made up a large part of the
royal manor south of the Chinn, and this may have been a convenient
meeting-place for the settlement of disputes, exchange of strayed beasts, etc.:
though this may have been a cross, since these were not uncommon, and in this
case it may well have been erected in thanksgiving for a royal act of clemency
in 1329, it could have been merely a cross-roads).
c. The boundary ran direct from Warstock House to the meeting of manors, and
was marked by a fence or hedge.
d. The O.S. Map of 1833 shows a lane along the boundary from Warstock, but it
shows many others elsewhere that were almost certainly no more than fieldpaths,
and this was probably the perambulation path: it meets Prince of Wales Lane at
the cross, and the 1880 Map shows a track to the cross from the east, so that
this meeting of tracks could have been called a cross-roads, for which 'cross'
was a usual name in Perambulations.
e. The school and housing estate of Highters Heath now covers this part of
the boundary, to which the roads pay no heed: the cross was at the present
junction of Prince of Wales Lane and Gorleston Road.
a. --
b. and so from the said crosse on Hoyters Heathe downe the gullet between
Solihull Wood and Yardley Wood unto a launde there, and so down the middle of
the said Launde towards Bates Mill down the ditche in the land of John Marston
in the tenure of Edmund Bradshawe, and so along unto the Fleame or water course
that dothe Ronne from the said Bate’s Mill, and so along by the said fleame unto
the hedge of Humphrey Pretty.
c.d. The Yardley Wood Brook is shown as the boundary from the meeting of
manors to the Cole. The gullet of 1609 was the north-east flowing rill, which
met two others east of Stoney Lane: the south-flowing rivulet was absorbed by
the Stratford Canal, c.1793, which used its valley and that of the boundary
brook: the latter was culverted beneath the canal after 300 yards, then
continued down the Launde, was dammed to make the Needle Mill Pool, and diverted
past the mill, where it received the tail-race, to a confluence with the Cole
150 yards beyond the natural one, thus ensuring a good run-off from the mill.
- The Solihull Perambulation of 1843 (Sol. Per. hereafter): a small gutter or
channel in its course across the meeting of Four Ways on Solihull Lodge Common
(on Stoney Lane a furlong south of Prince of Wales Lane, two tracks met) ...through
the culvert which passes under the said canal, thence pursuing the ancient wash
or watercourse down the Slade into the Mill Pool and straight through the same
Mill Pool to the bolt at the head thereof, then across the Dam into a rivulet
which runs by the left side of the Mill Road and following the same leaving the
Mill on the right into the Mill Fleame and down the Mill Fleam which passes
round the Mill Meadow and a slang of Meadow Land called the Mill Tongue...
e. The brook is open and unchanged from the canal culvert eastwards, though
there is now a side sluice for the mill pool, designed to avoid flooding about
the new buildings of Millmead close beside the brook east of Priory Road. Since
1911 the whole of Yardley has been a part of Birmingham, so that the boundary
with Solihull has been the city boundary from that date.
a. COLLE
b. and so over the water of Cole into the groundes called the Fynche Halles
thorowe the said groundes by the hedges and ditches there into the grounde of
John Cottrel1 called Radmore by the hedges and ditches at the nether end therof,
And thence to the ditch of Thomas Hawe, And thence to a close of grounde called
the Conningree Crofte, and so upp the ditche to the corner of the said Closse (Conningree
- rabbit warren, on Sandy Hill, O.S. 1833).
