Yardley, Birmingham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yardley constituency shown within Birmingham.

Yardley is an area in east Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee.

Birmingham Yardley is a constituency and its Member of Parliament is John Hemming.

1 Features
2 History
3 Education
4 Transport
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Features

St Edburgha's Church (Old Yardley Church) within the conservation zone.

Yardley's main shopping area is known as Yew Tree, named after the yew that stood on the roundabout at the junction in the centre of Yardley.^{[citation needed]} It was damaged during work to the roundabout, and as a result was removed. It was later replaced by another tree located in the centre of the island.

Yardley once had a local pub owned by the brewery company Bass, called The Yew Tree. It was shut down in June 2000 after being stripped of its liquor license and told by police that it was a magnet for crime.^[1] It was subsequently subject to two arson attacks.^[2] One of the fires caused an adjacent road, Stoney Lane, to be closed to traffic for one day. The pub was later demolished and replaced by a Co-op supermarket and new restaurants.^[3]^[4] A new Yew Tree pub has now opened within the premises.

[edit] History

Yardley is not a new town. Yardley is named in the Domesday Book and was referred to as early as 972 in King Edgar's Charter where it is named Gyrdleah. It was mentioned as being under the possession of Pershore Abbey.

The parish of Yardley, historically considered part of Worcestershire, became the only parish in the Yardley Rural District under the Local Government Act 1894, and was added to Birmingham and Warwickshire in 1911.^[5] The ancient parish of Yardley included the areas known as Stechford and Hall Green. The area of Gilbertstone straddles the border of Yardley and South Yardley.

Yardley has a Tudor hall called Blakesley Hall and an old church, St Edburgha's, that dates back to the 13th century, with the church tower and spire dating to the 15th century. It was not established by the abbey, but by Aston Church in the Diocese of Lichfield.^[6] A Tudor addition to the church is a doorway surrounded by Tudor roses and a pomegranate, commemorating the marriage of Prince Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Catherine of Aragon.

Yardley had a manor that was owned by various lords. It remained unoccupied from 1700 onwards. It was owned by the Royal Family until 1626, when it was bought by Richard Grevis of Moseley Hall. His descendants sold it in 1759 to pay off debts. John Taylor, one of the founders of Lloyds Bank, bought the lordship in 1766. Most of the land, had by then, been purchased by other people so Taylor owned only a small portion of the original grounds.^[6]

A sizeable amount of Yardley, called Old Yardley, was granted conservation area status in 1969, becoming Birmingham's first conservation area.^[7]

In 1981, an Arcon V prefab home on Moat Lane was dismantled and transported to the Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings.^[8]

[edit] Education

Old Yardley Grammar School within the conservation zone.

Yardley has three main primary schools. These are Yardley, Hobmoor and Lyndon Green. It also has two main secondary schools, which are Cockshut Hill and Sheldon Heath.

Hobmoor Primary School moved to new premises in Summer 2007. The former building is to be demolished and the site redeveloped.

[edit] Transport

Yardley's nearest train station is Stechford railway station. It is served by National Express West Midlands buses, most connecting to Birmingham city centre, Chelmsley Wood and Solihull.

The area used to be well-served by horse-buses and then by steam-buses. Electric trams were then introduced and they travelled across a new bridge at the River Cole to the Swan.^[6]

[edit] References

^ Brewery shuts pub after police protest; Magistrates to hear of violent incidents - Birmingham Evening Mail, July 28, 2000 (Retrieved June 19, 2007)
^ Guards patrol disused pub; Building is target for vandals, Birmingham Evening Mail, May 3, 2001 (Retrieved June 19, 2007)
^ Yew Tree pub for the chop - The Birmingham Post, March 2, 2001 (Retrieved June 19, 2007)
^ TIME'S UP FOR PUB; New shops tidy up area, Birmingham Evening Mail, September 20, 2002 (Retrieved June 19, 2007)
^ Yardley RD Worcestershire through time | Administrative history of Local Government District: hierarchies, boundaries
^ ^a ^b ^c Images of England: Yardley (Introduction), Michael Byrne, 2002, Tempus Publishing (ISBN 0-7254-0339-7)
^ Yardley on BirminghamUK.com
^ Stratton, Michael (2000). Twentieth Century Industrial Archaeology. Taylor & Francis, 36. ISBN 0419246800.