,
Sparkhill, 2007
Parish of Yardley Yardley is not a town. The ancient parish of Yardley included the areas known as
Stechford and
Hall Green. 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. 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 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. 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. On 1 April 1912 the parish was abolished and merged with Birmingham.
Yardley Rural District Yardley Rural District was a local government administrative district formed from the
parish of Yardley, historically part of
Worcestershire under the
Local Government Act 1894. The Rural District included the wards of
Yardley Wood.
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 and
Warwickshire 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. ==Education==