- Henry Beighton's Mapp of 1725
clearly shows the Yardley Wood and Shirley Brooks.
c. The Yardley Tithe Map shows the Shirley Brook, but no field-names are
helpful. Sol. Per... into Cole Brook then turn short up the same to its
confluence with a rivulet which descends by a hedge between lands...the
Finchalls on the right, thence up the same rivulet through a place which was
formerly an Old Pool quite to the top of the Swallow Meadows, then leaving the
rivulet and keeping along a straight fence which branches out of the same
rivulet...
d. The boundary is shown following the Cole upstream 150 yards from the
Yardley Wood Brook confluence to the Shirley Brook confluence, and the latter
stream to within a furlong of Stratford Road, where it turns north-north-east.
e. The Stratford Railway embankment on the right bank of the Cole, 1907,
caused the last 150 yards of the Shirley Brook to be culverted: upstream thereof
it is still open.
a. LEOMMANNINGWEG (Way of the Leommann Folk)
b. over the highewaye leading from Birmingham towards Henley by the house end
being the inheritance of Sir Richard Grevis, knight, wch said house and land
whereupon it standeth is in Yardley parrishe and is called Steelefields.
c. Stratford Turnpike. Sol. Per...the said Turnpike Road...and along a
straight fence leading up to Steelfield Coppice which keeps on the right
hand...and proceed into the lane from Six Ways to Solihull... (Note that the
house and coppice were on opposite sides of the boundary).
d. House not shown on 1833 Map. A path led along the boundary from Stratford
Road to Solihull Lane.
e. The path is still there. Steelfield Coppice is now Solihull Cemetery.
a. HWITAN LEAHE (White Ley)
b. to a highway there called Langley Lane and so downe a narrowe lane
thereunto the land of John Marston called the Clay Wall.
c. Sol. Per....down the right-hand ditch of another lane to a Nook where
cross the Foredrove (farm track) to the left-hand ditch... Yardley Tithe Map
shows Clay Wall as one field on (Lakey) Lane at junction with Langley Lane.
Boundary leaves Langley Lane where it curves west, follows
d. As above.
e. Redstone Farm Road to the corner of Robin Hood Golf Course: the foredrove
is faintly visible as a shallow depression running north therefrom to Langley
Hall.
a. BROM HALAS (Broom Hollows)
b. downe the ditche between the land of the said John Marston and the land of
Robte Midlemore Esquier called the Langleys, and so from the said ditche to the
bancke in another parte of the said Lanleys by the pitt side.
c. Sol. Per. ...left-hand ditch along which continue by Langley House keeping
the said house a few yards on the right hand to the end of the yard where turn
and keep within a few yards of the side of the barn and go along the Meadow
Hedge in a straight line to the first of northwest corner of the same where
there is an old pit end and thence straight to a large oak Tree marked with a
cross. (Here the Solihull perambulation turns eastward having bordered Yardley
from Solihull Lodge, and Yardley shares a boundary with Lyndon as far as Barrows
Lane).
- 1846. The Vicar of Shirley (parish in Solihull, created 1843) wrote; 'A
very ancient Gospel Oak in a field situate two fields north of Langley Farm (on
the Bickenhill boundary) was cut down by the late Colonel Short, the landlord
...I planted a fresh oak, and read the Gospel for the preceding Sunday and sang
the Doxology'. The Vicar's tree did not long survive. Gospel Oaks were common on
boundaries, customary stopping places during perambulations.
d. The old pit is shown on the 1902 6 inch O.S. Map.
e. Only one outbuilding of Langley Hall Farm survives: the rest was replaced in
1960 by the premises of Hall Green Social Club, which are thus just in Solihull.
The boundary hedge north is open almost to Gospel Lane, the modern name for the
northern part of Langley Lane.
a. DYRNAN FORD (Hidden Ford)
b. then over out of the said groundes to another lane
c. Foul Slough Meadow, between the Kineton Green Brook and Langley Lane, which
are there close together and nearly at the same level.
d.e. Boundary and lane rejoin at former three-manor boundary point.
a. CINCTUNES BROC (Kington's Brook)
b. called the Langleys Lane downe the ditches along unto the land of William
Wall over by the Rasse (The Race, tail-race of Broomhall Mill, Broomhall
Brook?).
c.d. Boundary along east side of lane to brook.
e. The same - hence Birmingham municipal houses on east side in Solihull?
