William Dargue  A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames from A to Y

Maule Green or Maules Green was an area of common grazing recorded in 1727 on the Warwick Road near its junction with the Stratford Road. The name is no longer in use. Probably of medieval origin, it may include a family name. However, maule may derive from 'marl' which was clay dug to improve lighter soils. Certainly the geology of the area is characterised by heavy clay. Claypits and brickworks lay on both sides of the River Cole around here from the second half of the 19th century, and probably earlier.

Not far from here the extensive Burbury Brickworks site off Formans Road was an area of industrial devastation until its closure c1960 when it was used as a landfill site for Birmingham's refuse. After its reclamation by nature, it had to be cleaned of its dangerous methane pollution before it was designated a Local Nature Reserve, part of the green corridor along the River Cole.

See also Marl Pit Green and Spark Green/ Sparkbrook.

William Dargue 06.04.2009

For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online.

See http://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.aspx?compid=55194&sheetid=10119&ox=740&oy=433&zm=2&czm=2&x=341&y=-27.