Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Wigginshill did not become part of Sutton Coldfield until 1125, when the Earl of Warwick succeeded King Henry I as lord of the manor. Listed as “Winchicelle” in the Domesday Book of 1086, it was a small settlement, with its three open fields of th...

Novels set in the reign of King Henry VIII have recently been published to great acclaim, but over fifty years ago a novel published by a Sutton lady set in 1528 had only limited success. “Wild Rose of the King’s Chase” by Hilda ...

William Croxall of Little Sutton made his will on June 8th 1569. Two months earlier a survey of his farm had been made, showing that he was the tenant of thirty-seven strips of land in three open fields. This distribution of his holding is consist...

William Felton, having lost his leg in an accident in 1823, decided to start a school. The school began in the front room of a house in High Street (now demolished) next to the Royal Hotel. He went to Birmingham to learn Dr. Bell’s system of...

William Gibbons of New Hall died in 1543, and his son Thomas inherited. The land at New Hall consisted of only a few fields near to the hall, but Thomas took advantage of a clause in the Town Charter of Sutton allowing him to take in and cultivate...

“October 29th 1847. Mr. and Mrs. Grundy came to Mrs. Willoughby’s house” - so wrote Sarah Holbeche in her diary. This diary was recently rediscovered and transcribed by Janet Jordan, and a copy can be seen in Sutton Reference Lib...

Of the severe winters within living memory, January 26th 1940 saw the heaviest snowfall, 1963 the longest continuous frost, but the winter of 1947 was when Sutton Coldfield suffered the greatest hardship. The “Sutton Coldfield News” fo...

Medieval documents relating to Sutton, such as the early thirteenth century charters, are often difficult to date. Walter de Bereford’s charter does bear a date, however - “ad purificacione beate marie anno regno regis Henrici filii re...

The Wolverhampton, Walsall and Midland Junction Railway Act received the Royal Assent on August 8th 1872, authorising the WW&MJR Company to build the line of railway which now crosses over Rectory Road and Coleshill Road on its way to join the...