a. --
b. then straight over a lytle medowe to the Sixte Landes end in the next
lesowe end then upp the said Sixte land from the lane, not accompting the meare
(boundary mark) by the hedge, and then over betweene two trees in the next
leasowe, and thence over to the next leasowe to a ewe tree, and so to a poole
where doth grow another yewe tree being the land of the said William Wall (leasow
- pasture.)
c. The boundary goes almost straight from Broomhall Brook, where the lane
turns northward, to Warwick Road at the junction with Lincoln Road. There are
seven field boundaries which may correspond to those in the Presentment above:
it is notable that the fields lie across the manor boundary, which seems to
imply either that when the sixty lands or strips were enclosed the area on both
sides was owned by the same man, or that the boundary has been adjusted since
enclosure. Beside Sheldon Park farther north there are fields athwart the
boundary, and it is recorded that an agreed adjustment was made in 1717: this
may have been a similar case. Four fields are recorded as 'part of ‘Wood Close',
and Moat Meadow - the 'poole' of 1609? - is next northward. West of Langley Lane
are Wall Crofts.
d. On the 1902 6 inch Map the field boundaries are unchanged, except that the
two smallest divisions have been removed: an L-shaped pool - formerly a
rectangular moat? - survives.
e. The boundary is still open almost to Warwick Road: intended for a
recreation ground, the land is at present an overgrown waste.
a. --
b. and so over by an oke in the highway leading from Birmingham towards
Solihull.
c.d.e. Warwick Road.
a. --
b. and so over the said highway into Rowe Lesowe Lane by Rowe Lesowe ditche
and thence into the groundes of John Conyworth called Shawley by the ditches
thereof.
c. Lincoln Road, slightly diverted into Yardley at the Warwick Canal c. 1794.
Boundary on east side of lane, continued along ditch beyond Clay Lane
(well-named, since it is on drift-free Keuper Marl except where it crosses the
narrow alluvial band of Westley Brook valley) past Lyndon Farm. In Yardley are
the Shawleys, and in Lyndon three fields called Shirley: these and others (see
below) are variants of Shire-ley, indicating their position on the county
boundary, which surrounds Yardley except on the Kings Norton side.
d.e. Lincoln Road Lincoln Road North. Lyndon Farm demolished 1939, fields
built over: boundary roughly followed by garden end-fences of Bosworth Road,
Longley Crescent.
a. SMALAN BROC (Narrow Brook)
b. then to Shearley Medowe Ditche.
c. Westley Brook, right bank in Yardley bordered by Line Meadow, left Bank in
Lyndon bordered by Lyndon Meadow. Boundary curves west for 100 yards just beyond
brook: does this indicate a small change of course of the brook which had been
the boundary for a short distance?
d.e. The brook is still open from Clay Lane.
a. –
b. then by the land of George Averell called the Breaches upp the ditche then
upp the Sheare meire to Lynedon Field Gate (Breaches - land newly taken into
cultivation, not necessarily still new in 1609: Lynedon Field from Westley Brook
to Coventry Road, gate probably at present junction of Gilbertstone Avenue and
Wichnor Road).
c. --
d. O.S. 6 inch Map 1902 shows boundary from just north of Westley Brook as
a line across a field, 400 yards long, indicated by a short hedge at each end
and an oak tree in the middle, parallel to a footpath in Solihull - Lyndon part
of Solihull Rural District from 1894 - an unmarked line south-east 40 yards
long, then the left side of a lane to Coventry Road.
e. The east side of Gilbertstone Avenue to Wichnor Road, then end-fence of
east side gardens to Coventry Road. South part of Lyndon Field now recreation
ground.
a. MEARES THORN (Boundary Thorn): BRADAN APOLDIE (Spreading Apple Tree)
b. thence over Coventrye Way into the land of Willm. Biddle by the ditche in
the nether end thereof then upp the further side thereof to the hedge then into
the lane where the stone doth lye called Gilbertstone thence to the house of Wm
Biddle and thorowe the said howse as doth and may appeare by two great stones
laid there the one on thone side and the other on tother side under the sylles
of the said howse and from thence thorowe the said Bydles Poole and from thence
by the ditche of the said Wm. Bydle there and thence downe the Shiere Meare in
the same Lesowe (Gilbertstone ref. 1280).
