Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

This updated selection of Corporation Rentals (otherwise known as 'Chief Rents') from 1742 to 1924 has been copied by Janet Jordan, Member of Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group, from the originals stored at Sutton Coldfield Library and Birmingham Archives Library. These can be useful in tracing the owners of some of the older properties in the area.

This History of Sutton Coldfield was written by Reverend William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford, the longest-serving of any Rector of Holy Trinity Parish Church (forty-two years), who retired in 1892.  It was not the only book he wrote as he is also well known for the popular Three Hundred Years of a Family Living, being a History of the Rilands of Sutton Coldfield.  Less well known was his collaboration with Richard Holbeche as joint authors of The Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem published in 1902.

Are you searching for the planning application of your old house in Sutton Coldfield? If it was built after 1887, you may be able to find it in these books. They will give you theplanning application number so that you can request this from Sutton Library who hold the collection. All pages of Books 1 to 27 have been copied and cover the years 1887 to 1967.

It would appear that in 1978 Andrew MacFarlane, later to become a Head Teacher in Sutton Coldfield, was already involved in Local History Research and was an early member of one of the Groups in this respect to be set up in the Town.  This is one of his first written articles, based on a building that was used for education purposes for many years.  

Using details from these maps and books you can find out who owned land in Sutton Coldfield at the time of the Corn Rent in 1824 and Enclosure in 1851.  (With thanks to Sutton Coldfield Library for allowing us to make these available on the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group website (www.sclhrg.org.uk)

This very useful little book contains a wealth of interesting information about Sutton Coldfield, its notable people and places, and its park at the beginning of the 20th century.

Here you will find a copy of Sutton Coldfield Trades Directories for the years 1830 to 1940.   These are a useful tool when tracing ancestors who carried on business in the town or its immediate surroundings.  The originals books are available in Sutton Coldfield Library under Reference SH.06 SUT. × Warning! While this page works with most modern browsers, for the best experience we recommend: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari or Edge Browser.Internet Explorer is known to have problems viewing the enlarged images in this section.Due to the large image size, this section is not recommended for mobile devices, other than when using WiFi.

When Sutton Coldfield became a Municipal Borough in 1886, building plans had to be submitted to the Borough Surveyor to ensure that building regulations were complied with.

This useful guide book to Sutton Park was first published in Easter 1965. One of its Editors was Peter Wilfred James who was renowned for his study of lichens in the park.  Yvonne Moore has made this scan of the guide but added to it some interesting research relating to his past.  He died in Sutton Coldfield on 13 February 2014 but there is an indication that he spent some of his childhood in Sutton, proof of which is still sought.

In this book you may recognise some of the legends that have cropped up about Bishop Vesey over the years.  Whilst a very entertaining read, these ‘tales’ blend fact with fiction and you should seek elsewhere for original sources!