Four miles from Birmingham, upon the Warwick road, entering the parish
of Solihull, in Castle-lane, is Ulverle, in doom's-day Ulverlei.
Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the manor-house of
Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to decay so long ago as
the conquest.
The manor was the property of the Earls of Mercia, but whether their
residence is uncertain.--The traces of a moat yet remain, which are
triangular, and encircle a wretched farm-house of no note: one of the
angles of this moat is filled up, and become part of Castle-lane; which
proves that Ulverley went into disuse when Hogg's-moat was erected: it
also proves that the lane terminated here, which is about two hundred
yards from the turnpike road. The great width of the lane, from the road
to Ulverley, and the singular narrowness from thence to Hogg's-moat, is
another proof of its prior antiquity.
If we pursue our journey half a mile Farther along this lane, which by
the way is scarcely passable, it will bring us to