• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

St Edburgha's Church Yardley

mariew

mariew

master brummie
I joint this site mostly for family research but I now find myself interested in history, and I was reading an article in the evening mail about queens park in yardley and the lovely church st edburgha's, I didn't realise that it was so old it was completed in 1461 and was dedicated to king alfreds grandaughter and next to the church is a trust school thought to date back to 1512 but was no longer a school in 1908 and is now used as parish rooms, I have been to many weddings there and have never noticed the school so I must go and have a look next week. My mom and dad were married there too.
 
It's a beautiful church indeed. I used to live in Yardley some years back and I spent many hours during my childhood playing in the park near there. The churchyard felt so much bigger back then and the church felt like a cathedral. I wrote the article on Wikipedia.

The actual church dates back further than 1461 to the 13th century. There are some interesting features on the church. One is the scrape marks on the base of the tower which were probably caused by someone sharpening their sword. Another is the doorway to the side of the church which is decorated in commemoration of the of the marriage of Henry VII and Katharine of Aragon.

I remember there being an open day at the old school next to it. But I just can't remember what it was like inside. I just remember looking out of the front window on the first floor.


Sorry I wrote all that and not given you any information on researching family history there, though.:redface:
 
You have just reminded about the sharpening swords marks someone told me about that years ago when I was attending a wedding there it's fasinating, I only wrote about the church as it is on my doorstep and I didn't realise just how old it is, as I say hopfully I will find a chance to have a proper look around and take some photos, history on your doorstep as they say.
 
I believe that the marks were made from sharpening arrow heads, not swords. It was once the law that every able bodied young man had to practice archery, and that is why the English were so successful in the Battle of Agincourt. Many churchyards had yew trees. The yew wood made excellent powerful long bows.
I also read somewhere that there was a church on that site before the Norman invasion, perhaps that's not true?

Spooner:)
 
spooner said:
I believe that the marks were made from sharpening arrow heads, not swords. It was once the law that every able bodied young man had to practice archery, and that is why the English were so successful in the Battle of Agincourt. Many churchyards had yew trees. The yew wood made excellent powerful long bows.
I also read somewhere that there was a church on that site before the Norman invasion, perhaps that's not true?

Spooner:)
Click to expand...

Aah, I knew it was some form of weaponry! Thanks a lot for that info though - I never knew about that law at all.

Here are pictures of the church spire and school. It's difficult getting a picture of the church in as there are just so many trees. I would have added it as an attachment but the picture was just too big:rolleyes:.

DSC_0252-2.jpg

DSC_0251-1.jpg
 
You see I'm learning more and more about history, thanks for the info about the arrow heads it makes you try to picture it all and thanks for the photos, I will try this week to have a look around , but I won't plan it if I plan anything it never happens something always crops up.
 
Would it be possible if anybody is looking at the records in Yardley Olde Church that they would be able to look up one for me. I would like to know if a child was christened there between January 1942 and February 1945 called either Doris Price or Dorothy Bowen. Thank you.
 
Hi Dottieau

Looked at Yardley Old Church (St Edgbughs) today at Central Library in the years 1941-1945 but sadly could not find your names, I did find two Bowens baptisms Ann 1942 and Robert Ellis 1942.

I also found six Price baptisms John Allan 1942, Kenneth 1943, Brenda Dorothy 1943, Colin 1943, Edward Albert 1944 and Micheal John 1941 if any of these are yours I can send you the rest of the details later, parents etc.

Good hunting Steerboy.
 
Thank you Steerboy for your help I am most grateful for you taking the time to look for me. Sadly none of the names you found are any help to me. Thanks again.
 
From an early age of living in Yardley i was told that the slots in sandstone of St Edburgha`s church were made in the Civil War by Cromwells Soldiers sharpening their swords before they captured Birmingham and after they had defeated the Royalists in the city of Worcester, Yardley was still part of Worcestershire then and Hay Mills, Tyseley and Yardley and surrounding districts were only passed into Birmingham, Warwickshire in 1911.
 
Thanks for that bit of history lencops, I didn't know Yardley came under Worcestershire, I learn something new everyday, lencops I did mention about the sword sharpening in post 3, but in post 4 spooner mentioned it was arrow heads that were sharpened, well perhaps it was both, who knows.
 
Mariew,

I might have just missed your mom and dad then, unless I saw their wedding with my mom, you never know. I would think it would be about '56 when I started going to the park with friends and 'confetti throwing'. I'm sure when I watched all those weddings, I imagined my own wedding at that church. Though that wasn't to be as the man I married was divorced. Ah well.

Ann
 
mariew, If you go to The Old Bill & Bull pub on the Coventry Rd, Hay Mills, it is on your left by the large set of traffic lights before the Swan underpass and roundabout, it was a Police Station and the Three Pears of Worcester Council Coat of Arms are still over the door, still there from 1911.
 
