Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

This is Part 10 of research into Church Hill, Coleshill Street and Mill Street, Sutton Coldfield and the people who lived there. Part 10 provides information derived from the Sutton Coldfield Register of Electors, Burgess Rolls and Voters Register 1851-1938 and brings the research as a whole to a conclusion. The Register of Electors for Sutton Coldfield can be found in the Archives Section of Sutton Coldfield Library.  These books list families residing in Church Hill, Coleshill Street and Mill Street, together with their addresses.  They are complete, from 1920 until 1938/39. The Burgess Rolls for Sutton Coldfield can be found in the Local Studies Section of Sutton Coldfield Library.  These books initially list just the main occupant, with no address provided.  Addresses, however, begin to be included from 1893.  They are also virtually complete from 1886 until 1914-15, with the exception of the years 1888 and 1889.

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.

When this lady moved in to her new house in Sherifoot Lane, Four Oaks, in the 1920s, the neighbours must have wondered about her.  The cars that she drove and the Motor House and the Tool Shed that she built probably intensified the interest, but nobody could have suspected her occupation, considering the fact that she was a woman.  She was a pioneer – but of what?

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.

One might never realise that the impressive façade of No. 16 and 18 High Street hides an interesting secret unless you look up at its chimneys.   If not the originals, they could well be replacements for those that were there at the time of a complete residential refurbishment in 1816 of an important public house known to have been in Sutton Coldfield High Street called The Red Lion, which itself may have been built in the late 1600s!  This article attempts to show the history of the site.

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

It has been said that this article is really the result of a community project as well as a family project.  Combined, they have produced here many interesting details of his life, making a most fitting and affectionate tribute to a man so well known to many Suttonians, especially those who had occasion to be patients at the James Preston Health Centre.

This is a brief resumé of Dr James Robertson Preston’s life, a small ‘taster’ written for the Group’s contribution to the quincentennial celebrations in 2028.  There is a fuller version on this website, entitled Dr James Robertson Preston His life and Times, also by Yvonne Moore and Paul Harrison.

Although it is nearly 30 year since this research reached Sutton's Library shelves, the facts haven't changed and Four Oaks in 1824 is just as fascinating today as it was then - perhaps even more so, as our knowledge of that area has widened over the years.

Francis James Chavasse, Bishop of Liverpool (1900-1923), is a name that is becoming better known to the people of Sutton Coldfield partly as a result of the transcription of his compelling diary, two large volumes of which are now to be found in the Local Studies Department of Sutton Coldfield Library (Reference: SH78.1CHA). Frank lived at Wylde Green House, Sutton Coldfield and he and other members of his family made their mark on the town, many being doctors or clergymen.