YARDLEY - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"YARDLEY, a parish in the upper division of Halfshire hundred, county Worcester, 4½ miles E. of Birmingham. It is situated on the Warwickshire border, from which county it is separated by the river Cole, over which are several bridges connecting this parish with that of Aston. It is traversed by the Warwick and Birmingham canal, and by the Great Western and London and North-Western railways, the former having a station at the western end of the parish at Acock's Green, and the latter near the eastern boundary at Stechford.

The surface, which is level, is watered by several small streams falling into the Cole. About two-thirds of the land are meadow and pasture, and the remainder chiefly arable, with a little woodland and waste, the greater part of the common having been enclosed. The soil is a stiff loam on a substratum of clay. Great quantities of tiles are made here and conveyed to Birmingham. The living is a vicarage* [the asterisk denotes that there is a parsonage and glebe belonging to the living] in the diocese of Worcester, value £600.

The church, dedicated to St. Edburgh, was partially rebuilt in the reign of Henry VII. There are also a chapel-of-ease at Hall Green, built and endowed by J. Marston in the reign of Queen Anne, and a district church at Yardley Wood, dedicated to Christ, built and endowed by the late J. Taylor, Esq. The Independents have chapels at Rushall-lane and Acock's Green. There are two endowed grammar schools, and National and Sunday schools in connection with each of the churches, and on Moseley Wake Green is Springfield College for Independents, built in 1866 at a cost of £15,000, and having accommodation for 36 students. The charities, which now amount to about £1,000 per annum, besides 51 cottages used by the poor rent free, are administered by trustees, who every Easter Tuesday elect a bailiff. James A. Taylor, Esq., is lord of the manor."
"MARSTON, a chapelry in the parish of Yardley, county Worcester, 4 miles S.E. of Birmingham, and 8 from Sutton Coldfield. It is situated near the Warwick canal and the river Cole. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the extensive tile-works. The living is a perpetual curacy in the dioc, of Worcester, value £120, in the patronage of trustees. The church is an unpretending structure. The charities consist of £251, arising from estates left for the support of Hall Green chapel and schools."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]