MADE IN BIRMINGHAM 

Birmingham History by Bill Dargue
 

MEDIEVAL BIRMINGHAM 1066 - c1530

NOTE

The period from the end of the Roman Empire to the Norman Invasion is often now called the Early Middle Ages. The Middle Ages proper is usually taken as the period from the Norman Conquest 1066 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s.
 

Key Points

The medieval village of Birmingham was developed by its Norman lords into a successful market town. The area’s agricultural trade became concentrated on the town and this encouraged the development of agriculture-related industries. At the beginning of this period settlements were scattered and villages were tiny if indeed they yet existed. As time went on the area developed with a mixture of individual farmsteads typical of a wooded area with room for expansion and open strip fields which were worked in common. Documentary evidence exists for a large number of farms and watermills many of which continued until the 19th century.

Medieval Birmingham - A New Town

Very little documentary evidence survives of medieval Birmingham. Not a single document is known to have survived between the 1086 Domesday Book and the 1166 Market Charter. All the manorial court rolls and the accounts of the manorial bailiffs have been lost. It is left to conjecture how it was Birmingham, rather than any one of a number of similar small villages, that developed into a prosperous market town with the beginnings of industry (The classic description is to be found in Holt 1985 – see BIBLIOGRAPHY.)
 

Some surviving medieval records give clues:
 

1166 Birmingham Market Charter

Contemporary Medieval Documentary Evidence

The lord of the manor, Peter de Birmingham bought from King Henry II the right to hold a market every Thursday at his ‘castle’. It may well be that a Sunday market already took place outside St Martin’s Church and that Peter was capitalising on this. Only outsiders had to pay tolls; Birmingham townspeople did not. Merchants and traders were thus encouraged to live in Birmingham town and so pay rent to the lord at a rate many times the agricultural rent. All over England medieval lords set up markets, but Peter’s was the earliest market charter in Warwickshire or on the Birmingham plateau. Many markets eventually failed and their villages never grew into towns, Sutton Coldfield and Coleshill are examples; however, many were successful and remain so to this day.

The original Birmingham charters are held in the Public Records Office, London.

It seems likely that the king was keen to grant market charters at this time to help finance the marriage of his daughter.

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 38)

Henry (II), King of England and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Duke of Anjou to Archbishops, Bishops, Earls, Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Ministers and all his faithful French and English of all England, Greetings.

Know that I have given and granted to Peter FitzWilliam the Sewer of Dudesley ((ie. steward of the Lord of Dudley) in fee and inheritance and to his heirs that he may have a market on Thursdays at his Castle of Burmingeham with thol (tolls) and theam, and soc and sac and infangenethel (ie. feudal rights as lord of the manor) and with all liberties and free customs.

Wherefore I will and firmly command that the same Peter and his heirs shall have a market at the aforesaid castle freely and quietly and honourably on the day aforesaid.

Gervase Pagnell (Lord of Dudley and tenant-in-chief over Peter de Birmingham) granted this same to him in my presence.

Witnesses: William Malet the Sewer, John the Marshall, William de Beauchamp, Geoffrey de Ver, Hugh de Perreres, Walter de Dunstanvill. At Fekiha (Feckenham?)

(translated from Latin)

NOTE

Peter’s ‘castle’ was not a castle as such, but the moated manor house on the site of the present Wholesale Market, Moat Lane Digbeth.

1189 Confirmation of the Market Charter

Contemporary Medieval Documentary Evidence

The market charter was confirmed by Richard I for Peter’s son William now at his town, not at his castle, of Birmingham. The king was raising funds to finance an imminent crusade to the Holy Land.

It is likely that Peter or William had now laid Birmingham out as a new town with building plots for rent, and that New Street dates from this time. This was probably the first time that there was a ‘proper’ village round a village green, the Bull Ring, where the market took place. It has long been assumed that Birmingham’s centre always was the Bull Ring; however, Birmingham may have been an area of scattered farmsteads with no centre as such, or it may have had a concentrated settlement with a manor house and church in some other place as yet unknown - somewhere beyond the top end of New Street perhaps?

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS vol 38)

Richard by the Grace of God King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Count of Anjou

to Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Ministers and all his faithful French and English Greetings.

Know that we have granted by our present Charter and confirmed to William FitzPeter in fee and inheritance to him and his heirs that he may have a Market on Thursdays at his Town of Burmingeham with thol and theam and sac and soc and infangenethel and with all liberties and free customs.

Wherefore I will and firmly command that the same William FitzPeter and his heirs shall have a market at this aforesaid Town freely and quietly and honourably on the day aforesaid. Gervase Pagnell granted the same to his father and his heirs in the presence of our father as his Charter testifies.

Witnesses: Hugh Bishop of Durham, John the King’s Brother, William de Longchamp elect of Ely and Chancellor. 2nd December at Canterbury.

(translated from Latin)

NOTE

Although signed and sealed at Canterbury it is likely that the charter was agreed when Richard I visited Birmingham at the end of November 1189.
 

From Anglo-Saxon Village to Medieval Market Town

The Evidence

1226 Cash Rents

Although the farmland of the manor of Birmingham was not particularly good, tenants in all manors owed their lord labour service ie. farmwork on the lord’s land. As people moved to Birmingham for the market trade, some tenants grew rich enough to pay cash for the lord to employ labour rather than use their own labour or arrange for labourers to carry out their dues. The town increasingly became less of a farming village and more dependent on its market trade and associated industries. In 1226 amongst individuals paying cash instead of doing the hay-making were merchants, weavers, a tailor and a smith.

 

Birmingham was well behind Coventry in woollen cloth production. Coventry market handled 95% of Warwickshire cloth. Birmingham, although second in turnover, handled only 1.5%. However, cloth making and selling was important to the town. Other trades also centred on the market, making and selling agricultural equipment of wood or iron, or processing agricultural products, and leather goods.
 

Fairs

These were very important occasions both commercially and socially; they drew large numbers of people from the local area as well as from further afield and enabled commerce to be conducted between merchants.

1250 - Henry III granted William de Bermingham the right to hold a 4-day fair starting on the eve of the Feast of the Ascension (Ascension Day is 40 days after Easter).
1251 - Permission was also given to hold a 2-day fair beginning on the eve of the Feast of St John the Baptist, 24 June. The dates were found to be too close together and by 1752 the fairs had been moved to Michaelmas, 29 September when half-yearly rents were due, and Whit Tuesday, 7 weeks after Easter, or two weeks after Whitsun (Pentecost) if Easter was early.
 

1250 St Martin-in-the-Bull Ring

Lords of the manor, the de Birminghams and other rich local people rebuilt and extended the parish church of St Martin-in-the-Bull Ring in keeping with its place at the centre of a thriving market town. Nothing remains of this early church except a little stonework and the tombs of some of the medieval lords of Birmingham: Sir William de Bermingham c1325 the five diagonal lozenges of whose shield form part of the city’s arms, Sir Fulk de Bermingham c1350 and Sir John de Bermingham c1380.
 

1250 Town and Foreign

The oldest document relating to Birmingham held by Birmingham Reference Library (BRL 120822) records the conveyance of land in the foreign of Birmingham from Robert, son of John Philip of Birmingham to John Stodleye, burgess of Birmingham. The foreign was the agricultural part of the manor outside the borough, outside the specified area reserved for housing and trade. A burgess was one who paid rent in the borough and had certain privileges, primarily those of not paying market tolls and freedom from labour obligations to the lord of the manor. Town rents were generally 30-40 times more expensive than agricultural rents; thus a thriving market town was very profitable for a manorial lord. This is further evidence of Birmingham’s status as a town and no longer a village.
 

1275 Two Members of Parliament

The borough of Birmingham was important enough to send two burgesses to Parliament 1275.
 

1285 The Priory of St Thomas

The Augustinian Priory Hospital of St Thomas the Apostle was a monastery endowed by wealthy Birmingham merchants. It had extensive lands in Birmingham, Aston and Saltley whose rents helped pay for the care of the poor and the sick. This priory along with thousands of others was dissolved by Henry VIII 1536. The priory buildings were demolished and the lands sold off. B4 The Minories is the site of the Priory buildings, Old Square on the site of the Priory Close and Corporation Street built over the graveyard. When the Old Square houses were built 1696 the cellars were said to show evidence of the Priory foundations. Birmingham’s first historian, William Hutton rescued a fragment of moulded masonry now in Birmingham Museum. Street names Upper Priory and Lower Priory have survived as Priory Queensway to the present. The western side of the priory estate was the ‘prior’s coneygre’ ie. rabbit warren. Rabbit was always a ready and cheaply maintained supply throughout the year. The warren would be in the area around the Town Hall and Central Library. Colmore Row/ Steelhouse Lane was known as Prior’s Conyngre Lane until the 19th century.
 

1308 Birmingham Pieces

The Order of the Knights Templar was a Christian military order whose international power and wealth threatened especially the interests of the French King; he had the Pope persecute and ban the Order 1312. After the order was banned, the Master was imprisoned in London and had brought from his wardrobe certain property amongst which was mentioned ‘pecie de Birmingham,’ ie. Birmingham pieces; these were 22 items worth 98 shillings. A gold clasp (not from Birmingham) is listed worth 5 shillings. It is not known what the pieces were; they were obviously valuable and small enough to be taken easily into prison. They may have been gold or silver eating or drinking vessels or jewellery. The important point is that the term ‘Birmingham pieces’ is not explained and so must have been well known to people in London: Birmingham may have been famous at this time for precious metalworking or jewellery.
 

1313 The Great Fire of Birmingham

Fires in the timber-framed houses in medieval towns were not uncommon. The larger the town, the closer the houses and the greater the danger of a major fire spreading. Some historians use the fact of a ‘great fire’ as evidence that a settlement had developed from a village into a town.

In 1313 Thomas de Turkebi claimed in a Halesowen court case that all his documents had been burned ‘ad magnam combustionem ville de Birmingham’, ie. in the great fire of the town of Birmingham. The evidence was accepted without question. Obviously Birmingham was a town of some size and the Great Fire of Birmingham clearly a well known event.
(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS vol 88)

1327 Tax Returns

In the year that Sir William de Birmingham was summoned to Parliament, the Lay Subsidy Rolls, a tax on movable goods, show that Birmingham had become the 3rd biggest town in Warwickshire, well behind Coventry, but now overtaking the county town of Warwick.(See BIBLIOGRAPHY Lay Subsidy Rolls)

1392 The Guild of the Holy Cross

The Guild of the Holy Cross was founded by wealthy merchants who set up almshouses for the poor, paid for the town midwife and for two priests at St Martin’s, maintained a chiming clock at the Guild Hall in New Street (a little uphill from the Rotunda), and were responsible for the upkeep of some roads in the town. Most importantly for the town’s economy they maintained the River Rea bridges at Deritend which provided access to the market from the south and from the east via the road from Kings Norton, the Alcester road, Stratford road, Warwick road, Coventry Road and the road from Sheldon. Wealthier townspeople were now beginning to take over some of the responsibilities of the absentee lord of the manor and govern themselves.
As a religious guild it was abolished by Henry VIII 1545 and the Guild Hall became King Edward VI Grammar School.
 

1380 St John the Baptist Deritend

Deritend on the other side of the River Rea was part of Birmingham manor but part of Aston parish. Because Deritenders had to travel several miles to their own parish church at Aston they were granted the right to their own chapel 1380, and the right to elect their own priest and manage their own affairs 1382.
St John the Baptist stood on Deritend High Street/ Chapel House Street; it was rebuilt 1735, out of use by 1939 and demolished 1947. The Bull Ring Trading Estate stands on the site.
The Guild of St John the Baptist built a guildhall c1450 which included a priest’s house and school for Guild members’ children. This is undoubtedly the Old Crown, although a building on this site is said to date from 1368.

A Successful Market Town

> > > B5 City Centre Bull Ring south of High Street/ New Street junction

The Market Cross stood just north of St Martin’s Church and was considered the centre of Birmingham. The Old Cross was a small square 2-storey building built over the medieval market cross 1703; the ground floor was open through archways and the room upstairs perhaps 6 metres square was used for public meetings; it had a clock built in dormer style in the roof and was topped with an octagonal turret with a weathervane. Demolished 1784.

From a small farming village similar to many others nearby Birmingham grew within a hundred years into a thriving market town which attracted merchants, craftsmen, manufacturers and many local immigrants. Surviving records of nearby markets show the sort of trading carried out. Vegetables and corn, sheep and cattle were sold, as well as coal, salt, millstones and various metals. People could buy a wide range of goods, some from abroad: aniseed, almonds, basketry, iron goods, liquorice, oranges, pomegranates, pottery, prunes, silk, spices, tinware, white paper, white soap and wine.

 

Birmingham merchants traded regularly with London and with the ports of Kings Lynn and Bristol; they sold cloth made from local wool fulled, dyed and woven locally, as well as locally produced leather and leather goods and small metal goods.

 

Important factors in Birmingham’s developing importance were the early market charter, the lax controls associated with absentee landlords, the nearness of the town to iron and coalfields and the adaptability of the workforce to work with a variety of small products requiring a high level of skill. In spite of some difficult times in the Middle Ages some west Midland towns including Birmingham grew larger and richer during the Middle Ages.

Medieval Roads

Being near two main roads must have helped the town develop a successful market.

An important road ran from London to Chester. Near Birmingham it ran from Coventry (similar to the A45 as far as Stonebridge), through Coleshill and on to Lichfield (similar to the modern A446 from Stonebridge northwards).

Another main road ran from Bristol to Doncaster (much of it the route of the Roman Saltway) passing through Bromsgrove, Northfield, Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield and Lichfield following the Birmingham sandstone ridge (roughly the modern A38). This is shown on Gough’s map c1330.

 

Other medieval roads had only local significance: roads east of the Rea crossing led to Coventry, Alcester, Stratford and Warwick; west of the Rea to Wolverhampton, Dudley and Halesowen. Their descendants are easily traced on modern maps.
 

A Medieval Map

Birmingham first appeared on John Gough’s map of Great Britain 1330.
 

Medieval Royal Visits

Royal Visit 1237
King Henry III travelled from Lichfield to Worcester stopping at Birmingham.

Royal Visit 1486
King Henry VII travelled from Nottingham (modern A453) to stay at Birmingham, then on to Worcester (A38).


 

Sutton Coldfield Market

1300 Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick bought a charter from Edward I for a Tuesday market and for a fair on Holy Trinity Eve and the three days following. (Trinity Monday is the week following Pentecost/ Whitsun.) The market was held outside Holy Trinity Church.

1353 Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick had the original charter renewed by Edward III and bought the right to another fair on the Eve and Day of St Martin, the latter being 11 November.

After the death at the Battle of Barnet 1471 of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick known as the Kingmaker all his manors including Sutton reverted to the Crown. Sutton was subsequently neglected and the market and fair soon abandoned. They were revived in Tudor times by Bishop Vesey in the first half of the 16th century.

How to Spell Birmingham

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY William Hamper 1880)
 

1086 Birmingeha

1189 Brumingeham

1200 Brimingham

1214 Birminggeham

1221 Burmingeham

1227 Birmingham

1227 Byrmyngham

1235 Burmingham

1245 Bermincham

1247 Bermigham

1248 Bermingham

1256 Bremingeham

1260 Burmincham

1262 Burmigham

1262 Burmungeham

1285 Bernigeham

1282 Byrmychiham

1292 Birmyngham

1292 Burmegham

1297 Burmynchham

1297 Bermygham

1317 Burmicham

1320 Birmyncham

1320 Byrmincham

1326 Bermyncham

1330 Birmincham

1332 Burmyncham

1354 Burmincheham

1337 Brimygham

1377 Brymygham

1387 Burmyngham

1398 Bremyngeham

1402 Brymecham

1421 Birmyncham

1421 Birmicham

1424 Brymmyngham

1438 Burmyngeham

1440 Byrmyncham

1457 Byrmycham

1460 Brymygeham

1469 Brymycham

1476 Birmyngeham

1486 Brimyncham

1489 Birmycham

1500 Brymyngham

1504 Bromechham

1506 Brymyscham

1514 Brymingham

1519 Brymmncham

1520 Bormycham

1520 Brymyngiam

1522 Bremygiam

1529 Bremycham

1535 Bermegam

1535 Brymmyngeham

1537 Bremmycham

1537 Brymedgham

1538 Bromycheham

1548 Bremyngham

1549 Brymyncham

1550 Burmycheham

1553 Brimincham

1573 Breemejam

1576 Bromwicham

1586 Bryngham

1590 Brymicham

1591 Bromecham

1591 Brymigham

1603 Bermicham

1603 Bromicham

1650 Bromegem

1675 Bromwichham

1679 Bromwicham

1686 Brymmyngiam

The variety of spellings indicates that the pronunciation Brummagem had equal status with Birmingham until relatively modern times.
 

GAZETTEER

Medieval Archaeological Finds

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B1 City Centre Horsefair
14th-century German stoneware pot BSMR
 

> > > B5 Digbeth Bordesley Street
Medieval leather shoe found 1955; Birmingham Museum. BSMR
 

> > > B5 Digbeth Moat Lane (opposite Allison Street)
A 13th-century gold ring with diagonal fluted decoration was found by a workman c1890 during excavations for Smithfield Meat Market. It was sold for a sovereign to a jeweller in High Street Bordesley and for £25 in the late 1940s by the jeweller’s daughter. Present whereabouts unknown. BSMR
 

> > > B33 Tile Cross Downton Crescent
Henry V silver groat found while building a house extension 1979
 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chestnut Drive
Very corroded iron arrowhead pre-13th-century found 1981. Birmingham Museum
 

> > > Castle Bromwich St Mary & St Margaret’s School Southfield Avenue
Henry V silver penny minted in York after 1464 found 1973. Birmingham Museum
 

> > > B6 Aston Park Lane/ Rocky Lane/ Aston Road North
A medieval cross stood here until 1854 when its remnants were transferred to Aston churchyard and a clock tower built in its place. The medieval pinfold for stray farm animals was at the south-east corner of the junction.
 

> > > B33 Tile Cross Gressel Lane/ Tile Cross Road/ East Meadway/ Cooks Lane
A medieval cross stood here until at least the 18th century.

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chester Road/Whateley Green

This was the site of the medieval pinfold.

Medieval Agriculture in the Birmingham Area

In the Middle Ages there were many small villages in the Birmingham area with two, three or more communal open strip fields; there were single farms away from main settlements; and there were small communities scratching a living on wasteland often typified by the name ‘green’. However, there was also much woodland and waste. Woodland could be a valuable manorial resource but many lords also encouraged enterprising settlers to clear land and build farms, which they often moated, and so pay rent. From 1086 to 1300 the population of England trebled and more and more land was used for arable farming.

Transmitted by rat fleas, the Black Death is believed to have come to England via the port of Melcombe/ Weymouth in July 1348; it broke out in the Midlands 1349. The Black Death subsequently killed over half the population; further outbreaks occurred several times in following decades. This was not the only cause of suffering in the Middle Ages: during the 14th and 15th centuries worsening climate with wetter summers led to disastrous harvests and diseases both animal and human which caused famine, illness and death.

More Birmingham farmers already kept more cattle or sheep than grew crops probably because Birmingham clay is difficult to plough. A shrunken population needed less arable farming, besides which less labour was available. Farmers increasingly kept animals because they need less labour than arable crops and returned a higher financial yield.

Birmingham is part of the northern Warwickshire grass and woodland area, an area in the Middle Ages which had many small and scattered settlements, but few nucleated villages of any size. By the end of the 15th century the Birmingham countryside had many types of farming: communal open strip fields centred on small villages, small closes with hedges or fences, large pasture ranches for cattle or sheep and a large number of single farms of every shape and size.

Medieval Open Fields - Ridge and Furrow

The open field system developed before the Norman Conquest probably during the 10th century. Village land was pooled, presumably at the instigation of the Anglo-Saxon manorial lord, and redistributed so that everyone had numbers of strips in each large field. The oldest known Birmingham settlements were centred on open-field systems.
 

Open field systems traditionally had three great fields divided into furlong strips. The plough was turned on the outside of the strip to raise the level for drainage and to delineate it from neighbouring strips. The width of strips was different in different places at different times. Village families rented from the lord of the manor a strip or more in each field; this ensured that everyone had a share of good and bad land. Rent was paid in labour or kind, and later in cash.
 

A traditional crop rotation was peas or beans one year, the next year wheat, barley or oats, the last year the field was fallow ie. left to rest with grazing animals manuring the land. Each family also shared the common meadow, the waste and the woodland and probably had a small croft (vegetable garden) by their cottage to grow crops for themselves.
 

In counties south and east of Birmingham, Leicestershire for example, where arable was replaced by pasture and has so remained, fields of ridge and furrow can be clearly seen in grassed fields especially when the sun is low.
 

Because there was more forest around Birmingham than most places there were fewer open fields. However, open fields were found round all the old village centres, Acocks Green, Aston, Castle Bromwich, Erdington, Greet, Witton, Ward End, Yardley, for example. Some survived, in Saltley for instance, into the second half of the 19th century.
 

Because open fields were near village centres they were soon built over when the villages began to develop in Victorian times. Ridge and furrow is a surface feature only; it leaves no trace after development and cannot be distinguished archaeologically. However, some examples of ridge and furrow can be found in Birmingham parks. It is difficult to guess the age of Birmingham ridge and furrow: broader ridges may be medieval, narrower ridges may be later. Ridge and furrow at right-angles to rivers was designed for drainage.

GAZETTEER

Surviving Traces of Medieval Ridge and Furrow in Birmingham

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B1/ B3/ B16 City Centre
The open fields of Birmingham manor lay north-west of the town probably between Ladywood Middleway and Monument Road, Icknield Street and Great Hampton Street (formerly Ferney Fields). They were enclosed very early, probably before 1300.

 

> > > B2 City Centre Needless Alley (off New Street)
Needless Alley is an elongated reverse S. This was very likely a fordrough (farm track) between medieval fields, the reverse S caused by the way the plough-team swung round near the end of the field to make the turn. It is a common medieval field feature.

 

> > > B13 Moor Green/ Moseley Shutlock Lane
Ridge and furrow visible in Highbury Park near Moor Green Lane, between the stream and the railway

 

> > > B17 Harborne Grove Park
Ridge and furrow visible

 

> > > B24 Pype Hayes/ Erdington Chester Road/ Eachelhurst Road
Ridge and furrow south of Pype Hayes Hall in Pype Hayes Park BSMR

 

> > > B26 Sheldon Church Road/ Ragley Drive
Ridge and furrow visible north of the wall of St Giles churchyard, almost certainly medieval and probably part of Greatock (ie. great oak) Field. BSMR

 

> > > B28 Billesley Cole Valley Road
Ridge and furrow visible on the Dingle between the two entrances from Cole Valley Road

 

> > > B30 Kings Norton Pershore Road South
Ridge and furrow visible in Kings Norton Park east of the road and south of River Rea

 

> > > B30 Kings Norton Wharf Road
Ridge and furrow visible in Kings Norton Playing Fields BSMR

 

> > > B31 Northfield Staplehall Road/ Middlemore Road
2 examples of ridge and furrow visible on the Recreation Ground near the River Rea BSMR

 

> > > B33 Yardley Church Road/ Queens Road
Medieval ridge and furrow visible behind St Edburgha’s Church close to Rents Moat.

 

> > > B33 Yardley Richmond Road/ Blakesley Road/ Stuarts Road
Medieval ridge and furrow visible on the Recreation Ground

 

> > > B33/ B37 Sheldon/ Marston Green Sheldon Country Park access from Elmdon Lane, Marston Green
Ridge and furrow visible at the end of the runway of Birmingham International Airport, probably medieval

 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Hall Road
Land here was laid out as the chestnut avenue of Castle Bromwich Hall in the early 18th century; can traces of ridge and furrow be just made out in the right light?

> > > B74 Sutton Park Monmouth Drive
Ridge and furrow visible at Longmore Enclosure which was established 1754 with a bank topped by hawthorn; it was an arable field. BSMR
 

> > > B75 Little Sutton/ Sutton Coldfield Moor Hall Drive
Ridge and furrow visible east of Moor Hall on Moor Hall Golf Course BSMR
 

> > > B76 Minworth/ Walmley Ash Cottage Lane/ Hurst Green Road
Ridge and furrow visible?

More examples of ridge and furrow survive on private farmland east of Sutton Coldfield. There may still exist in Birmingham parks examples that have not yet been recorded. Ridge and furrow is most easily visible when the sun is low in the early morning or late evening.

GAZETTEER

Medieval Open Fields

Some of the following open fields are conjectural but they are based on early maps, tithe maps, enclosure awards and early OS maps available at Birmingham Reference Library.

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY references to Skipp for Yardley and Sheldon and John Morris Jones for everywhere else)

> > > B6 Aston
The fields of Aston manor, Church Parke, Crosse Field and Farther Field were on the Birmingham sandstone ridge west of Aston Hall. Lozells Wood was common waste.
 

> > > B8 Saltley
Saltley open fields lay north of Saltley Hall north of Ash Road and around the Highfield Road area.
 

> > > B8 Ward End
Little Bromwich/ Ward End open fields lay south of Ward End Hall from Wash Brook in Ward End Park as far east as Bromford Lane and perhaps as far south as Alum Rock Road. Ward End Park was laid out on Slade Field.
 

> > > B9 Bordesley (Aston manor)
Open fields were south and east of Jenkins Street and north of the Coventry Road in the St Andrews area. Callowfields lay between Garrison Lane and Coventry Road as far as Green Lane; Garrison Lane Recreation Ground 1908 is on the site. A 3-course system is known from 1338.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill/ Greet (Yardley manor)
Open fields lay south of the Warwick Road up to the River Cole and west of the Stratford Road. Heyne (High) Field between Stoney Lane, Showell Green Lane and Stratford Road; Gravel Field between Stratford Road Warwick Road and River Cole; Berry Field east of Warwick Road and north of the Cole.
 

> > > B13 Moseley (Kings Norton manor)
Open fields lay between Alcester Road and Church Road but were enclosed early.
 

> > > B15 Edgbaston
Church Field and Moreish Field north of Edgbaston Hall may have been open fields but were enclosed early.

> > > B20 Handsworth
The locations of Handsworth’s fields are uncertain but likely to have been west of the old manor house site near St Mary’s Church at Heathfield (Road)and Birchfield (Road).

> > > B25/ B33 Yardley/ Stechford
Yardley Fields ie. Stichford and Church Field were open fields west of Yardley village to the River Cole and north to Flaxley Road.

 

> > > B26 Sheldon/ B33 Tile Cross
The earliest open fields were in the north of Sheldon manor at Mackadown: Elder Field to the west of Mackadown Lane, Rye-Eddish to the east between Mackadown Lane and Tile Cross Road and Riddings Field east of Tile Cross Road. Later open fields near St Giles Church were Sheldon Field east of Sheaf Lane and south of Westley Brook and north of the Coventry Road, Greatock Field adjoining it and east of Hatchford Brook, and Hatchford Field east of Hatchford Brook and north of the Coventry Road - now a golf course. Open fields associated with Sheldon West Hall were Cockshutt Field around Sheldon Heath Road north end and Ashole Field around Sheldon Heath Road south end. By the end of the Middle Ages Sheldon had some dozen open fields.

 

> > > B27 Acocks Green (Yardley manor), medieval name Tenchley
The first open field of Tenchley, Heyne Field ie. high field (later Stock Field) lay between Arden Road, Stockfield Road, Mansfield Road and Wynford Road. The second, Over (upper) Heyne Field (later Acocks Green Field) lay to the east of this, and the newest one, Nether (lower) Heyne Field. The two fields were on either side of the ancient ridgeway that followed the line of Broad Road, Flint Green Road, Rookwood Road, the alley from Alexander Road to Douglas Road, Dalston Road and Wynford Road, and Yardley Road. Yardley Road probably began as the eastern perimeter track of Nether Field, and became the route between Acocks Green and Tenchley. Nether Field stretched between the line of the ridgeway above, the Warwick Canal, Westley Brook, and Sherbourne Road/ Oxford Road. Later Stockfield and Acocks Green Field, the former between Stockfield Road and Yardley Road, the latter east of Yardley Road.

> > > B33 Lea Village (Yardley manor) known in the Middle Ages as Lea
Lea Fields lay around the East Meadway area.

 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich
Open fields lay to the west, south and east of Castle Bromwich Hall; collectively they were known as the Town Fields. Between Coleshill Road, Chester Road, Old Croft Lane, Heathway and Buckland End Lane at Far Buckland Field and Middle Field and Hernfield or Heron Field which lay east of Castle Bromwich Green. These are shown on Hitchcock's 1802 map of Castle Bromwich (Staffordshire County Record Office). They probably did not survive long after that date.
 

