Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Any residential visitor to Sutton Park prior to the end of 1935 may remember the Military Tank and field guns or Howitzers that were placed inside the main entrance to the park following the First World War.

How often have you come across this picture of Rev John Riland (b.1736, d.1822) wearing his "full bottomed wig"? Many times, I should imagine. Yet we should be grateful to have this one picture, as it appears to be the only one we have showing a Sutton Coldfield resident wearing a wig in the 1700s.

The sale of land owned by the Bagot family of Pype Hayes Hall in 2 tranches of approximately 350 acres each, in 1881 & 1888, in order to develop the Minworth Sewage Farm for the newly created Birmingham Tame & Rea Drainage Board was to have a major impact on the hamlet of Minworth, adjacent Minworth Greaves, the nearby village of Curdworth and other local settlements.

The profiles of two remarkable tenants and their association with the foundation of The Vesey Club in Sutton Coldfield.

On December 11th,1875, the trial began in Wolverhampton Crown Court of 2 persons, Frederick Musson (b. 1852) and Anna Maria Hillman (b. 1854). They had been charged with the murder of a young girl, Elizabeth Lowke (b. 1868).

In examining the 1841 Census for unusual occupations in Sutton Coldfield, I noticed some entries that indicated canal based employment. From this small amount of information, I set out to discover what happened to some of the families who lived alongside the ‘Cut’ on the southern boundary of the Royal Town.

Anyone driving regularly up Wylde Green Road from Walmley between September 1965 and September 1966 would have been able to witness the step-by-step unfolding of an important educational development in Sutton Coldfield – the building of the first Catholic secondary school in the borough.

A Victorian physician ahead of his times Pioneer in treating Tuberculosis Provided humane and positive care for those with Mental Illness Twice Warden of Sutton Coldfield

Rector of Sutton Coldfield for forty two years, William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford made a name for himself as an antiquarian, an expert on heraldry and an enthusiast for archery and cricket. The eldest son of, William Riland Bedford who had married Grace Campbell of Dumfries, he was born at the rectory in Sutton Coldfield on 12 July 1826; though he died and was cremated in London, his ashes were placed in the family vault at Holy Trinity Church.

Collet’s Brook Farm is located on the western side of the A453 Tamworth Road in Sutton Coldfield adjacent to its junction with Fox Hill Road and is Grade II (Statutory List) listed. It once belonged to the Birmingham to Watford Gap Turnpike Trust before being sold to John Sutherland Valentine on September 9, 1831. It probably dates from before 1815.