Heritage & History

Local History

Since 2020, the Town Council has published articles about the rich local history of the town’s people and buildings:

• Sir Benjamin Stone, the first Mayor of Sutton Coldfield.
• The Royal Town’s first MP, Sir John Serocold Paget Mellor, who represented Sutton Coldfield from 1945 until 1955.
• John Banfield, a forgotten craftsman & his links with Sutton Coldfield.
• James Eustace Bagnall, born in 1830, and who devoted his life to the study of the flora of Warwickshire including that of Sutton Park. 
• Audrey Wilson, a pioneering female politician in Sutton Coldfield.
• The Revd. Joseph Mendham (1769-1856) who was, for thirty-one years, curate at Holy Trinity Parish Church and one of the most scholarly figures to have lived in Sutton Coldfield, building up what was certainly the finest private library in the town and indeed one of the finest in the region.
• The General Election of 1959 in Sutton Coldfield was notable because on that occasion Geoffrey Lloyd, who represented the town for nineteen years from 1955 until 1974, faced an opponent who was to become a household name as a politician. 
• Cultural life in Victorian Sutton Coldfield expanded in the nineteenth century culminating in the formation of the Sutton Coldfield Institute
• On an autumn evening in 1883, Sutton Coldfield was visited by a rising figure in the literary world.
• The restoration and opening of the tomb of Bishop Vesey in the 1870s.
• Life in Sutton Coldfield during Autumn 1939 and the start the Second World War
• Food was strictly rationed in the aftermath of WW2 so when food was found to be being burnt by the US Army stationed in the town, there was outrage. Read more here.
• James Motteram, the ‘poor man’s friend’ and scourge of the unreformed corporation which presided over the affairs of Sutton until 1886
• ‘Sporting’ – hunting – in Sutton Park in Victorian times and the subsequent prohibition of the shooting of wildfowl in 1897.
• In the 1950s The Parade looked very different to today. Read more about the shops and businesses that were there then here.
• Read about Sutton Coldfield in early newspapers in the latest local history article on the Town Council’s here.
• For working class and lower middle-class children in Sutton Coldfield there were, from 1826 onwards, a number of elementary schools, funded by the corporation from the sale of timber from Sutton Park. Read more about the private schools in Victorian Sutton Coldfield.
• George Bamford Preston – a Victorian Schoolmaster.
• Telling the story of Sutton Coldfield is not new – William Midgley chronicled the town’s past well over a hundred years ago.
• The later years of Sutton Coldfield’s Crystal Palace.
• Article twenty one marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of The Anatomy of Melancholy, a literary masterpiece written by Robert Burton (1577-1640) who was educated at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School.
• During the Second World War and at the height of internment in August 1940, a camp for internees was established in Sutton Park together with a prisoner-of-war camp at the same site.
• By the end of the nineteenth century the most prominent inhabitants of Sutton Coldfield had come to believe that they lived in the healthiest town in the Midlands. Article 23 describes Medicine & Health in Victorian & Edwardian Sutton Coldfield.
• It is well-known locally that Sutton Coldfield is mentioned in one of Shakespeare’s plays but Shakespeare, however, was far from the only writer to mention Sutton.
• The story of Moxhull Hall dates back centuries and that of the Rylands who owned the estate from the late 19th Century is a fascinating one.
• There are secondary schools in Sutton Coldfield named after the long-serving town councillors John Willmott and Arthur Terry. But what were these men’s stories? Read more here.
• Francis Willughby – a 17th century naturalist with a Sutton Coldfield connection.
• Guardians of Sutton Park: The Sutton Park Preservation Society (1894) & the Friends of Sutton Park (1950-60).
• A newly-discovered description of Sutton Coldfield in the mid-nineteenth century
• Going to the shops in Sutton Coldfield in the 1930s

Read more by clicking the Local History button above.

Sutton Coldfield is steeped in history and its buildings tell the story of our town.

The Sutton Coldfield Civic Society have kindly devised our very own ‘Heritage Trail’ so that we can start to learn more about our town and not just take our beautiful buildings and history for granted, but to see them in a new, different light.

Did you know for example that the Royal Hotel on High Street used to be called The Old Swan Hotel and was actually a private home built in the mid 1700s?

Or that there is an old workhouse on Mill Street that was built in 1739 to comply with Poor Laws?

Or that the current Town Hall also used to be the old fire station? (The clock tower was used to hang the hosepipes of the fire service!)

You can learn so much more about our Royal Town on our intriguing heritage trail.

Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

Sutton Coldfield has an interesting history well documented by an extensive collection of primary sources housed in Sutton Coldfield Library. Members of the Research Group have access to this material, and enjoy studying it to find out about aspects of the history of the Royal Town.   Members who wish to do research meet any Tuesday (2.00 – 4.30 p.m.) at Sutton Library.

VISIT THE SUTTON COLDFIELD LOCAL HISTORY RESEARCH GROUP

Sutton Coldfield Civic Society

The Civic Society’s aim is to raise the awareness of Sutton Coldfield’s heritage especially of the three conservation areas, generate civic pride and encourage good design in new buildings.  They run an annual design award for buildings in Sutton Coldfield.

VISIT THE SUTTON COLDFIELD CIVIC SOCIETY