Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Lady Ffolliot of Four Oaks Hall died in 1744, and the Hall was sold to Simon Luttrell of Luttrellstown in Ireland. Simon Luttrell was an ambitious politician in need of an English country house, and he settled at Four Oaks Hall with his wife and e...

In 1853 a notice was posted by the Warden and Society prohibiting the pursuit of game in the park on the grounds that unrestricted hunting had almost destroyed all the game, and over-eager sportsmen were damaging woods and fences. This ban upset ...

The building of new houses on green field sites near the centre of Sutton was a rare event in the first half of the nineteenth century. Large villa residences for rich industrialists wanting a Sutton address were being built, mostly along Birmingh...

Sutton Coldfield became a self-governing town in 1528 by virtue of a charter granted by King Henry VIII. One of the duties of the new corporation was to provide almshouses for the aged poor - prior to 1528, when Sutton was a feudal manor, alms w...

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...

Collets Brook forms the north-eastern boundary of Sutton, as it did in 1824 when Mr. Harris, the Commissioner for the Enclosure of the Commons of Sutton Coldfield, made his survey. He followed the stream down through Swash Vale to Taylor’s...

Until 1812 the Roman road in Sutton Park had been the parish and county boundary, the part of the park to the west of Icknield Street being in Great Barr. When the commons of Great Barr and Little Aston were enclosed in 1812, this part of the park...

Saint Modwen lived in the eighth century as an anchoress on an island in the River Trent at Burton, according to legend, and worked a miracle cure of king Ethelwolf’s son. She founded Polesworth Abbey for the king’s daughter Editha, and the water ...

Having followed the boundary of Sutton to the ninth milestone on the turnpike road from Coleshill to Lichfield (near the junction of Camp Road and London Road), Mr. Harris turned southwards down the centre of the road past Canwell Gate House on hi...

Richard Holbeche started school at Mr. Cull’s Academy in Sutton High Street at the age of five years in 1855. Recollecting his schooldays in his 1892 Diary, Holbeche could not remember doing very well academically, although he did receive on...

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 ...

Villa residences, large houses for newly-rich manufacturers and industrialists, were being built in Sutton Coldfield from the 1840s onwards. Birmingham Road and Chester Road were favoured sites - some of the villas are still there - and in 1872 on...

At one time every field in Sutton had a name. Sometimes the names were simply descriptive, such as Triangle Piece and Roundabout Piece, or referred to some landmark, for example Apple Tree Field or Finger Post Piece, which was near the corner of L...

In 1650 the Civil War was over, Oliver Cromwell was in power and puritans held sway. Births, marriages and deaths still occurred, however, still celebrated in church by the vicar and recorded in the parish register by the clerk - not good enough f...

An excellent example of a stone-age hand axe lay undiscovered in the centre of Sutton Coldfield for over fifty thousand years. It was unearthed in 2006, and has now been studied by archaeologists and reported in PAST, the newsletter of the Prehi...

Four Oaks Park in 1820 covered 46 acres, not big enough for the owner of Four Oaks Hall, Sir Edmund Hartopp. By taking 63 acres from the adjacent Sutton Park, he could enlarge his Four Oaks Park to a more respectable size, but the Court of Chancer...

Supervised by the foresters and woodwards of Sutton Chase, the householders of medieval Sutton were allowed to take enough material from the woods to repair and maintain their hedges during lent. The most important hedges were the ones round the o...

“The dam at Keepers Pool broke one day” wrote Richard Holbeche in his Diary, “carrying off all the water, which much surprised the Wiggans.” In 1850 the blade mill powered by the stream issuing out of Keepers Pool closed ...

Keepers Pool in Sutton Park is said to have been made in the fifteenth century, but a twelfth century date is equally likely. In setting out a deer park, the Lord of the Manor needed to include areas of woodland, some open spaces, and some stret...

