Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Three yeomen of Sutton, William Twamley, Richard Kesterton and Isaac Terry were accustomed to put horses into Sutton Park to graze, paying the Warden and Society tenpence a quarter. In 1787 the Warden started to charge 18d. a quarter, and our thre...

Primary schools capable of accommodating all the children in the Parish of Sutton Coldfield opened their doors in 1826. However, there was no provision for secondary education, except a sort of ad hoc school run by Mr. Percy. The Warden and Societ...

The new secondary school in Upper Holland Road remained unfinished and empty at the beginning of World War II, earmarked for possible military use. America entered the war at the end of 1941, and the build-up of American forces in Britain began. T...

Henry Sacheverell of Morley and Callow in Derbyshire, born in 1548, separated from his first wife Jane in 1593 (after she had borne him four children). After a spell in the Fleet Prison he settled at his house called Old Hayes near Ratby in Leices...

“The increase of population …now began to require church extension, and in 1834 the northern part of the parish was provided with a chapel of ease” wrote Riland Bedford, in his History of Sutton Coldfield. Over the next twenty years churches were ...

News received on Monday May 7th 1945 of the German High Command’s unconditional surrender put the people of Sutton Coldfield “in joyous mood”. The following morning newspapers announced that Tuesday May 8th was Victory in Europe ...

A number of the stone houses built by Bishop Vesey in Sutton in the 1520s survive – there is one at Maney and another in Wylde Green Road. However, stone was not normally used for houses in Sutton Coldfield, most local buildings being timber...

Sir William Dugdale, in his “Antiquities of Warwickshire” published in 1651, recounts that Bishop Vesey built fifty-one stone houses in Sutton Coldfield. “And for the prevention of robberies”, says Dugdale, “which were in those days frequent upon ...

Canwell Priory was dissolved in 1530, and the property was acquired by Bishop Vesey. Vesey bequeathed Canwell to the descendants of his brother, Hugh Harman, and by 1820 Canwell Hall and its estate were in the possession of Sir Robert Lawley. Part...

In 1533 the newly-formed corporation of Sutton, the Warden and Society, showed its gratitude to Bishop Vesey by bestowing the lease of the town mill on Thomas Keene, who had married one of Vesey’s nieces. The deed records: “Mindful of ...