In the 20's and 30's farms and farmland in rural Birmingham were being sold to building developers. Some felt that the large housing estates being built had destroyed the landscape. The villages of Yardley and Sheldon, once farming communities, were by the end of the 1930's suburbia with new road and transport networks. 27th March 1938'I have been to many a protest meeting regarding building of an estate near Yardley Church, but I believe that the Corporation have decided that these objections can not be considered further.[Newspaper cutting, March 11TH, Birmingham Mail]'. Extract from the diaries of Frank Taylor Lockwood