Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

There will be quite a lot of Suttonians who remember the Empress Cinema, which stood on the site now occupied by the Red Rose Centre. I certainly paid a few visits there as a young boy before its demolition in 1971. Built of reinforced concr...

If I was to be asked - and strangely I never have been - to name my favourite Victorian clergyman from Sutton Coldfield, the answer would very probably be the Revd. E.H. Kittoe of St. Michael's, Boldmere. Edward Hooper Kittoe was the first in...

When you think about it, clues about the history of Sutton Coldfield are all around us. You only need to look. For example, whilst walking past St Peter's Church in Maney the other week, I decided to pause and read the inscription on the foun...

Last week two things happened that brought to my mind the eminent Suttonian George Bodington (1799-1882). The first was when I found myself pausing to admire the magnificent flower beds at Bodington Gardens in Maney. A day or two later, when ...

I recently took a stroll along High Street at the top of Sutton so that I could gaze at the edifices which adorn it. As is always the case when I am studying old buildings, I thought of the people who lived in them. As I examined the Three T...

It is to be hoped that at some point in the not-too-distant future the Library of Birmingham’s rare copy of the First Folio will pay a visit to Sutton Coldfield Library. The First Folio, published in 1623, is the first printed collection of S...

Big Big Train are the most successful rock band that you have never heard of. In October 2019 they sold out Birmingham Town Hall; in March 2022 they will perform at the Symphony Hall. Their new album 'Common Ground' is steadily climbing the c...

The railway line that linked Sutton with Birmingham opened on June 2, 1862. The first engine to arrive in Sutton was met by a party of leading townsmen, induding the warden Josiah Wright, who was headmaster of Bishop Vesey's Grammar School. ...

In summer 1860 'History of the Forest and Chase of Sutton Coldfield' was published, without the author being identified, by Simpkin, Marshall & Co. This publisher specialised in bringing out the work of unknown writers, and expected them ...

William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford was rector of Sutton Coldfield for 42 years. His family had long filled the incumbency in Sutton, and he played a leading role in the affairs of the town. Riland Bedford was the founder of the Sutton Coldfi...