The precise locations are unknown of open fields in the manors of Birmingham, Erdington, Harborne, Kings Norton, Northfield, Perry Barr, Sutton Coldfield and Witton but are likely to have been be close to the old village or manor house.
 

Medieval Moated Sites

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 80 & 88)

Moated sites are not uncommon throughout England, but they are especially common in the west Midlands where there was undeveloped forest for freeholders of some means to set up home and farm. Typically they would be substantial farms built on reclaimed waste or in woodland areas; 12th-century examples are rare, 13th and 14th-century more typical especially from 1250 until the Black Death 1348. Moats were often dug on only three sides of the building, so they were obviously not dug for protection, though some buildings may have had a castle-like appearance. Digging a moat took much time and work; although a moat offered some protection against attack, was a safe place to keep livestock away from predators, and had practical use as a fishpond (especially important in winter when no other fresh meat was available), it was in reality a demonstration of independence, wealth and status.

The size and importance of buildings on moated sites varied enormously: some were small farms less than 10 hectares, some were at the centre of large farming estates, others became important manor houses. Some are found two or three quite close together suggesting family connections. The original house building was no different from a that on an unmoated site, timber-framed infilled with wattle-and-daub possibly on stone footings. Where the house has not been rebuilt over the centuries it will have rotted away leaving little or no visible trace, though there could be archaeological remains.

Farming was continuous on many sites until the 19th or 20th century. No buildings survive in their medieval form although rebuilt or remodelled houses still exist on or near moated sites. A number have buildings still in use, including some east of Sutton which continue as farms.

The moats themselves have usually silted up and become overgrown, sometimes used as rubbish dumps or deliberately filled. Many were built over with houses in the 20th century. Evidence of such sites derives from 19th century maps which show the moat or associated fieldname. However, it is possible still to make out traces of some moats now dry, and a few can be seen clearly.

Moated sites were the exception and not the rule. Whatever their size these were the homes of people of varying degrees of wealth. The majority of the population did not live on moated sites but in small 1-2 roomed, timber-framed, thatch-roofed, mud-walled huts of which no discernible evidence survives.

Two excellent moated sites can be visited near Birmingham with surviving timbered halls: one is the National Trust property of Lower Brockhampton Hall 2 miles east of Bromyard, Herefordshire; the other is West Bromwich Manor House B71 Hall Green Road (off Walsall Road A4031). Both show how moated sites may have looked in their prime.

GAZETTEER

Medieval Moated Sites with Buildings
 

NOTE

All the following moated sites are recorded on the BSMR, the Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record.

> > > B8 Alum Rock Alum Rock Road/ Moat House Road
Little Bromwich Hall was the manor house of Little Bromwich, later known as Alum Rock. It is a probable moated site known as the Moat House by 1911, though no visible trace of a moat survives. By the 18th century it had become a farmhouse. It is built of red brick with three bays and round-arched windows and a typical Birmingham pedimented doorway with tuscan columns. It became an Anglican convent in 1911 and is now known as The Convent of the Incarnation/ St John’s House. Part of the 18th-century building survives though most of the neo-Georgian buildings as seen date from the 20th century. The small chapel by Cecil Hare dates from 1912 and there is a small cemetery for the nuns to the rear. The original part is Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B11 Hay Mills/ Tyseley Redfern Road/ Hay Hall Road
Hay Hall, a moated medieval site near the confluence of Sparkbrook and the River Cole was a sub-manor house probably built by Robert de la Hay c1300. The hall came into the Este family 1423 when Marion, last of the de la Hays married Thomas Este, governor of Kenilworth Castle. The 15th-century hall was made into an H-shape in Tudor times and the front (originally the rear) rebuilt in Georgian neo-classical style after a fire c1810. It was restored 1948 and put to its present use as offices for Reynolds Tubes in an area now built up with factories. It houses a small museum of finds including a piece of stained glass with initials A E, thought to be those of Anne Est who married Edward Gibbons 1538. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B14 Druids Heath Bells Lane
The earliest reference to the de Belne family is found in the grant of the manor of Blackgrave to William de Belne by King Henry III. Bells Lane took its name from the family and Bells Farm took its name from the lane. Bells Farm is a timber-framed farmhouse first recorded 1586 and rebuilt 1685 on a moated site; the moat had three arms, each 100m long. The moat was largely filled in 1970s and can now barely be discerned. The windows and doorway were altered in the 18th century; the building was restored in the late 1980s. It is Grade II* Listed and now a community centre open to public use.
 

> > > B14 Brandwood End/ Kings Heath Monyhull Hall Road/ Withington Covert
Monyhull Hall manor house may well have been a medieval moated site. The present hall, built in the 16th century, rebuilt 1750 in neo-classical style with three storeys, became a City Mental Hospital 1905 and, much altered with many additions, survives in its Georgian form. The main building is Grade II Listed.
 

> > > B15 Edgbaston Edgbaston Park Road/ Church Road
Edgbaston Hall medieval manor house was built within a moat near the church which was actually the hall’s chapel; no trace of the moat survives. The moated hall was replaced by a 15th-century timber-framed building south of the original site by the Middlemores, lords of the manor from the 1400s to the 1700s.

During the Civil War the hall was commandeered from the Roman Catholic royalist Middlemores and used as headquarters and barracks by the parliamentarian Colonel Tinker Fox. The timber-framed building was burned in anti-papist riots 1688 on the accession of William & Mary. After the Middlemores sold up the hall was completely rebuilt in neo-classical style 1718 by Sir Richard Gough of Perry Hall (See BIBLIOGRAPHY Dugdale 1730). After the Gough-Calthorpes moved south the hall was let to various wealthy Birmingham people: William Withering, discoverer of digitalis lived here 1786-1791; it was last occupied by Birmingham’s first Lord Mayor, Sir James Smith.

 

The central block which faces south-west is the 1718 rebuilding, two and a half storeys in red brick, projecting porch with tuscan columns. Sir Charles Barry made alterations 1852, the north-east wing is a later addition. Inside the staircase and panelling date from 1718. The park was landscaped by Capability Brown for lord of the manor, Sir Henry Gough c1776.

This early Georgian hall is Grade II Listed and is now the clubhouse of Edgbaston Golf Club, the hall’s park being the golf course from 1936. Part of the park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest; the hall and properties in Church Road form part of Edgbaston Conservation Area; .

 

(Edgbaston Golf Club started life on a 9-hole course at Lightwoods Park 1896, moving to Ridgacre Road, Harborne 1910, and to Edgbaston Hall 1936.
 

> > > B26 Lyndon Green Manor House Lane/ Barrows Lane
Lyndon Manor survived in a derelict state until c1970 when it was demolished.
 

> > > B30 Bournville Maple Road/ Sycamore Road
Selly Manor (Bournbrook Hall) stood originally at B29 Selly Park/ Bournbrook Bournbrook Road/ Rookery Road where there is no visible sign of a moat. It was a moated 14th-century half-timbered manor house (now the west wing) and ruinous by 1426 when it was rebuilt by lord of the manor, Thomas Jouette. The house was rebuilt/ extended in the late 15th century; subsequently the house was subdivided into three dwellings resulting in many alterations. A large brick chimneystack was added c1600.

By 1906 it was derelict and bought by George Cadbury, dismantled 1907 and re-erected 1912-1916 on Bournville Green using as much of the original material as possible; inside is an interesting spiral staircase. It is a Grade II Listed public museum belonging to the Bournville Village Trust and well worth visiting.

> > > B33 Tile Cross Gressel Lane
The present Sheldon Hall, now a pub and restaurant from the late 1990s, is an early 16th-century timber-framed manor house rebuilt by Sir Edward Digby of Coleshill Hall for his son. It has red and black brick wings added c1600. It is a typical Warwickshire manor house rebuilt on the site of its 12th-century predecessor and partly on its moat. The medieval building replaced the original Anglo-Saxon manor house which probably stood on the site of Mackadown Farm (demolished after 1950) at the corner of Mackadown Lane and Tile Cross Road. There is an arched stone entrance to the porch and c1600 brick chimney stacks; inside the timber-framed partition has survived as have 16th-century fireplaces and early 16th-century moulded beams. Sheldon Hall was known as (Sheldon) East Hall; Kents Moat was the West Hall. Some of the silted-up moat survives. Medieval pottery has been excavated on the site. This Tudor/ Stuart hall is a Grade II* Listed.
 

> > > B75 Four Oaks/ Ley Hill/ Sutton Coldfield 29 Moor Hall Drive
Old Moor Hall also known as Old Moor Hall Farm, Old Farm, Moor Hall Farm or the Moat House is not to be confused with nearby Moor Hall built by Bishop Vesey and since demolished and rebuilt. Old Moor Hall is recorded 1434 owned by Roger Harewell and is traditionally Bishop Vesey’s birthplace 1462?. This sandstone building has surviving 14th-century roof timbers, lancet windows of c1520, circular staircase and timber floor, though no timber framing survived the 1527 and early 20th-century rebuilding. On each floor are two rooms with a central chimney between. Traces of a moat in the garden can barely be seen by a practised eye. Grade II* Listed.

John Harman, whose yeoman father died when he was 8 years old, was brought up by his uncle Vesey; he was a friend of King Henry VIII, tutor to Mary Tudor and became bishop of Exeter, thereafter being known as Vesey. When he retired to Sutton he tried to revitalise its declining economy by introducing kersey (coarse woollen cloth) weaving and built 51 stone ‘Vesey’ houses for weavers, paved Sutton town centre and built bridges at Curdworth and Water Orton. He built Moor Hall as his own residence where he had 150 servants in scarlet livery; he died 1554 and rests in Holy Trinity Church Sutton Coldfield.
 

> > > B75 Reddicap Heath/ Sutton Coldfield Ox Leys Road
Langley Hall moat belongs to Langley Castle/ Langley Hall, a manor house built before 1300, licensed for fortification 1327, rebuilt c1680, demolished 1817 by its owner Sir Robert Peel. The hall’s Georgian stable block, 11 bays with a central arch, survives now as Langley Hall; the stables were designed by Sir William White the architect c1685 who lived at Langley Castle; the building was derelict c1980 and developed as 12 houses from 1987. The present Victorian brick farmhouse is west of the moat. Two sections of moat survive in poor condition, one still water-filled. Langley Hall is Grade II Listed.

 

> > > B75 Walmley/ Reddicap Heath/ Sutton Coldfield Walmley Road/ New Hall Drive
A moat filled by internal springs with sides 12m long surrounds New Hall, a house originally dating to c1200 and believed to be the oldest inhabited completely moated house in England; the south range and part of the west range are of medieval stone. The original house was in the hands of the Earls of Warwick in the 13th century, rebuilt as New Hall by Sir John de Lizours 1341 and in the possession of King Henry VII 1487. It was extended by Bishop Vesey’s brother-in-law, Thomas Gibbons 1542, the north range in red sandstone with its banqueting room forming a courtyard with the south and west ranges.

Most of the building as seen is 16th- and 17th-century; there is an interesting staircase of c1640. New Hall was much altered 1796 when the south and west towers were added; altered again 1870 especially the west front by the Chadwick family to its present form. New Hall was a boys’ boarding school 1885-1905, bought by Walter Wilkinson of New Hall Mill and was last privately occupied from 1923 by Alfred Owen. It became a hotel from 1988; extension of 50 bedrooms in sympathetic style 1992. New Hall is Grade I Listed, the chapel, coach house and gardener’s cottage Grade II.

> > > B76 Walmley Ash/ Hurst Green Sutton Coldfield Peddimore Lane
Peddimore Hall is a 17th-century hall built 1660-1671 by William Wilson for William Wood, the Warden of Sutton Corporation on a 13th-century site surrounded by a double rectangular moat whose remains can be seen. The timber-framed barn dates from 1385. A public footpath passes this Grade II Listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Originally owned by the Arden family it was allegedly visited by William Shakespeare whose cousins the Ardens were, hence mention of Sutton Coldfield by Falstaff in ‘Henry VI Part 1’ Act 4 Scene 2:
Henry’s friend Sir John Falstaff is on the road near Coventry raising an army to support the king against rebel barons:

Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry ; fill me a bottle of sack; our soldiers shall march through; we’ll to Sutton-Cophill tonight.

> > > B76 Wishaw/ Over Green/ Sutton Coldfield Grove Lane/ Bulls Lane
Hermitage Farm moat may have been three sides only, two are clearly visible but now dry, one is water-filled and has been enlarged as a cattle pond. A 19th-century farm stands on the site of the original medieval building.
 

> > > B76 Over Green Sutton Coldfield Curdworth Lane/ Wiggins Hill Road
An L-shaped pond and pool at Pool Hall Farm remain of the medieval moat. Documentary evidence dates Pool Hall to 1581 though it is of medieval origin.
 

GAZETTEER

Medieval Moated Sites with Visible Remains
 

NOTE

All the following moated sites are recorded on the BSMR, the Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record.

> > > B15 Edgbaston Bristol Road/ Sir Harrys Road/ Priory Road
Two L-shaped ponds fed by underwater springs at Priory Tennis Club are the remains of Hill Farm moat 45m x 40m.

> > > B26 Yardley/ Garretts Green Sheldon Heath Road/ Kents Moat/ The Hays
Kents Moat is most unusual in Birmingham in that it has remained complete and still retains a substantial depth. Although it is now dry, has some trees and bushes growing in it and 20th-century housing in the middle the size and shape of a medieval moated site can very clearly be seen. This sub-manor house of Sheldon known as West Hall (Sheldon Hall was the East Hall) was first occupied in the 12th century, rebuilt in the 14th century and in ruins by the 15th.

The site has been partially excavated; finds include 20 clay cooking pots, a large number of good decorated floor tiles c1350, fragments of 14th-century stained glass, and various domestic items, iron shears, a bronze horsebit, animal bones and oyster shells; a Luxembourg penny 1309-56, Edward II penny 1317, penny c1279, 15th century French jetton. It is called Kemps Moat after John and Marion Kemp, the last people to live within it. Kents Moat is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

> > > B26 Sheldon Ragley Drive off Church Road
A moated site south of St Giles Church in the paddock south of Rectory Farm is discernible in the right conditions with an expert eye. This may have been a the medieval moated rectory of Sheldon.
 

> > > B26 Sheldon Church Road
There was a moated site south of Westley Brook at Moat Farm which was demolished 1960 and the moat filled in.
 

> > > B26/ B33 Yardley Queens Road/ Church Road
Rents Moat/ Allestree Moat is in Old Yardley Park. Behind the churchyard wall is a tree-covered rectangle, the site of the medieval moated manor house; on the side furthest from the church a bank can still be seen among the trees. The straight northerly line of Church Road doglegs to the west at Barrows Lane; John Morris Jones (JMJ 1980 Church End Yardley) suggests that a straight road originally led to this manor house site which therefore predates Yardley church. The site must then have been occupied when the first chapel was built in 1165 with the Beauchamps of Elmley the tenants of the manor. This was only one of many Beauchamp manors which they held for 300 years, although they rarely lived here. The de Limesi family lived here during the 13th century, when the present church building was begun. Allestree Hall/ Allestrey Hall was demolished c1700 after the Allestrees moved to Witton; the silted but still water-filled moat was infilled c1900 as a safety precaution when Yardley Great Trust gave land between Church Road and Queens Road as a public park.
 

Part of a medieval? ridge and furrow field can be seen immediately to the north.
 

> > > B29 Weoley Castle Alwold Road
An important Birmingham site, Weoley Castle was almost certainly occupied in Anglo-Saxon times though deeper excavation is needed for proof. Extensive excavations 1955-1962 revealed a wooden building constructed c1100-1200 on top of an earlier earth platform; remains of horizontal and vertical weather-boarding were found. The 12th-century building burnt down, was rebuilt, moated and fortified 1264 by Roger de Somery of Dudley Castle; surviving sandstone foundations of walls and six towers date from this time. All previous buildings were demolished c1380 and rebuilt again partly in stone. Weoley Castle was subsequently altered and added to over the years. A large and locally important building, it was for hundreds of years the manor house of Northfield. Unoccupied by the 16th century, in ruins by the 17th, the site has been extensively excavated and is well documented. Dry ditches, grassy banks and foundations can still be seen.

Many finds showed a high standard of living and included products from abroad: kitchen refuse including pig and deer bones, oyster and whelk shells, as well as cow, sheep, swan, heron, chicken, pike and hedgehog bones, and a wide variety of pottery. From the 13th century iron shears, a small axe, bronze netting needle, arrows, a padlock, the mouthpiece of a wooden bagpipe, a glazed Norman pitcher and a steelyard weight. From the 14th century painted glass and floor tiles from the chapel, scissors, a bone chessman and a bronze jug as well as pewter communion cruet c1325, glassware from the East Mediterranean and fine tableware from France and Spain. From the 15th century keys, horse bits and spurs, tweezers, a double-row bone comb, Spanish tin-enamelled vessels, French counters and a jet die inlaid with silver. 16th-century finds include pottery from London and Nottingham, Holland and Germany. Coin finds include a John penny 1210, Henry II halfpenny 1248, Scottish penny 1298, Edward III penny 1327-70, Richard II halfpenny 1378-88, Venetian soldino 1400-1413, Henry VI groat (Calais) 1422-1443, gold ryall Edward IV 1461-1483. It is a City Museum although currently not open.

Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade II Listed.

 

> > > B31 Turves Green/ Longbridge Stokesay Grove/ Turves Green Road/ Hawkesley Drive
Excavation shows settlement from the 11th century at Hawkesley House Longbridge (sometimes called Hawkesley Farm or confusingly Hawkesley Hall - see below); a great hall built in the 13th century was occupied for Parliament 1644/ 5 during the Civil War, surrendered to the Royalists and burned the same year.

The hall was rebuilt 1654, later replaced by a mid-19th-century house/ farm which was demolished 1971 to make way for 3 municipal blocks of flats by A G Sheppard Fidler 1958. Part of the site is grassed and two water-filled arms of the original 135m x 90m moat remain. Hawkesley House/ Hawkesley Farm moated site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

 

> > > B32 Frankley Church Hill
Frankley Hall moat is well preserved. The hall stood from at least 1601 west of St Leonard’s Church opposite Westminster Farm and probably replaced earlier buildings. Burned by Royalists in the Civil War to prevent its use as a Parliamentary garrison, its stone was used to build the church tower.
 

> > > B32 Woodgate Valley Somerfield Road
A moat lay near Bourn Brook 300m north-east of Moor Farm which was demolished in the 1970s for housing. One 27m dry arm of the moat can be made out. Moat Leasow and Moat Meadow are shown on the tithe map.
 

> > > B38 Hawkesley West Heath/ Hawkesley End
A pond may be the remains of the moat surrounding Hawkesley Hall West Heath (not to be confused with Hawkesley House/ Farm Longbridge above).
 

> > > B38 Hawkesley/ Headley Heath Goodrest Lane
A cropmark is visible at Goodrest Farm and fishponds which may well be the remains of the moat.
 

> > > B42 Perry Barr Perry Avenue/ Walsall Road
Perry Hall was a moated timber-framed manor house bearing the date 1576; it probably replaced an earlier medieval building. There is also evidence that an earlier manor house stood in Rocky Lane half a mile north. Perry Hall was bought 1669 by Sir Henry Gough of Wolverhampton whose family had made a fortune in the wool trade; Henry’s brother Richard bought Edgbaston Hall c1717. The hall was extensively altered in the 1840s; it was a large square three storey building with similarities to Aston Hall. (Photo in Price 1989 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

The hall’s parkland was bought as Perry Hall Playing Fields by the City Council 1929 and the hall demolished. The moat is now brick-lined and water-filled fed by a small stream which runs to the nearby River Tame.

 

> > > B45 Gannow Green Devon Road/ Boleyn Road
Gannow Green moat is now dry and grassed. Excavations in the 1960s found evidence of a mid-13th century house and hearth and roof tiles from the late 15th century. The 1881 Ordnance Survey map shows a building which had gone by the 1882 edition. Scheduled Ancient Monument.

 

> > > B76 Walmley Ash Walmley Ash Road
The remains of a moat are visible as an earthwork
 

> > > B92 Olton Solihull Hobs Moat Road/ Hobs Mead
Hobs Moat, Odingsell Hall/ Odensels Moat, is at Lyndon in Solihull; it is a large and very clearly defined double-moated site. Although now dry and much overgrown by mature trees this is a very significant surviving moated site with high banks and deep ditches. It was former Ulverley, ie. Wulfhere’s clearing and renamed eald tun, old farm, Olton when Solihull new town was created c1200. Scheduled Ancient Monument.
 

GAZETTEER

Medieval Moated Sites with No Visible Remains

NOTE

All the following moated sites are recorded on BSMR, the Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record.
 

> > > B5 City Centre/ Digbeth Moat Lane
Birmingham Manor House was occupied by the de Berminghams from the 12th century and is mentioned in the 1166 Market Charter. The moat was dug in the 14th century. It may be that the manor house platform, c½ hectare in area was the Anglo-Saxon village site. If the island had always been that size it would seem too large for the hall of the tenant of a small and poor manor. (See John Morris Jones 1972 Waters of Birmingham.) However, it may be that the hall was built here at the time of the Market Charter 1166 when Peter de Birmingham set out his new town (similarly St Martin’s church). If this is the case, it is not known where the original settlement may have been.

The de Berminghams owned the manor until 1536, the longest surviving Norman lords in the area. When Edward de Bermingham died 1538 the connection with England was lost although the de Berminghams continued in Ireland. The manor reverted to the Crown.

A new house was built c1740 in classical style by manufacturer John Francis although some earlier timber-framed buildings remained. The moat was filled and all buildings demolished 1815 to make way for the open market, later Smithfield Meat Market. Westley’s Plan of Birmingham 1731 has a drawing of buildings on the site; Bradford’s 1750 map shows the buildings in plan. The site is now covered by the Wholesale Markets prior to which excavation revealed large sandstone foundations. No visible remains. (See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 89; illustration VCH Wa7)
 

> > > B5 City Centre Edgbaston Street/ Pershore Street
The Parsonage, originally belonging to St Martins-in-the Bull Ring, had a moat with water-filled arms some 50m long until the mid-18th century. The Parsonage was demolished in the 1820s and the moat filled in. The site is currently (2000) being redeveloped as part of the new Bull Ring Markets. Westley’s Plan of Birmingham 1731 has a drawing of buildings on the site; Bradford’s 1750 map shows the buildings in plan. No visible remains.
 

> > > B6 Aston Priory Road
Aston Priory is believed to have stood within a small moated site; evidence derives from enclosed field names: Priory Close, Holyoak Close and Holyoak Moor.
 

> > > B6 Aston Serpentine Road/ Charles Road/ Yew Tree Road/ Village Road
Almost nothing is known about Aston Old Hall/ Old Aston Hall (no visible remains); the moated site was disused by 1367, the Ardens using Bordesley Hall as their main manor house, and built over in the 19th century. Aston Old Hall was probably the original manor house replaced by the present Aston Hall (Aston Hall Road/ Witton Lane) 1618-1635) by Sir Thomas Holte and now a City Museum and Grade I Listed.

 

> > > B7 Duddeston Hindlow Close
Duddeston Hall was a medieval moated manor house; it was occupied by John atte Holte from 1365 when he bought the manor to add to his Nechells holding. The Holte family continued to live here prior to their move to Aston Hall (John had also bought Aston manor 1367), after which Duddeston was used as the dower house. By Stuart times the hall had 13 bedrooms, a gallery, chapel, gatehouse, and extensive domestic outbuildings: the great hall and principal rooms were richly hung and furnished.

The grounds were used as pleasure gardens from c1750 and for various pursuits including bowling and cock-fighting, named Vauxhall Gardens after the London gardens from 1758. The moat platform became the bowling green. Fairs, concerts, balloon ascents, fireworks and balls took place here. Duddeston Hall was demolished c1781, the gardens closed 1850, the land sold to the Victoria Land Society for housing. The area was built up in the 19th century and rebuilt in the 1960s. The name is commemorated in nearby Duddeston Manor Road. No visible remains.

 

> > > B7 Nechells Nechells Park Road/ Stanley Road
No visible trace or documentary evidence survives Nechells Hall possible moated site. Evidence is conjectural; Nechells Park is shown on Beighton’s 1725 map; Nechells Park Farm may have been the successor of the manor house. In the early 19th century it was occupied by Robert Benton who owned nearby Bentons Mill. No visible remains.
 

> > > B8 Alum Rock Treaford Lane/ Bankdale Road
Treaford Hall (Treeford) was a large moated Georgian house on a medieval site demolished in the early 20th century to make way for housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B8 Saltley Adderley Road/ Arden Road
Saltley Old Hall, a medieval manor house is now built over with Arden Road Board School/ Adderley School 1897 and factories. Saltley manor was bought by Walter de Clodeshall 1343; in 1360 he was granted a licence for an oratory and chapel at his house. The site was shown as ‘Great Moat Piece’ on Tomlinson’s 1758 map; the moat could still be seen in 1880 and was popularly called Giants Castle.

 

A new Saltley Hall was built at a date unknown on a nearby moated site (Hall Road/ Ash Road/ St Saviours Road/ Adderley Road), Moated sites became rarer after the Black Death 1348, and it may be that Coldeshall’s chapel was at the new site. This was rebuilt in the 17th century west of that previous hall and outside the moat. lord of the manor, Sir Charles Adderley was a royalist supporter and Prince Rupert is said to have lodged here during the Civil War. The hall was a farmhouse by 1760 and demolished by 1913.

 

The hall’s home farm stood on Hall Road opposite St Saviour’s Church. The site is built up with housing and there are no visible remains.

 

> > > B8 Ward End Clover Leaf Square
Ward End Old Hall was a medieval moated site (Overpool Road/ Washbrook Road/ Northleigh Road), the moats of which could still be seen in 1945 and are commemorated in nearby Old Moat Way.

 

A new neo-classical Ward End Hall was built 1710 by Isaac Spooner next to the moated site of the original hall, occupied by Birmingham ironmaster Charles Blackham c1725 and later by relatives of 18th-century Birmingham historian William Hutton. On the roof were two statues, nicknamed Jack and Tom and popularly believed to be two soldiers Thomas Pitmore and John Hammond hanged for highway robbery and murder on Washwood Heath 1781.

The hall still stood 1939 but empty and in poor repair; it was demolished c1945 to make way for housing. The original moated site was still visible after World War 2 when it too disappeared under housing. Some 25 hectares of the hall’s park was bought by the City as Ward End Park in 1903. The only visible remains seems to be a surviving gate post by Wallbank Road.

 

> > > B10 Bordesley Bolton Road/ Herbert Road
Mount Pleasant was formerly the driveway to Bordesley Hall, formerly Brook House which replaced an earlier medieval moated manor house nearby (exact site unknown); it is commemorated by nearby Bordesley Park Road. It was built/ rebuilt/ much altered 1757 by wealthy button magnate John Taylor I who spent £10 000 improving the building in grand style and emparking c15ha of land around; an ornamental pool was made on the brook with an island, bridge, and grotto, exotic shrubs and swans were imported. The hall was burned down in the 1791 Priestley Riots, rebuilt but demolished 1840 when the estate was sold for housing development. No visible remains. The Old Lodge pub on the corner of Bordesley Park Road/ Coventry was a lodge of the hall, demolished 1986.
 

> > > B11 Acocks Green/ Tyseley Sunningdale Road/ Ferndene Road (south of the junction)
A moated site now built over: in Georgian times Tyseley Farm, demolished in the 1920s, was built close to the moated site of Tyseley Hall south of Ferndene Road, as its successor. No visible remains.
 

> > > B11 Greet Manor Farm Road/ Warwick Road
Standing close to the River Cole and within a moat the timber-framed hall was the home of the steward who administered the manor for Studley Priory to whom it belonged. It was bought by the Greswolde family from the priory in the mid-16th century and probably rebuilt alongside as Greet Hall manor house; it was rebuilt in late Georgian times and known as Manor Farm. It was demolished by 1930; the first Greet Inn was built alongside in the early 20th century and a modern successor stands on the site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B11/ B28 Sparkhill/ Hall Green Shaftmoor Lane/ Arcot Road
Shaftmore/ Shaftmoor Farm was a medieval moated site; by the 16th-century there was a 3-gabled timber-framed building with central porch and tall brick chimneys belonging to the Greswold family. The Steedman family owned and occupied the house for 200 years until the estate was sold to Birmingham City Council 1925 and the house demolished 1929, internal panelling going to Packwood House. Photo in Byrne 1996 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY.

