Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

The boundary of Sutton follows the south bank of the E brook to a point about 300 yards south of Penns Lane, where it heads off in a westerly direction along an old watercourse. This old watercourse or ditch runs along the south side of a playing ...

In 1721 the prosperous town of Sutton Coldfield was made up of 244 houses and 116 cottages, the cottages housing the labouring poor and their elderly relatives. About forty of these cottages were situated on the commons which stretched for miles r...

Speculators burned their fingers. The London and North Western Railway opened its Sutton Coldfield Branch in 1862. This five-mile-long railway from Aston to Sutton was first promoted by a group of local businessmen - they made a good profit when ...

Sarah Holbeche was a snob, and looked down on wealthy factory owners. In 1866 she wrote in her diary “The Lloyd brothers made their appearance as occupants of Moor Hall and pew (reserved seat in the Parish Church), specimens of Black Country gentr...

Moat House in Lichfield Road was built by the architect Sir William Wilson in the 1690s. With its pilasters, balustrades, cornices and symmetry it showed Suttonians all the features of the new architectural style brought to England by Inigo Jones ...

“Gravestones tell truth scarce forty years” wrote Sir Thomas Browne in 1658, false if you look round old churchyards today, where many stones from the nineteenth century are perfectly legible, but true in the sense that the lettering w...

“If you wanted to see real pomp, you should have seen the fair proclaimed” wrote Richard Holbeche in 1892, recalling the Sutton fairs of his childhood -the fair was a big event. Sutton’s town charter, granted in 1528, provided for two annual fair...

Fairs provided a welcome break from the daily round of life in a country town, the chance to spend money and enjoy the fun of the fair. Richard Holbeche recalled the Sutton fairs of his childhood in the 1850s - “booths and stalls were set up...

Falcon Lodge Estate was almost complete in 1959, when it was described as “a fine model estate comprising of some 1539 houses attractively laid out”. Work had started on the estate eleven years before, after the Ministry of Works had approved the ...

The account of Robert Kelynge, the bailiff of Sutton, for the year 1433 survives in the Stratford Record Office. He recorded all the income and expenditure for the year for the Lord of the Manor, who was Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. One of ...