c. The boundary crosses Coventry Road directly and goes 200 yards to the
hedge south of an east-west lane which joins a lane north from the Turnpike. The
stone probably lay at the hedge and lane junction, a boundary mark from early
times, an erratic boulder left by Pleistocene Ice. Old Gilbertstone House
(Biddle's House) stood west of the lane, about 100 yards north of the stone, and
the pool was just beyond on the boundary.
d. The lane with the stone was closed in 1846, Manor House Lane being made to
west and north as a replacement, but continued as an estate drive. New
Gilbertstone House was erected in 1874, wholly in Lyndon: the boundary was
unchanged.
e. In 1931, that part of Lyndon north of Coventry Road and the whole of
Sheldon were taken into Birmingham, so that the boundary of Yardley thereby,
which had been the city boundary for twenty years, ceased to have any but
historical significance, being no longer even a ward boundary. Development of
the area has been post-1931, and has taken no note of ancient divisions.
Saxondale Road is on the line of the 1609 hedge: the stone, which was about 100
yards from Sunnymead Road in a Saxondale Road garden, was removed in 1937
following the demolition of New Gilbertstone House to a site on Coventry Road
beside the drive entrance: in 1952 it found a home at Lyndon Green School. (It
is now at Blakesley Hall).
a. --
b. and thence to Haitley's ditche then to Wm Hytson's dytche then to the lane
there and so downe Haytley's dytche to the Lyne Lake thence over into the
Coppihold land of John Marston by the hedges and ditches at the nether ende
thereof then upp the ditch of the groundes called the Duntons to the corner
there.
c. A hedge and ditch down to the Smarts Hill Brook: Long Yardley and Yardley
Meadow on Lyndon side, Barrows Lane the Lyndon/Sheldon boundary. Brook beside
Moat Lane and Barrows Lane, then north-east to confluence with Lyndon Green
Brook. Well Meadow there - site of Lyne Lake? A quarter-mile up the latter
brook, the boundary turns north-east.
- Sheldon Perambulation, 1714. Haytley's Ditch is called Christopher's Ditch:
presumably the ditch, whether natural or made, took its name from the then
owner, and could have two names if it bounded two estates. ... Mr. Ward's
Duntons ...so by a withy tree at the corner of Mr. Christopher's Ground and
along Mr. Greaves Ditch ...
d. Ditch down to Smarts Hill Brook, on south side of Moat Lane and Barrows
Lane for 300 yards, then north-east to confluence, and up Lyndon Green Brook for
a quarter-mile. The salient between the brooks was occupied during the 19th
century and until the early 1930s by a large estate called The Croft.
e. The ditch at the garden ends on the east side of Elmcroft Road, Moat Lane,
Barrows Lane, garden ends on south side of Bilton Grange Road (brook bed still
to be seen) to Charlbury Crescent, east end and east side, continuing
north-north-west to the end of Vibart Road.
a. AC WYLLAN (Oak Spring) (Source of Lyndon Green Brook?)
b. thence into Sheldon Parke straight over to the Shiere Meire and so down to
the Shier stone, thence down the meire over the hedge into another pcell
(parcel) of the said Parke in the tenure of Rich'd Swyfte, then from the Shier
Meire end there over to the corner of the same grounde.
- Sheldon Per. 1714. ...and in at the corner of the Lord Digby's Park and
through the Brickiln across the part of the Park to the Shire Meer in the next
piece and from the lower end of the said Meer over the ground to the Park
Gate…...