 

> > > B12 Bordesley/ Camp Hill/ Highgate Ravenhurst Street
Possible moated site now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B12 Highgate/ Bordesley Bradford Street/ Moseley Road
A moat is evidenced by a 1748 map which records Mott Close as a fieldname; 1978 excavation found evidence of a bank but dating was not possible. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Billesley Wold Walk/ Broomwall Road
Billesley Moat, now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Billesley Yardley Wood Road/ Brigfield Road
Moated site at the foot of a slope with water on 3 sides partially obliterated by the widening of Yardley Wood Road and partially now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Moseley Alcester Road/ Salisbury Road/ Chantry Road
Old Moseley Hall (no visible remains) opposite King Edwards Road may have replaced an earlier hall which stood on the present site of the Fighting Cocks public house (Alcester Road/ King Edwards Road). This was replaced as the manor house in the late 16th-century by a medieval timbered hall set a little way back from the Alcester Road between Salisbury Road and Chantry Road. A gate into Moseley Private Park marks the approximate site of timber-framed hall. It was possibly moated, though the pond in the park which is part of the remnants of the hall’s parkland is a water-filled quarry. It had later wings close-studded in herringbone. The roof was tiled and had three tall clusters of chimneys. Between the hall and the Alcester Road were a number of outbuildings, probably agricultural. The house survived as a farmhouse until c1842 by which time it had fallen into disrepair; it had been sold before the Taylor purchase and let to tenants. James Taylor, grandson of John Taylor III bought it from Robert Blayney who owned most of Moseley village, had it demolished and extended the high park wall as far as Park Farm which stood just south of Park Hill.

A new hall was built probably by Sir Richard Greaves on the site of the present Moseley Hall on the other side of Salisbury Road before 1632. Greaves a wealthy local landlord, High Sheriff of Worcester by 1616, Deputy-Lieutenant of Wales and local magistrate, who was knighted by James I; he died in 1632 and his elaborate tomb can be seen in Kings Norton church. The design of the hall is not known though it is likely to have been in neo-classical style comparable with Castle Bromwich Hall; the hall’s icehouse survives in Moseley Park (private) in use as a store by Chantry Tennis Club and is the same design as the partially surviving Hamstead Hall ice-house.

Button manufacturer John Taylor I of Bordesley Hall, whose famous factory was in Union Street, bought the estate for his son John Taylor II who proceeded to build a new hall at Moseley in brick and stone. It was a plain neo-classical mansion of three storeys with a tuscan doorway, low parapet, and hipped roof, facing south. Unusually it had a single chimney stack along the whole length of the roof-ridge from which eighteen pots sprouted. There were low symmetrical wings with round-headed doorways which terminated in transverse pedimented lodges. From the south wing a coach-house and stable block extended. The main entrance to the Hall park was opposite the Fighting Cocks and had ornamental gates hung between stone pillars set back from the highway were flanked by walls with doors and uniform lodges: the south one consisted of living room and scullery only, the lodge-keeper’s bedroom was across the drive in the north lodge. The estate was landscaped by Humphrey Repton, second in fame only to Capability Brown.

This hall was burned in the Birmingham Riots 1791 and the present Moseley Hall restored for Taylor 1796 by Warwick architect John Standbridge. The wings and stable block were demolished and transverse two-storey wings were added to the restored central block, whose window mouldings were removed and whose roof was extended. The symmetrical wings had unadorned pediments. The first floor fronts of the wings were embellished with two Ionic pilasters either side of a tall of three light separated by Ionic pillars; the ground floor windows had doric pillars to match the portico. Four pairs of doric pillars supported a porch built across the three central bays of the house. It is said that the cellars of the previous hall which ran beneath the whole building were retained and are thus the oldest part of the house.

Moseley Hall continued the seat of the Taylors until Richard Cadbury bought it 1884. When he moved to the newly-built Uffculme Richard Cadbury gave the Moseley Hall to Birmingham as a convalescent home for children 1892. It reopened 1970 as a geriatric hospital. Though much extended in the 20th century the original hall is Grade II Listed.

(See John Innes 1991 The History of Moseley Hall)
 

> > > B13 Moseley/ Kings Heath Greenhill Road/ School Road
Probable moated site now built up with housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Moseley/ Wake Green Brook Lane/ Coldbath Road/ Billesley Lane
Greethurst manor house stood on the site of Moseley Golf Course in 1517. A moat is possible. No visible remains.
 

> > > B14 Kings Heath High Street
Probable medieval moat on the site of Hare and Hounds pub. No visible remains.
 

> > > B14 Kings Heath/ Brandwood End Poston Croft/ Broad Lane
Probable medieval moat at Broad Lane Farm, now demolished for housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B14 Warstock Warstock Road/ Warstock Lane
Moated site now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B17 Harborne Arosa Drive/ Quinton Road
Wilderness Farm which used to stand here near Bourn Brook was almost certainly moated; it is now built over with no visible remains.
 

> > > B18 Hockley/ Jewellery Quarter Warstone Lane/ Vyse Street
Probable moated site visible prior to 18th/ 19th-century building; 20th-century rebuilding after war damage. Sir Thomas de Birmingham inherited the manor from his brother John 1390, but could not gain the manor house until John's widow died; he built a 'castle' at ‘Warstone near the Sandpits’, of which the square moat was still traceable in 1780. No visible remains.

 

> > > B20 Handsworth Hamstead Road
Handsworth Old Hall probably stood on the site of Handsworth Church Old Rectory from the early 12th century and is evidenced by the fieldname Moat Meadow. The site is now a fish pond in Handsworth Park/ Victoria Park. No visible remains.

 

> > > B20 Hamstead/ Handsworth Wood Hamstead Hall Avenue/ Beauchamp Avenue
A medieval moated manor house, Hamstead Hall, later known as Wyreleys after the manorial family from the 13th to the late 17th century, stood here from the mid-12th until the 18th century when it was demolished (no visible remains).
It was replaced by a new Hamstead Hall at Hamstead Hall Avenue/ Acfold Road/ Parkside (no visible remains). This new Handsworth manor house was demolished 1935 and the site is now built over with housing. Part of the wall of the walled garden survives in woodland to the rear of house gardens (Greenway/ Croftway) and the ruined icehouse can be found near the River Tame.

 

> > > B24 Bromford/ Erdington Tyburn Road/ Wheelwright Road/ Abbotts Road
Erdington Hall built near the Bromford crossing of the River Tame was the fortified manor house of the de Erdington family. It was double moated on three sides with the river at the rear. The existence of a hall is documented from the time of Edward IV.

The hall was rebuilt c1650 as 3 storeys in brick with dutch gables on or near the site of the original house by ironmaster John Jennens and occupied by the wealthy Jennens family up to the early 18th century. The house was occupied in 1858 by farmer William Wheelwright who built Wheelwright Road as an access road. The hall was still occupied 1908, demolished 1912 and the site now lies under Tyburn Road; it is commemorated in nearby Erdington Hall Road. No visible remains. (Photographs in Drake 1995 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

 

> > > B24 Erdington Kingsbury Road/ Bromford Lane (south-west of the junction)/ Parkdale Close
Pype Hall/ Pipe Manor/ Pype Orchard was a moated manor house, a sub-manor of Erdington, documented in Henry III’s time as the property of William Maunsell; it was rebuilt outside the moat by Humphrey Holden 1543. It was altered and enlarged 1622 as a large 6-gabled timber-framed building, known as Wood End Hall or Wood End House or Wood House by the 19th century and demolished 1932. The moat measured c90m x c70m and c10m wide 1949 and was still visible 1959. No visible remains on the Kingsbury School fields. (Photographs in Drake 1995 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

 

> > > B24 Erdington/ Moor End Green Moor End Lane/ Berkswell Road
Probable moated site built on 1899, shown as Moat House on 1881 OS map. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Acocks Green/ South Yardley Clay Lane/ Gilbertstone Road/ Steyning Road
Moated site evidenced by fieldname, Moat Leasow. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Lyndon Green/ Sheldon Lyndon Road/ New Coventry Road
Probable moated site evidenced in the 19th century by a fieldname Moat Meadow - now built over with housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Sheldon Church Road/ Horse Shoes Lane/ Common Lane
Lyndon manor house moated site south of Westley Brook at Moat Farm, later Mott House rebuilt in brick in the 18th century; there is now a housing estate built within the area of the moated site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Yardley Moat Lane
A moat 45m square at Gilbertstone Recreation Ground is now covered by a car park and electricity substation. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26/ B92 South Yardley/ Gilbertstone Gilbertstone Avenue/ Longley Crescent
A medieval moated site at Gilbertstone shows no trace on Lyndon Playing Fields. However, the old parish boundary makes unexplained right-angled turns here almost certainly showing the position of the moat. A 19th-century fieldname here is Moat Meadow. No visible remains.
 

> > > B27 Olton Gospel Lane/ Warwick Road
A moated site on the playing fields shows no visible remains.
 

> > > B27 Olton/ Acocks Green / Hyron Hall Road/ Starcross Road north side
Hyron Hall/ Iron/ Irons/ Hiron/ Hirons/ Hyrons was a moated site; the 15th/16th-century timber-framed hall survived to see its Georgian successor built alongside partially on the west arm of the moat; this survived until the late 19th-century; it is now demolished and the site built over. Oaklands School Dolphin Lane stands on the original moated site.
 

> > > B27/ B28 Hall Green Broom Hall Crescent/ Edenbridge Road
Broom Hall was a sub-manor of Yardley; the last of the Broomhall family died in the early 15th century and the name died out. Broom Hall was a building on a large oval moated site, over ½ hectare in area; it was rebuilt in Georgian times, demolished 1951. A block of flats stands on part of the moat. A footpath from Lakey Lane to Edenbridge Road follows the route of the original driveway. No visible remains.
 

> > > B28 Hall Green Highfield Road/ Painswick Road
Moated site at the source of Robin Hood Brook, built over in the 1930s. No visible remains.
 

> > > B28 Hall Green Kedleston Road/ Scribers Lane
Moated site at Baldwyn east of Kedleston Road (note Baldwins Lane) - now built over
 

> > > B28 Hall Green School Road/ Fox Hollies Road/ Studland Road
Hall Green Hall/ Haw Hall/ Hawe Hall/ Hawe Green House named after the medieval Haw family was probably originally surrounded by a moat. A Tudor 2-storey gable was added at the south end and later another gable wing alongside; this may have been wattle-and-daub or brick-infilled. In the 18th century a brick wing with gothic details was added to the timber-framed building by Job Marston. The hall was owned by the Severne family from c1833 and the estate sold 1912. The hall was occupied by Lewis Lloyd until c1935 when it was sold and demolished 1936 to make way for the Charles Lane Trust Almshouses/ Charles Lane Almshouses. No visible remains. School Lane from Fox Hollies Road to Studland Road follows the route of the original drive to the hall.

Hall Green Hall Farm/ The Hall Farm was a 17th-century stud farm with dutch gables just east of Hall Green Hall, the stables were to the rear. No visible remains. (See BIBLIOGRAPHY Marks 1992 and Byrne 1996 for photographs)
 

> > > B29 Selly Park/ Ten Acres/ Pineapple Hazelwell Fordrough/ Pineapple Road
No traces have been found of the moat which surrounded the original Hazelwell Hall manor house near Hazelwell Recreation Ground. Parliamentary commander Colonel Tinker Fox fortified the hall during the Civil War c1644. The hall was rebuilt as a 3-bay 3-storey neo-classical house in the 17th century. By 1840 it was a farmhouse which was modernised by George Cartland. The Hazelwell public house was built on the site in the 1930s in a grand mock-Tudor part-timbered style.

> > > B30 Cotteridge Pershore Road/ Middleton Hall Road
Cotteridge House c1680 was built in a field called Motts Field, now demolished and the site built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield Church Road/ Rectory Road/ Old Moat Drive
Northfield manor house may have stood here from the 11th until the 14th century when Weoley Castle took its place as the manor house. The 70m x 60m moat at Moat Farm was filled in 1930 and houses built on the site 1965. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield Hanging Lane/ West Park Avenue
Possible moat at The Grange, demolished for housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield Tinkers Farm Road/ Cheverton Road/ Kelby Road/ Inverness Road
Tinkers Farm was probably surrounded by a medieval moat - a school is now on the site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield/ Kings Norton Aldersmead Road
Staple Hall Farm, now demolished for housing may have been a medieval moated site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield/ Cotteridge Northfield Road/ Middleton Hall Road
Middleton Hall may have stood on a moated site. Demolished for housing with no visible remains.

 

> > > B32 Woodgate Valley Wood Lane/ Moat Coppice
Moat Farm now demolished had visible signs of a medieval moat. No visible remains.

 

> > > B33 Glebe Farm/ Kitts Green Glebe Farm Road/ Croxton Grove
A moated site at Walters Farm (in the 13th century Water Farm) which was demolished for 1930s council housing is evidenced by fieldnames Moat Leasow and Fish Pool Piece and shown on 19th-century OS maps as the north and east arms of a moat. Bought by Matthew Boulton in the late 18th century and sold on to the vicar of Yardley whence the name, glebe being land owned by the priest. The moated site was probably abandoned when a late-Georgian house was built here as Glebe Farm House, demolished c1934. No visible remains.

 

> > > B33 Lea Hall Lea Village/ Folliott Road
Lea Hall manor house was built on a moated site immediately north of Lea Hall Railway Station and evidenced by 19th-century fieldnames, Pool Field and Moat Leasow. Lea Hall was described as ‘a large modern house’ in 1767; it was demolished when Lea Hall railway station was built 1937. Now covered with 1930s housing and no visible remains.

 

> > > B34 Buckland End/ Kitts Green Cole Hall Lane
Cole Hall was a medieval moated site (no visible remains) between the River Cole and Cole Hall Farm/ Colehall Farm shown on Castle Bromwich Estate Map 1802 (Staffordshire County Record Office), and as Moat and Moat Meadow on the Survey Map of Aston Parish 1833-35. The 1843 Aston Tithe Map shows no moat but the apportionment lists Moat and Moat Meadow. Cole Hall Farm, now a pub and restaurant, probably replaced the moated house in the 18th century at which time c40 hectares were farmed. Solihull Sanitary Authority, which included Yardley parish, laid a sewer down Yardley Brook valley from Yardley church to Colehall: the farm was bought for filter beds and the house became its offices. Later the sewer was extended to Minworth Main by Birmingham, Tame & Rea District Drainage Board. The sewage farm went out of use in the mid-20th-century and the tanks were infilled and the area landscaped in the 1970s. The farm buildings were subsequently disused until conversion to a public house in the 1990s. The farmhouse and its 18th-century barn are Grade II Listed.

 

> > > B35 Castle Vale Farnborough Road opposite Rhoose Croft
Berwood Hall was a moated manor house first mentioned c1160 when Sir Hugh de Arden gave the Abbey of St Mary at Leicester his manor of Berwood as a monastic grange, ie. a farm run by lay brothers for the monastery. Two priests are mentioned 1224 in the chapel of the Blessed Mary at Berwood Hall but the chapel had gone by Henry VI’s time. The manor reverted to the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and was sold to Thomas Arden for £272 10 shillings. The manor house fell into decay and was replaced in the late 17th century by a farmhouse south of the moat which survived until Castle Bromwich Aerodrome was built before World War 2. Much of the site was built over with housing in the late 1960s. No visible remains.
 

> > > B36 Bromford/ Firs Berrandale Road
Near Castle Bromwich Bridge on the Chester Road, a moated site close the River Tame is recorded on early 20th-century maps and evidenced by 19th-century (or earlier) fieldnames, Moat Meadow and Moat Plantation. No visible remains.
 

> > > B36 Hodge Hill/ Bromford Reynoldstown Road/ Doncaster Drive
Haye Hall/ Hay Hall/ Hay House/ Haye House/ Hodge Hill manor house - Hodge Hill is mentioned 1622 as a sub-manor of Aston though the original double moat makes a 12th/13th-century origin of the hall more than likely. Henry Chattock was permitted by Richard II to embattle the hall which was held by the Chattocks probably from medieval times until the end of the 19th century.
Hay Hall was rebuilt 1603 probably for the third time. The moat which was drained c1850 is shown on the 1886 OS map; it is now built over. The moated site was abandoned and Haye House built to replace it at Ermington Crescent/ Haye House Grove. However, this may have been the 1603 rebuilding and is arguably, though disputably the Comet Inn in Collingbourne Avenue. No visible remains of the moated site.
 

> > > B38 Kings Norton Popes Lane/ Wychall Lane
Wychall Farm was originally a moated timber-framed farm rebuilt in brick at a later date (Victorian?), demolished after 1952 to make way for housing and St Thomas Aquinas School. No visible remains.
 

> > > B38 Walkers Heath Walkers Heath Road
Pool Farm moat was excavated 1949-1956 by pupils of Kings Norton Grammar School under M J Nixon; the site is now occupied by Cavendish Tower block of flats. No visible remains.
 

> > > B45 Rubery Kendal Rise/ Bristol Road South
Possible moat at former Colmers Farm south of River Rea. No visible remains.
 

> > > B76 Minworth/ Wishaw/ Sutton Coldfield Hurst Green Road
Fieldname and map evidence for a moat at Hurst Green Farm. No visible remains.
 

> > > B91 Olton/ Worlds End Broad Oaks Road
Possible moated site now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B92 Olton Brookvale Road/ Warwick Road
Gospel Farm, now demolished was a medieval moated site sited at the west end of Gospel Lane Playing Fields where the old parish boundary makes unexplained right-angled turns showing the position of the moat. No visible remains.
 

> > > B92/ B26 Sheldon Arden Croft/ Coventry Road/ Valley Road
Moated site covered by 20th-century housing. No visible remains.

GAZETTEER

Miscellaneous Medieval Buildings and Sites

The following are buildings or sites with medieval origins other than moated sites. Most have been added to and altered extensively since the Middle Ages; many have disappeared without trace. The list comprises manor houses, schools, inns and cottages. It must be noted that the houses of the majority of the population would have been poorly built of wood, mud and thatch and have not survived.

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B2 City Centre High Street/ Castle Street

When stables in the Old Castle Yard were demolished 1864, workmen digging foundations for a cellar found a quantity of human bones including 3 skulls about a metre down; their presence has never been explained and their age never determined.

> > > B4/ B5 City Centre Ryder Street

Ryder Street was formerly known as The Butts. Edward IV made archery practice compulsory on Sundays and feast days to guard against the threat of invasion; all men aged 16-60 should own a longbow of their own height and each township was required to set up archery butts or targets; the statute was revived by Henry VIII 1543 for fear of French invasion but fell into abeyance in the 17th century. Every manor had a site where archery was practised. The junction with Coleshill Street was known as Stubb Cross, meaning a broken-off cross (Westley’s 1731 map).

> > > B5 City Centre Ladywell Walk (south side)/ Hurst Street

The Lady Well was a natural spring and used by water carriers to supply the town. This was later the site of Birmingham’s first swimming baths (commemorated in Bath Passage nearby) from c1720 and comparable with any nationally; there was a 100 metre main pool and 10 other pools of various sizes and temperatures and varieties of spa water. The site is now beneath the Arcadian Centre.

> > > B2 City Centre New Street
The Guild Hall of the Holy Cross (demolished) stood on the south side of New Street half-way between High Street/ Worcester Street and Stephenson Street. It was a large timber-framed building and became King Edward VI Grammar School with the dissolution of religious guilds by Henry VIII 1545. It was demolished 1707 and replaced by a neo-classical building which in turn was demolished 1830 and replaced by a large gothic building by Charles Barry architect of the Houses of Parliament. This was demolished 1936; part survives as the chapel of King Edward VI Grammar School Bristol Road.

 

> > > B6 Aston Aston Road North/ Rocky Lane
The site of the Aston’s medieval pinfold, the pound for strayed livestock.

 

> > > B8 Ward End St Margarets Road/ William Cook Road

Ward End Timber Supply was known as Cocksparrow Hall and is believed to have been a 15th-century gamekeeper’s cottage; in the early 20th century it was a sweet shop.

> > > B8 Saltley Couchman Road
Excavation revealed evidence of the brick wall and cobbled floor of an 18th-century farm dairy, but also showed tentative evidence that this was on one side of the triangular village green of Upper Saltley. Very little has survived of the kind of poorly made huts which housed most of the population. (See Tomlinson’s map 1761) BSMR
 

> > > B9 Deritend/ Bordesley Digbeth High Street/ Heath Mill Lane
The Old Crown (Guild House/ Guild Hall) is recorded 1368 though the large manorial-type building as seen is 16th-century. It was probably the Guild Hall of St John the Baptist Deritend during the 15th century and included the priest’s house and school for members’ children. It was certainly the mansion house described by John Leland on his travels 1538. Queen Elizabeth I is thought to have slept here in the Gallery Chamber over the main entrance en route from Kenilworth Castle 1575.

The building was referred to as the Crown Inn 1589 when was it was sold by Richard Smalbroke of Yardley. The Old Crown was divided into two properties by Richard Dickson 1684 and became a coaching inn c1700, probably Birmingham’s first such. In 1848 historian Joshua Toulmin-Smith began restoration, completed by with new building to the rear by 1862. A medieval well was found at this time. It continued as a public house taken over by Holt Brewery 1925, Ansell's 1966 by which time the building had been allowed to seriously deteriorated. It closed 1992. The Old Crown was renovated and reopened 1998 as a public house and hotel by Patrick and Ellen Brennan. The medieval well was rediscovered 1994 and is to be seen in the reception foyer.

There were many timber-framed buildings less grand than the Old Crown in this area, some fronted with a brick facade in Georgian times; by the end of the 19th century all had been replaced with the exception of the Golden Lion which was moved to Cannon Hill Park 1911. The Old Crown is a remarkable and important survival so close to the City Centre. Grade II* Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B11 Showell Green/ Sparkhill Esme Road/ Ivor Road/ Belvedere Gardens
Shrubbery Farm was probably medieval; the site was built over in Victorian times; no visible trace.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill Stratford Road
Sparkhill Farm opposite Baker Street probably of medieval origin was demolished 1880s; no visible trace.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill Warwick Road/ St Johns Road
Greet Farm, probably medieval in origin, was a large holding with over 50ha much of it water-meadows along the Cole; farm buildings stood until the 1880s when Percy Road was laid out; Greet School was built on the site soon afterwards. No visible trace.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill/ Wake Green Grove Road/ Greswolde Road/ Stratford Road
Fulford Hall later Grove Farm was a large 4-bay timber-framed building originally of the c14th century. An upper floor and parlour wing added c1600, a brick-infilled timber-framed service wing 1651, a 19th-century scullery. This was a Maxstoke Priory holding until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII when it was bought by the Greswold family. The farm was sold by a Greswolde descendant 1896 to the Freehold Land Society for housing. However, a photograph of exists of 1905 showing the farm still in operation. The farmhouse was subsequently demolished. No visible remains.
 

> > > B12 Moseley/ Edgbaston Cannon Hill Park
The Golden Lion is an early 16th-century timber-framed house originally in Digbeth High Street (Bull Ring Trading Estate), saved from destruction for road-widening and re-erected here 1911. There are 3 gables at the front and the house has two storeys in timber-framing with brick infill on the ground floor, plaster on the upper floor. The building is out of use and in a poor state of repair 1999. This building is typical of many that stood in this area until the 19th century of which photographic evidence survives. Grade I Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B13 Wake Green/ Billesley Swanshurst Lane opposite Meadow View
Swanshurst Farm stood in what is now Swanshurst Park from medieval times; it was probably an assart on land belonging to Maxstoke Priory. A new timber-framed wing was added to the original medieval hall c1600 and a brick wing was added in Stuart times when the rest of the house bricked; there were extensive outbuildings. After nearly 300 years of occupancy by the Dolphins, John Dolphin died 1834 and the buildings were rented out as slum tenements. The brick wing collapsed and for 30 years the empty building deteriorated until 1906 when solicitor Stanbury Eardley lived in its ruin. After his death 1917 the house was demolished and some of the timbers were used decoratively in the building of a new house also named Swanshurst at B13 Russell Road. The barns were demolished 1920 when Swanshurst Lane housing was about to be developed.

 

> > > B13 Billesley/ Springfield Wake Green Road/ Willersley Road
Sarehole Farm/ Sarehole Hall/ Sarehole House was the property of Maxstoke Priory; the hall and mill were owned by the Eaves family from the early 18th century and rebuilt 1721. Bankrupted by rebuilding Sarehole Mill and Greet Mill Richard Eaves sold out to John Taylor, button magnate and banker. The farmland was built on between the wars, but the farmhouse itself survived until 1957 when a bungalow was built on the site. Some of its mid-Victorian outbuildings were used by a garage for some years before being demolished in the early 1970s.

 

> > > B13 Wake Green Asheligh Grove

Ashleigh Grange was probably a 15th-century hall timbered in pad-and-panel style like Swanshurst. It was demolished c1930.

> > > B13/ B28 Billesley/ Yardley Wood Coleside Avenue
Little Sarehole was a medieval timber-framed farmhouse on the west bank of the River Cole at Four Arches Bridge; it was in ruins by the 1930s and demolished.
Brook Farm rebuilt in late Georgian times stood just west of Little Sarehole. All buildings were demolished by the 1930s. Photo in Byrne 1996 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY.

 

> > > B14/ B90 Highters Heath/ Solihull Lodge Prince of Wales Lane/ Gorleston Road
This is the probable site of Highters Heath cross marking the meeting point of Yardley, Kings Norton and Solihull. The cross may have referred simply to the crossroads, or may have been a preaching cross. This was an area at that time of intercommoning woodland - ie. access to the woodland was shared in common by people of the three parishes eg. for grazing pigs or collecting firewood. The woodland diminished after Tudor times.
 

> > > B15 Edgbaston Harborne Road/ Highfield Road

This junction was known as Stubb Cross meaning a broken-off cross (Sparrry’s map 1718).

> > > B16 Rotton Park Gillott Road/ Rotton Park Road/ Wheatsheaf Road
Rotton Park Lodge, the keeper’s lodge of the de Birmingham deer park stood on a slight hill here; it may well have been moated. It was rebuilt in Tudor times and was the centre of working farm until early in the 20th century. No visible traces. There was a house of the name on this site until the early 20th century.
 

> > > B17 Harborne Harborne Park Road/ Old Church Road
Harborne House was at one time Harborne manor house; it is a 3-storey brick building built in the late 18th century for ironmaster Thomas Green. The original manor house site may have been that of Harborne Hall in Old Church Road/ Grove Lane. Harborne House became Bishops Croft 1911, residence of the bishops of Birmingham (Birmingham diocese was created 1905) and a chapel was built 1923 by A S Dixon. As it now appears there is a central 3-storey block of red brick with pedimented wings which were altered in the early 20th century. There is a typical Birmingham tuscan doorcase. It is still the Bishop of Birmingham’s residence; largely Georgian this is a Grade II Listed building. BSMR
 

> > > B20 Handsworth Slack Lane/ Oxhill Road
Handsworth Old Town Hall is a cruck-framed building of 3 bays each divided by a cruck truss. Cruck-framing was an old technique of building of which few examples survive in the Birmingham area. It involved sawing a tree, usually oak, lengthways and leaning the two halves against each other to form an arch. The Handsworth Town Hall dates from before 1500 and served as village jail and workhouse. In the 17th century a brick chimney was built, some external plasterwork was infilled with brick and the first floor was constructed within the building.

Due for demolition it was bought by Birmingham Archaeological Society, modernised to form two separate dwellings and given to the City in 1947. One of the dwellings subsequently became a museum managed by Handsworth Local History Society. It name has no connection with a town hall in the modern sense; rather it means ‘the hall at the old town’. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B20 Handsworth Hamstead Road
Handsworth pinfold/ pound for stray livestock stood opposite St Mary’s Church on the site formerly occupied by the church school.
 

> > > B23 Stockland Green/ Witton Brookvale Road/ George Road
Witton Hall, a 3-storey red-brick manor house built c1730 by the Allestree family of Yardley, much remodelled in the 19th century stands at the north end of Brookvale Park. It was a private school in 1850 and Home for the Aged from 1907 until at least 1959. There have been many extensions and internal alterations. The manor dates back to Domesday and it may be that an earlier manor house stood on this site. Grade A Locally Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B24 Erdington/ Birchfield Bromford Lane/ Bromford Crescent
The Old Green Man nicknamed The Lad in the Lane and so-renamed after renovation 1971 but soon reverting to its original name, has timbers dating from 1306 and is allegedly one of the oldest inns in continuous use in England. It is cruck-framed and largely 14th-/ 15th-century though with 16th-century additions and alterations and extensions from c1930. Both parliamentary and royalist troops are said to have stayed here during the Civil War. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B24 Erdington Greenside Road/ Grange Road
Archaeological traces were found of post holes from an oval timber hut presumably with a thatched roof. It had a central support post and measured c5m x c3m. The floor was of beaten clay brought in for the purpose. It may have been a house but its purpose is unknown. It is the type of building made of natural materials by people for thousands of years. Usually little trace survives other than marks in the soil, so this is a remarkable find in an urban area.
 

