Hay Mills

Coordinates: 52°27′58″N 1°48′58″W / 52.466°N 1.816°W / 52.466; -1.816

Hay Mills is an area in the east of Birmingham, England adjacent to Small Heath. Historically, it was in Worcestershire, part of the parish of Yardley out of which it was created in the 19th century. The area is bisected by the Coventry Road, now the main A45 from Birmingham to Coventry and consists of the area immediately either side of the road once the River Cole has been crossed heading eastwards out of Birmingham until the junction with the A4040 at Yardley Road. Hobmoor Road provides a northern boundary whilst the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Branch of the Grand Union Canal, running behind Ammington and Speedwell Roads, provides a boundary to the south.

History

Haye is the first recorded name dating to 1171 and Hayemill by 1495. In Old English, gehaeg means 'fenced/ hedged land'. Here would have been the farm of a medieval family who had enclosed some of the fertile land near the River Cole. The enclosed fields may have been surrounded by a substantial ditch perhaps as wide as two metres and over a metre in depth. There was a corresponding bank of similar dimensions. It is likely that the bank would have been topped with a fence while a live hedge grew. The hedge would have been planted with hawthorn, a quick growing tree whose name literally means 'hedge thorn'. It is likely that the enclosures would have been used for keeping livestock, probably cattle, close to the lush watermeadows along the river. Hugh de la Haye, his family name taken from the placename, is recorded in 1171.