Hello folks,

I am hoping to do a lookup for a marriage in Yardley Old Church...but what exactly is the name of this church ? I have found St Edburgha..but still not sure if this is the correct one. Any advice will be appreciated.

Regards,
Margaret
 
My first post so 'hello'.

I'm doing a bit of family research and I'm trying to locate a church from a wedding photo that I have. The church is noted as being called 'Mission Hall', Causeway, Yardley. Does anyone know if it's the same church as St Edburgha's?

Here's the photo taken in 1925

goodewedding1.jpg


The family lived at number 1 Charles Edward Road in Yardley which looks as though it's no longer there but St Edburghas looks a likely candidate as far as distance goes but I've seen no other picture that makes it definitive.
Cheers
Steve
 
Hi Steve welcome to the forum. The causeway was of Church rd on the left hand side traveling from the Swan to the Yew Tree. the actual road is still there but all the buildings have been demolished and the road to will soon be lost as the new shoping area is built. I can remember a Church hall being there at one time. Our member Lencops is the man to ask. Charles Edward rd is still there, its located on the otherside of the Coventry rd I think some of the houses were knocked down to enable the Coventry rd to be widened in the 60s but there are quite a few remaining.
 
Hi Robert,

Thanks for the reply. From what you are saying it would suggest that the above photo isn't that of 'Mission Hall' as you've clarified the answer as being in the name, i.e. 'Hall' rather than church. Identifying this church may prove more difficult than I first thought. Number one Charles Edward road is no more and from what you've said it's down to road widening of the Coventry road.....

Thanks again
Steve
 
Hi Steve i will be in that area a little later this evening, i will look to see what number houses remain.
 
Robert said:
Hi Steve i will be in that area a little later this evening, i will look to see what number houses remain.
Click to expand...

Thanks Robert, but don't stop as you may find yourself in the middle of the Coventry Road (according to Google Earth) :D
 
I lived at No3, Charles Edward Rd, our neighbours in No1 Charles Edward Rd were a family by the name of Mr & Mrs.Goode who had 2 daughters, Mr. Goode had only 1 leg due to an accident when he worked on the Corporation trams, the houses down to No23 were demolished circa 1966. Len.
 
Last edited:
Oh My! Hello Len. William & Fanny Goode were my great grand parents. Ellen and Mabel were the two daughters. Ellen was my grandmother. Ellen married Henry Brown in 1925. Henry owned the green grocers, 'Browns Nursery' in Sheldon.

Sorry to go off topic here: -

Here are the 'girls' as they would have been back then - Ellen & Mabel
Image13.jpg


And the entire family, William, Fanny, Ellen & Mabel (I believe this photo to have been taken at the back of number one
Image23.jpg


Len, I'm actually flabbergasted that you knew them. I'd like to communicate with you on the main mystery surrounding the family; that of a missing sibling to Ellen and Mabel, 'Henry Edward Coleman Goode'.

Cheers
Steve (Brown)
 
I remember Browns Nursery (Market Garden) in Sheaf Lane it was between the tyre fitters and the Dentists?, i ran errands for Mrs Goode her Co-op number was 2008, they made beer & wine and when it was cold weather she would give me a glass of parsnip wine it was nectar it landed in my stomach and warmed me up straight away, i was 8yrs young when i started, my brothers had run errands before me. Len.
 
Len, this is incredible! I've travelled far and wide researching the Goode's all over Cambridgeshire, talked to family members, church archivists, delved into the depths of archives but no-one has quite bowled me over with such clarity in their recollections. I salute you! Even the family had missed that small issue of William losing a leg at work! As for being the errand boy for Fanny Goode.....I'm lost for words. I know that you were young, although nothing would surprise me with the detail that you are remembering, but did you ever see an older brother at number one? He was their until the last available census of 1911 but after that I have nothing. Even my father was shocked to discover that he had an uncle but Henry Edward Coleman Goode was never spoken about......ever!
This is fascinating stuff and once again I apologise for taking this off topic.
Steve
p.s. you remember her co-op number......had you not been so exact in everything you've said, including Browns Nursery, I'd be thinking that you made it up! :D
 
Mr, Goode made his own artificial leg in his small shed in the garden it was hinged at the knee & ankle and was polished, this was after WW1 when any one who had lost a leg just had a wooden peg leg, i was born in 1929. Len.
 
mariew said:
I joint this site mostly for family research but I now find myself interested in history, and I was reading an article in the evening mail about queens park in yardley and the lovely church st edburgha's, I didn't realise that it was so old it was completed in 1461 and was dedicated to king alfreds grandaughter and next to the church is a trust school thought to date back to 1512 but was no longer a school in 1908 and is now used as parish rooms, I have been to many weddings there and have never noticed the school so I must go and have a look next week. My mom and dad were married there too.
Click to expand...

As a Yardley resident and student of it's local history for 32 years, there is no better point to start than the magnificent Bill Dargue's Site. Good hunting...

https://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-y/yardley/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top