> > > B24 Erdington/ Pype Hayes Bowcroft Grove/ Chester Road

In the Middle Ages the Earl of Warwick who was lord of Sutton manor provided a stone cottage, Bow Bearers Lodge for two retainers to escort travellers across Sutton Chase which was a desolate and dangerous area renowned for robbers. The lodge survived until it was demolished 1828; Bowcroft Grove is on the site of a field called Bow Bearers Croft.

> > > B24 Erdington/ Pype Hayes Chester Road/ Eachelhurst Road
The present Pype Hayes Hall/ Pype Hayes House in Pype Hayes Park, a sub-manor of Erdington was built before 1670 by Sir Harvey Bagot. It was still occupied in 1908 but was bought by Birmingham City Council 1919 when the park was converted into a public park and the house into a convalescent home. Used as city council offices and much altered, it is essentially Stuart in appearance. The original house, a central block with gabled cross wings, was timber-framed, but was altered and stuccoed in the late 18th century; the front of the house has 13 small gables. The pedimented porch with tuscan columns dates from the mid-18th century, there are 19th- and 20th-century additions. Inside early-17th-century panelling survives and 18th-century staircase. Grade II Listed.
Ridge and furrow evidence of a (?medieval) open field can still be seen nearby. BSMR
 

> > > B25 Yardley Church Road
Yardley Old Grammar School/ Yardley Grammar School/ Yardley Trust School in St Edburgha’s churchyard was the 15th-century church house, Grade II* Listed Building BSMR. Rebuilt 1512; by the late 16th century the long 2-storey timber-framed building was a school until 1909 it was replaced by Worcestershire County Council with the school further along Church Road. Windows and doors were restored during the 20th-century and the interior modernised, but the 15th-century roof remains visible.
Nos.422-424 adjoining to the rear are the Schoolmaster’s House 1732; previous schoolmasters had lived above the school.

Yardley churchyard was cleared of gravestones 1959; one remaining is in the south-east corner that of schoolmaster James Chell.
Yardley stocks (last used 1852) and combined whipping post stood outside the church wall to the right of the south gate until the 19th century with a small lock-up alongside.
Church Road by the church is part of Old Yardley Conservation Area and was pedestrianised in the 1970s.
 

> > > B25 Yardley Church/ Church Terrace
The site of No.451 Church Farm/ Tile House Farm is likely to be an original Anglo-Saxon site possibly dating back 1200 years. It was given to Yardley Charity Trust by local tilemaker Robert Robyns. Present buildings are Victorian: the cowhouse is c1820 but built around the timber frame of an earlier building, the barn with its central high doorway is 1848 and has evidence of the threshing floor; wagon house 1853; farmhouse rebuilt 1837; stable built using an old pair of crucks includes a pigeon loft; the Smithy still in use as a smithy 1980, though most work is done in a late-20th-century building. All outbuildings restored 1979.
 

> > > B26 Yardley Yew Tree Lane
Yardley House belonged to the Minshull family, later the Flavells documented 1465; the Flavells sold the estate to Mitchells & Butlers brewery 1919 and the Yew Tree public house was built in the grounds. The house was lived in by the Bosworths until demolition 1930. No visible evidence.
 

> > > B27 Acocks Green Warwick Road/ Woodcock Lane
The site of the Acocks family home. John Acok is recorded 1420, and the last house on the site from c1649 was demolished in the mid-20th century. No visible evidence.

> > > B27/ B28 Acocks Green/ Hall Green Fox Hollies Road/ Fox Green Crescent
Fox Hollies Hall/ Foxhollies was a medieval assart on land belonging to Maxstoke Priory; the estate was acquired by the Fox family 1649. It became an inn and entertainment centre before 1860 when it was bought and lavishly rebuilt 1869 by the Walker family in stuccoed brick Victorian italianate style possibly around the original building with stables, kennels, other outbuildings and lodge. The hall was last occupied by Colonel Zaccheus Walker IV who sold the estate to Birmingham City Council for housing c1920; after his death 1930 the hall was demolished and some of the surrounding park maintained as Curtiss Gardens where part of the gateposts to the hall remain facing Fox Hollies Road. No visible evidence.

 

> > > B28 Hall Green/ Robin Hood The Bridle Path/ Solihull Lane

Stillfield House near Pembroke Croft was a medieval assart. In the 17th century known as Steelfields it was owned but not lived in by the Grevis family of Moseley Hall.

> > > B28 Hall Green/ Robin Hood Robin Hood Lane/ Baldwins Lane

A croft (enclosed field) here was called Conygre meaning rabbit warren. The soil here is sandy (note Sandy Hill Road) and ideal rabbit territory; rabbit warrens were maintained as an important food resource.

> > > B28 Yardley Wood Priory Road opposite Nethercote Gardens
Believed to be the site of Colebrook Priory. No visible evidence.
 

> > > B30 Bournville Maple Road/ Sycamore Road
Minworth Greaves Manor was a 14th-century cruck-framed cottage brought from B76 Minworth Kingsbury Road and the wooden frame and roof trusses re-erected here 1929-32. The third bay with the gallery is modern. It is a public museum owned by Bournville Village Trust and Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B31 Northfield Church Road/ Church Hill
The Great Stone Inn stands opposite Northfield Church and next to the old Village Pound (Grade II Listed) for stray farm animals. The pub is named after a glacial erratic boulder from north Wales that now stands in the pound (before the 1950s it was on the corner of Church Hill/ Church Road). Internally it is a late medieval timber-framed hall, altered in the 17th century and facaded in brick in the 18th century. It was extended in the 19th century and modified internally by the brewery in the 1970s. Although of medieval origin the pub has a Georgian appearance. Grade II Listed. BSMR.

Northfield Old Village Conservation Area consists of parts or all of Church Hill, Church Road, Norton Close, Rectory Road. The significance of the surviving village centres of Harborne, Kings Norton, Northfield and Yardley was recognised when they were designated in the city’s second batch of conservation areas 1969. They were incidentally preserved when the old roads were realigned as turnpikes to bypass the narrow congested lanes of the village centre in the 18th century.

> > > B31 Northfield/ Turves Green Cressage Avenue/ Willetts Road
Digbeth Farm is recorded in the possession of Agnes Baker 1424 and known as Bakers Place. The farmhouse was vacant by 1935 and in 1947 the City Council bought c20 000ha of farmland including Digbeth Farm whose buildings were demolished c1950. On the farmland were built Willetts Road, Harpers Road, Cressage Avenue, Centenary Way, Purslow Grove and Adstone Grove.

 

> > > B32 Quinton Redhall Road
The site of Redhall Grange, a farming estate run by lay brothers belonging to Halesowen Abbey, recorded as the Convent of Hales in the Domesday Book 1086. No visible evidence.

 

> > > B33 Lea Village/ Garretts Green Lea Hall Road/ Garretts Green Lane (south-west corner)

The Lea later Bloomers Farm was probably built as a medieval assart at a time of expanding population c1300.

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chester Road
Castle Bromwich Post Office remains of a row of medieval cruck-framed cottages. It has a later extension on the front but the cruck-frame can be seen at the side. The post office is believed to have had the first telephone outside London so that Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli could maintain contact during frequent visits to Castle Bromwich Hall.
 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chester Road (east side)
Castle Bromwich deserted village - Chester Road led down Mill Hill from the church where was found the site of an early medieval village along the road to the Tame ford. Most of the site has been destroyed by 20th-century road building. BSMR
 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chester Road
Whateley Green was the site of the medieval pound for stray farm animals; a map of 1864 still shows the pound as well as stocks and a whipping post.

 

> > > B38 Kings Norton Westhill Road/ Kings Norton Park
Kingsuch Grange recorded in the 16th century and still a residence 1865, was originally a grange run by lay brothers of Bordesley Abbey Redditch. No visible evidence. BSMR

 

> > > B38 Kings Norton The Green
Kings Norton Green is within Kings Norton Conservation Area: also all or part of Back Road, Bird Cage Walk, Pershore Road South, Redditch Road, St Nicholas Gardens, Westhill Road. The significance of the surviving village centres of Harborne, Kings Norton, Northfield and Yardley was recognised when they were designated in the city’s second batch of conservation areas 1969. They were incidentally preserved when the old roads were realigned as turnpikes to bypass the narrow congested lanes of the village centre in the 18th century.
The Green is the site of Kings Norton Mop Fair held since the 16th century on the first Monday of October. Originally a hiring fair, it attracted a variety of stalls and entertainments which still continue. (A cattle market was held at the corner of Wharf Road and Pershore Road South.)

Former Hirons Bakery (until c1990 - now a general grocery store) is a late 15th-century timber-framed house. It has a close-studded timber gable behind a rounded brick frontage removed in the late 1990s. There must have been a number of others like it round Kings Norton Green; excavation has revealed post holes and beam trenches of medieval timber-framed buildings nearby as well as large amounts of pottery. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B38 Kings Norton The Green/ Back Road
In St Nicholas churchyard close by the Green is Kings Norton Old Grammar School/ Kings Norton Grammar School. This a 2-storey building, the upper storey of which is early 15th-century timber-framed; the brick ground floor and central projecting porch (brick below, timber-framed above) is early 17th-century. This may originally have been the priest’s house of St Nicholas’ Church, or the church house ie. parish meeting room, but could well have been a guild hall. It may originally have been a chantry chapel open to the rafters from the ground floor. There is an unusual gothic wooden traceried window at the east end which may pre-date the whole building. The ground floor was rebuilt on stone plinths in brick in the 16th century and is therefore more recent than the first floor; the large chimney is of the same date. 17th-century wooden panelling in the upstairs room. The external staircase was built c1910; the fireplaces were remade in the early 20th-century in arts&crafts style.

In 1344 Edward III agreed to William Paas’s request to support a chantry of the Virgin Mary at Kings Norton Church; the grammar school may have originated at this time. It is mentioned in Edward VI’s 1549 survey of colleges and chantries. In Henry VIII’s reign Henry Saunders was paid a £10 annual stipend as schoolmaster here; he taught 120 pupils, among them the son of local nailer Robert Avenon who subsequently walked to London where he prospered, became Lord Mayor and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.

The grammar school became a national school but closed 1875 due to inadequate accommodation and playground (the churchyard); the children were housed in temporary accommodation until the new school on Pershore Road South opened 1878.

The building was given to St Nicholas’ Church 1914 when it was restored; again restored 1951. Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade II* Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B38 Kings Norton The Green
Also on Kings Norton Green is The Saracens Head, a late 15th-century timber-framed bailiff’s house and manorial court which adjoins St Nicholas’ churchyard to the south. It may stand on the site of an earlier manor house. It was extended in the 16th century but the oldest part which faces the churchyard dates back to 1450. Queen Henrietta Maria, lord of Kings Norton manor and wife of Charles I stayed here during the Civil War 10 July 1643 with 6000 soldiers camped on the Green en route with weapons from Holland via Bridlington to the King at Oxford; the room in the Saracen’s Head nearest the churchyard is known as the Queen’s Room where Henrietta Maria is believed to have slept.

The Saracens Head was an inn from at least the 18th century when most of the windows were altered. The north wing is original 15th-century, the south wing was rebuilt in the late 19th century as a parish hall. The Saracens Head given by the brewery to St Nicholas’ Church 1930 for use as parish offices and meeting rooms. Listed building. BSMR

 

> > > B38 Primrose Hill Meadowsweet Avenue
Primrose Hill Farm/ Hole Farm is a late 15th-century timber-framed farmhouse with 20th-century brickwork. Excavation has unearthed medieval pottery. The farm is Grade II* Listed, the barn Grade II. BSMR
 

> > > B38 Walkers Heath Walkers Heath Road/ Druids Heath Lane
Moundsley Hall was a timber-framed manor house built before 1521 and was enclosed in brick in the 19th century. It was demolished c1939 and a new house built east of the original site. The late 19th-century Moundsley Lodge survives and is Grade II Listed BSMR
 

> > > B45 Rednal Kendal Rise Road/ Kendal Avenue

The Mansion House was bought 1869 with its farmland and farm known as the Colmers opposite the present Colmers Farm School by William Summerfield of Westminster Farm Frankley. The Mansion House may have been the successor of the manor house of the manor of Colmers about which very little is known. This site and the Colmers were sold for housing development after 1928.

> > > B45 Rednal Lickey Road

Running along the west side of Lickey Road between Leach Green Lane past Edgewood Road is a medieval hedge estimated to be c700 years old.

> > > B72 Sutton Coldfield Town Centre High Street
The Three Tuns public house is a late-18th-century building which still retains earlier foundations and cellars: Henry VII is said to have stayed here en route to the Battle of Bosworth, Oliver Cromwell is reputed to have met his officers here after the Battle of Worcester, Joseph Priestley stayed here after the 1791 Birmingham Riots. Sculptor William Woodington was born here; he carved some of the bas-relief at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square London. Grade II Listed.
 

> > > B72 Wylde Green/ Sutton Coldfield Wylde Green Road
Wincelle/ Wincinelle House is an early-15th-century two-storey timber-framed house brought here from Wiggins Hill 1910 by Walter Wilkinson owner of New Hall Mill. Wincinelle/ Winchinelle is the Domesday name for Wiggins Hill. BSMR
 

> > > B73 Sutton Town Centre Coleshill Street
One mid-18th-century house is built round a medieval structure, another early 18th-century house has late 15th-century sandstone remaining in the side wall. BSMR
 

> > > B73 Sutton Coldfield Town Centre Driffold

The name Driffold derives from ‘drive fold’ and was the site of the medieval fold where animals left to pasture on Sutton Chase were gathered and identified.

> > > B73 Sutton Town Centre Manor Drive
Sutton Manor House documented as early as 1315, was built by the Earls of Warwick, demolished c1510 and the timber frame reconstructed at Bradgate Park near Leicester. It is thought that Bishop Vesey had the stones for Water Orton bridge (Grade II Listed) and Curdworth bridge over the River Tame both of which still stand. The hall was rebuilt early 16th century, in poor condition by 1762 and later demolished.

By 1860 a new house was built. Grade II Listed. BSMR. A square icehouse was still there 1906 but no visible signs remain.

Wyndley Lane was the access road to the deer park, and until Town Gate was built 1826 was the only traffic entrance to the Sutton Park.
 

> > > B72 Sutton Coldfield Mill Street

Sutton stocks of unknown date stood at Mill Street/ High Street and were later kept in the yard of the Council House built 1859; when the new Council House in King Edwards Square opened 1902 the stocks were transferred there and after 1973 to Blakesley Hall museum.

> > > B73 Sutton Town Centre/ Maney Birmingham Road/ Manor Hill
The Old Smithy at Maney Corner is to the rear a 14th-century cruck-framed cottage with to the front 15th-, 17th-, 19th- and early 20th-century additions and alterations. It was originally the blacksmith’s house whose forge was at Church Road/ Maney Road corner. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B76 Sutton Coldfield/ Wylde Green Wylde Green Road (east end)
The barn range of New Shipton Farm is 15th-century c1435 with 18th- and 19th- century additions. It is a rare survival with 5 pairs of cruck blades forming the frame and internally very impressive. Grade II* Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B76 Wishaw/ Sutton Coldfield Grove Lane
An important medieval survival of a substantial house probably of the early 14th century, The Grove is cruck-framed, extended and rebuilt around the timber frame in the 17th century and altered in the 19th century. The exterior is brick and the crucks only visible inside. This is Sutton’s oldest building. Grade II* Listed. BSMR

 

NOTE

Prior to the Black Death c1350 there was an increasing population and expansion into previously uncultivated areas. In the Forest of Arden there was a customary squatter’s right: anyone had the right to live on common land if he could put up a house overnight and have smoke rising by sunrise; he could enclose as much land as far as he could throw an axe.

 

Assarts were grander than this: they consisted of a house raised and land cleared with the permission of the manorial lord for a low rent on ‘waste’, uncleared land for which the lord was previously receiving little if any revenue. Many moated sites and other farms were set up in this way and many survived into the 19th-century.

GAZETTEER

Churches with Visible Medieval Evidence

These churches largely represent the ancient manors and parishes of Birmingham.

There is reason to think that some of these churches may have Anglo-Saxon predecessors, although Birmingham was a borderland area with a small sparse population. Such churches in Birmingham would likely have been of wood and thatch and so there is no archaeological evidence to support this.
 

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)
 

> > > B5 City Centre Bull Ring
St Martin-in-the-Bull Ring, Birmingham Parish Church
St Martin’s was built by 1300; in view of the fact that Birmingham Manor House was mentioned in the 1166 Market Charter an earlier church is likely. It is not known whether there was a church here in Anglo-Saxon times. When the new town of Birmingham was developed (See Medieval Birmingham - a new town.) as a result of the granting of the Market Charter it is possible that Peter de Birmingham also moved his manor house to the Moat Lane site near his new town and also built St Martin’s as new church close by. Where the original Anglo-Saxon site was, if indeed it was elsewhere, is not known.
 

13th-century masonry is visible built in to the 19th-century restoration of the baptistery. Tombs with damaged reclining stone figures are believed to be those of the lords of the manor of Birmingham, Sir William de Bermingham c1325, Sir Fulk de Bermingham c1350 and Sir John de Bermingham c1380.

The eroded sandstone building was encased in brick 1692, tower and spire were restored 1830-35 and the rest of the church demolished 1872, rebuilt and enlarged by J A Chatwin. The church suffered bomb damage 1941 and was restored 1956-7. The crypt was excavated by Birmingham Museum 1974 and found to be two-thirds full of disarticulated human bones. St Martin’s is known as ‘the Mother Church of Birmingham’.

 

> > > B6 Aston Witton Road/ Aston Hall Road
St Peter & St Paul, Aston Parish Church
Steven Bassett (Midland History 25 2000) believes that Aston church may have been a minster church at the centre of a large Anglo-Saxon land unit. The medieval parish of Aston was certainly a large one with chapelries at Castle, Bromwich, Deritend, Erdington, Little Bromwich (Ward End), Water Orton and Yardley. However, the name Aston means a settlement or land unit east of another. Bassett believes that this may be have been Harborne whose Anglo-Saxon extent included Smethwick, West Bromwich and the Barrs, thus making it west of Aston. Aston may have been a sub-minster in the control of the minster church of Harborne in the Anglo-Saxon period. A priest at Aston is mentioned in the Domesday Book, supporting the probability of Anglo-Saxon foundation.

The earliest archaeological evidence is 14th-century stonework which was been reset in the south wall in the 19th-century restoration; the tower is 15th-century. There are many monuments including that of an unknown knight 1306, Sir Thomas de Erdington died 1433, his wife 1417, a number of Holtes including Sir Thomas died 1654 who built Aston Hall, Sir Edward Devereux died 1622 who built Castle Bromwich Hall and Sir John Bridgeman died 1710 also of Castle Bromwich Hall. Most of the church was rebuilt 1879-90, the south aisles in 1908 and so little survives of the medieval fabric. Grade II* Listed.

 

> > > B15 Edgbaston Church Road
St Bartholomew, Edgbaston Parish Church
The church, a chapel of Harborne was in existence by 1279 rebuilt in the late 15th century and stone in the north and west walls of the north aisle survive from that time. The lower part of the tower is early 16th century.
The church was occupied by parliamentary troops during the Civil War and badly damaged. Six rebuildings between 1721 and 1889 have left little of the medieval fabric.
 

> > > B17 Harborne Old Church Road
St Peter, Harborne Parish Church
Steven Bassett (Midland History 25 2000) believes that Harborne church may have been a minster church at the centre of a large Anglo-Saxon land unit which included Smethwick, Handsworth, West Bromwich and the Barrs as well as the large parish of Aston which itself included Castle, Bromwich, Deritend, Erdington, Little Bromwich (Ward End), Water Orton and Yardley. It probably originally included the manor of Birmingham.

The earliest archaeological remains are the lower part of the tower from of the 14th century building; the rest of the tower is 15th century. The majority of the church was rebuilt in red sandstone in 1867. An east window commemorates Birmingham artist David Cox 1783-1859. Grade II Listed.
 

> > > B20 Handsworth Hamstead Road
St Mary, Handsworth Parish Church was mentioned in 1200. The lower part of the 15th-century tower is late 12th-century. A 14th-century piscina survives and an early 16th-century window in the north chapel. The porch is early 18th-century.
The church was altered and extended in 1820 and the Watt chapel built with further extension 1876-80. There are memorials to Boulton, Watt and Murdock.

 

> > > B25 Yardley Church Road
St Edburgha, Yardley Parish Church is a substantial medieval church enlarged but still with much of its early appearance; first mentioned 1220, though possibly a century older. A south doorway and the south wall of the chancel survive from the 13th century; this poorer quality masonry may well be of very local stone - an outcrop of red sandstone was to be found at Glebe Farm at the north end of the parish. Much of the church is built in decorated style c1290-1370; the high chancel arch is 14th-century; at this time north and south transepts were added and the chancel extended. The porch is of carved oak and is 15th-century as are the embattled west tower with its large sandstone blocks and the crocketted spire by master mason Henry Ulm; the north aisle also dates from this time. On the wall at the west end are many grooves believed to have been made by sharpening of arrows - Edward IV made archery practice compulsory on Sundays and feast days to guard against the threat of invasion; all men aged 16-60 should own a longbow of their own height and each township was required to set up archery butts or targets; the statute was revived by Henry VIII 1543 for fear of French invasion and fell into abeyance in the 17th century. In the tower arch the tomb of Thomas Est and his wife d.1462; in the chancel brass memorial of Isabel Wheler d.1598.

Yardley was one of the properties granted to Catherine of Aragon in her divorce settlement with Henry VIII: a reminder of her first marriage to Prince Arthur is the Tudor north door of the above which is carved the pomegranate of Aragon and the Tudor rose. After her death Yardley reverted to the king.

The chancel was again lengthened 1890, a north-east vestry added and the south transept partly rebuilt. A new roof was built 1926 supported by steel girders but with the ancient beams bolted beneath them. New stone courses were set on the top of the aisle walls with corbels with the two oldest spellings of Yardley’s name, the diocesan, royal and family arms, and the pomegranate and rose.

Inside is the panelled pulpit 1627, stained glass Last Supper by Hardman 1892 in the west window; two flagons 1651, paten and chalice 1727. In the chancel is a notably elaborate monument of Rev Dr Henry Greswolde d.1700 showing Greswolde and his wife at prayer within a curtained cave and medallions of their 11 children framing the recess. A marble vase by Peter Hollins also in the chancel commemorates Edmund Greswolde d.1863; Edward Est d.1703 relief bust in the south transept; Job Marston d.1701 has a black tablet surrounded by cherubs on the north side of the chancel arch. 8 bells.
The church is surrounded by a graveyard which was extended to the north 1833.
This is a Grade I Listed building.
 

> > > B26 Sheldon Church Road/ Ragley Drive
St Giles, Sheldon Parish Church
The nave has a fine carved roof of 1330, the north aisle was added c1350. The tower was built by Henry Ulm 1461 and the nave extended; the south porch is early 16th-century.

The nave and chancel were rebuilt 1867. However, this is substantially a good medieval survival.
 

> > > B31 Northfield Rectory Road/ Old Church Hill
St Laurence (Lawrence), Northfield Parish Church
A priest is mentioned in Northfield in Domesday Book, therefore an Anglo-Saxon is likely. A Norman doorway c1170 has been reset in the north aisle and can be seen from outside the church; this is a rare Norman survival in Birmingham. The 13th century chancel replaced an earlier building and is complete and almost unaltered, the south aisle was added in the 14th century, the roof raised in the 15th century. Hannoverian arms hang over the tower arch.
In the 19th century the north aisle was built in 14th century style. A good medieval survival. Grade I Listed.

 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Old Chester Road
St Mary & St Margaret, the chapel of Castle Bromwich Hall, was a Norman stone chapel which is believed still to exist within the brick-encased chancel. This chapel-of-ease of Aston church, is first recorded in documentary evidence 1175 (BIBLIOGRAPHY Chattock 1884). Evidence of the original sandstone Norman chapel, now encased in the brick chancel, can be seen in Beighton’s drawing (Dugdale 1730) and is believed to be visible around the external base of the chancel of the present building; an opening wooden panel concealing the aumbry on the north wall of the sanctuary reveals a portion of wall made entirely of sandstone blocks.

It was greatly extended to almost its present size during the Middle Ages (15th century?) as a large timber-framed building much like a medieval hall.

The church was rebuilt 1726-1731 in English renaissance style and is one of only some 170 of 8000 pre-Victorian churches nationally to survive in its largely unrestored state. Whereas most squire’s pews, vicar’s pews, box pews, galleries, tiered pulpits, round-arched windows and ceilings were removed in the 19th century, Castle Bromwich has survived largely intact. However, when rebuilt 1726 the timber frame of the medieval chapel was not destroyed but encased in brick. Plaster pillars in the church conceal medieval oak supports and it is possible to view the complete medieval oak roof which is still in place. Such encasement was widely practised on domestic buildings especially in town centres to modernise their appearance in Georgian times, but its use on a church building is unique in Birmingham and extremely rare nationally. Inside the roof space above the chancel arch can also be seen the medieval chancel arch and evidence of the rood screen; the roof timbers are reinforced at the west end suggesting the position of the original bell tower. The chapel became a parish church 1878.

Grade 1 Listed
 

> > > B38 Kings Norton The Green/ Back Lane
St Nicholas, Kings Norton Parish Church
Two reset windows in the chancel remain of the church’s Norman origin; these are rare 12th-century survivals in Birmingham. The church was rebuilt in the late 13th- and again in the 14th century in sandstone and has a 15th-century tower by Henry Ulm and south porch.
The roof was raised 1615 and the north aisle added 1872 using old materials. Grade I Listed.

 

> > > B72 Sutton Coldfield Town Centre Coleshill Street
Holy Trinity, Sutton Parish Church
Early 13th-century plinths and buttresses in the lower part of the east wall of the chancel can be seen of the medieval building. The tower is 15th century; Bishop Vesey added the north and south chapels, nave, aisles and porch c1533.
The nave collapsed 1759, was rebuilt and the roof was raised 1874-79, the outer north aisle and vestries were added and the church extensively restored 1929. Grade A Local Listing.

GAZETTEER

Medieval Deer Parks and later

Deer parks existed in Anglo-Saxon times but were made viable by the introduction of fallow deer c1100 from Sicily; these were more manageable than native red deer. Parks became popular after the Norman Conquest and by 1200 every wealthy landowner had one. By 1300 there were over 3000 deer parks in England usually created in existing woodland. They were especially common in wooded areas such as the Forest of Arden. Creating a deer park required royal permission which had to be paid for and involved a great amount of labour digging ditches and building banks topped with palings or thorny hedges. Sometimes fenced compartments were made within the park to prevent new plantations and coppiced woodland from being eaten by deer. Parks were expensive to create and also to maintain. Towards the end of the Middle Ages they declined in popularity but were revived under Henry VIII and again in the 18th century by landscape gardeners such as Capability Brown.

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B5 City Centre/ Digbeth - Land south of Digbeth was Holme Park, north of Digbeth and east of Moor Street was Little Park, both belonging the manor of Birmingham.
 

> > > B8 Ward End Park was set up around Ward End Hall by John Bond a rich Coventry cloth merchant in 1512; it lay between the Wash Brook In Ward End Park, Wallbank, St Margarets Road and Bromford Lane.
 

> > > B6 Aston Park lay west of the present Aston Hall between Birchfield Road and Lichfield Road, Witton Lane and Victoria Road. It survived as parkland until sold for housing in the 19th century. Land immediately around Aston Hall is now a public park.
 

> > > B15 Harborne Metchley Park east of Metchley Lane belonged to the de Birmingham family.

 

> > > B16 Rotton Park - Rotton Park was a deer park belonging to the manor of Birmingham; the de Berminghams were absentee landlords and the park had fallen into decay by the 16th century. It was disparked before 1553. The bounds of the park were probably Dudley Road, Ladywood Middleway, Hagley Road, Sandon Road, and Shireland Brook - roughly Willow Avenue, Gilbert Road, Shenstone Road. (See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 66)

 

> > > B26 Sheldon

Land around Kents Moat was emparked by Sir Edward Digby during the 15th century. The hall had been demolished some 100 years previously.

> > > B74 Sutton Park - Land between the River Tame and Bourne Brook was a Royal Forest of the Mercian and later the Norman kings. In 1126 Henry I exchanged the Manor of Sutton for two manors in Rutland belonging to the Earl of Warwick. At the death of William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick 1298 the boundary of the Chase stretched along the River Tame from Salford Bridge via Perry Barr and Barr Beacon, then from the source of Bourne Brook north of Barr Beacon to its confluence with the River Tame near Drayton Manor, then back along the Tame to Salford Bridge. When Henry VIII granted Sutton Coldfield its royal charter of incorporation 1528 the land came to the corporation. Bishop Vesey used the land for the benefit of the Sutton poor but at his own expense emparked over 1000 hectares of Sutton Park roughly as it is today. Earthworks, banks and ditches, remain of park boundaries at Pool Hollies, Lower Nuthurst, Upper Nuthurst, west of Hollyhurst and also at Streetly Lane. (See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 89) BSMR
 

By 1300 there were deer parks at Handsworth, Weoley Castle and Yardley.
 

