Heritage & History

Image: Sutton Park in 1938. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library When the Second World War broke out on 3 September 1939, there were 70,000 Germans and Austrians living in Britain. Across the country 120 tribunals were established to interview these ‘enemy aliens.’ Most emerged from these interviews without having any restrictions placed […]

Image: Sutton Parade in the 1930s. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library Since mid-2021 I have been working my way through the extensive archives of Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in preparation for writing a new history to mark the school’s 500th anniversary in 2027. An item I came across recently was the programme

Image: Sutton Coldfield in the first half of the nineteenth century. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library. In November 1846, an account of a visit to Sutton Coldfield appeared in the Manchester Times. Although reports from different towns across England by itinerant journalists were a newspaper staple of the time, these men usually

Image: A shelter by the town gate, Sutton Park, 1951. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library. It was the announcement of a plan to build a railway line through Sutton Park at the end of 1871 that led to the first public debate about protecting the beauty and tranquillity of that place. The

Image: Francis Willughby (Willoughby) by William Home Lizars, after Unknown artist line and stipple engraving, circa 1810-1850. Reproduced courtesy of and © National Portrait Gallery, London Situated about six miles from Sutton Coldfield is Middleton Hall. For several centuries it was in the hands of the Willughby family. It was at Middleton, in 1635, that

Image: (L) John Willmott, from the Pageant Supplement in the Sutton News, and (R) Arthur Terry’s mayoral photo. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library. 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? John Edward Willmott was born

Image: Moxhull Hall, built in 1900. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library. Moxhull Hall is situated three miles from Sutton Coldfield. For six centuries the estate was in the possession of the de Lisle family. It is a story complicated by the absence of heirs, second marriages and imaginative new arrangements. When, at

Image: The title page of ‘Sutton Park & other poems’, with drawings by H.H. Horton. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library. It is well-known locally that Sutton Coldfield is mentioned in one of Shakespeare’s plays – if only because this allusion inspired the name of a local pub. The reference occurs in Henry

Image: The physician A.H. Evans. He is seen here wearing the mayoral chain. Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library. 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. When there were outbreaks of scarlet

Image: Title page of ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy’, second edition printed in 1624 This year sees the 400th anniversary of the publication of a literary masterpiece – and ‘the wonderful book’ – as it was described by a journalist in 1902 – has a strong connection with Sutton Coldfield. The Anatomy of Melancholy was first published