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...