Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Read how Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group rescued the Enclosure Award in 2005!

In 2016, Walmley residents were expecting a vast swathe of their ancient landscape shortly to be engulfed in housing and industrial development.  As a result, Mike Hodder, formerly the City Archaeologist but also member of Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group, decided to lead a walk around the area to point out many of the places there which still had some historical significance.

Reproduced from Roger Lea's papers by Janet Jordan, October 2020. See also companion leaflet "Hill and Little Sutton: A Walk led by Roger Lea in 2008"

Hill and Little Sutton is an area that was close to the heart of Roger Lea.  He lived in Mere Green for many years and must have walked around his local area seeking out the places that he knew from his research had immense historical interest as far as Sutton Coldfield was concerned.  So one Spring evening in 2008, with the aim of sharing this knowledge, he took a party of members of the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group on this long walk, stopping at 30 points along the way to explain the significance of each of the sites.  Thankfully, the notes which accompanied the walk have survived and are reproduced here.

It was an unprecedented time for a class of 15 boys at Sutton Coldfield Town School, they were not only leaving behind the Victorian era, which had changed so many people’s lives, but they were also moving forward into the 20th century.

On Wednesday 22nd June 1994, a balmy Summer's evening, a group of very keen local historians gathered together at Sutton Library, ready to go on a walk which could never be replicated. Changes to the town layout east of the Parade were due to take place.  As a result, Dennis Hurley, a member of the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group, was eager to show what he had discovered about the ancient pools and water courses running through the middle of the town before they disappeared under any new development.

This is Part 5 of research into Church Hill, Coleshill Street and Mill Street, Sutton Coldfield and the people who lived there. Part 5 concentrates solely upon Church Hill, from its origins in the Georgian era until its ultimate demise in 1937, when the properties were demolished to make way for Vesey Memorial Gardens. Census Returns covering the period between 1841 and 1911, have been used, with particular emphasis being on the families who lived in the street.

Research published in Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Transactions for 2016-2017, Volume 119.  Submitted by Mike Hodder.

Research published in Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Transactions for 2013, Volume 117.  Submitted by Mike Hodder.

May 2020 was the sunniest calendar month on record, so much so that Sutton Park’s grassland was distinctly yellow because of the lack of rain. Dr. Mike Hodder alerted the author to the emergence of parchmarks on the old Civil Defence Camp site at Powell’s Pool in Sutton Park. This has resulted in a history of the camp site from 1942 to 1958.