great pictureThe Yardley Arms in 1983 was a Courage owned pub. The only place Directors bitter was available in this area.
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You seem to be correct I wonder why the hotel was knocked down:The History of the Yardley Arms reproduces the first ordnance survey where the Yardley Arms was opposite to the present now closed public house.
That map, and the second o/s shows a separate group of buildings that by the 3rd o/s had become the Yardley Arms.
As to the previous owner, of the buildings opposite the original Yardley Arms, there is possibility that these were called the Laboratory, the home of Dr Richard Hill Norris a surgeon and professor at Queens College, Birmingham who died in 1916 (at the Bungalow) Yardley Fields Road.
Dr Norris was keen amateur photographer who patented the dry collodian plate process in 1856. For a time in the 1890's was the base for the commercial production of dry plates. His latest improvement of about 1895 proved to be not commercially viable owing to the cost of a type of alcohol required.
Improvements in photography also led to altered methods in the way images were produced from film and transparencies, which another local firm (Criterion) of Northcote Road came to employ from their move to Stechford by 1898.
Great photo used to have the grounds around the back and a bigger car park on the corner if my memory serves me correct.Here is a photo from Facebook of it in 1983, while it was still a working pub
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It is a good thing you can still have the memories facts and pictures thanks to these forums.Remember it well. Sad to see how it looks now.