Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

A case was laid before the Court of Chancery in 1788 by William Twamley and others, asking the Court to make the Warden and Society of Sutton Coldfield manage their affairs better. The case was not resolved until 1824, and during these thirty-six ...

Before the Norman Conquest the Manor of Sutton Coldfield belonged to Edwin Earl of Mercia. As Lord of the Manor, Edwin or his steward presided at the twice-yearly court, a court which continued to be held after 1066, when William the Conqueror was...

Discussing the influence of climate on the human mind, Robert Burton wrote “Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire (where I was once a grammar scholar), may be a sufficient witness, which stands, as Camden notes, loco ingrato et sterile (in a barr...

There were enough elementary schools in Sutton to accommodate all the children in 1900, but only a privileged few went on to secondary education. For boys this meant Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, with a roll of nearly 200 pupils. The boardi...

Anchorage Road is so named because it was laid out in the grounds of a big house called The Anchorage, which stood in Lichfield Road where the Fire Station is now. The Anchorage was probably built for John Riland, 1690-1765, son of the Rector of S...

A notable Suttonian is the subject of a new biography by local author Andrew MacFarlane. Dr. George Bodington (1799-1882) is internationally famous for his innovations in medicine, but the new biography shows that he was also active in Sutton affa...

Two roads lead eastwards out of Sutton, Coleshill Road leading towards Coleshill and Rectory Road leading towards Middleton. Both climb out of the valley up a steep hill, Coleshill Road becomes Reddicap Hill, and Rectory Road, according to Victori...

Charles Chadwick of Mavesyn Ridware in Staffordshire inherited the New Hall estate in Sutton Coldfield in 1793, and found that the leases on the various farms were due to expire in 1795.The Farmer at the largest farm, of 138 acres, with its farmho...

Miss Bracken’s History of the Forest and Chase of Sutton Coldfield was published in 1860, when old place-names forgotten today were still in use, and Miss Bracken speculated as to their origin. Near Tower Road in Hill Village was a field called “T...

Chalford House lies hidden behind a belt of trees in Belwell Lane, known to only a few Suttonians until there was an auction of the contents of the House in June 2008. Such a large old house, surrounded as it is by later residential development, i...