Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

It is seven miles round the edge of Sutton Park, and traditionally the boundary was a wooden fence known as palings - way back in 1569 two boys, George and Anthony Careless, were fined a shilling each for breaking down the park palings. But for th...

“Before the palatial place as seen today”, wrote H. Langley in the December 1947 edition of the Hill Parish Magazine, the Fox and Dogs “was originally a plain double-fronted building with a large club room on one side and a bar on the other side”....

John Sutherland Valentine had a successful business as a chapman and dealer in the Ashted area of Birmingham. In 1826 he bought a plot of land on the Sutton commons - at the time parts of the commons were being auctioned to help pay for the costs ...

“Friday April 22nd 1864. A very fine day. Went out for a walk round Cole’s Lane which I enjoyed very much, for although the high road was hot and dusty, the lanes were shady and cool”. This extract from the diary of Frank Chavass...

Our Medieval ancestors needed a constant supply of wood to keep their fires going, heating their houses and cooking their food. In Sutton there was no shortage of wood, and the Lord of the Manor allowed all the inhabitants “to have the dead ...

For most of Sutton’s history the main recreation of the upper classes was hunting. The common people also enjoyed catching wild creatures for the pot and poaching, but there were other diversions as well. Not all these pastimes were innocent...

When the Earl of Warwick became Lord of the Manor of Sutton in 1126 he was allowed to have his own court there where he could try minor cases including infangthief (Sutton thieves) and outfangthief (outsiders). Most of the business of the courts w...

If you lived in Sutton in the 1840s you might feel glad that the town was not disfigured by factory chimneys and that it was still a charming rural backwater. On the other hand, you might envy the Birmingham folk who benefitted from the modern con...

A minute of a meeting of the Warden and Society of Sutton (i.e. the Corporation) held on September 29 1852 reads: “Mr. Wright, Mr. Bedford and Mr. Parker are deputed to confer with the Gas Committee as to the feasibility of aiding in establi...

There was a fence all round Sutton Park in 1779, and the Warden and Society of Sutton regulated the Park so that only the inhabitants of Sutton were allowed to make use of its resources. From Banners Gate to Streetly Lane the fence separated the P...