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This section contains an archive of the late Roger Lea's History Spot articles, first published in the Sutton Observer local newspaper.
Click the column headings to change the order of these articles.
Page 3 of 50
The east window of the Vesey Chapel in Sutton Parish Church is known as the Bishops Window, because each of the four panels celebrates a bishop who had Sutton connections. Only one of the bishops was a previous Rector of Sutton, John Arundel, Rect...
To the east of Weeford Road and Whitehouse Common Road lies Sutton’ green belt. North of Tamworth Road is Ashfurlong Hall and its grounds, while on the opposite side of Tamworth Road is Wheatmore Farm. Wheatmore is mentioned in a document of...
When King Henry I gave Sutton to the Earl of Warwick in 1126, he included a large section of the Forest of Kank. Forests included all kinds of country - woods, fields, open commons and villages - subject to strict laws designed to preserve the gam...
New Hall Mill will be grinding corn again on Sunday May 14th, and the volunteer millers will be hoping that nothing goes wrong. One problem already experienced several times occurs when the grains of wheat are too soft and the wheat turns into pas...
Young Frank Chavasse, who lived in Wylde Green House, wrote in his diary on April the ninth 1864 “Very shocked to read in the paper of the sudden death of Mr. Attwood”. Thomas Aurelius Attwood, who lived in Kingsbury Road Erdington in ...
Sometimes people needed a loan long before there were banks ready to advance money. In those pre-banking days you could usually find a neighbour willing to lend, and the loan would be recorded at the local court. The minor court at Sutton was held...
The southern boundary of Sutton Park originally lay to the south of Monmouth Drive, but around 1530 the newly-created Warden and Society of Sutton Coldfield granted hundreds of acres of this part of the Park to entrepreneurs who established three ...
“Thousands of our townsmen will be glad to find in Sutton Park the fresh air and recreation they cannot easily obtain nearer home” - so said the leader in the Birmingham Journal of May 31st 1862, anticipating the opening of the branch ...
At a big open-air meeting held in Sutton in 1854, one of the speakers, the rabble-rousing Mr. George Horatio St. Clair, said of the Grammar School “with ample funds, with no want of money, with £400 or £500 a year, with a good sc...
Back in 2005 planning permission was given for the demolition of Barn Farm in Lindridge Road - the annexe to St. Giles Hospice which was built on the site opened in 2007. Barn Farm was a Grade II listed building, so special permission was required...