When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, Sutton Coldfield was a small market town, with a population of about 4,000 - and there was no police force. A watchman, usually of advancing years, patrolled the streets at night. There was also a ...

There was no shortage of drinking places in Sutton Coldfield in the 19th century. Travellers from Birmingham were able to call in, or even stay at, the Horse and Jockey. A newspaper advertisement from 1824 tells us that this tavern had two large...

On December 30, 1861, John Thompson of Sutton Coldfield was hanged for murder in front of the county gaol in Warwick. By this time only murderers were hanged. Thompson was the only inhabitant of Sutton Coldfield to be executed for murder in the ...

'Dr Livingstone, I presume?', is one of most famous questions in history. It even became a song title for the Moody Blues! The question was asked when H.M. Stanley met David Livingstone at Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in November 1871....

In January 1895 a 'sensation' occurred in Sutton Coldfield which 'creat(ed) a good deal of alarm: It centred on the Wylde Green Hotel on Birmingham Road, which was run by John and Anne Page. A few days after Christmas Anne decided to make a larg...

The protection of Sutton Park was an issue of perpetual concern for the governing bodies of the town - the warden and society and, after 1886, the town council. . Outbreaks of fires were not uncommon. The most serious of these occurred in July 1...

What was it like to visit Sutton Parade on a Saturday afternoon in 1907 The short answer is that ... it was very busy. This was the great age of cycling and the Parade was filled with young people on bicycles. Many pedestrians began to regard th...

In a recent column I wrote about the great fire in Sutton Park in July 1868. Though it was far from the only fire in the park in the nineteenth century, it burnt for the longest, raging for several days and destroying 500 acres of woodland. Othe...

The County and Borough Police Act of 1856 made the establishment of a police force compulsory in every town. The first paid, fulltime police constables appeared in Sutton soon afterwards. These men were members of the Warwickshire Constabulary. ...

Like many people, I have been sitting in the garden during the warm weather reading a book. However, this wasn't one of the detective novels to which I am addicted. Instead it was the account book recording all the outgoings of a gentleman livin...