April 2021

Image: Looking towards Sutton Parade c. 1950. The much-loved toy shop, Gills, is the large building on the right Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library Up until the early 1880s the Parade was known as the Dam. The reason for this was that it was, quite literally, a dam, built to contain a […]

Image: Charles Edward Mathews who successfully campaigned against the shooting of wildfowl in Sutton Park This rare engraving is taken from the collection of Stephen Roberts The hunting of wildlife in Sutton Park was a centuries-old activity. Its medieval origins had, of course, been as a deer park. The right of the inhabitants to hunt