GAZETTEER

Medieval Fishponds (and later)
 

Using natural ponds and damming rivers to make fishponds must have been carried out from earliest times. Fish was an important source of protein especially in winter. Mill pools were used for fishing from Anglo-Saxon times until this century as were medieval moats. The following is a list of some likely medieval (or earlier) fishponds. There must have been many more and many subsequently.

> > > B6 Aston Ettington Road/ Prestbury Road - Warwickshire Great Pool on ‘Shire Brook’ (no surviving name - see Jones 1978)

> > > B6 Aston Aston Lane/ Witton Road - Staffordshire Pool on ‘Shire Brook’

> > > B6 Aston Trinity Road/ Witton Lane - Dovehouse Pool on ‘Shire Brook’ now the site of Aston Villa FC
> > > B6 Aston Holte Road - two pools near the old moated Aston Hall near the confluence with River Tame

 

> > > B11 Sparkbrook Golden Hillock Road/ Walford Road - Danford Lake on the Spark Brook, Golden Hillock Road being the dam. This pool to the east of the road was probably drained when a feeder was taken from the brook to supply the Warwick canal.

 

> > > B13 Wake Green/ Swanshurst Yardley Wood Road/ Swanshurst Lane - Coldbath Pool was a fishpond which survives on the west side of the road at the east end of Moseley Golf Course. The valley of Coldbath Brook/ Bulley Brook, which rises near the top of Cambridge Road in Kings Heath, was been dammed to make four main pools and some ponds. At 2½ hectares this was the largest, but has silted up to half that size. It was owned by the Grevises of Moseley until 1766 when John Taylor bought the lordship and lands. Moseley Golf Course bought part of the lakeside 1892 and the rest between 1902-1919. There is no public access to the lake.
> > > B13 Wake Green/ Swanshurst Yardley Wood Road/ Swanshurst Lane - Swanshurst Pool/ Grove Pool/ Moseley New Pool/ Swanshurst Slade Pool was made c1759 by Henry Giles as a fishpond by constructing an earth dam across the valley of a tiny brook which used to rise near the top of Brook Lane. A fish hatchery pond was dug beside the dam. The name 'Moseley' derives from the fact that it was the property of the Moseley family of Grevis. It was called 'New' Pool to distinguish it from three pools on adjacent Coldbath Brook. The 'Grove' is the clump of beech trees on the north bank. In the 1930s the dam collapsed and was rebuilt with a central outflow. From 1922 the 2 hectare pool and fields of Ivyhouse Farm have been Swanshurst Park, bought by the City from the Taylor family.

> > > B16 Bearwood Portland Road/ Ridgeway - fishpond on Shireland Brook, now a school playing field
> > > B16 Edgbaston Reservoir Road - Roach Pool (Ladywood Brook) now submerged under the canal feeder Edgbaston Reservoir belonged to the Birmingham manorial deer park, Rotton Park.

 

> > > B17 Rotton Park Bernard Road - hollow discernible on playing fields

 

> > > B18 Hockley Lodge Road/ Icknield Street - Little Hockley Pool on Ladywood Brook now gone
> > > B18 Hockley New Spring Street - fishpond on Ladywood Brook now gone
> > > B18 Hockley Spring Hill/ Ellen Street - fishpond now gone
> > > B18 Soho Factory Road - Hockley Great Pool (Hockley Brook aka. Aston Brook aka. River Bourn) between South Road and Park Road was made c1659 as a fishpond and only later used as a mill reservoir.
> > > B18 Winson Green Musgrave Road - fishpond east of Musgrave Road on Winson Green Brook now gone

 

> > > B26 Acocks Green/ South Yardley Clay Lane - possible Anglo-Saxon fishpond west of Clay Lane which was the dam. The Anglo-Saxon name for this area was Tenchlee, ‘tench (a type of fish) clearing’. A pool/ bog, Deep More, existed until Victorian times when it was used for sewage disposal and then as filled as a rubbish tip.

 

> > > B28 Yardley Wood Priory Road/ Coton Grove - Bamptons Pool which still exists was later used as additional water supply for Bach Mill. Priory Road crosses the pool dam.

 

> > > B29 Weoley Castle Alwold Road - There were fishponds at Weoley Castle one documented 1273; there is archaeological evidence of one east of the moat.

 

> > > B32 Frankley Church Hill - fishpond at Frankley Hall moated site

 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chester Road - 2 fishponds, one now infilled at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens.

 

> > > B45 Gannow Green Devon Road/ Boleyn Road - fishpond at Gannow Green Manor moated site

 

> > > B66 Smethwick Foundry Lane - Pig Mill Pool (on Shireland Brook and Hockley Brook aka. Aston Brook) was later used as a mill pool and is now the site of Black Patch Recreation Ground.

 

> > > B73 Sutton Coldfield Sutton Park - Wyndley Pool was one of the five pools built with expensive stone dams by the Earl of Warwick in the reign of King Henry V 1413-1422 and believed to be the oldest pool in the park.
> > > B74 Sutton Coldfield Sutton Park - Bracebridge Pool was made before 1419 specifically for bream and leased by Richard Earl of Warwick to Sir Ralph Bracebridge of Kingsbury as part of the manor of Sutton; it was bought by the Warden of Sutton Park from the Hartopp family with money from the sale of land to the North-Western Railway Company. A gothic-style cottage was rebuilt in the late 19th century, used as a tea house for many years sometimes known as the Boathouse, was reputedly originally a hunting lodge and visited by King Henry VII. Keepers Pool was built by John Holte, Keeper of Sutton Chase in the reign of King Henry VI 1422-1461; open-air baths were opened here 1887.
 

> > > B75 Reddicap Heath/ Sutton Coldfield Ox Leys Road - There are fish ponds at Langley Hall manor house built before 1300 visible from the nearby public footpath.

Medieval Watermills

Introduction
 

(For water- and windmills of other periods see Mills in the main A-Z Index.)

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY Victoria County History of Warwickshire 1964 Vol 7

and John Morris Jones The Waters of Birmingham and Local Rivers as Sources of Power.)
 

Although known to the Romans, the use of waterwheels was brought to this country by the Anglo-Saxons. Other than the use of human or animal labour this was the only type of power available. The earliest type of mill used a paddle wheel, set horizontally or, more usually, vertically in the stream. A timber frame beside the stream supported the wheel, the lower third of which was in the water and turned by its flow; this is known as an undershot wheel. There were early developments in the Anglo-Saxon period. Irregular water supply was controlled by building a weir. A dam of earth, reinforced with stone and timber might be built with a sluice supplying water to the wheel, and at the opposite end of the weir, a floodgate to release excess water. A millhouse might be built over the wheel which steadied its vibrations, provided dry storage for grain and flour a home for the miller. On all but the smallest streams, to avoid flooding, it became the practice to build the mill on a side channel and not on the river itself, the wheel being fed via leats or channels. Later, mill pools were built to ensure a more constant water supply.
 

Undershot wheels were only 50% efficient at best and needed a good flow of water. Overshot wheels could be 90% efficient and used relatively little water. They were turned by the weight of water falling from above into buckets on the far side of the wheel. However, there had to be decent a fall with a wheel of greater diameter than the fall. This is not a problem in hilly country but in the Birmingham area a contour channel was needed over a mile long to provide such a head. At the mill site a pool was built banked up above the ground level thus retaining the maximum fall. The mill was built against the end of the pool dam and the water flowed from the bottom of the pool down a chute to the wheel. The water at the bottom of the wheel might be lower than the river level at this point, and was discharged into a channel which fed back into the river further downstream. Undershot wheels were therefore the usual installation in this area.
 

Known from Tudor times but developed in the 18th century especially by John Smeaton, breast wheels were turned by the water falling into the buckets just below the horizontal axis so that the wheel turned against the flow. A smaller fall was required, they were economical of water, produced adequate power, and did not need leats measured in miles. Many mills were rebuilt in the 18th century to accommodate breast-wheel installations.
 

Watermills were almost invariably owned by the lord of the manor who obliged and charged tenants to use it. All early mills were built exclusively to grind corn. The mill also provided a source of fresh fish, especially eels, which were caught in the weir traps or mill race.
 

From the Middle Ages, with the increasing importance of wool production as against wheat, some mills were turned over to fulling ie. washing and pre-shrinking woollen cloth by wooden mallets; this was the first industrial process to be mechanised. It had previously been done by foot and was known as walking, hence some mills were referred to as walk mills.
 

Coal mining and iron production developed around the headwaters of the River Tame. Ore was smelted in small smithies using charcoal with water-powered bellows providing the blast. However, charcoal and water shortages caused smiths to migrate further downstream before the end of the 14th century and into the 15th. The introduction of the water-powered hammer here was relatively late - they had been used in the Weald from the 12th century, but reached the Birmingham area only in the mid-16th century. By the end of that century watermills were being used for iron processes, to power blast furnace bellows smelting iron ore with charcoal, and at finery forges to power tilt hammers which reduced bulky pigs of cast iron into iron bars. The bars were cut into rods at slitting mills and sold on to cutlers and nailmakers. In a number of instances where watermills had been turned over to industrial use corn-grinding windmills were built nearby.

From the 17th century many mills were used for sharpening blades which required little water and could be done on small streams, also drawing wire, grinding gun barrels and other industrial uses.

Much industrial development in Georgian times was concentrated in the town or just outside it, but in the rural hinterland many corn mills were also converted to industry and new mills were built.

During the 19th century some watermills supplemented the unreliable water supply with steam power; initially engines were used simply to pump water back to the millpond for re-use. As steam power became more efficient it was used to replace the water power to operate the machinery. Some mills ceased to use water power altogether.

The slump in arable farming due to American wheat imports in the 1880s, the invention of roller-mills, the construction of steam mills at ports, and the spread of building across farmland, closed nearly all the watermills by 1910. The last watermills ceased commercial operations c1930, in some cases after continuous use of the site for more than a thousand years. Some mills subsequently became the focus of industrial development and are still industrial sites today.

GAZETTEER

Medieval Watermills

(For water- and windmills of other periods see Mills in the main A-Z Index.)

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B5 Edgbaston Edgbaston Road
Edgbaston Mill (River Rea), site opposite the County Cricket Ground, is recorded as a corn mill 1231 until c1880. Known as Averns Mill from the early 19th century it suffered from lack of water due to other mills upstream. The last known tenant was John Drew 1870s-1880s after which he moved to Ward End Mill to make the self-raising flour for which he became well-known. The Georgian mill building still stood 1896 but has since been demolished. A Victorian mill house stood at the nearby tennis club until c1990. Ordnance Survey 25 inch map 1890 Sheet 53. No visible remains. BSMR (Photograph in Hampson 1999 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

 

> > > B8/ B33 Alum Rock/ Stechford Cotterills Lane/ Station Road
Stichford Mill/ Stechford Mill (River Cole) on the north side of the Cole above Stechford Bridge was first recorded as a corn mill 1249 owned by Giles de Erdington. It was rebuilt and the pool enlarged in the 18th-century when blades were ground here. It survived until c1840 being finally used for paper making. Balancing lakes for flood prevention may reflect mill watercourses. The mill is not shown on 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps, but the mill house survived until 1929.. BSMR

 

> > > B11 Hay Mills/ Greet James Road/ Mill Road
Hay Mill (River Cole) was here from at least 1495 grinding corn; it was used to blade grinding probably during the Civil War until c1830; Red Hill windmill probably replaced it for grinding corn. After 1830 the mill was demolished and replaced c100m north of the old site by a larger mill with a larger pool for wire drawing. Machinery from Langley Mill was brought here for the purpose. Wire for the transatlantic cable was made here 1863 by Webster & Horsfall who also had a virtual European monopoly on high-tensile piano wire. The works expanded along the river; steam power was increasingly used to supplement water power which nonetheless was still in use for some processes until the 1920s. The 1830 mill building had been demolished by 1900. When the Tyseley Refuse Works was built during the 1920s most of the watercourses were destroyed, although traces of the original millpool survive. BSMR

 

> > > B13 Wake Green/ Swanshurst Yardley Wood Road/ Swanshurst Lane
Lady Mill, Greethurst, Holtes or Coldbath Mill (Coldbath Brook aka Bulley Brook or Greethurst Brook) stood east of Yardley Wood Road and was in use 1437 until c1830, from the 17th century for wire-drawing. The name Lady Mill may refer to St Mary’s Church Moseley. The pool was west of Yardley Wood Road and east of Coldbath Pool; a fishpond survives on the west side of the road at the east end of Moseley Golf Course. When the corn mill went over to wire drawing a post mill was built on the knoll downstream. No visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B13/ B28 Greet/ Springfield Stratford Road/ Sarehole Road
Greet Mill (River Cole) was the manorial corn mill belonging to Greet Hall from at least 1261 until 1800; during the Civil War it was used for blade grinding and later steel rolling. It was rebuilt 1775, and rolled steel in its last days. The mill was out of use by 1843 probably due to lack of water; there were four other mills upstream. The mill was demolished before 1880.

Remains of the mill were found when the River Cole and the millrace were restored to a single channel 1913 for a new bridge to take the trams into Hall Green; no visible remains. Owners of the mill included the Holtes of Aston, the Greswolds of Shaftmoor, the Grevises of Moseley Hall and the Taylors of Bordesley Hall, lords of Yardley. Although not at Greet, this manorial mill was called Greet Mill after Greet manor house at the Cole ford on the Warwick Road. BSMR

 

> > > B23 Short Heath/ Perry Common
A mill documented on Hawthorn Brook 1317 is probably Over Mill later Fitters Mill mentioned 1582 as a blade mill. No visible remains.
Other mills on Hawthorn Brook, precise sites unknown, were Nether Mill later Lanes Mill c1533 a blade, corn and iron mill, another mill formerly for blades later for corn, and Dwarfholes Mill which had gone by 1760. The others were gone by 1887. No visible remains.
Hawthorn Brook runs from B44 Kingstanding/ New Oscott Kings Road/ Finchley Road between B23 Dovedale Road and Turfpits Lane south to Witton Lakes and into the River Tame.

 

> > > B25 Yardley/ Bordesley Green Millhouse Road opposite Mintern Road
Wash Mill (River Cole) or Wodenmill/ Yardley Mill. In 1385 Richard Bradewell was the tenant who restored the timbered mill in return for a lowered rent; the buildings had probably suffered flood damage, a common problem. This was Yardley’s mill and until 1914 remained a twin-wheel corn mill. There was a triangular millpool covering over a hectare here fed by a half-mile leat from the River Cole upstream and taking in two small streams from Red Hill. By 1525 the mill was in decay although the pool was being rented for its fish. About 1750 the mill was rebuilt in brick with farm buildings alongside and ground corn into the early 20th century. The mill and farm were demolished in the late 1920s when the area was developed for municipal housing. After World War 2 the drained pool was infilled with rubble from city bomb sites; it was levelled 1957 and subsequently built over by Ksetrel Avenue. Wash derives from Anglo-Saxon gewaesc = ground that is washed over by water; Wodenmill ie. Wood Mill probably refers to a significant surviving stretch of nearby woodland. Ordnance Survey 25 inch map 1888 Sheet 49. No visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B28 Yardley Wood/ Solihull Lodge Brompton Pool Road/ Millside
Colebrook Priory Mill/ Bach Mill/ Bates Mill/ Bamptons Mill (Yardley Wood Brook, River Cole) first recorded 1495 probably belonging to Colebrook Priory which stood at Priory Road/ Nethercote Gardens junction. Priory Road was the dam of Bamptons Pool/ Bach Mill Pool originally a fishpond but later a reserve millpool when Yardley Wood Brook ran low. The mill was rebuilt in the 18th century, was a needle mill by 1843 and rebuilt in brick. It was again a corn mill from c1870 to c1919 when it closed. (See BIBLIOGRAPHY for photograph in Marks 1992) The pool was filled in and the mill demolished c1965 though parts of the leat leading to the pool can be traced. Ordnance Survey 25 inch map 1884 Sheet 64.

The name of Brompton Pool Road is a map misreading of Bampton. Surrounding and beyond the pool is Priory Fields nature reserve managed by Warwickshire Nature Conservation Trust. BSMR

 

> > > B28/ B90 Yardley Wood/ Haslucks Green Watwood Road/ Dunard Road/ Geoffrey Road
An ‘old mill’ (Shirley Brook) shown on Beighton’s map 1725 (Dugdale 1730); it probably ceased work not longer afterwards. The hollow of its pool may still be seen between the back gardens of Watwood Road, Geoffrey Road and Dunard Road; the 1843 tithe map names Pool Meadow here.

> > > B31 Northfield Hawkesley Mill Lane/ Steel Lane
Hawkesley Mill (River Rea), the top mill on the Rea, existed in 1255 and survived as a corn mill until c1890 by run by Richard Evans. No visible traces remain. Ordnance Survey 25 inch map 1882 Sheet 64. BSMR

 

> > > B35 Castle Vale Farnborough Road opposite Rhoose Croft
‘Berwood Mill’ - Berwood Hall moated manor house c1160 had a manorial mill probably on Ebrook/ Plantsbrook near its confluence with the River Tame. No visible remains.

 

> > > B38 Kings Norton Pershore Road South/ Camp Lane
Hurst Mill (River Rea) is recorded as Kings Norton manorial corn mill 1221 held by Roger Clarke and operated until 1930. In 1625 the mill was jointly owned by Thomas Whorwood and George Guest, the Guest family retaining ownership until the 18th century. The last mill house was built 1860 and the last owner was Thomas Priest 1920-1930; the pond was subsequently filled for river and road improvements and the buildings later demolished. This was probably the last mill in Birmingham to grind corn. A service station now stands on the site. No visible remains. BSMR (Good photographic evidence in Caswell 1997 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

 

> > > B42 Perry Barr Holford Drive
Holford Mill/ Holdford Mill/ Oldford Mill (River Tame) presumably started life as a corn mill, was a fulling mill as early as 1358, a hammer mill from 1591 and later a blade-grinding mill until 1855 when it was converted to gun-barrel boring. In 1956 part of the buildings were still in use as a store within the ICI works. Ordnance Survey 25 inch map 1884 Sheet 32. BSMR

 

> > > B42 Perry Perry Park
Holbrook Mill (Hol Brook) was a medieval fulling mill converted to an iron finery by 1538. It was rebuilt after a fire 1597 as a furnace for melting and casting iron using water-powered bellows. No visible remains. (See Botham’s map of Handsworth 1794 for Hol Brook mills.)

 

> > > B72 Sutton Coldfield Maney Upper Holland Road

Holland Mill (Plantsbrook/ East Brook/ Ebrook) was used from the mid-18th century for grinding gun barrels.

> > > B75 Falcon Lodge Sutton Coldfield Lindridge Road
Langley Mill (Langley Brook) was owned by Langley Hall, Ox Leys Road, which was owned by the De Bereford family 1298. The first record of the corn mill dates from 1604 when ownership of the pool was granted to Edward Pudsey of Langley Hall. A second pool was dug upstream 1697. By 1888 the mill buildings had disappeared but both pools and watercourses remain as nature reserves on the sewage works site. The mill appears on a John Snape estate map of 1776, Sutton Corporation survey map of 1811 and 1857 parish valuation map. BSMR

 

> > > B76 Minworth/ Water Orton Water Orton Lane
Minworth Mill (River Tame) ground corn here from the 14th to the late 19th century, from c1750 it was also used for boring gun barrels. The last known miller was George Warner in 1872. An industrial estate half a mile west of Water Orton Bridge now stands on the site but traces of watercourses are visible. BSMR

 

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GAZETTEER

Probable Medieval Windmills

(For water- and windmills of other periods see Mills in the main A-Z Index.)

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FORWARD to Post-medieval Windmills

Windmills for grinding corn and are found in England from the 12th century and by their size and high position would have been significant local landmarks. The earliest were post mills which consisted of a movable wooden structure holding the sails and internal grinding mechanism all of which could be rotated on massive central post on a bearing at the top. They needed constant maintenance and repair and were generally replaced by tower mills, fixed brick or stone buildings often built on a raised mound of which only a wooden cap holding the sails rotated. Smock mills similarly constructed but of wood are found from late Tudor times.

There are no visible traces of any Birmingham windmills, however, Danzey Green Windmill at Avoncroft Museum of Buildings near Bromsgrove is well worth a visit.

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B20 Hamstead Elmbank Grove
Windmill Hill is recorded in Samuel Botham Survey of 1794, but Hamstead Mill was long gone by then, not appearing on Browne’s 1682 county map nor on Beighton’s map surveyed 1722-25. The work of the windmill was probably transferred to the nearby watermill. No visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B21 Soho Grasmere Road
Soho Windmill is evidenced by Little Windmill Hill 1794, but there was no mill there 1682. No visible remains.

 

> > > B23 Stockland Green Slade Road
Slade Mill which stood between Slade Road and Brookvale Park had gone by the early 18th century but is evidenced on maps by Windmill Hill. No visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B26 Lyndon Green/ Garretts Green Elmay Road/ Benedon Road/ Larne Road
Lyndon Green Mill is not shown on early 18th-century maps but is evidenced by Windmill Close in the 1840 Sheldon tithe apportionment and map. No visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B28 Yardley Wood Windmill Road/ Coton Grove/ Priory Road
Bach Mill, a wooden post windmill stood at Windmill Road and possibly belonged to Colebrook Priory which stood south of Bamptons Pool. It was replaced by 1644 by a brick mill in Coton Grove which ground corn until c1890. It appears on Yates’ 1789 map of Warwickshire and is marked on Taylor’s 1800 Worcestershire map; demolished 1957. No visible remains - see BIBLIOGRAPHY for photograph Marks 1992). BSMR

 

> > > B29 Shenley Shenley Lane
Shenley Fields Mill, probably medieval in origin was recorded in Upper Shenley Fields 1692. It is not shown on the Northfield Tithe Map of 1839. No visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B30 Northfield/ Cotteridge Hawthorne Road
Middleton Hall Windmill, probably medieval in origin was demolished before 1722. Windmill Hill is shown on Northfield Tithe Map 1840. No visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B33 Glebe Farm/ Kitts Green Folliot Road
Windmill - no visible remains. BSMR

 

> > > B72 Maney Hill Sutton Coldfield Monkseaton Road
Maney Mill is Birmingham’s earliest record of a windmill 1309. It was rebuilt a number of times. This is believed to be the site of a Bronze Age standing stone of unknown origin taken for use as a padstone for the windmill. A padstone was a stone used underneath the uprights of a timber-framed building to prevent the timber from sinking and from rotting in the soil; stone is not a readily available commodity in the Birmingham area and would always have been recycled whenever possible. There are no visible remains and the whereabouts of the padstone are unknown. BSMR

MADE IN BIRMINGHAM by Bill Dorgue
 

MEDIEVAL BIRMINGHAM 1066 - c1530

NOTE

The period from the end of the Roman Empire to the Norman Invasion is often now called the Early Middle Ages. The Middle Ages proper is usually taken as the period from the Norman Conquest 1066 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s.
 

Key Points

The medieval village of Birmingham was developed by its Norman lords into a successful market town. The area’s agricultural trade became concentrated on the town and this encouraged the development of agriculture-related industries. At the beginning of this period settlements were scattered and villages were tiny if indeed they yet existed. As time went on the area developed with a mixture of individual farmsteads typical of a wooded area with room for expansion and open strip fields which were worked in common. Documentary evidence exists for a large number of farms and watermills many of which continued until the 19th century.

Medieval Birmingham - A New Town

Very little documentary evidence survives of medieval Birmingham. Not a single document is known to have survived between the 1086 Domesday Book and the 1166 Market Charter. All the manorial court rolls and the accounts of the manorial bailiffs have been lost. It is left to conjecture how it was Birmingham, rather than any one of a number of similar small villages, that developed into a prosperous market town with the beginnings of industry (The classic description is to be found in Holt 1985 – see BIBLIOGRAPHY.)
 

Some surviving medieval records give clues:
 

1166 Birmingham Market Charter

Contemporary Medieval Documentary Evidence

The lord of the manor, Peter de Birmingham bought from King Henry II the right to hold a market every Thursday at his ‘castle’. It may well be that a Sunday market already took place outside St Martin’s Church and that Peter was capitalising on this. Only outsiders had to pay tolls; Birmingham townspeople did not. Merchants and traders were thus encouraged to live in Birmingham town and so pay rent to the lord at a rate many times the agricultural rent. All over England medieval lords set up markets, but Peter’s was the earliest market charter in Warwickshire or on the Birmingham plateau. Many markets eventually failed and their villages never grew into towns, Sutton Coldfield and Coleshill are examples; however, many were successful and remain so to this day.

The original Birmingham charters are held in the Public Records Office, London.

It seems likely that the king was keen to grant market charters at this time to help finance the marriage of his daughter.

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 38)

Henry (II), King of England and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Duke of Anjou to Archbishops, Bishops, Earls, Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Ministers and all his faithful French and English of all England, Greetings.

Know that I have given and granted to Peter FitzWilliam the Sewer of Dudesley ((ie. steward of the Lord of Dudley) in fee and inheritance and to his heirs that he may have a market on Thursdays at his Castle of Burmingeham with thol (tolls) and theam, and soc and sac and infangenethel (ie. feudal rights as lord of the manor) and with all liberties and free customs.

Wherefore I will and firmly command that the same Peter and his heirs shall have a market at the aforesaid castle freely and quietly and honourably on the day aforesaid.

Gervase Pagnell (Lord of Dudley and tenant-in-chief over Peter de Birmingham) granted this same to him in my presence.

Witnesses: William Malet the Sewer, John the Marshall, William de Beauchamp, Geoffrey de Ver, Hugh de Perreres, Walter de Dunstanvill. At Fekiha (Feckenham?)

(translated from Latin)

NOTE

Peter’s ‘castle’ was not a castle as such, but the moated manor house on the site of the present Wholesale Market, Moat Lane Digbeth.

1189 Confirmation of the Market Charter

Contemporary Medieval Documentary Evidence

The market charter was confirmed by Richard I for Peter’s son William now at his town, not at his castle, of Birmingham. The king was raising funds to finance an imminent crusade to the Holy Land.

It is likely that Peter or William had now laid Birmingham out as a new town with building plots for rent, and that New Street dates from this time. This was probably the first time that there was a ‘proper’ village round a village green, the Bull Ring, where the market took place. It has long been assumed that Birmingham’s centre always was the Bull Ring; however, Birmingham may have been an area of scattered farmsteads with no centre as such, or it may have had a concentrated settlement with a manor house and church in some other place as yet unknown - somewhere beyond the top end of New Street perhaps?

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS vol 38)

Richard by the Grace of God King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Count of Anjou

to Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Ministers and all his faithful French and English Greetings.

Know that we have granted by our present Charter and confirmed to William FitzPeter in fee and inheritance to him and his heirs that he may have a Market on Thursdays at his Town of Burmingeham with thol and theam and sac and soc and infangenethel and with all liberties and free customs.

Wherefore I will and firmly command that the same William FitzPeter and his heirs shall have a market at this aforesaid Town freely and quietly and honourably on the day aforesaid. Gervase Pagnell granted the same to his father and his heirs in the presence of our father as his Charter testifies.

Witnesses: Hugh Bishop of Durham, John the King’s Brother, William de Longchamp elect of Ely and Chancellor. 2nd December at Canterbury.

(translated from Latin)

NOTE

Although signed and sealed at Canterbury it is likely that the charter was agreed when Richard I visited Birmingham at the end of November 1189.
 

From Anglo-Saxon Village to Medieval Market Town

The Evidence

1226 Cash Rents

Although the farmland of the manor of Birmingham was not particularly good, tenants in all manors owed their lord labour service ie. farmwork on the lord’s land. As people moved to Birmingham for the market trade, some tenants grew rich enough to pay cash for the lord to employ labour rather than use their own labour or arrange for labourers to carry out their dues. The town increasingly became less of a farming village and more dependent on its market trade and associated industries. In 1226 amongst individuals paying cash instead of doing the hay-making were merchants, weavers, a tailor and a smith.

 

Birmingham was well behind Coventry in woollen cloth production. Coventry market handled 95% of Warwickshire cloth. Birmingham, although second in turnover, handled only 1.5%. However, cloth making and selling was important to the town. Other trades also centred on the market, making and selling agricultural equipment of wood or iron, or processing agricultural products, and leather goods.
 

Fairs

These were very important occasions both commercially and socially; they drew large numbers of people from the local area as well as from further afield and enabled commerce to be conducted between merchants.

