Brum note first to surface in 972.

Byline: Carl Chinn 

"THESE are the land boundaries to Yardley" - so begins the boundary clause of 972 that is one of the oldest documentary references to any part of Birmingham.

Indeed, Birmingham itself is not mentioned in any known written source until the Domesday Book of 1086. This ensures that the Yardley entry, as part of the estates of Pershore Abbey, takes on an invaluable historical significance not only for its age but also for the aspects of the Early Medieval landscape that it reveals.

The description of the bounds went in a clockwise manner.

It began near to the main settlement of what is today often known as Old Yardley and at the defining feature of the whole parish - the River Cole. Then written as Colle, this watercourse separated Yardley from Castle Bromwich, Ward End, Little Bromwich and Bodesley - all in the parish of Aston - whilst it also split Yardley into two.

To the west were the modern Billesley, Yardley Wood and Greet, along with places such as Wake Green, Showell Green, and Swanshurst.

And to the east were Tyseley, Hall Green, Acocks Green, Fox Hollies, South Yardley, Yardley itself, Stechford, Glebe Farm and Lea Hall.

Most of the rest of the boundary landmarks from 972 were also noteworthy physical points. They include the black march (or border); the heath gore - a triangular piece of land covered in heather; the oak tree spring; the broad apple tree; the boundary thorn; the hidden brook; the white wood and the tall oak tree.

Fascinating as they are, such spots are tantalising for they are difficult to identify.

However, the location of other limits can perhaps be grasped hold of despite the vast changes to the layout of Yardley wrought by man, especially since urbanisation so drastically altered the face of the district.

Cinctunes broc was probably Kineton Brook. The stream of the king's farm or the royal manor, it is recalled in Kineton Green and it was near to the dividing line between Yardley and both Solihull and Lyndon, then in Bickenhill.

There are still minor watercourses in this locality but the ancient drainage system was so disturbed by the cutting of the Birmingham and Warwick Canal that the actual Kineton Brook may have disappeared.

Thence the border was marked by the "broom halas", the hollow of broom trees. This is brought to mind in Broom Hall Crescent in Hall Green. From here the edges of Yardley went over the Cole and on to the next distinctive boundary point - the moss marsh.

This moor by the river was also close to the Warstock and gave its name to two fields mentioned in the 1843 Yardley Tithe Map - the Top and Lower Colmores, near to the modern Prince of Wales Lane.

In fact, links to the ancient swampy nature of this vicinity lingered into the early 20th century in the aptly named Quagmire Farm. Its fields are now covered by houses in and around Glastonbury Road.

Just up from the moss marsh was the "ciondan". Pronounced as "chindon" this stream became the Water of Chynn by 1475 and finally Chinn Brook. Rising on the borders of Wythall and Alvechurch, it flows between Yardley Wood and Billesley until it joins the Cole at the Dingles. At just over four miles long it may be short but yet it is noted in the earliest charter relating to modern Birmingham. Sometime between 699 and 709 the great King Offa of Mercia, a ruler esteemed by the powerful Charlemagne himself, granted land at a place called Hellerelege to the Church at Worcester.

Although its name has been lost for generations, Hellerelege was in Kings Norton as can be deduced by the names of three boundary pointers. The first is the black mere or pool and a field called Blackpool was included on the 1843 Map of Kings Norton.

The second is Lindsworth, denoting the enclosure by the lime trees and remembered in Lindsworth Road, and the third is the ciondan.

Ciondin may have come from the Anglo-Saxon word cionde, indicating a ravine or a narrow valley, and the antiquity of the stream's name has put paid to a long-held story in my family. My great, great-grandfather Henry Chinn and his father before him, another Henry, were tenant farmers in the Kings Heath Park locality from the 1840s to the 1870s and the family story went that the Chinn Brook was socalled after them. Given that the stream's name actually arose well over 1,000 years earlier than when they lived then this idea has now been well and truly demolished!

Not far from this short brook came another distinctive marker in the 972 document - the bull's spring. It would lead to naming of Bully Lane, which in the later 19th century was changed into Billesley Lane and Belle Walk.

In a wonderful example of historical continuity, Billesley Lane begins at Springfield Road, which is just in Kings Heath, and it may hark back to the bull spring.

In the Middle Ages both Kings Heath and Moseley belonged to the parish of Kings Norton, but these boundary limits emphasise that much of modern Moseley, including Moseley Golf Course, had actually been in Yardley for most of its history.

Eventually the border came back to the River Cole, butamidst all the natural signposts the clause did include two markers that are connected to the names of men.

The first was Leomannincg weg, meaning the way of the folk of Leomann and it may have become part of the Stratford Road given that it lay between Broomhall and the River Cole, which are located either side of that route. The other boundary indicator was "mundes dene", signifying the valley of someone called Mund.

Interestingly in the Middle Ages Bromsgrove, Alvechurch and Kings Norton were notable as parishes that were divided into various areas for taxation. These were described as "eldes", "yeldes" or "yealds", all of which would seem to derive from the Anglo-Saxon word "gieldan", meaning to pay. In Kings Norton these yealds were Lee, Rednal or Wrednall, Headley, Moundsley, and Moseley, for each of which there was an aletaster.

Meaning the clearing (ley) of Mund, Moundsley was given as Mundesley in the 13th century.

For centuries, it was deep in the countryside with 30 farmers in 1820 as well as the historic Moundsley Hall off Walkers Heath Road. However, the area was developed rapidly in the inter-war years and thereafter.

Today the last reminder of the once extensive district of Moundsley is Moundsley Grove, a short cul-de-sac off Grendon Road at the Warstock.

So who was Mund who seemingly gave his name both to Moundsley and to Mund's Dene and where was this latter place?

As with Leomann it can be surmised that he was an Anglo Saxon of some local status who was living before the document of 972 was drawn up and that is about all that can be said of him.

As for Mund's Dene it is likely that this was the valley of the Spark Brook.

More on the origins of Sparkbrook will be revealed in the forthcoming weeks.

CAPTION(S):

Transporting building materials in the old way by horse and cart to construct new council houses in Chinnbrook Road, Billesley in 1926. The road takes its name from the Chinn Brook, one of the oldest recorded place names in Birmingham and not from my family!; A smashing shot of the old 'Robin Hood' picture house on the Stratford Road in the 1920s. Just along from here lay the border between the old parish of Yardley and Solihull, and the Stratford Road itself may follow the ancient Leomman's Way, also recorded in 972.; Two little girls in Billesley Lane in the early years of the twentieth century. Originally this was called Bully Lane and it harks back to the bull's spring mentioned in a document from 972.