Yardley, Birmingham facts for kids

Yardley, a part of Birmingham.

Yardley is an area in the east of Birmingham, England. It's also a special local area called a council constituency. This means it has its own local group, a district committee, that helps manage things. A long time ago, Yardley was actually part of a different county called Worcestershire.

Yardley is also a constituency for the UK Parliament. This means people in Yardley vote for someone to represent them in the government. The person who represents Yardley right now is Jess Phillips. She became the Member of Parliament in May 2015. A small area called Gilbertstone is right on the edge of Yardley and South Yardley.

Cool Places in Yardley

Old Yardley Grammar School, a historic building.

St Edburgha's Church, also known as Old Yardley Church.

Yardley has a main shopping area called Yew Tree. It got its name from a pub built in 1919, which was also called The Yew Tree. This pub was taken down in 2000 to make space for the shops you see today. Before the pub, there was a house from the 1800s on the same spot. It probably had a big yew tree nearby!

There was once a very large pub called The Swan. It was run by a company called Ansells Brewery. For a while, it was the biggest pub in Great Britain! It had eight different areas to drink in. The total space for customers was almost 14,000 square feet. Over 1,000 people could be there at once.

In 2012, a new shopping center opened in Yardley. It's called the Swan Shopping Centre. It replaced an older Swan Centre that used to have markets.

Yardley's Past: A Look Back

Yardley Council House in Sparkhill, 2007.

Yardley is not a town, but an old area with a long history. The ancient area of Yardley included places like Stechford and Hall Green. Yardley is even mentioned in the Domesday Book. This was a big survey of England made in 1086. Yardley was first mentioned even earlier, in 972. King Edgar's old document called it Gyrdleah. It was owned by a place called Pershore Abbey.

Yardley also has an old, moated site called "Kent's Moat." A moat is a deep ditch, usually filled with water, around a castle or building. This moat is now dry, but it's still deep and has kept its shape well. People have found signs that people lived there as early as the 1100s.

Yardley is home to Blakesley Hall, a special house from the Tudor period. It also has a very old church called St Edburgha's. This church was built in the 1200s. Its tall tower and spire were added in the 1400s. A special doorway was added during the Tudor times. It has Tudor roses and a pomegranate carved into it. These carvings remember the marriage of Prince Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Catherine of Aragon.

Yardley used to have a manor, which is like a large estate or big house. Many different lords owned it over time. After 1700, no one lived in the manor for a while. The Royal Family owned it until 1626. Then, a man named Richard Grevis bought it. His family later sold it in 1759 to pay off money they owed. In 1766, John Taylor, who helped start Lloyds Bank, bought the lordship. But by then, most of the land had been sold to other people. So, Taylor only owned a small part of the original estate.

Yardley's Local Government

Yardley Rural District was a local government area. It was created from the old parish of Yardley. This happened under a law called the Local Government Act 1894. Historically, it was part of Worcestershire. This district included areas like Yardley Wood. The Yardley Council House building was first built for the Yardley Rural District Council.

By 1911, Yardley had become a place where many people lived, like a suburb of Birmingham. It then became part of Birmingham and Warwickshire under a law called the 1911 Greater Birmingham Act. You can still see a sign of Birmingham's old link to Worcestershire. At Acocks Green police station, the building has a "three pears" design. This design comes from the Worcestershire coat of arms.

A small part of Yardley, called Old Yardley, was made a "conservation area" in 1969. This means it's a special place where buildings and the environment are protected. It was Birmingham's very first conservation area.

In 1981, a special type of prefab home (a house built in parts somewhere else and then put together) was taken apart. This home was on Moat Lane. It was then moved to the Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings to be preserved.

Schools in Yardley

Yardley has five main primary schools for younger children. These are Yardley, Blakesley Hall, Lyndon Green, Oasis Academy Hobmoor, and St. Bernedettes. It also has two main secondary schools for older students. These are Cockshut Hill School and King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy.

Hobmoor Primary School moved to a new building in the summer of 2007. The old school building was taken down. The land where it stood is now empty and will be used for something new in the future.

Getting Around Yardley

The closest railway station to Yardley is Stechford railway station. Many buses serve the area. These include National Express West Midlands bus routes 11A, 11C, 17, 58, 60, 73, X1, and X2. These buses connect Yardley to Birmingham city center, the outer circle, Chelmsley Wood, and Solihull. There's also a Claribel Coaches route S16.

In the past, Yardley had different ways to get around. It used to have buses pulled by horses. Then, there were steam buses. After that, electric trams were introduced. These trams traveled over a new bridge across the River Cole to the Swan.