1250 - Henry III granted William de Bermingham the right to hold a 4-day fair starting on the eve of the Feast of the Ascension (Ascension Day is 40 days after Easter).
1251 - Permission was also given to hold a 2-day fair beginning on the eve of the Feast of St John the Baptist, 24 June. The dates were found to be too close together and by 1752 the fairs had been moved to Michaelmas, 29 September when half-yearly rents were due, and Whit Tuesday, 7 weeks after Easter, or two weeks after Whitsun (Pentecost) if Easter was early.
 

1250 St Martin-in-the-Bull Ring

Lords of the manor, the de Birminghams and other rich local people rebuilt and extended the parish church of St Martin-in-the-Bull Ring in keeping with its place at the centre of a thriving market town. Nothing remains of this early church except a little stonework and the tombs of some of the medieval lords of Birmingham: Sir William de Bermingham c1325 the five diagonal lozenges of whose shield form part of the city’s arms, Sir Fulk de Bermingham c1350 and Sir John de Bermingham c1380.
 

1250 Town and Foreign

The oldest document relating to Birmingham held by Birmingham Reference Library (BRL 120822) records the conveyance of land in the foreign of Birmingham from Robert, son of John Philip of Birmingham to John Stodleye, burgess of Birmingham. The foreign was the agricultural part of the manor outside the borough, outside the specified area reserved for housing and trade. A burgess was one who paid rent in the borough and had certain privileges, primarily those of not paying market tolls and freedom from labour obligations to the lord of the manor. Town rents were generally 30-40 times more expensive than agricultural rents; thus a thriving market town was very profitable for a manorial lord. This is further evidence of Birmingham’s status as a town and no longer a village.
 

1275 Two Members of Parliament

The borough of Birmingham was important enough to send two burgesses to Parliament 1275.
 

1285 The Priory of St Thomas

The Augustinian Priory Hospital of St Thomas the Apostle was a monastery endowed by wealthy Birmingham merchants. It had extensive lands in Birmingham, Aston and Saltley whose rents helped pay for the care of the poor and the sick. This priory along with thousands of others was dissolved by Henry VIII 1536. The priory buildings were demolished and the lands sold off. B4 The Minories is the site of the Priory buildings, Old Square on the site of the Priory Close and Corporation Street built over the graveyard. When the Old Square houses were built 1696 the cellars were said to show evidence of the Priory foundations. Birmingham’s first historian, William Hutton rescued a fragment of moulded masonry now in Birmingham Museum. Street names Upper Priory and Lower Priory have survived as Priory Queensway to the present. The western side of the priory estate was the ‘prior’s coneygre’ ie. rabbit warren. Rabbit was always a ready and cheaply maintained supply throughout the year. The warren would be in the area around the Town Hall and Central Library. Colmore Row/ Steelhouse Lane was known as Prior’s Conyngre Lane until the 19th century.
 

1308 Birmingham Pieces

The Order of the Knights Templar was a Christian military order whose international power and wealth threatened especially the interests of the French King; he had the Pope persecute and ban the Order 1312. After the order was banned, the Master was imprisoned in London and had brought from his wardrobe certain property amongst which was mentioned ‘pecie de Birmingham,’ ie. Birmingham pieces; these were 22 items worth 98 shillings. A gold clasp (not from Birmingham) is listed worth 5 shillings. It is not known what the pieces were; they were obviously valuable and small enough to be taken easily into prison. They may have been gold or silver eating or drinking vessels or jewellery. The important point is that the term ‘Birmingham pieces’ is not explained and so must have been well known to people in London: Birmingham may have been famous at this time for precious metalworking or jewellery.
 

1313 The Great Fire of Birmingham

Fires in the timber-framed houses in medieval towns were not uncommon. The larger the town, the closer the houses and the greater the danger of a major fire spreading. Some historians use the fact of a ‘great fire’ as evidence that a settlement had developed from a village into a town.

In 1313 Thomas de Turkebi claimed in a Halesowen court case that all his documents had been burned ‘ad magnam combustionem ville de Birmingham’, ie. in the great fire of the town of Birmingham. The evidence was accepted without question. Obviously Birmingham was a town of some size and the Great Fire of Birmingham clearly a well known event.
(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS vol 88)

1327 Tax Returns

In the year that Sir William de Birmingham was summoned to Parliament, the Lay Subsidy Rolls, a tax on movable goods, show that Birmingham had become the 3rd biggest town in Warwickshire, well behind Coventry, but now overtaking the county town of Warwick.(See BIBLIOGRAPHY Lay Subsidy Rolls)

1392 The Guild of the Holy Cross

The Guild of the Holy Cross was founded by wealthy merchants who set up almshouses for the poor, paid for the town midwife and for two priests at St Martin’s, maintained a chiming clock at the Guild Hall in New Street (a little uphill from the Rotunda), and were responsible for the upkeep of some roads in the town. Most importantly for the town’s economy they maintained the River Rea bridges at Deritend which provided access to the market from the south and from the east via the road from Kings Norton, the Alcester road, Stratford road, Warwick road, Coventry Road and the road from Sheldon. Wealthier townspeople were now beginning to take over some of the responsibilities of the absentee lord of the manor and govern themselves.
As a religious guild it was abolished by Henry VIII 1545 and the Guild Hall became King Edward VI Grammar School.
 

1380 St John the Baptist Deritend

Deritend on the other side of the River Rea was part of Birmingham manor but part of Aston parish. Because Deritenders had to travel several miles to their own parish church at Aston they were granted the right to their own chapel 1380, and the right to elect their own priest and manage their own affairs 1382.
St John the Baptist stood on Deritend High Street/ Chapel House Street; it was rebuilt 1735, out of use by 1939 and demolished 1947. The Bull Ring Trading Estate stands on the site.
The Guild of St John the Baptist built a guildhall c1450 which included a priest’s house and school for Guild members’ children. This is undoubtedly the Old Crown, although a building on this site is said to date from 1368.

A Successful Market Town

> > > B5 City Centre Bull Ring south of High Street/ New Street junction

The Market Cross stood just north of St Martin’s Church and was considered the centre of Birmingham. The Old Cross was a small square 2-storey building built over the medieval market cross 1703; the ground floor was open through archways and the room upstairs perhaps 6 metres square was used for public meetings; it had a clock built in dormer style in the roof and was topped with an octagonal turret with a weathervane. Demolished 1784.

From a small farming village similar to many others nearby Birmingham grew within a hundred years into a thriving market town which attracted merchants, craftsmen, manufacturers and many local immigrants. Surviving records of nearby markets show the sort of trading carried out. Vegetables and corn, sheep and cattle were sold, as well as coal, salt, millstones and various metals. People could buy a wide range of goods, some from abroad: aniseed, almonds, basketry, iron goods, liquorice, oranges, pomegranates, pottery, prunes, silk, spices, tinware, white paper, white soap and wine.

 

Birmingham merchants traded regularly with London and with the ports of Kings Lynn and Bristol; they sold cloth made from local wool fulled, dyed and woven locally, as well as locally produced leather and leather goods and small metal goods.

 

Important factors in Birmingham’s developing importance were the early market charter, the lax controls associated with absentee landlords, the nearness of the town to iron and coalfields and the adaptability of the workforce to work with a variety of small products requiring a high level of skill. In spite of some difficult times in the Middle Ages some west Midland towns including Birmingham grew larger and richer during the Middle Ages.

Medieval Roads

Being near two main roads must have helped the town develop a successful market.

An important road ran from London to Chester. Near Birmingham it ran from Coventry (similar to the A45 as far as Stonebridge), through Coleshill and on to Lichfield (similar to the modern A446 from Stonebridge northwards).

Another main road ran from Bristol to Doncaster (much of it the route of the Roman Saltway) passing through Bromsgrove, Northfield, Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield and Lichfield following the Birmingham sandstone ridge (roughly the modern A38). This is shown on Gough’s map c1330.

 

Other medieval roads had only local significance: roads east of the Rea crossing led to Coventry, Alcester, Stratford and Warwick; west of the Rea to Wolverhampton, Dudley and Halesowen. Their descendants are easily traced on modern maps.
 

A Medieval Map

Birmingham first appeared on John Gough’s map of Great Britain 1330.
 

Medieval Royal Visits

Royal Visit 1237
King Henry III travelled from Lichfield to Worcester stopping at Birmingham.

Royal Visit 1486
King Henry VII travelled from Nottingham (modern A453) to stay at Birmingham, then on to Worcester (A38).


 

Sutton Coldfield Market

1300 Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick bought a charter from Edward I for a Tuesday market and for a fair on Holy Trinity Eve and the three days following. (Trinity Monday is the week following Pentecost/ Whitsun.) The market was held outside Holy Trinity Church.

1353 Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick had the original charter renewed by Edward III and bought the right to another fair on the Eve and Day of St Martin, the latter being 11 November.

After the death at the Battle of Barnet 1471 of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick known as the Kingmaker all his manors including Sutton reverted to the Crown. Sutton was subsequently neglected and the market and fair soon abandoned. They were revived in Tudor times by Bishop Vesey in the first half of the 16th century.

How to Spell Birmingham

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY William Hamper 1880)
 

1086 Birmingeha

1189 Brumingeham

1200 Brimingham

1214 Birminggeham

1221 Burmingeham

1227 Birmingham

1227 Byrmyngham

1235 Burmingham

1245 Bermincham

1247 Bermigham

1248 Bermingham

1256 Bremingeham

1260 Burmincham

1262 Burmigham

1262 Burmungeham

1285 Bernigeham

1282 Byrmychiham

1292 Birmyngham

1292 Burmegham

1297 Burmynchham

1297 Bermygham

1317 Burmicham

1320 Birmyncham

1320 Byrmincham

1326 Bermyncham

1330 Birmincham

1332 Burmyncham

1354 Burmincheham

1337 Brimygham

1377 Brymygham

1387 Burmyngham

1398 Bremyngeham

1402 Brymecham

1421 Birmyncham

1421 Birmicham

1424 Brymmyngham

1438 Burmyngeham

1440 Byrmyncham

1457 Byrmycham

1460 Brymygeham

1469 Brymycham

1476 Birmyngeham

1486 Brimyncham

1489 Birmycham

1500 Brymyngham

1504 Bromechham

1506 Brymyscham

1514 Brymingham

1519 Brymmncham

1520 Bormycham

1520 Brymyngiam

1522 Bremygiam

1529 Bremycham

1535 Bermegam

1535 Brymmyngeham

1537 Bremmycham

1537 Brymedgham

1538 Bromycheham

1548 Bremyngham

1549 Brymyncham

1550 Burmycheham

1553 Brimincham

1573 Breemejam

1576 Bromwicham

1586 Bryngham

1590 Brymicham

1591 Bromecham

1591 Brymigham

1603 Bermicham

1603 Bromicham

1650 Bromegem

1675 Bromwichham

1679 Bromwicham

1686 Brymmyngiam

The variety of spellings indicates that the pronunciation Brummagem had equal status with Birmingham until relatively modern times.
 

GAZETTEER

Medieval Archaeological Finds

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B1 City Centre Horsefair
14th-century German stoneware pot BSMR
 

> > > B5 Digbeth Bordesley Street
Medieval leather shoe found 1955; Birmingham Museum. BSMR
 

> > > B5 Digbeth Moat Lane (opposite Allison Street)
A 13th-century gold ring with diagonal fluted decoration was found by a workman c1890 during excavations for Smithfield Meat Market. It was sold for a sovereign to a jeweller in High Street Bordesley and for £25 in the late 1940s by the jeweller’s daughter. Present whereabouts unknown. BSMR
 

> > > B33 Tile Cross Downton Crescent
Henry V silver groat found while building a house extension 1979
 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chestnut Drive
Very corroded iron arrowhead pre-13th-century found 1981. Birmingham Museum
 

> > > Castle Bromwich St Mary & St Margaret’s School Southfield Avenue
Henry V silver penny minted in York after 1464 found 1973. Birmingham Museum
 

> > > B6 Aston Park Lane/ Rocky Lane/ Aston Road North
A medieval cross stood here until 1854 when its remnants were transferred to Aston churchyard and a clock tower built in its place. The medieval pinfold for stray farm animals was at the south-east corner of the junction.
 

> > > B33 Tile Cross Gressel Lane/ Tile Cross Road/ East Meadway/ Cooks Lane
A medieval cross stood here until at least the 18th century.

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Chester Road/Whateley Green

This was the site of the medieval pinfold.

Medieval Agriculture in the Birmingham Area

In the Middle Ages there were many small villages in the Birmingham area with two, three or more communal open strip fields; there were single farms away from main settlements; and there were small communities scratching a living on wasteland often typified by the name ‘green’. However, there was also much woodland and waste. Woodland could be a valuable manorial resource but many lords also encouraged enterprising settlers to clear land and build farms, which they often moated, and so pay rent. From 1086 to 1300 the population of England trebled and more and more land was used for arable farming.

Transmitted by rat fleas, the Black Death is believed to have come to England via the port of Melcombe/ Weymouth in July 1348; it broke out in the Midlands 1349. The Black Death subsequently killed over half the population; further outbreaks occurred several times in following decades. This was not the only cause of suffering in the Middle Ages: during the 14th and 15th centuries worsening climate with wetter summers led to disastrous harvests and diseases both animal and human which caused famine, illness and death.

More Birmingham farmers already kept more cattle or sheep than grew crops probably because Birmingham clay is difficult to plough. A shrunken population needed less arable farming, besides which less labour was available. Farmers increasingly kept animals because they need less labour than arable crops and returned a higher financial yield.

Birmingham is part of the northern Warwickshire grass and woodland area, an area in the Middle Ages which had many small and scattered settlements, but few nucleated villages of any size. By the end of the 15th century the Birmingham countryside had many types of farming: communal open strip fields centred on small villages, small closes with hedges or fences, large pasture ranches for cattle or sheep and a large number of single farms of every shape and size.

Medieval Open Fields - Ridge and Furrow

The open field system developed before the Norman Conquest probably during the 10th century. Village land was pooled, presumably at the instigation of the Anglo-Saxon manorial lord, and redistributed so that everyone had numbers of strips in each large field. The oldest known Birmingham settlements were centred on open-field systems.
 

Open field systems traditionally had three great fields divided into furlong strips. The plough was turned on the outside of the strip to raise the level for drainage and to delineate it from neighbouring strips. The width of strips was different in different places at different times. Village families rented from the lord of the manor a strip or more in each field; this ensured that everyone had a share of good and bad land. Rent was paid in labour or kind, and later in cash.
 

A traditional crop rotation was peas or beans one year, the next year wheat, barley or oats, the last year the field was fallow ie. left to rest with grazing animals manuring the land. Each family also shared the common meadow, the waste and the woodland and probably had a small croft (vegetable garden) by their cottage to grow crops for themselves.
 

In counties south and east of Birmingham, Leicestershire for example, where arable was replaced by pasture and has so remained, fields of ridge and furrow can be clearly seen in grassed fields especially when the sun is low.
 

Because there was more forest around Birmingham than most places there were fewer open fields. However, open fields were found round all the old village centres, Acocks Green, Aston, Castle Bromwich, Erdington, Greet, Witton, Ward End, Yardley, for example. Some survived, in Saltley for instance, into the second half of the 19th century.
 

Because open fields were near village centres they were soon built over when the villages began to develop in Victorian times. Ridge and furrow is a surface feature only; it leaves no trace after development and cannot be distinguished archaeologically. However, some examples of ridge and furrow can be found in Birmingham parks. It is difficult to guess the age of Birmingham ridge and furrow: broader ridges may be medieval, narrower ridges may be later. Ridge and furrow at right-angles to rivers was designed for drainage.

GAZETTEER

Surviving Traces of Medieval Ridge and Furrow in Birmingham

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B1/ B3/ B16 City Centre
The open fields of Birmingham manor lay north-west of the town probably between Ladywood Middleway and Monument Road, Icknield Street and Great Hampton Street (formerly Ferney Fields). They were enclosed very early, probably before 1300.

 

> > > B2 City Centre Needless Alley (off New Street)
Needless Alley is an elongated reverse S. This was very likely a fordrough (farm track) between medieval fields, the reverse S caused by the way the plough-team swung round near the end of the field to make the turn. It is a common medieval field feature.

 

> > > B13 Moor Green/ Moseley Shutlock Lane
Ridge and furrow visible in Highbury Park near Moor Green Lane, between the stream and the railway

 

> > > B17 Harborne Grove Park
Ridge and furrow visible

 

> > > B24 Pype Hayes/ Erdington Chester Road/ Eachelhurst Road
Ridge and furrow south of Pype Hayes Hall in Pype Hayes Park BSMR

 

> > > B26 Sheldon Church Road/ Ragley Drive
Ridge and furrow visible north of the wall of St Giles churchyard, almost certainly medieval and probably part of Greatock (ie. great oak) Field. BSMR

 

> > > B28 Billesley Cole Valley Road
Ridge and furrow visible on the Dingle between the two entrances from Cole Valley Road

 

> > > B30 Kings Norton Pershore Road South
Ridge and furrow visible in Kings Norton Park east of the road and south of River Rea

 

> > > B30 Kings Norton Wharf Road
Ridge and furrow visible in Kings Norton Playing Fields BSMR

 

> > > B31 Northfield Staplehall Road/ Middlemore Road
2 examples of ridge and furrow visible on the Recreation Ground near the River Rea BSMR

 

> > > B33 Yardley Church Road/ Queens Road
Medieval ridge and furrow visible behind St Edburgha’s Church close to Rents Moat.

 

> > > B33 Yardley Richmond Road/ Blakesley Road/ Stuarts Road
Medieval ridge and furrow visible on the Recreation Ground

 

> > > B33/ B37 Sheldon/ Marston Green Sheldon Country Park access from Elmdon Lane, Marston Green
Ridge and furrow visible at the end of the runway of Birmingham International Airport, probably medieval

 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich Hall Road
Land here was laid out as the chestnut avenue of Castle Bromwich Hall in the early 18th century; can traces of ridge and furrow be just made out in the right light?

> > > B74 Sutton Park Monmouth Drive
Ridge and furrow visible at Longmore Enclosure which was established 1754 with a bank topped by hawthorn; it was an arable field. BSMR
 

> > > B75 Little Sutton/ Sutton Coldfield Moor Hall Drive
Ridge and furrow visible east of Moor Hall on Moor Hall Golf Course BSMR
 

> > > B76 Minworth/ Walmley Ash Cottage Lane/ Hurst Green Road
Ridge and furrow visible?

More examples of ridge and furrow survive on private farmland east of Sutton Coldfield. There may still exist in Birmingham parks examples that have not yet been recorded. Ridge and furrow is most easily visible when the sun is low in the early morning or late evening.

GAZETTEER

Medieval Open Fields

Some of the following open fields are conjectural but they are based on early maps, tithe maps, enclosure awards and early OS maps available at Birmingham Reference Library.

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY references to Skipp for Yardley and Sheldon and John Morris Jones for everywhere else)

> > > B6 Aston
The fields of Aston manor, Church Parke, Crosse Field and Farther Field were on the Birmingham sandstone ridge west of Aston Hall. Lozells Wood was common waste.
 

> > > B8 Saltley
Saltley open fields lay north of Saltley Hall north of Ash Road and around the Highfield Road area.
 

> > > B8 Ward End
Little Bromwich/ Ward End open fields lay south of Ward End Hall from Wash Brook in Ward End Park as far east as Bromford Lane and perhaps as far south as Alum Rock Road. Ward End Park was laid out on Slade Field.
 

> > > B9 Bordesley (Aston manor)
Open fields were south and east of Jenkins Street and north of the Coventry Road in the St Andrews area. Callowfields lay between Garrison Lane and Coventry Road as far as Green Lane; Garrison Lane Recreation Ground 1908 is on the site. A 3-course system is known from 1338.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill/ Greet (Yardley manor)
Open fields lay south of the Warwick Road up to the River Cole and west of the Stratford Road. Heyne (High) Field between Stoney Lane, Showell Green Lane and Stratford Road; Gravel Field between Stratford Road Warwick Road and River Cole; Berry Field east of Warwick Road and north of the Cole.
 

> > > B13 Moseley (Kings Norton manor)
Open fields lay between Alcester Road and Church Road but were enclosed early.
 

> > > B15 Edgbaston
Church Field and Moreish Field north of Edgbaston Hall may have been open fields but were enclosed early.

> > > B20 Handsworth
The locations of Handsworth’s fields are uncertain but likely to have been west of the old manor house site near St Mary’s Church at Heathfield (Road)and Birchfield (Road).

> > > B25/ B33 Yardley/ Stechford
Yardley Fields ie. Stichford and Church Field were open fields west of Yardley village to the River Cole and north to Flaxley Road.

 

> > > B26 Sheldon/ B33 Tile Cross
The earliest open fields were in the north of Sheldon manor at Mackadown: Elder Field to the west of Mackadown Lane, Rye-Eddish to the east between Mackadown Lane and Tile Cross Road and Riddings Field east of Tile Cross Road. Later open fields near St Giles Church were Sheldon Field east of Sheaf Lane and south of Westley Brook and north of the Coventry Road, Greatock Field adjoining it and east of Hatchford Brook, and Hatchford Field east of Hatchford Brook and north of the Coventry Road - now a golf course. Open fields associated with Sheldon West Hall were Cockshutt Field around Sheldon Heath Road north end and Ashole Field around Sheldon Heath Road south end. By the end of the Middle Ages Sheldon had some dozen open fields.

 

> > > B27 Acocks Green (Yardley manor), medieval name Tenchley
The first open field of Tenchley, Heyne Field ie. high field (later Stock Field) lay between Arden Road, Stockfield Road, Mansfield Road and Wynford Road. The second, Over (upper) Heyne Field (later Acocks Green Field) lay to the east of this, and the newest one, Nether (lower) Heyne Field. The two fields were on either side of the ancient ridgeway that followed the line of Broad Road, Flint Green Road, Rookwood Road, the alley from Alexander Road to Douglas Road, Dalston Road and Wynford Road, and Yardley Road. Yardley Road probably began as the eastern perimeter track of Nether Field, and became the route between Acocks Green and Tenchley. Nether Field stretched between the line of the ridgeway above, the Warwick Canal, Westley Brook, and Sherbourne Road/ Oxford Road. Later Stockfield and Acocks Green Field, the former between Stockfield Road and Yardley Road, the latter east of Yardley Road.

> > > B33 Lea Village (Yardley manor) known in the Middle Ages as Lea
Lea Fields lay around the East Meadway area.

 

> > > B36 Castle Bromwich
Open fields lay to the west, south and east of Castle Bromwich Hall; collectively they were known as the Town Fields. Between Coleshill Road, Chester Road, Old Croft Lane, Heathway and Buckland End Lane at Far Buckland Field and Middle Field and Hernfield or Heron Field which lay east of Castle Bromwich Green. These are shown on Hitchcock's 1802 map of Castle Bromwich (Staffordshire County Record Office). They probably did not survive long after that date.
 

The precise locations are unknown of open fields in the manors of Birmingham, Erdington, Harborne, Kings Norton, Northfield, Perry Barr, Sutton Coldfield and Witton but are likely to have been be close to the old village or manor house.
 

Medieval Moated Sites

(See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 80 & 88)

Moated sites are not uncommon throughout England, but they are especially common in the west Midlands where there was undeveloped forest for freeholders of some means to set up home and farm. Typically they would be substantial farms built on reclaimed waste or in woodland areas; 12th-century examples are rare, 13th and 14th-century more typical especially from 1250 until the Black Death 1348. Moats were often dug on only three sides of the building, so they were obviously not dug for protection, though some buildings may have had a castle-like appearance. Digging a moat took much time and work; although a moat offered some protection against attack, was a safe place to keep livestock away from predators, and had practical use as a fishpond (especially important in winter when no other fresh meat was available), it was in reality a demonstration of independence, wealth and status.

The size and importance of buildings on moated sites varied enormously: some were small farms less than 10 hectares, some were at the centre of large farming estates, others became important manor houses. Some are found two or three quite close together suggesting family connections. The original house building was no different from a that on an unmoated site, timber-framed infilled with wattle-and-daub possibly on stone footings. Where the house has not been rebuilt over the centuries it will have rotted away leaving little or no visible trace, though there could be archaeological remains.

Farming was continuous on many sites until the 19th or 20th century. No buildings survive in their medieval form although rebuilt or remodelled houses still exist on or near moated sites. A number have buildings still in use, including some east of Sutton which continue as farms.

The moats themselves have usually silted up and become overgrown, sometimes used as rubbish dumps or deliberately filled. Many were built over with houses in the 20th century. Evidence of such sites derives from 19th century maps which show the moat or associated fieldname. However, it is possible still to make out traces of some moats now dry, and a few can be seen clearly.

Moated sites were the exception and not the rule. Whatever their size these were the homes of people of varying degrees of wealth. The majority of the population did not live on moated sites but in small 1-2 roomed, timber-framed, thatch-roofed, mud-walled huts of which no discernible evidence survives.

Two excellent moated sites can be visited near Birmingham with surviving timbered halls: one is the National Trust property of Lower Brockhampton Hall 2 miles east of Bromyard, Herefordshire; the other is West Bromwich Manor House B71 Hall Green Road (off Walsall Road A4031). Both show how moated sites may have looked in their prime.

GAZETTEER

Medieval Moated Sites with Buildings
 

NOTE

All the following moated sites are recorded on the BSMR, the Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record.

> > > B8 Alum Rock Alum Rock Road/ Moat House Road
Little Bromwich Hall was the manor house of Little Bromwich, later known as Alum Rock. It is a probable moated site known as the Moat House by 1911, though no visible trace of a moat survives. By the 18th century it had become a farmhouse. It is built of red brick with three bays and round-arched windows and a typical Birmingham pedimented doorway with tuscan columns. It became an Anglican convent in 1911 and is now known as The Convent of the Incarnation/ St John’s House. Part of the 18th-century building survives though most of the neo-Georgian buildings as seen date from the 20th century. The small chapel by Cecil Hare dates from 1912 and there is a small cemetery for the nuns to the rear. The original part is Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B11 Hay Mills/ Tyseley Redfern Road/ Hay Hall Road
Hay Hall, a moated medieval site near the confluence of Sparkbrook and the River Cole was a sub-manor house probably built by Robert de la Hay c1300. The hall came into the Este family 1423 when Marion, last of the de la Hays married Thomas Este, governor of Kenilworth Castle. The 15th-century hall was made into an H-shape in Tudor times and the front (originally the rear) rebuilt in Georgian neo-classical style after a fire c1810. It was restored 1948 and put to its present use as offices for Reynolds Tubes in an area now built up with factories. It houses a small museum of finds including a piece of stained glass with initials A E, thought to be those of Anne Est who married Edward Gibbons 1538. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B14 Druids Heath Bells Lane
The earliest reference to the de Belne family is found in the grant of the manor of Blackgrave to William de Belne by King Henry III. Bells Lane took its name from the family and Bells Farm took its name from the lane. Bells Farm is a timber-framed farmhouse first recorded 1586 and rebuilt 1685 on a moated site; the moat had three arms, each 100m long. The moat was largely filled in 1970s and can now barely be discerned. The windows and doorway were altered in the 18th century; the building was restored in the late 1980s. It is Grade II* Listed and now a community centre open to public use.
 

> > > B14 Brandwood End/ Kings Heath Monyhull Hall Road/ Withington Covert
Monyhull Hall manor house may well have been a medieval moated site. The present hall, built in the 16th century, rebuilt 1750 in neo-classical style with three storeys, became a City Mental Hospital 1905 and, much altered with many additions, survives in its Georgian form. The main building is Grade II Listed.
 

> > > B15 Edgbaston Edgbaston Park Road/ Church Road
Edgbaston Hall medieval manor house was built within a moat near the church which was actually the hall’s chapel; no trace of the moat survives. The moated hall was replaced by a 15th-century timber-framed building south of the original site by the Middlemores, lords of the manor from the 1400s to the 1700s.

During the Civil War the hall was commandeered from the Roman Catholic royalist Middlemores and used as headquarters and barracks by the parliamentarian Colonel Tinker Fox. The timber-framed building was burned in anti-papist riots 1688 on the accession of William & Mary. After the Middlemores sold up the hall was completely rebuilt in neo-classical style 1718 by Sir Richard Gough of Perry Hall (See BIBLIOGRAPHY Dugdale 1730). After the Gough-Calthorpes moved south the hall was let to various wealthy Birmingham people: William Withering, discoverer of digitalis lived here 1786-1791; it was last occupied by Birmingham’s first Lord Mayor, Sir James Smith.

 

The central block which faces south-west is the 1718 rebuilding, two and a half storeys in red brick, projecting porch with tuscan columns. Sir Charles Barry made alterations 1852, the north-east wing is a later addition. Inside the staircase and panelling date from 1718. The park was landscaped by Capability Brown for lord of the manor, Sir Henry Gough c1776.

