![BirminghamYardleyConstituency](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/BirminghamYardleyConstituency.png)
Yardley is an area in east
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is also a
council constituency, managed by its own
district committee
In Birmingham, England, each council constituency is managed by a Constituency Committee, made up of all the councillors for the wards in that constituency.
Birmingham's ten Council constituencies were formally created as eleven "districts" on 5 ...
.
Historically
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
it lay within
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
.
Birmingham Yardley is a
constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...
and its
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
is
Jess Phillips
Jessica Rose Phillips (; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguardi ...
, elected in May 2015.
The area of
Gilbertstone straddles the border of Yardley and
South Yardley
South Yardley is a largely residential area in east Birmingham, England about from the city centre, and one of the city's 69 electoral wards.
Ward
Following the 2017 City of Birmingham ward revisions South Yardley covers a much smaller area ...
.
Features
![Old Yardley Church, Birmingham](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Old_Yardley_Church%2C_Birmingham.jpg)
Yardley's main shopping area is known as Yew Tree, named after the
yew that stood, originally to the south of the roundabout, outside what was then Boots, then on the
roundabout
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
at the junction in the centre of Yardley. 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.
In 2012, the
Swan Shopping Centre
The Swan Shopping Centre is an shopping centre in Yardley, Birmingham, which opened in Spring 2012.
With its landmark high rise building, it stands on the A45 Coventry Road at its intersection with the A4040 Outer Ring Road (also the Birmi ...
was opened in the area serving the Yardley area in the place of the old Swan Centre which used to hold markets.
History
Parish of Yardley
Yardley is not a town. The ancient parish of Yardley included the areas known as
Stechford and
Hall Green
Hall Green is an area in southeast Birmingham, England, synonymous with the B28 postcode. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Historically it lay within the county of Worcestershire.
Politics
Hall Green is ...
. Yardley is named in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
and was referred to as early as 972 in King
Edgar
Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''gar'' "spear").
Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, rev ...
's Charter where it is named Gyrdleah. It was mentioned as being under the possession of
Pershore Abbey
Pershore Abbey, at Pershore in Worcestershire, was an Anglo-Saxon abbey and is now an Anglican parish church, the Church of the Holy Cross.
History
Foundation
The foundation of the minster at Pershore is alluded to in a spurious charter of King ...
.
Yardley also contains a moated medieval site called "Kent's Moat". Now dry, it has retained its depth and shape remarkably well considering its age, as excavations have shown evidence of inhabitation from as early as the 12th century.
Yardley has a
Tudor hall called
Blakesley Hall
Blakesley Hall, a grade II* listed building is a Tudor hall on Blakesley Road in Yardley, Birmingham, England. It is one of the oldest buildings in Birmingham and is a typical example of Tudor architecture with the use of darkened timber a ...
and an old
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
,
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
The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers of seve ...
.
[''Images of England: Yardley'' (Introduction), Michael Byrne, 2002, ]Tempus Publishing
The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 ...
() A Tudor addition to the church is a doorway surrounded by
Tudor rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
s and a
pomegranate
The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall.
The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...
, commemorating the marriage of Prince
Arthur, Prince of Wales
Arthur, Prince of Wales (19/20 September 1486 – 2 April 1502), was the eldest son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. He was Duke of Cornwall from birth, and he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1489. As ...
, to
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
.
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
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...
of Moseley Hall. His descendants sold it in 1759 to pay off debts. John Taylor, one of the founders of
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four (banking), Big Four" clearing house (finance), clearing banks. Lloyds B ...
, 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.
Yardley Rural District
Yardley Rural District was a local government administrative district formed from the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
of Yardley, historically part of
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
under the
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...
. The Rural District included the wards of
Yardley Wood
Yardley may refer to:
People Surname
* Bruce Yardley (1947–2019), Australian cricketer
* David Yardley (1929–2014), British legal scholar and public servant
* Doyle Yardley (1913–1946), American military officer
*Eric Yardley (born 1990), A ...
.
Yardley Council House was originally erected to house the Rural District Council (Yardley RDC).
By 1911 Yardley was a residential suburb of Birmingham and was annexed to
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
under the
1911 Greater Birmingham Act. Birmingham's Worcestershire heritage can be seen at
Acocks Green police station where the building is decorated with a "
three pears" motif from the
Worcestershire coat of arms.
A small section of Yardley, called Old Yardley, was granted conservation area status in 1969, becoming Birmingham's first conservation area.
In 1981, an Arcon V
prefab home on Moat Lane was dismantled and transported to
Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings
Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings is an open-air museum of rescued buildings which have been relocated to its site in Stoke Heath, a district of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. Founded in 1963 and opened in 1967, the museum was conce ...
.
Education
Yardley has five main
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
s. These are Yardley, Blakesley Hall, Lyndon Green, Oasis Academy Hobmoor and St. Bernedettes. It also has two main
secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
s, which are
Cockshut Hill School
Cockshut Hill School is a secondary school and sixth form located in the Yardley area of Birmingham, West Midlands, England.
History
The school is built on the site of Cockshut Hill Council School which opened in 1937 for juniors and infants ...
and
King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy
King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in the Sheldon area of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England.
Previously known as Sheldon Heath School, the school gained specialist status as an Ar ...
.
Hobmoor Primary School moved to new premises in Summer 2007. The former building has been demolished and the site remains vacant to be redeveloped.
Transport
Yardley's nearest
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
is
Stechford railway station. It is served by
National Express West Midlands
National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is a bus operator in the West Midlands that operates services in Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Solihull, as well as limited routes outside of the general area of Birmingham, su ...
bus routes 11A, 11C, 17, 58, 60, 73, X1 and X2, connecting to Birmingham city centre, outer circle,
Chelmsley Wood
Chelmsley Wood is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, with a population of 12,453. It is located near Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. It lies about eight miles eas ...
and
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
and Claribel Coaches route S16.
The area used to be well-served by horse-buses and then by
steam bus
A steam bus is a bus powered by a steam engine. Early steam-powered vehicles designed for carrying passengers were more usually known as steam carriages, although this term was sometimes used to describe other early experimental vehicles too.
H ...
es. Electric trams were then introduced and they travelled across a new bridge at the
River Cole to the
Swan
Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...
.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Birmingham City Council: Yardley ConstituencyHistory of Yardley1888 Ordnance Survey map of Yardley*
{{Coord, 52, 28, N, 1, 49, W, region:GB_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title
Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands
Conservation areas in England