Some of the roads and lanes in Sutton are very ancient - the present A5127 possibly follows the route of a prehistoric Salt way. The earliest documentary reference to roads dates from 1260, when Bulls Lane and Ox Leys Road are described as two gre...

In 1604, Raphael Symonds, gentleman, the Warden of Sutton Coldfield (equivalent to Mayor), issued a deed of proclamation on behalf of the Corporation, effectively a lease. The Latin deed says - Know ye that we have granted to George Pudsey Esq. fu...

The unlicensed processing of animal skins was not allowed in medieval Sutton. Heavy fines were imposed by the Court Leet in 1549 - William Harman had cured or tanned two stomach linings of sheep to make parchment; John Hargreve and Ralph Gybbons, ...

Miss Bracken says that the name Maney derives from the Celtic “meini”, meaning stone, in her 1860 History of the Forest and Chase of Sutton Coldfield. A prehistoric settlement at Maney is a possibility, as it lies where building stone outcrops nex...

Alwin of Arden was the Saxon Sheriff of Warwickshire at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, and his son Turchil continued to be a powerful lord in the new reign. In the twelfth century the family was known as Arden of Wigginshill, and at the ...

New Hall in Sutton Coldfield has the reputation of being the oldest continuously inhabited house in England. The Earl of Warwick found the old manor house on Manor Hill unsuitable as a headquarters for his hunting parties in his Chase of Sutton, a...

The “Old Sun” public House stood in Coleshill Street, and was demolished in 1938 to make way for Vesey Gardens. It was on the opposite side of the road from the childhood home of Richard Holbeche, and he mentions it in his Diary of 1...

By Act of Parliament dated 1824 the surveyor John Harris was appointed to be the Commissioner for the Enclosure of the commons of Sutton Coldfield. One of his first duties was to define the boundaries of Sutton, and he did this by making a perambu...

In Sutton Coldfield local historians have been fortunate to have access to the research collections held in the local history section of Sutton Coldfield Library. The Local History Research Group recently celebrated 25 years of research, members a...

One of the biggest farms in Sutton in 1820 was Wylde Green Farm, with over 190 acres. The farmhouse (now demolished) stood on the south side of Wylde Green Road, and the ancient farmland lay to the south of the farm, extending as far as Walmley Go...

William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford, 1826-92, became Rector of Sutton Coldfield in 1850. He soon became a member of the Warden and Society of Sutton, and served as Warden (equivalent to Mayor) in 1854 and 1855. These were turbulent times for the to...

Richard Lee paid the Lord of the Manor of Sutton eight pounds for “the herbage of the Park” in 1480. This was for the grazing rights in Sutton Park, and a previous bailiff’s account, for 1433, records income from Matthew Smallwoo...

The forest laws which had applied to Sutton for centuries were revoked by Bishop Vesey in 1528 when Sutton received its Borough Charter. Now Sutton farmers could leave their sheep to graze freely on the extensive common lands, and they were quick ...

The population of Sutton was growing in the 1860s, and so the demand for services was on the increase. There were shops, scattered along High Street and Mill Street, but it was not until 1870, with the first purpose-built shops on the Parade, that...

The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, alongside Kingsbury Road in the south-east corner of Sutton is the only canal which passes through Sutton Coldfield. This canal was opened in 1789, with a survey of the route being prepared in 1783 by the Birmingh...

Hugh Lewis moved in to Woodfield House in 1889. Apartments now occupy the site of Woodfield House, but the curious garden wall, fourteen feet high in places, which runs alongside the footpath which separated Woodfield House from no. 174 Hill Vil...

The railway came to Sutton in 1862 with a 5-mile-long line from Aston with a terminus at Sutton Coldfield Station. The line was owned by the London and North-Western Railway, and it was always intended to extend the railway to Lichfield where the ...

Most of the houses in Sutton up until 1500 were timber-framed single-storey buildings with a thatched roof - easily burned down. They were heated by an open fire in the centre of the main room or hall, and this was a wood-burning fire, the smoke e...