This early Georgian hall is Grade II Listed and is now the clubhouse of Edgbaston Golf Club, the hall’s park being the golf course from 1936. Part of the park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest; the hall and properties in Church Road form part of Edgbaston Conservation Area; .

 

(Edgbaston Golf Club started life on a 9-hole course at Lightwoods Park 1896, moving to Ridgacre Road, Harborne 1910, and to Edgbaston Hall 1936.
 

> > > B26 Lyndon Green Manor House Lane/ Barrows Lane
Lyndon Manor survived in a derelict state until c1970 when it was demolished.
 

> > > B30 Bournville Maple Road/ Sycamore Road
Selly Manor (Bournbrook Hall) stood originally at B29 Selly Park/ Bournbrook Bournbrook Road/ Rookery Road where there is no visible sign of a moat. It was a moated 14th-century half-timbered manor house (now the west wing) and ruinous by 1426 when it was rebuilt by lord of the manor, Thomas Jouette. The house was rebuilt/ extended in the late 15th century; subsequently the house was subdivided into three dwellings resulting in many alterations. A large brick chimneystack was added c1600.

By 1906 it was derelict and bought by George Cadbury, dismantled 1907 and re-erected 1912-1916 on Bournville Green using as much of the original material as possible; inside is an interesting spiral staircase. It is a Grade II Listed public museum belonging to the Bournville Village Trust and well worth visiting.

> > > B33 Tile Cross Gressel Lane
The present Sheldon Hall, now a pub and restaurant from the late 1990s, is an early 16th-century timber-framed manor house rebuilt by Sir Edward Digby of Coleshill Hall for his son. It has red and black brick wings added c1600. It is a typical Warwickshire manor house rebuilt on the site of its 12th-century predecessor and partly on its moat. The medieval building replaced the original Anglo-Saxon manor house which probably stood on the site of Mackadown Farm (demolished after 1950) at the corner of Mackadown Lane and Tile Cross Road. There is an arched stone entrance to the porch and c1600 brick chimney stacks; inside the timber-framed partition has survived as have 16th-century fireplaces and early 16th-century moulded beams. Sheldon Hall was known as (Sheldon) East Hall; Kents Moat was the West Hall. Some of the silted-up moat survives. Medieval pottery has been excavated on the site. This Tudor/ Stuart hall is a Grade II* Listed.
 

> > > B75 Four Oaks/ Ley Hill/ Sutton Coldfield 29 Moor Hall Drive
Old Moor Hall also known as Old Moor Hall Farm, Old Farm, Moor Hall Farm or the Moat House is not to be confused with nearby Moor Hall built by Bishop Vesey and since demolished and rebuilt. Old Moor Hall is recorded 1434 owned by Roger Harewell and is traditionally Bishop Vesey’s birthplace 1462?. This sandstone building has surviving 14th-century roof timbers, lancet windows of c1520, circular staircase and timber floor, though no timber framing survived the 1527 and early 20th-century rebuilding. On each floor are two rooms with a central chimney between. Traces of a moat in the garden can barely be seen by a practised eye. Grade II* Listed.

John Harman, whose yeoman father died when he was 8 years old, was brought up by his uncle Vesey; he was a friend of King Henry VIII, tutor to Mary Tudor and became bishop of Exeter, thereafter being known as Vesey. When he retired to Sutton he tried to revitalise its declining economy by introducing kersey (coarse woollen cloth) weaving and built 51 stone ‘Vesey’ houses for weavers, paved Sutton town centre and built bridges at Curdworth and Water Orton. He built Moor Hall as his own residence where he had 150 servants in scarlet livery; he died 1554 and rests in Holy Trinity Church Sutton Coldfield.
 

> > > B75 Reddicap Heath/ Sutton Coldfield Ox Leys Road
Langley Hall moat belongs to Langley Castle/ Langley Hall, a manor house built before 1300, licensed for fortification 1327, rebuilt c1680, demolished 1817 by its owner Sir Robert Peel. The hall’s Georgian stable block, 11 bays with a central arch, survives now as Langley Hall; the stables were designed by Sir William White the architect c1685 who lived at Langley Castle; the building was derelict c1980 and developed as 12 houses from 1987. The present Victorian brick farmhouse is west of the moat. Two sections of moat survive in poor condition, one still water-filled. Langley Hall is Grade II Listed.

 

> > > B75 Walmley/ Reddicap Heath/ Sutton Coldfield Walmley Road/ New Hall Drive
A moat filled by internal springs with sides 12m long surrounds New Hall, a house originally dating to c1200 and believed to be the oldest inhabited completely moated house in England; the south range and part of the west range are of medieval stone. The original house was in the hands of the Earls of Warwick in the 13th century, rebuilt as New Hall by Sir John de Lizours 1341 and in the possession of King Henry VII 1487. It was extended by Bishop Vesey’s brother-in-law, Thomas Gibbons 1542, the north range in red sandstone with its banqueting room forming a courtyard with the south and west ranges.

Most of the building as seen is 16th- and 17th-century; there is an interesting staircase of c1640. New Hall was much altered 1796 when the south and west towers were added; altered again 1870 especially the west front by the Chadwick family to its present form. New Hall was a boys’ boarding school 1885-1905, bought by Walter Wilkinson of New Hall Mill and was last privately occupied from 1923 by Alfred Owen. It became a hotel from 1988; extension of 50 bedrooms in sympathetic style 1992. New Hall is Grade I Listed, the chapel, coach house and gardener’s cottage Grade II.

> > > B76 Walmley Ash/ Hurst Green Sutton Coldfield Peddimore Lane
Peddimore Hall is a 17th-century hall built 1660-1671 by William Wilson for William Wood, the Warden of Sutton Corporation on a 13th-century site surrounded by a double rectangular moat whose remains can be seen. The timber-framed barn dates from 1385. A public footpath passes this Grade II Listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Originally owned by the Arden family it was allegedly visited by William Shakespeare whose cousins the Ardens were, hence mention of Sutton Coldfield by Falstaff in ‘Henry VI Part 1’ Act 4 Scene 2:
Henry’s friend Sir John Falstaff is on the road near Coventry raising an army to support the king against rebel barons:

Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry ; fill me a bottle of sack; our soldiers shall march through; we’ll to Sutton-Cophill tonight.

> > > B76 Wishaw/ Over Green/ Sutton Coldfield Grove Lane/ Bulls Lane
Hermitage Farm moat may have been three sides only, two are clearly visible but now dry, one is water-filled and has been enlarged as a cattle pond. A 19th-century farm stands on the site of the original medieval building.
 

> > > B76 Over Green Sutton Coldfield Curdworth Lane/ Wiggins Hill Road
An L-shaped pond and pool at Pool Hall Farm remain of the medieval moat. Documentary evidence dates Pool Hall to 1581 though it is of medieval origin.
 

GAZETTEER

Medieval Moated Sites with Visible Remains
 

NOTE

All the following moated sites are recorded on the BSMR, the Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record.

> > > B15 Edgbaston Bristol Road/ Sir Harrys Road/ Priory Road
Two L-shaped ponds fed by underwater springs at Priory Tennis Club are the remains of Hill Farm moat 45m x 40m.

> > > B26 Yardley/ Garretts Green Sheldon Heath Road/ Kents Moat/ The Hays
Kents Moat is most unusual in Birmingham in that it has remained complete and still retains a substantial depth. Although it is now dry, has some trees and bushes growing in it and 20th-century housing in the middle the size and shape of a medieval moated site can very clearly be seen. This sub-manor house of Sheldon known as West Hall (Sheldon Hall was the East Hall) was first occupied in the 12th century, rebuilt in the 14th century and in ruins by the 15th.

The site has been partially excavated; finds include 20 clay cooking pots, a large number of good decorated floor tiles c1350, fragments of 14th-century stained glass, and various domestic items, iron shears, a bronze horsebit, animal bones and oyster shells; a Luxembourg penny 1309-56, Edward II penny 1317, penny c1279, 15th century French jetton. It is called Kemps Moat after John and Marion Kemp, the last people to live within it. Kents Moat is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

> > > B26 Sheldon Ragley Drive off Church Road
A moated site south of St Giles Church in the paddock south of Rectory Farm is discernible in the right conditions with an expert eye. This may have been a the medieval moated rectory of Sheldon.
 

> > > B26 Sheldon Church Road
There was a moated site south of Westley Brook at Moat Farm which was demolished 1960 and the moat filled in.
 

> > > B26/ B33 Yardley Queens Road/ Church Road
Rents Moat/ Allestree Moat is in Old Yardley Park. Behind the churchyard wall is a tree-covered rectangle, the site of the medieval moated manor house; on the side furthest from the church a bank can still be seen among the trees. The straight northerly line of Church Road doglegs to the west at Barrows Lane; John Morris Jones (JMJ 1980 Church End Yardley) suggests that a straight road originally led to this manor house site which therefore predates Yardley church. The site must then have been occupied when the first chapel was built in 1165 with the Beauchamps of Elmley the tenants of the manor. This was only one of many Beauchamp manors which they held for 300 years, although they rarely lived here. The de Limesi family lived here during the 13th century, when the present church building was begun. Allestree Hall/ Allestrey Hall was demolished c1700 after the Allestrees moved to Witton; the silted but still water-filled moat was infilled c1900 as a safety precaution when Yardley Great Trust gave land between Church Road and Queens Road as a public park.
 

Part of a medieval? ridge and furrow field can be seen immediately to the north.
 

> > > B29 Weoley Castle Alwold Road
An important Birmingham site, Weoley Castle was almost certainly occupied in Anglo-Saxon times though deeper excavation is needed for proof. Extensive excavations 1955-1962 revealed a wooden building constructed c1100-1200 on top of an earlier earth platform; remains of horizontal and vertical weather-boarding were found. The 12th-century building burnt down, was rebuilt, moated and fortified 1264 by Roger de Somery of Dudley Castle; surviving sandstone foundations of walls and six towers date from this time. All previous buildings were demolished c1380 and rebuilt again partly in stone. Weoley Castle was subsequently altered and added to over the years. A large and locally important building, it was for hundreds of years the manor house of Northfield. Unoccupied by the 16th century, in ruins by the 17th, the site has been extensively excavated and is well documented. Dry ditches, grassy banks and foundations can still be seen.

Many finds showed a high standard of living and included products from abroad: kitchen refuse including pig and deer bones, oyster and whelk shells, as well as cow, sheep, swan, heron, chicken, pike and hedgehog bones, and a wide variety of pottery. From the 13th century iron shears, a small axe, bronze netting needle, arrows, a padlock, the mouthpiece of a wooden bagpipe, a glazed Norman pitcher and a steelyard weight. From the 14th century painted glass and floor tiles from the chapel, scissors, a bone chessman and a bronze jug as well as pewter communion cruet c1325, glassware from the East Mediterranean and fine tableware from France and Spain. From the 15th century keys, horse bits and spurs, tweezers, a double-row bone comb, Spanish tin-enamelled vessels, French counters and a jet die inlaid with silver. 16th-century finds include pottery from London and Nottingham, Holland and Germany. Coin finds include a John penny 1210, Henry II halfpenny 1248, Scottish penny 1298, Edward III penny 1327-70, Richard II halfpenny 1378-88, Venetian soldino 1400-1413, Henry VI groat (Calais) 1422-1443, gold ryall Edward IV 1461-1483. It is a City Museum although currently not open.

Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade II Listed.

 

> > > B31 Turves Green/ Longbridge Stokesay Grove/ Turves Green Road/ Hawkesley Drive
Excavation shows settlement from the 11th century at Hawkesley House Longbridge (sometimes called Hawkesley Farm or confusingly Hawkesley Hall - see below); a great hall built in the 13th century was occupied for Parliament 1644/ 5 during the Civil War, surrendered to the Royalists and burned the same year.

The hall was rebuilt 1654, later replaced by a mid-19th-century house/ farm which was demolished 1971 to make way for 3 municipal blocks of flats by A G Sheppard Fidler 1958. Part of the site is grassed and two water-filled arms of the original 135m x 90m moat remain. Hawkesley House/ Hawkesley Farm moated site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

 

> > > B32 Frankley Church Hill
Frankley Hall moat is well preserved. The hall stood from at least 1601 west of St Leonard’s Church opposite Westminster Farm and probably replaced earlier buildings. Burned by Royalists in the Civil War to prevent its use as a Parliamentary garrison, its stone was used to build the church tower.
 

> > > B32 Woodgate Valley Somerfield Road
A moat lay near Bourn Brook 300m north-east of Moor Farm which was demolished in the 1970s for housing. One 27m dry arm of the moat can be made out. Moat Leasow and Moat Meadow are shown on the tithe map.
 

> > > B38 Hawkesley West Heath/ Hawkesley End
A pond may be the remains of the moat surrounding Hawkesley Hall West Heath (not to be confused with Hawkesley House/ Farm Longbridge above).
 

> > > B38 Hawkesley/ Headley Heath Goodrest Lane
A cropmark is visible at Goodrest Farm and fishponds which may well be the remains of the moat.
 

> > > B42 Perry Barr Perry Avenue/ Walsall Road
Perry Hall was a moated timber-framed manor house bearing the date 1576; it probably replaced an earlier medieval building. There is also evidence that an earlier manor house stood in Rocky Lane half a mile north. Perry Hall was bought 1669 by Sir Henry Gough of Wolverhampton whose family had made a fortune in the wool trade; Henry’s brother Richard bought Edgbaston Hall c1717. The hall was extensively altered in the 1840s; it was a large square three storey building with similarities to Aston Hall. (Photo in Price 1989 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

The hall’s parkland was bought as Perry Hall Playing Fields by the City Council 1929 and the hall demolished. The moat is now brick-lined and water-filled fed by a small stream which runs to the nearby River Tame.

 

> > > B45 Gannow Green Devon Road/ Boleyn Road
Gannow Green moat is now dry and grassed. Excavations in the 1960s found evidence of a mid-13th century house and hearth and roof tiles from the late 15th century. The 1881 Ordnance Survey map shows a building which had gone by the 1882 edition. Scheduled Ancient Monument.

 

> > > B76 Walmley Ash Walmley Ash Road
The remains of a moat are visible as an earthwork
 

> > > B92 Olton Solihull Hobs Moat Road/ Hobs Mead
Hobs Moat, Odingsell Hall/ Odensels Moat, is at Lyndon in Solihull; it is a large and very clearly defined double-moated site. Although now dry and much overgrown by mature trees this is a very significant surviving moated site with high banks and deep ditches. It was former Ulverley, ie. Wulfhere’s clearing and renamed eald tun, old farm, Olton when Solihull new town was created c1200. Scheduled Ancient Monument.
 

GAZETTEER

Medieval Moated Sites with No Visible Remains

NOTE

All the following moated sites are recorded on BSMR, the Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record.
 

> > > B5 City Centre/ Digbeth Moat Lane
Birmingham Manor House was occupied by the de Berminghams from the 12th century and is mentioned in the 1166 Market Charter. The moat was dug in the 14th century. It may be that the manor house platform, c½ hectare in area was the Anglo-Saxon village site. If the island had always been that size it would seem too large for the hall of the tenant of a small and poor manor. (See John Morris Jones 1972 Waters of Birmingham.) However, it may be that the hall was built here at the time of the Market Charter 1166 when Peter de Birmingham set out his new town (similarly St Martin’s church). If this is the case, it is not known where the original settlement may have been.

The de Berminghams owned the manor until 1536, the longest surviving Norman lords in the area. When Edward de Bermingham died 1538 the connection with England was lost although the de Berminghams continued in Ireland. The manor reverted to the Crown.

A new house was built c1740 in classical style by manufacturer John Francis although some earlier timber-framed buildings remained. The moat was filled and all buildings demolished 1815 to make way for the open market, later Smithfield Meat Market. Westley’s Plan of Birmingham 1731 has a drawing of buildings on the site; Bradford’s 1750 map shows the buildings in plan. The site is now covered by the Wholesale Markets prior to which excavation revealed large sandstone foundations. No visible remains. (See BIBLIOGRAPHY TBWAS 89; illustration VCH Wa7)
 

> > > B5 City Centre Edgbaston Street/ Pershore Street
The Parsonage, originally belonging to St Martins-in-the Bull Ring, had a moat with water-filled arms some 50m long until the mid-18th century. The Parsonage was demolished in the 1820s and the moat filled in. The site is currently (2000) being redeveloped as part of the new Bull Ring Markets. Westley’s Plan of Birmingham 1731 has a drawing of buildings on the site; Bradford’s 1750 map shows the buildings in plan. No visible remains.
 

> > > B6 Aston Priory Road
Aston Priory is believed to have stood within a small moated site; evidence derives from enclosed field names: Priory Close, Holyoak Close and Holyoak Moor.
 

> > > B6 Aston Serpentine Road/ Charles Road/ Yew Tree Road/ Village Road
Almost nothing is known about Aston Old Hall/ Old Aston Hall (no visible remains); the moated site was disused by 1367, the Ardens using Bordesley Hall as their main manor house, and built over in the 19th century. Aston Old Hall was probably the original manor house replaced by the present Aston Hall (Aston Hall Road/ Witton Lane) 1618-1635) by Sir Thomas Holte and now a City Museum and Grade I Listed.

 

> > > B7 Duddeston Hindlow Close
Duddeston Hall was a medieval moated manor house; it was occupied by John atte Holte from 1365 when he bought the manor to add to his Nechells holding. The Holte family continued to live here prior to their move to Aston Hall (John had also bought Aston manor 1367), after which Duddeston was used as the dower house. By Stuart times the hall had 13 bedrooms, a gallery, chapel, gatehouse, and extensive domestic outbuildings: the great hall and principal rooms were richly hung and furnished.

The grounds were used as pleasure gardens from c1750 and for various pursuits including bowling and cock-fighting, named Vauxhall Gardens after the London gardens from 1758. The moat platform became the bowling green. Fairs, concerts, balloon ascents, fireworks and balls took place here. Duddeston Hall was demolished c1781, the gardens closed 1850, the land sold to the Victoria Land Society for housing. The area was built up in the 19th century and rebuilt in the 1960s. The name is commemorated in nearby Duddeston Manor Road. No visible remains.

 

> > > B7 Nechells Nechells Park Road/ Stanley Road
No visible trace or documentary evidence survives Nechells Hall possible moated site. Evidence is conjectural; Nechells Park is shown on Beighton’s 1725 map; Nechells Park Farm may have been the successor of the manor house. In the early 19th century it was occupied by Robert Benton who owned nearby Bentons Mill. No visible remains.
 

> > > B8 Alum Rock Treaford Lane/ Bankdale Road
Treaford Hall (Treeford) was a large moated Georgian house on a medieval site demolished in the early 20th century to make way for housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B8 Saltley Adderley Road/ Arden Road
Saltley Old Hall, a medieval manor house is now built over with Arden Road Board School/ Adderley School 1897 and factories. Saltley manor was bought by Walter de Clodeshall 1343; in 1360 he was granted a licence for an oratory and chapel at his house. The site was shown as ‘Great Moat Piece’ on Tomlinson’s 1758 map; the moat could still be seen in 1880 and was popularly called Giants Castle.

 

A new Saltley Hall was built at a date unknown on a nearby moated site (Hall Road/ Ash Road/ St Saviours Road/ Adderley Road), Moated sites became rarer after the Black Death 1348, and it may be that Coldeshall’s chapel was at the new site. This was rebuilt in the 17th century west of that previous hall and outside the moat. lord of the manor, Sir Charles Adderley was a royalist supporter and Prince Rupert is said to have lodged here during the Civil War. The hall was a farmhouse by 1760 and demolished by 1913.

 

The hall’s home farm stood on Hall Road opposite St Saviour’s Church. The site is built up with housing and there are no visible remains.

 

> > > B8 Ward End Clover Leaf Square
Ward End Old Hall was a medieval moated site (Overpool Road/ Washbrook Road/ Northleigh Road), the moats of which could still be seen in 1945 and are commemorated in nearby Old Moat Way.

 

A new neo-classical Ward End Hall was built 1710 by Isaac Spooner next to the moated site of the original hall, occupied by Birmingham ironmaster Charles Blackham c1725 and later by relatives of 18th-century Birmingham historian William Hutton. On the roof were two statues, nicknamed Jack and Tom and popularly believed to be two soldiers Thomas Pitmore and John Hammond hanged for highway robbery and murder on Washwood Heath 1781.

The hall still stood 1939 but empty and in poor repair; it was demolished c1945 to make way for housing. The original moated site was still visible after World War 2 when it too disappeared under housing. Some 25 hectares of the hall’s park was bought by the City as Ward End Park in 1903. The only visible remains seems to be a surviving gate post by Wallbank Road.

 

> > > B10 Bordesley Bolton Road/ Herbert Road
Mount Pleasant was formerly the driveway to Bordesley Hall, formerly Brook House which replaced an earlier medieval moated manor house nearby (exact site unknown); it is commemorated by nearby Bordesley Park Road. It was built/ rebuilt/ much altered 1757 by wealthy button magnate John Taylor I who spent £10 000 improving the building in grand style and emparking c15ha of land around; an ornamental pool was made on the brook with an island, bridge, and grotto, exotic shrubs and swans were imported. The hall was burned down in the 1791 Priestley Riots, rebuilt but demolished 1840 when the estate was sold for housing development. No visible remains. The Old Lodge pub on the corner of Bordesley Park Road/ Coventry was a lodge of the hall, demolished 1986.
 

> > > B11 Acocks Green/ Tyseley Sunningdale Road/ Ferndene Road (south of the junction)
A moated site now built over: in Georgian times Tyseley Farm, demolished in the 1920s, was built close to the moated site of Tyseley Hall south of Ferndene Road, as its successor. No visible remains.
 

> > > B11 Greet Manor Farm Road/ Warwick Road
Standing close to the River Cole and within a moat the timber-framed hall was the home of the steward who administered the manor for Studley Priory to whom it belonged. It was bought by the Greswolde family from the priory in the mid-16th century and probably rebuilt alongside as Greet Hall manor house; it was rebuilt in late Georgian times and known as Manor Farm. It was demolished by 1930; the first Greet Inn was built alongside in the early 20th century and a modern successor stands on the site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B11/ B28 Sparkhill/ Hall Green Shaftmoor Lane/ Arcot Road
Shaftmore/ Shaftmoor Farm was a medieval moated site; by the 16th-century there was a 3-gabled timber-framed building with central porch and tall brick chimneys belonging to the Greswold family. The Steedman family owned and occupied the house for 200 years until the estate was sold to Birmingham City Council 1925 and the house demolished 1929, internal panelling going to Packwood House. Photo in Byrne 1996 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY.

 

> > > B12 Bordesley/ Camp Hill/ Highgate Ravenhurst Street
Possible moated site now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B12 Highgate/ Bordesley Bradford Street/ Moseley Road
A moat is evidenced by a 1748 map which records Mott Close as a fieldname; 1978 excavation found evidence of a bank but dating was not possible. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Billesley Wold Walk/ Broomwall Road
Billesley Moat, now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Billesley Yardley Wood Road/ Brigfield Road
Moated site at the foot of a slope with water on 3 sides partially obliterated by the widening of Yardley Wood Road and partially now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Moseley Alcester Road/ Salisbury Road/ Chantry Road
Old Moseley Hall (no visible remains) opposite King Edwards Road may have replaced an earlier hall which stood on the present site of the Fighting Cocks public house (Alcester Road/ King Edwards Road). This was replaced as the manor house in the late 16th-century by a medieval timbered hall set a little way back from the Alcester Road between Salisbury Road and Chantry Road. A gate into Moseley Private Park marks the approximate site of timber-framed hall. It was possibly moated, though the pond in the park which is part of the remnants of the hall’s parkland is a water-filled quarry. It had later wings close-studded in herringbone. The roof was tiled and had three tall clusters of chimneys. Between the hall and the Alcester Road were a number of outbuildings, probably agricultural. The house survived as a farmhouse until c1842 by which time it had fallen into disrepair; it had been sold before the Taylor purchase and let to tenants. James Taylor, grandson of John Taylor III bought it from Robert Blayney who owned most of Moseley village, had it demolished and extended the high park wall as far as Park Farm which stood just south of Park Hill.

A new hall was built probably by Sir Richard Greaves on the site of the present Moseley Hall on the other side of Salisbury Road before 1632. Greaves a wealthy local landlord, High Sheriff of Worcester by 1616, Deputy-Lieutenant of Wales and local magistrate, who was knighted by James I; he died in 1632 and his elaborate tomb can be seen in Kings Norton church. The design of the hall is not known though it is likely to have been in neo-classical style comparable with Castle Bromwich Hall; the hall’s icehouse survives in Moseley Park (private) in use as a store by Chantry Tennis Club and is the same design as the partially surviving Hamstead Hall ice-house.

Button manufacturer John Taylor I of Bordesley Hall, whose famous factory was in Union Street, bought the estate for his son John Taylor II who proceeded to build a new hall at Moseley in brick and stone. It was a plain neo-classical mansion of three storeys with a tuscan doorway, low parapet, and hipped roof, facing south. Unusually it had a single chimney stack along the whole length of the roof-ridge from which eighteen pots sprouted. There were low symmetrical wings with round-headed doorways which terminated in transverse pedimented lodges. From the south wing a coach-house and stable block extended. The main entrance to the Hall park was opposite the Fighting Cocks and had ornamental gates hung between stone pillars set back from the highway were flanked by walls with doors and uniform lodges: the south one consisted of living room and scullery only, the lodge-keeper’s bedroom was across the drive in the north lodge. The estate was landscaped by Humphrey Repton, second in fame only to Capability Brown.

This hall was burned in the Birmingham Riots 1791 and the present Moseley Hall restored for Taylor 1796 by Warwick architect John Standbridge. The wings and stable block were demolished and transverse two-storey wings were added to the restored central block, whose window mouldings were removed and whose roof was extended. The symmetrical wings had unadorned pediments. The first floor fronts of the wings were embellished with two Ionic pilasters either side of a tall of three light separated by Ionic pillars; the ground floor windows had doric pillars to match the portico. Four pairs of doric pillars supported a porch built across the three central bays of the house. It is said that the cellars of the previous hall which ran beneath the whole building were retained and are thus the oldest part of the house.

Moseley Hall continued the seat of the Taylors until Richard Cadbury bought it 1884. When he moved to the newly-built Uffculme Richard Cadbury gave the Moseley Hall to Birmingham as a convalescent home for children 1892. It reopened 1970 as a geriatric hospital. Though much extended in the 20th century the original hall is Grade II Listed.

(See John Innes 1991 The History of Moseley Hall)
 

> > > B13 Moseley/ Kings Heath Greenhill Road/ School Road
Probable moated site now built up with housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B13 Moseley/ Wake Green Brook Lane/ Coldbath Road/ Billesley Lane
Greethurst manor house stood on the site of Moseley Golf Course in 1517. A moat is possible. No visible remains.
 

> > > B14 Kings Heath High Street
Probable medieval moat on the site of Hare and Hounds pub. No visible remains.
 

> > > B14 Kings Heath/ Brandwood End Poston Croft/ Broad Lane
Probable medieval moat at Broad Lane Farm, now demolished for housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B14 Warstock Warstock Road/ Warstock Lane
Moated site now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B17 Harborne Arosa Drive/ Quinton Road
Wilderness Farm which used to stand here near Bourn Brook was almost certainly moated; it is now built over with no visible remains.
 

> > > B18 Hockley/ Jewellery Quarter Warstone Lane/ Vyse Street
Probable moated site visible prior to 18th/ 19th-century building; 20th-century rebuilding after war damage. Sir Thomas de Birmingham inherited the manor from his brother John 1390, but could not gain the manor house until John's widow died; he built a 'castle' at ‘Warstone near the Sandpits’, of which the square moat was still traceable in 1780. No visible remains.

 

> > > B20 Handsworth Hamstead Road
Handsworth Old Hall probably stood on the site of Handsworth Church Old Rectory from the early 12th century and is evidenced by the fieldname Moat Meadow. The site is now a fish pond in Handsworth Park/ Victoria Park. No visible remains.

 

> > > B20 Hamstead/ Handsworth Wood Hamstead Hall Avenue/ Beauchamp Avenue
A medieval moated manor house, Hamstead Hall, later known as Wyreleys after the manorial family from the 13th to the late 17th century, stood here from the mid-12th until the 18th century when it was demolished (no visible remains).
It was replaced by a new Hamstead Hall at Hamstead Hall Avenue/ Acfold Road/ Parkside (no visible remains). This new Handsworth manor house was demolished 1935 and the site is now built over with housing. Part of the wall of the walled garden survives in woodland to the rear of house gardens (Greenway/ Croftway) and the ruined icehouse can be found near the River Tame.

