Sutton Coldfield

See Victoria County History of Warwickshire Vol. Ill, and 'A Royal Town and Its Park' (Hilda Moss).
Independent since 1528, Sutton resents its inclusion in the City of Birmingham Metropolitan District. The Borough covers nearly 22 square miles, the Park 3¾. Western third including Park is on pebble beds, separated from eastern clay by north-south sandstone strip on which all but newest urban areas located. Ebrook (East or Plants Brook) system drains Park and south centre, Langley Brook system the north-east, all Tame tributaries. Natural cover of Park and Coldfield - patchy hazel and birch wood, heath, peaty bog: light wood and grassland on central ridge cut through by Ebrook meadows: eastern third thickly oak-forested except in marshy valleys and on drift patches.

Neolithic earthworks and Roman road in Park. First Anglian settlement on Manor Hill overlooking Windley Brook, first fields probably east and south therefrom. In 1086-7 SUTONE an important local vill, about 100 people all unfree, 1000 acres ploughland, 1/3 cultivated, wood 4½ squ. mls., meadow only 10 acres. 1300, first church, market and fair charter. High Street crossed Ebrook on milldam, village along it. Assarts away from parent vill - Maney, Walmley, Little Sutton, Peddimore (Ardens). Langley a secondary field system? (Windmill Field ref. c.1830). Ample pasture Wylde and Mere Greens, Four Oaks and White-house Commons.#

Sutton Royal from Conquest to 1126 and 1492-1528. Earls of Warwick held manor 3½ centuries, absentee lords, tenants in castellated manor house. Bishop John Vesey, born at Moor Hall Farm, retired to Sutton, secured Charter - 'Royal Town' governed by Warden & Society. Park (part of huge Royal Chase) bought by Vesey for citizens with all rights. He built Moor Hall, 50 stone houses, Water Orton Bridge, enlarged Holy Trinity and added tower, established grammar school.

Park pools and others made for fish and/or power in Middle Ages. Town Mill and 7 others built to grind corn, but some adapted for industry - fulling, tool-edging, wire-drawing for example. None now working. From Tudor times Tameside and Birmingham forges fed by Sutton charcoal: (char) Coal Field south of Park became Coldfield when bare of timber and bleak. Road pattern grew from parallel north-south routes bordering Plants Brook valley - Lichfield Road on pebbles and sandstone, Walmley/White House Roads on gravel drift. From these the tracks led to assarts, Tamworth, Minworth, etc.

Georgian Sutton a street village surrounded by mansions in parks, enclosed farms, some tiny hamlets, and squatters' cots on commons. Windmill near Langley Watermill, gibbets on Fox Hill and near Westwood Coppice. Lichfield and Tamworth Roads turnpiked 1792: then former improved in 1827, High Street widened across milldam. 24 coaches daily then crossed it. Sporadic enclosures, vain attempts to have Park enclosed from 1757. By agreement, Lady Wood exchanged for Meadow Platt, 1815. All Sutton except Park enclosed seven years later.

Population 3600 in 1792. Due to suburban building number tripled 1831-91. Railway branch from LNW Line at Aston to Sutton terminus, 1862, later extended to Lichfield. Commuter traffic, trippers from Birmingham: facilities provided in Park - racecourse, gardens, Crystal Palace. Warden & Society's approval of Water Orton Line across Park caused their downfall, Sutton's incorporation as Borough, 1886. Hotel became Council House: Town Hall 1902. Church much altered, enlarged. Continued growth, new streets of villas (no factories so no artisan immigration) - Wylde Green, Boldmere, Four Oaks. Borough enlarged 1927-30, parts of Perry Barr, Great Barr, Shenstone, Minworth - 1053 acres added to 12828 acres. Minworth Sewage Works included.

Postwar development at Walmley, Little Sutton, Reddicap Heath, and in town centre. Sutton remains a middle-class dormitory town for city business and professional people. Industry has come to Minworth, along the Fazeley Canal. Recent making of new A38(T) north from Walmley Ash, linked to Gravelly Hill Interchange by dual carriage-ways, has relieved Lichfield Road and Sutton High Street of through traffic especially heavy goods vehicles. A consequence of the District Council's accession may be the building of municipal housing estates in the surviving farmland.

Antiquities of Sutton include the Park earthworks, wells, pools, and Ryknild Street, several farms and cottages, the smithy, Georgian houses behind modern shop-fronts, White House, New Hall, its mill, the Moat House and other moats, Peddimore and Langley Halls.

29.1. Map 15a