In June 1900, with a storm brewing over Sutton Park, a visitor from Birmingham found himself shelter-
ing in a nearby pub. He had a view across the park and suddenly 'a brilliant flash of sheet lightning illuminated the whole scene and next came the crackling of thunder ... the gale of wind smiting the big oaks and upstanding elms with a viciousness that set every leaf rustling and every bough creaking ... the very rain drops caught the incandescent beauty of the electrical flashes and hung as so many pearls against the Cimmerian darkness of the sky:
Sutton Park produced much descriptive writing of this kind. A notable example is a lengthy poem written in 1844 by Harry Howells Horton, who had grown up in Sutton and attended Town School. Over no less than 70 pages, he celebrated the beauty and peace of the park:
'And now through winding labyrinths I take; My lonely walk; through bramble, bush and brake; Where the wild fern half hides the devious way; And twilight seems to slumber through the day'.
The park attracted not just writers, but also painters. John Bates Noel lived in Tudor Hill, and offered tuition in painting in oils. He himself had been trained as a landscape artist by his father, David Bates. J.B. Noel painted many landscapes inspired by Sutton Park, including 'The Edge of the Wood', 'Blackroot Glade' and 'Spring near Bracebridge'. He exhibited at exhibitions in Birmingham and London, but his paintings did not reach the prices they deserved. At an
auction at the Royal Hotel in April 1900 most of his paintings of Sutton Park. went for between two and five guineas. J.B. Noel subsequently moved to Malvern, where he painted many scenes, and died in 1927. A popular hobby for the middle class of the late 19th century was photography. There was a camera club in Sutton, with about 40 members in the early 1890s. Many of these amateur photographers made their way to Sutton Park. In 1900 FW. Watts won. a newspaper competition for his photograph of that most beautiful of places, Bracebridge. We are fortunate that Sutton Library holds many hundreds of photographs taken in this era of Sutton Park. These range from scenes of the woods to boating and skating on the pools.
Glimpses into Sutton's Past: A Warwickshire Market Town 1800-1914 by Stephen Roberts is out now.
Associate Professor
Stephen Roberts