Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Our Medieval ancestors needed a constant supply of wood to keep their fires going, heating their houses and cooking their food. In Sutton there was no shortage of wood, and the Lord of the Manor allowed all the inhabitants “to have the dead ...

A plan of the proposed route for the railway line to Sutton from Aston was produced in 1858. The line passed mostly through fields, and no houses would need to be demolished when the line was built, but even so there were some awkward spots. The l...

“Verily there are snobs of every degree” - so wrote Richard Holbeche in 1892. He was remembering the 1860s, when the Hartopp family of Four Oaks Hall always arrived late at church, and made a great display of going to their seats with “ridiculous ...

Starter Homes 1830 style.Thomas Hayward, who started out as a wheelwright, went into property development, and was Sutton’s first speculative builder. The population of Sutton was increasing rapidly in 1830, leading to a demand for new housing - s...

Two hundred years ago the road to Lichfield crossed Ley Hill Common to Mere Green and then followed the twisty lane which is now Hill Village Road. There were houses on either side of Hill Village Road, and lanes leading off to left and right. The...

The little medieval settlement of Hill Hook did not amount to much - a few cottages, a farmhouse and some fields surrounded on all sides by open common land. The origin of the name is obscure, although Hill Village was not far away, on the other s...

The Schoolmaster of Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School from 1647 to 1659 was John Elly. This was the period of the Civil War and Commonwealth, when literacy was seen as very desirable – perhaps Mr Elly was giving lessons to local children a...

The Clarenceux King of Arms, the Chester Herald, and Rouge Dragon Pursuivant conducted a visitation of the County of Warwick in 1682. They were officers of the College of Arms, and their business was to ensure that families with coats of arms were...

Langley Hall, which stood in Ox Leys Road, was pulled down in the 1820s; at one time it was the richest and most splendid house in Sutton. In the Middle Ages it belonged to the powerful De Bereford family of Wishaw, passing by inheritance to Gilbe...

“Peace!!” wrote Sarah Holbeche under the heading June 14th 1814 in her diary, “Great rejoicings, ox roasted at Ley Hill (then all open common), bread let down in heaps from carts, my first parasol, alas! Proving how heavy the storm by its green dy...