Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Preserved in the Lichfield Diocesan Record Office is the will of Thomas Patterton, who died in 1690. He was a yeoman living in Walmley, and the will mentions a room in his house which was “next the street”. This street is now Walmley Ash Lane - Wa...

The Enclosure Commissioner for Sutton Coldfield followed the boundary of Sutton in 1824 along Hurst Green Lane “across a lane called Dog Lane leading to Minworth” (now Summer Lane) to the triangular green at Hurst Green. This green was...

In the 1780s revolution was in the air - the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, and the French Revolution broke out in 1789. In Sutton Coldfield, the townsfolk were dissatisfied with their governing body, the Warden and Society, finding its...

The old Walmley School was demolished in 2004, and two new houses were built on the site. It had long since been converted into a dwelling house and had a pleasant rural setting off Fox Hollies Road, only to be surrounded by new housing with the e...

The English East India Company was founded in 1599. At first it was an informal group of merchant venturers sponsoring expeditions to the far east, and the Company’s first fleet returned to London in 1603 with great success. Such ventures we...

Sutton Coldfield was incorporated as a self-governing town by Royal Charter of King Henry VIII dated December 16 1528. Rather than style the governing body a mayor and corporation, the Charter states that “they shall hereafter be called intitled a...

The governing body of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, established in 1528, consisted of twenty five men known as the Warden and Society until it was replaced in 1886 by a Mayor and Corporation. Each year on November 2 a new Warden would be ele...

Sutton Coldfield became a self-governing town in 1528 thanks to a Royal Charter granted by King Henry VIII. Instead of a mayor and corporation the charter specified a warden and society - the first wardens were all relatives of Bishop Vesey. On th...

The first Warden of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, named in the Royal Charter, was William Gibbons, who took up office on December 16th 1528. He was to assemble all the men of Sutton over 22 years of age in the newly-built Moot Hall to elect ...