- Following the agreement between Yardley and Sheldon, recorded in the
Churchwardens' Accounts of the latter for 1717, the boundary was redrawn as a
straight line from Greaves Ditch to the Park Gate.
c. Thus the Yardley and Sheldon Tithe Maps show The Park, Horse Meadow, and
Park Meadow centrally crossed by the boundary: from the Sheldon Per. of 1714 it
might be assumed that this was then on the east side of the fields named above -
and since the Beighton Map of 1725 shows a fence along the new edge of the Park,
presumably My Lord Digby wished to emphasise the enlargement thereof.
d. The boundary ran from near the source of Lyndon Green Brook 660 yards
north-east to Poor's or Pool Lane.
e. A line from the east end of Vibart Road north-east across the Municipal
Sports Ground and at an acute angle across Partridge Road to Broadstone Road.
a. DAGARDINGWEG (The way of the Dagardings: is the 'gard' from the same root
as 'gyrd' - the g is pronounced as y - in the first recorded form of the name of
Yardley? There are many variants).
b. to the lane called the Parke Lane then upp the Parke Lane to the corner of
Byefeilds late Syarsland to an Ash Roote there.
- Sheldon Per. 1714 ...and from thence across the lane up by Mr. Hadley's
ditch ...
c. The Park Gate was at the corner where Park Lane turns north-east.
Foxengate and Park Lane Piece in Yardley, Warwick Park across the lane in
Sheldon.
d. Latterly Pool Lane.
e. Pool Lane, one of the most ancient ways in Yardley, has given way to one
of the most modern. The Meadway parallels its line roughly 100 yards north:
Broadstone Road is part of Pool Lane, as is the east end of Garwood Road, and
Pool Way indicates its former direction across the postwar shopping precinct,
beyond which a recreation ground path continues the line almost to the Lea
Ditch, where the Meadway follows it to the railway bridge.
a. BLACAN MEARCAN-THONE HAETH GARAN (Bleak Border - Gore of the Heath)
b. then over the said Syarsland to the nether corner thereof unto another
closse called Byefeilds in the tenure of Henry Brockhurst downe the pathwaye and
so to the Byefeilds Rayles and then unto Kytt Greene to a valley or gutter there
next to Sheldon Feild.
c. The Byefield, by the lane, is exactly identifiable on the Yardley Tithe
Map as a croft only 200x40 yards: if it is correctly identified as 'the Gore of
the Heath', a triangular piece of ploughland, (Byefield is quadrilateral), then
it has survived for nearly a thousand years. Kitt's Green, the Lea Ditch valley.
d. As above.
e. The Byefield is still open, as part of the recreation ground south of the
Meadway and east of the shopping precinct.
a. MAER DIC (Boundary dyke or Ditch)
b. then over the highway to the hedges and ditches of Robert Dodd gent.
called Symons then to the Lea Feild ditche then to the dytche of Edward Este
gent. called Longe Acres then over the lane into the dytche of the land of the
said Edwd Este called the Greswoulds in the occupation of John Cottrell, then to
the ditche of Greswoulds Medowe then to the water of Cole and so upp to Lea
Forde being the water of Cole first mentioned. All wch meares and boundes from
the said crosse on Hoyters Heathe to the Greswolds medowe nether ditche are the
meares and boundes betwixt the said parrishe of Yardley on the one pte and the
parishes of Solihull Bickenhull and Sheldon on thother parte.
c. Simmonds, Lea Field, Long Close, Gressel Lane, The Grizzles (both
corruptions of Greswold) positively identify the closes referred to in 1609. The
various ditches are the same one, the Lea Ditch.
d. The boundary is unaltered, the ditch goes 1100 yards to the Cole. The
L.N.W. Railway cut right across the road junction of Kitts Green, and the bridge
was built over the cutting 100 yards west of the boundary (c. 1840).
e. The boundary now runs between the Meadway north of the railway and Gossey
Lane, then parallel to and 100 yards east of Heynesfield Road. From Gressel Lane
to the river the boundary and (dry) ditch are open. From 1911 this was the city
boundary, and (as beside the Yardley Wood and other Brooks) the Corporation used
the meadow as a rubbish dump. Raising and levelling in 1962 have obliterated the
last 50 yards of the ditch.
JOHN MORRIS JONES The Discovering Yardley Group 1960-1962.
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