 

> > > B24 Bromford/ Erdington Tyburn Road/ Wheelwright Road/ Abbotts Road
Erdington Hall built near the Bromford crossing of the River Tame was the fortified manor house of the de Erdington family. It was double moated on three sides with the river at the rear. The existence of a hall is documented from the time of Edward IV.

The hall was rebuilt c1650 as 3 storeys in brick with dutch gables on or near the site of the original house by ironmaster John Jennens and occupied by the wealthy Jennens family up to the early 18th century. The house was occupied in 1858 by farmer William Wheelwright who built Wheelwright Road as an access road. The hall was still occupied 1908, demolished 1912 and the site now lies under Tyburn Road; it is commemorated in nearby Erdington Hall Road. No visible remains. (Photographs in Drake 1995 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

 

> > > B24 Erdington Kingsbury Road/ Bromford Lane (south-west of the junction)/ Parkdale Close
Pype Hall/ Pipe Manor/ Pype Orchard was a moated manor house, a sub-manor of Erdington, documented in Henry III’s time as the property of William Maunsell; it was rebuilt outside the moat by Humphrey Holden 1543. It was altered and enlarged 1622 as a large 6-gabled timber-framed building, known as Wood End Hall or Wood End House or Wood House by the 19th century and demolished 1932. The moat measured c90m x c70m and c10m wide 1949 and was still visible 1959. No visible remains on the Kingsbury School fields. (Photographs in Drake 1995 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

 

> > > B24 Erdington/ Moor End Green Moor End Lane/ Berkswell Road
Probable moated site built on 1899, shown as Moat House on 1881 OS map. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Acocks Green/ South Yardley Clay Lane/ Gilbertstone Road/ Steyning Road
Moated site evidenced by fieldname, Moat Leasow. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Lyndon Green/ Sheldon Lyndon Road/ New Coventry Road
Probable moated site evidenced in the 19th century by a fieldname Moat Meadow - now built over with housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Sheldon Church Road/ Horse Shoes Lane/ Common Lane
Lyndon manor house moated site south of Westley Brook at Moat Farm, later Mott House rebuilt in brick in the 18th century; there is now a housing estate built within the area of the moated site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26 Yardley Moat Lane
A moat 45m square at Gilbertstone Recreation Ground is now covered by a car park and electricity substation. No visible remains.
 

> > > B26/ B92 South Yardley/ Gilbertstone Gilbertstone Avenue/ Longley Crescent
A medieval moated site at Gilbertstone shows no trace on Lyndon Playing Fields. However, the old parish boundary makes unexplained right-angled turns here almost certainly showing the position of the moat. A 19th-century fieldname here is Moat Meadow. No visible remains.
 

> > > B27 Olton Gospel Lane/ Warwick Road
A moated site on the playing fields shows no visible remains.
 

> > > B27 Olton/ Acocks Green / Hyron Hall Road/ Starcross Road north side
Hyron Hall/ Iron/ Irons/ Hiron/ Hirons/ Hyrons was a moated site; the 15th/16th-century timber-framed hall survived to see its Georgian successor built alongside partially on the west arm of the moat; this survived until the late 19th-century; it is now demolished and the site built over. Oaklands School Dolphin Lane stands on the original moated site.
 

> > > B27/ B28 Hall Green Broom Hall Crescent/ Edenbridge Road
Broom Hall was a sub-manor of Yardley; the last of the Broomhall family died in the early 15th century and the name died out. Broom Hall was a building on a large oval moated site, over ½ hectare in area; it was rebuilt in Georgian times, demolished 1951. A block of flats stands on part of the moat. A footpath from Lakey Lane to Edenbridge Road follows the route of the original driveway. No visible remains.
 

> > > B28 Hall Green Highfield Road/ Painswick Road
Moated site at the source of Robin Hood Brook, built over in the 1930s. No visible remains.
 

> > > B28 Hall Green Kedleston Road/ Scribers Lane
Moated site at Baldwyn east of Kedleston Road (note Baldwins Lane) - now built over
 

> > > B28 Hall Green School Road/ Fox Hollies Road/ Studland Road
Hall Green Hall/ Haw Hall/ Hawe Hall/ Hawe Green House named after the medieval Haw family was probably originally surrounded by a moat. A Tudor 2-storey gable was added at the south end and later another gable wing alongside; this may have been wattle-and-daub or brick-infilled. In the 18th century a brick wing with gothic details was added to the timber-framed building by Job Marston. The hall was owned by the Severne family from c1833 and the estate sold 1912. The hall was occupied by Lewis Lloyd until c1935 when it was sold and demolished 1936 to make way for the Charles Lane Trust Almshouses/ Charles Lane Almshouses. No visible remains. School Lane from Fox Hollies Road to Studland Road follows the route of the original drive to the hall.

Hall Green Hall Farm/ The Hall Farm was a 17th-century stud farm with dutch gables just east of Hall Green Hall, the stables were to the rear. No visible remains. (See BIBLIOGRAPHY Marks 1992 and Byrne 1996 for photographs)
 

> > > B29 Selly Park/ Ten Acres/ Pineapple Hazelwell Fordrough/ Pineapple Road
No traces have been found of the moat which surrounded the original Hazelwell Hall manor house near Hazelwell Recreation Ground. Parliamentary commander Colonel Tinker Fox fortified the hall during the Civil War c1644. The hall was rebuilt as a 3-bay 3-storey neo-classical house in the 17th century. By 1840 it was a farmhouse which was modernised by George Cartland. The Hazelwell public house was built on the site in the 1930s in a grand mock-Tudor part-timbered style.

> > > B30 Cotteridge Pershore Road/ Middleton Hall Road
Cotteridge House c1680 was built in a field called Motts Field, now demolished and the site built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield Church Road/ Rectory Road/ Old Moat Drive
Northfield manor house may have stood here from the 11th until the 14th century when Weoley Castle took its place as the manor house. The 70m x 60m moat at Moat Farm was filled in 1930 and houses built on the site 1965. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield Hanging Lane/ West Park Avenue
Possible moat at The Grange, demolished for housing. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield Tinkers Farm Road/ Cheverton Road/ Kelby Road/ Inverness Road
Tinkers Farm was probably surrounded by a medieval moat - a school is now on the site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield/ Kings Norton Aldersmead Road
Staple Hall Farm, now demolished for housing may have been a medieval moated site. No visible remains.
 

> > > B31 Northfield/ Cotteridge Northfield Road/ Middleton Hall Road
Middleton Hall may have stood on a moated site. Demolished for housing with no visible remains.

 

> > > B32 Woodgate Valley Wood Lane/ Moat Coppice
Moat Farm now demolished had visible signs of a medieval moat. No visible remains.

 

> > > B33 Glebe Farm/ Kitts Green Glebe Farm Road/ Croxton Grove
A moated site at Walters Farm (in the 13th century Water Farm) which was demolished for 1930s council housing is evidenced by fieldnames Moat Leasow and Fish Pool Piece and shown on 19th-century OS maps as the north and east arms of a moat. Bought by Matthew Boulton in the late 18th century and sold on to the vicar of Yardley whence the name, glebe being land owned by the priest. The moated site was probably abandoned when a late-Georgian house was built here as Glebe Farm House, demolished c1934. No visible remains.

 

> > > B33 Lea Hall Lea Village/ Folliott Road
Lea Hall manor house was built on a moated site immediately north of Lea Hall Railway Station and evidenced by 19th-century fieldnames, Pool Field and Moat Leasow. Lea Hall was described as ‘a large modern house’ in 1767; it was demolished when Lea Hall railway station was built 1937. Now covered with 1930s housing and no visible remains.

 

> > > B34 Buckland End/ Kitts Green Cole Hall Lane
Cole Hall was a medieval moated site (no visible remains) between the River Cole and Cole Hall Farm/ Colehall Farm shown on Castle Bromwich Estate Map 1802 (Staffordshire County Record Office), and as Moat and Moat Meadow on the Survey Map of Aston Parish 1833-35. The 1843 Aston Tithe Map shows no moat but the apportionment lists Moat and Moat Meadow. Cole Hall Farm, now a pub and restaurant, probably replaced the moated house in the 18th century at which time c40 hectares were farmed. Solihull Sanitary Authority, which included Yardley parish, laid a sewer down Yardley Brook valley from Yardley church to Colehall: the farm was bought for filter beds and the house became its offices. Later the sewer was extended to Minworth Main by Birmingham, Tame & Rea District Drainage Board. The sewage farm went out of use in the mid-20th-century and the tanks were infilled and the area landscaped in the 1970s. The farm buildings were subsequently disused until conversion to a public house in the 1990s. The farmhouse and its 18th-century barn are Grade II Listed.

 

> > > B35 Castle Vale Farnborough Road opposite Rhoose Croft
Berwood Hall was a moated manor house first mentioned c1160 when Sir Hugh de Arden gave the Abbey of St Mary at Leicester his manor of Berwood as a monastic grange, ie. a farm run by lay brothers for the monastery. Two priests are mentioned 1224 in the chapel of the Blessed Mary at Berwood Hall but the chapel had gone by Henry VI’s time. The manor reverted to the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and was sold to Thomas Arden for £272 10 shillings. The manor house fell into decay and was replaced in the late 17th century by a farmhouse south of the moat which survived until Castle Bromwich Aerodrome was built before World War 2. Much of the site was built over with housing in the late 1960s. No visible remains.
 

> > > B36 Bromford/ Firs Berrandale Road
Near Castle Bromwich Bridge on the Chester Road, a moated site close the River Tame is recorded on early 20th-century maps and evidenced by 19th-century (or earlier) fieldnames, Moat Meadow and Moat Plantation. No visible remains.
 

> > > B36 Hodge Hill/ Bromford Reynoldstown Road/ Doncaster Drive
Haye Hall/ Hay Hall/ Hay House/ Haye House/ Hodge Hill manor house - Hodge Hill is mentioned 1622 as a sub-manor of Aston though the original double moat makes a 12th/13th-century origin of the hall more than likely. Henry Chattock was permitted by Richard II to embattle the hall which was held by the Chattocks probably from medieval times until the end of the 19th century.
Hay Hall was rebuilt 1603 probably for the third time. The moat which was drained c1850 is shown on the 1886 OS map; it is now built over. The moated site was abandoned and Haye House built to replace it at Ermington Crescent/ Haye House Grove. However, this may have been the 1603 rebuilding and is arguably, though disputably the Comet Inn in Collingbourne Avenue. No visible remains of the moated site.
 

> > > B38 Kings Norton Popes Lane/ Wychall Lane
Wychall Farm was originally a moated timber-framed farm rebuilt in brick at a later date (Victorian?), demolished after 1952 to make way for housing and St Thomas Aquinas School. No visible remains.
 

> > > B38 Walkers Heath Walkers Heath Road
Pool Farm moat was excavated 1949-1956 by pupils of Kings Norton Grammar School under M J Nixon; the site is now occupied by Cavendish Tower block of flats. No visible remains.
 

> > > B45 Rubery Kendal Rise/ Bristol Road South
Possible moat at former Colmers Farm south of River Rea. No visible remains.
 

> > > B76 Minworth/ Wishaw/ Sutton Coldfield Hurst Green Road
Fieldname and map evidence for a moat at Hurst Green Farm. No visible remains.
 

> > > B91 Olton/ Worlds End Broad Oaks Road
Possible moated site now built over. No visible remains.
 

> > > B92 Olton Brookvale Road/ Warwick Road
Gospel Farm, now demolished was a medieval moated site sited at the west end of Gospel Lane Playing Fields where the old parish boundary makes unexplained right-angled turns showing the position of the moat. No visible remains.
 

> > > B92/ B26 Sheldon Arden Croft/ Coventry Road/ Valley Road
Moated site covered by 20th-century housing. No visible remains.

GAZETTEER

Miscellaneous Medieval Buildings and Sites

The following are buildings or sites with medieval origins other than moated sites. Most have been added to and altered extensively since the Middle Ages; many have disappeared without trace. The list comprises manor houses, schools, inns and cottages. It must be noted that the houses of the majority of the population would have been poorly built of wood, mud and thatch and have not survived.

(BSMR = Birmingham Sites & Monuments Record)

> > > B2 City Centre High Street/ Castle Street

When stables in the Old Castle Yard were demolished 1864, workmen digging foundations for a cellar found a quantity of human bones including 3 skulls about a metre down; their presence has never been explained and their age never determined.

> > > B4/ B5 City Centre Ryder Street

Ryder Street was formerly known as The Butts. Edward IV made archery practice compulsory on Sundays and feast days to guard against the threat of invasion; all men aged 16-60 should own a longbow of their own height and each township was required to set up archery butts or targets; the statute was revived by Henry VIII 1543 for fear of French invasion but fell into abeyance in the 17th century. Every manor had a site where archery was practised. The junction with Coleshill Street was known as Stubb Cross, meaning a broken-off cross (Westley’s 1731 map).

> > > B5 City Centre Ladywell Walk (south side)/ Hurst Street

The Lady Well was a natural spring and used by water carriers to supply the town. This was later the site of Birmingham’s first swimming baths (commemorated in Bath Passage nearby) from c1720 and comparable with any nationally; there was a 100 metre main pool and 10 other pools of various sizes and temperatures and varieties of spa water. The site is now beneath the Arcadian Centre.

> > > B2 City Centre New Street
The Guild Hall of the Holy Cross (demolished) stood on the south side of New Street half-way between High Street/ Worcester Street and Stephenson Street. It was a large timber-framed building and became King Edward VI Grammar School with the dissolution of religious guilds by Henry VIII 1545. It was demolished 1707 and replaced by a neo-classical building which in turn was demolished 1830 and replaced by a large gothic building by Charles Barry architect of the Houses of Parliament. This was demolished 1936; part survives as the chapel of King Edward VI Grammar School Bristol Road.

 

> > > B6 Aston Aston Road North/ Rocky Lane
The site of the Aston’s medieval pinfold, the pound for strayed livestock.

 

> > > B8 Ward End St Margarets Road/ William Cook Road

Ward End Timber Supply was known as Cocksparrow Hall and is believed to have been a 15th-century gamekeeper’s cottage; in the early 20th century it was a sweet shop.

> > > B8 Saltley Couchman Road
Excavation revealed evidence of the brick wall and cobbled floor of an 18th-century farm dairy, but also showed tentative evidence that this was on one side of the triangular village green of Upper Saltley. Very little has survived of the kind of poorly made huts which housed most of the population. (See Tomlinson’s map 1761) BSMR
 

> > > B9 Deritend/ Bordesley Digbeth High Street/ Heath Mill Lane
The Old Crown (Guild House/ Guild Hall) is recorded 1368 though the large manorial-type building as seen is 16th-century. It was probably the Guild Hall of St John the Baptist Deritend during the 15th century and included the priest’s house and school for members’ children. It was certainly the mansion house described by John Leland on his travels 1538. Queen Elizabeth I is thought to have slept here in the Gallery Chamber over the main entrance en route from Kenilworth Castle 1575.

The building was referred to as the Crown Inn 1589 when was it was sold by Richard Smalbroke of Yardley. The Old Crown was divided into two properties by Richard Dickson 1684 and became a coaching inn c1700, probably Birmingham’s first such. In 1848 historian Joshua Toulmin-Smith began restoration, completed by with new building to the rear by 1862. A medieval well was found at this time. It continued as a public house taken over by Holt Brewery 1925, Ansell's 1966 by which time the building had been allowed to seriously deteriorated. It closed 1992. The Old Crown was renovated and reopened 1998 as a public house and hotel by Patrick and Ellen Brennan. The medieval well was rediscovered 1994 and is to be seen in the reception foyer.

There were many timber-framed buildings less grand than the Old Crown in this area, some fronted with a brick facade in Georgian times; by the end of the 19th century all had been replaced with the exception of the Golden Lion which was moved to Cannon Hill Park 1911. The Old Crown is a remarkable and important survival so close to the City Centre. Grade II* Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B11 Showell Green/ Sparkhill Esme Road/ Ivor Road/ Belvedere Gardens
Shrubbery Farm was probably medieval; the site was built over in Victorian times; no visible trace.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill Stratford Road
Sparkhill Farm opposite Baker Street probably of medieval origin was demolished 1880s; no visible trace.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill Warwick Road/ St Johns Road
Greet Farm, probably medieval in origin, was a large holding with over 50ha much of it water-meadows along the Cole; farm buildings stood until the 1880s when Percy Road was laid out; Greet School was built on the site soon afterwards. No visible trace.
 

> > > B11 Sparkhill/ Wake Green Grove Road/ Greswolde Road/ Stratford Road
Fulford Hall later Grove Farm was a large 4-bay timber-framed building originally of the c14th century. An upper floor and parlour wing added c1600, a brick-infilled timber-framed service wing 1651, a 19th-century scullery. This was a Maxstoke Priory holding until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII when it was bought by the Greswold family. The farm was sold by a Greswolde descendant 1896 to the Freehold Land Society for housing. However, a photograph of exists of 1905 showing the farm still in operation. The farmhouse was subsequently demolished. No visible remains.
 

> > > B12 Moseley/ Edgbaston Cannon Hill Park
The Golden Lion is an early 16th-century timber-framed house originally in Digbeth High Street (Bull Ring Trading Estate), saved from destruction for road-widening and re-erected here 1911. There are 3 gables at the front and the house has two storeys in timber-framing with brick infill on the ground floor, plaster on the upper floor. The building is out of use and in a poor state of repair 1999. This building is typical of many that stood in this area until the 19th century of which photographic evidence survives. Grade I Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B13 Wake Green/ Billesley Swanshurst Lane opposite Meadow View
Swanshurst Farm stood in what is now Swanshurst Park from medieval times; it was probably an assart on land belonging to Maxstoke Priory. A new timber-framed wing was added to the original medieval hall c1600 and a brick wing was added in Stuart times when the rest of the house bricked; there were extensive outbuildings. After nearly 300 years of occupancy by the Dolphins, John Dolphin died 1834 and the buildings were rented out as slum tenements. The brick wing collapsed and for 30 years the empty building deteriorated until 1906 when solicitor Stanbury Eardley lived in its ruin. After his death 1917 the house was demolished and some of the timbers were used decoratively in the building of a new house also named Swanshurst at B13 Russell Road. The barns were demolished 1920 when Swanshurst Lane housing was about to be developed.

 

> > > B13 Billesley/ Springfield Wake Green Road/ Willersley Road
Sarehole Farm/ Sarehole Hall/ Sarehole House was the property of Maxstoke Priory; the hall and mill were owned by the Eaves family from the early 18th century and rebuilt 1721. Bankrupted by rebuilding Sarehole Mill and Greet Mill Richard Eaves sold out to John Taylor, button magnate and banker. The farmland was built on between the wars, but the farmhouse itself survived until 1957 when a bungalow was built on the site. Some of its mid-Victorian outbuildings were used by a garage for some years before being demolished in the early 1970s.

 

> > > B13 Wake Green Asheligh Grove

Ashleigh Grange was probably a 15th-century hall timbered in pad-and-panel style like Swanshurst. It was demolished c1930.

> > > B13/ B28 Billesley/ Yardley Wood Coleside Avenue
Little Sarehole was a medieval timber-framed farmhouse on the west bank of the River Cole at Four Arches Bridge; it was in ruins by the 1930s and demolished.
Brook Farm rebuilt in late Georgian times stood just west of Little Sarehole. All buildings were demolished by the 1930s. Photo in Byrne 1996 - see BIBLIOGRAPHY.

 

> > > B14/ B90 Highters Heath/ Solihull Lodge Prince of Wales Lane/ Gorleston Road
This is the probable site of Highters Heath cross marking the meeting point of Yardley, Kings Norton and Solihull. The cross may have referred simply to the crossroads, or may have been a preaching cross. This was an area at that time of intercommoning woodland - ie. access to the woodland was shared in common by people of the three parishes eg. for grazing pigs or collecting firewood. The woodland diminished after Tudor times.
 

> > > B15 Edgbaston Harborne Road/ Highfield Road

This junction was known as Stubb Cross meaning a broken-off cross (Sparrry’s map 1718).

> > > B16 Rotton Park Gillott Road/ Rotton Park Road/ Wheatsheaf Road
Rotton Park Lodge, the keeper’s lodge of the de Birmingham deer park stood on a slight hill here; it may well have been moated. It was rebuilt in Tudor times and was the centre of working farm until early in the 20th century. No visible traces. There was a house of the name on this site until the early 20th century.
 

> > > B17 Harborne Harborne Park Road/ Old Church Road
Harborne House was at one time Harborne manor house; it is a 3-storey brick building built in the late 18th century for ironmaster Thomas Green. The original manor house site may have been that of Harborne Hall in Old Church Road/ Grove Lane. Harborne House became Bishops Croft 1911, residence of the bishops of Birmingham (Birmingham diocese was created 1905) and a chapel was built 1923 by A S Dixon. As it now appears there is a central 3-storey block of red brick with pedimented wings which were altered in the early 20th century. There is a typical Birmingham tuscan doorcase. It is still the Bishop of Birmingham’s residence; largely Georgian this is a Grade II Listed building. BSMR
 

> > > B20 Handsworth Slack Lane/ Oxhill Road
Handsworth Old Town Hall is a cruck-framed building of 3 bays each divided by a cruck truss. Cruck-framing was an old technique of building of which few examples survive in the Birmingham area. It involved sawing a tree, usually oak, lengthways and leaning the two halves against each other to form an arch. The Handsworth Town Hall dates from before 1500 and served as village jail and workhouse. In the 17th century a brick chimney was built, some external plasterwork was infilled with brick and the first floor was constructed within the building.

Due for demolition it was bought by Birmingham Archaeological Society, modernised to form two separate dwellings and given to the City in 1947. One of the dwellings subsequently became a museum managed by Handsworth Local History Society. It name has no connection with a town hall in the modern sense; rather it means ‘the hall at the old town’. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B20 Handsworth Hamstead Road
Handsworth pinfold/ pound for stray livestock stood opposite St Mary’s Church on the site formerly occupied by the church school.
 

> > > B23 Stockland Green/ Witton Brookvale Road/ George Road
Witton Hall, a 3-storey red-brick manor house built c1730 by the Allestree family of Yardley, much remodelled in the 19th century stands at the north end of Brookvale Park. It was a private school in 1850 and Home for the Aged from 1907 until at least 1959. There have been many extensions and internal alterations. The manor dates back to Domesday and it may be that an earlier manor house stood on this site. Grade A Locally Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B24 Erdington/ Birchfield Bromford Lane/ Bromford Crescent
The Old Green Man nicknamed The Lad in the Lane and so-renamed after renovation 1971 but soon reverting to its original name, has timbers dating from 1306 and is allegedly one of the oldest inns in continuous use in England. It is cruck-framed and largely 14th-/ 15th-century though with 16th-century additions and alterations and extensions from c1930. Both parliamentary and royalist troops are said to have stayed here during the Civil War. Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B24 Erdington Greenside Road/ Grange Road
Archaeological traces were found of post holes from an oval timber hut presumably with a thatched roof. It had a central support post and measured c5m x c3m. The floor was of beaten clay brought in for the purpose. It may have been a house but its purpose is unknown. It is the type of building made of natural materials by people for thousands of years. Usually little trace survives other than marks in the soil, so this is a remarkable find in an urban area.
 

> > > B24 Erdington/ Pype Hayes Bowcroft Grove/ Chester Road

In the Middle Ages the Earl of Warwick who was lord of Sutton manor provided a stone cottage, Bow Bearers Lodge for two retainers to escort travellers across Sutton Chase which was a desolate and dangerous area renowned for robbers. The lodge survived until it was demolished 1828; Bowcroft Grove is on the site of a field called Bow Bearers Croft.

> > > B24 Erdington/ Pype Hayes Chester Road/ Eachelhurst Road
The present Pype Hayes Hall/ Pype Hayes House in Pype Hayes Park, a sub-manor of Erdington was built before 1670 by Sir Harvey Bagot. It was still occupied in 1908 but was bought by Birmingham City Council 1919 when the park was converted into a public park and the house into a convalescent home. Used as city council offices and much altered, it is essentially Stuart in appearance. The original house, a central block with gabled cross wings, was timber-framed, but was altered and stuccoed in the late 18th century; the front of the house has 13 small gables. The pedimented porch with tuscan columns dates from the mid-18th century, there are 19th- and 20th-century additions. Inside early-17th-century panelling survives and 18th-century staircase. Grade II Listed.
Ridge and furrow evidence of a (?medieval) open field can still be seen nearby. BSMR
 

> > > B25 Yardley Church Road
Yardley Old Grammar School/ Yardley Grammar School/ Yardley Trust School in St Edburgha’s churchyard was the 15th-century church house, Grade II* Listed Building BSMR. Rebuilt 1512; by the late 16th century the long 2-storey timber-framed building was a school until 1909 it was replaced by Worcestershire County Council with the school further along Church Road. Windows and doors were restored during the 20th-century and the interior modernised, but the 15th-century roof remains visible.
Nos.422-424 adjoining to the rear are the Schoolmaster’s House 1732; previous schoolmasters had lived above the school.

Yardley churchyard was cleared of gravestones 1959; one remaining is in the south-east corner that of schoolmaster James Chell.
Yardley stocks (last used 1852) and combined whipping post stood outside the church wall to the right of the south gate until the 19th century with a small lock-up alongside.
Church Road by the church is part of Old Yardley Conservation Area and was pedestrianised in the 1970s.
 

> > > B25 Yardley Church/ Church Terrace
The site of No.451 Church Farm/ Tile House Farm is likely to be an original Anglo-Saxon site possibly dating back 1200 years. It was given to Yardley Charity Trust by local tilemaker Robert Robyns. Present buildings are Victorian: the cowhouse is c1820 but built around the timber frame of an earlier building, the barn with its central high doorway is 1848 and has evidence of the threshing floor; wagon house 1853; farmhouse rebuilt 1837; stable built using an old pair of crucks includes a pigeon loft; the Smithy still in use as a smithy 1980, though most work is done in a late-20th-century building. All outbuildings restored 1979.
 

> > > B26 Yardley Yew Tree Lane
Yardley House belonged to the Minshull family, later the Flavells documented 1465; the Flavells sold the estate to Mitchells & Butlers brewery 1919 and the Yew Tree public house was built in the grounds. The house was lived in by the Bosworths until demolition 1930. No visible evidence.
 

> > > B27 Acocks Green Warwick Road/ Woodcock Lane
The site of the Acocks family home. John Acok is recorded 1420, and the last house on the site from c1649 was demolished in the mid-20th century. No visible evidence.

> > > B27/ B28 Acocks Green/ Hall Green Fox Hollies Road/ Fox Green Crescent
Fox Hollies Hall/ Foxhollies was a medieval assart on land belonging to Maxstoke Priory; the estate was acquired by the Fox family 1649. It became an inn and entertainment centre before 1860 when it was bought and lavishly rebuilt 1869 by the Walker family in stuccoed brick Victorian italianate style possibly around the original building with stables, kennels, other outbuildings and lodge. The hall was last occupied by Colonel Zaccheus Walker IV who sold the estate to Birmingham City Council for housing c1920; after his death 1930 the hall was demolished and some of the surrounding park maintained as Curtiss Gardens where part of the gateposts to the hall remain facing Fox Hollies Road. No visible evidence.

 

> > > B28 Hall Green/ Robin Hood The Bridle Path/ Solihull Lane

Stillfield House near Pembroke Croft was a medieval assart. In the 17th century known as Steelfields it was owned but not lived in by the Grevis family of Moseley Hall.

> > > B28 Hall Green/ Robin Hood Robin Hood Lane/ Baldwins Lane

A croft (enclosed field) here was called Conygre meaning rabbit warren. The soil here is sandy (note Sandy Hill Road) and ideal rabbit territory; rabbit warrens were maintained as an important food resource.

> > > B28 Yardley Wood Priory Road opposite Nethercote Gardens
Believed to be the site of Colebrook Priory. No visible evidence.
 

> > > B30 Bournville Maple Road/ Sycamore Road
Minworth Greaves Manor was a 14th-century cruck-framed cottage brought from B76 Minworth Kingsbury Road and the wooden frame and roof trusses re-erected here 1929-32. The third bay with the gallery is modern. It is a public museum owned by Bournville Village Trust and Grade II Listed. BSMR
 

> > > B31 Northfield Church Road/ Church Hill
The Great Stone Inn stands opposite Northfield Church and next to the old Village Pound (Grade II Listed) for stray farm animals. The pub is named after a glacial erratic boulder from north Wales that now stands in the pound (before the 1950s it was on the corner of Church Hill/ Church Road). Internally it is a late medieval timber-framed hall, altered in the 17th century and facaded in brick in the 18th century. It was extended in the 19th century and modified internally by the brewery in the 1970s. Although of medieval origin the pub has a Georgian appearance. Grade I