Image: Wyndley Lane, 1892
Photograph reproduced by permission of Sutton Coldfield Library
This charming photograph of Wyndley Lane in the late nineteenth century was taken by Sir Benjamin Stone (1838-1914). If you have ever heard of Sir Benjamin Stone, it will probably be as a photographer. Stone was in fact the most famous amateur photographer of his day. He could on some days take up to 100 photographs. By the end of his life he had amassed a huge collection of photographs – 22,000 mounted prints and 17,000 glass negatives were presented by his son to the reference library in Birmingham in 1919. This collection includes photographs he took of MPs on the terrace of the House of Commons during the time he himself was MP for East Birmingham and during his extensive travels across the world. Stone left Britain on no fewer than 29 occasions. He travelled around the world in 1891 and made a 1,000-mile trip up the Amazon in 1893, but his favourite destination was Norway, which he visited five times. During all these travels – made with male friends and not his wife Jane, who preferred Llandudno – Stone took his camera with him.
So how was Stone able to afford to take so many photographs and to travel the world? He was an astute business man, and his investments in paper manufacture, granite quarrying and the building of shopping arcades and houses proved to be very profitable. He was able to live with his wife and six children in The Grange – now the John Taylor Hospice – in a quiet area of Erdington. The twenty rooms in this house included not just the usual billiard and smoking rooms, but also, for the ever-curious Stone, an observatory, and there were four live-in servants, with a coach man and gardeners living locally. It was Stone’s grasp of finance that made him an ideal choice for mayor when a new town council replaced the centuries-long warden and society in Sutton Coldfield in 1886. Living in Erdington, Stone needed a residence qualification and this was provided for him by the town council – the mayor’s parlour, later known as Midland Lodge and now sadly empty and in need of restoration, was built in the park for his use. It was here that Stone would on occasion stay after attending events in the evening in Sutton. From 1887 he began to carry out his duties wearing a new eighteen carat gold mayoral chain, decorated with symbols associated with the town’s Tudor patrons.
The corporation consisted of sixteen councillors and six aldermen. Joseph Ansell of the brewing family was elected as Stone’s deputy. The town council met once a month to consider reports from a range of committees, which were responsible for such matters as finance, public health, the fire brigade and Sutton Park. Stone and his colleagues were determined that they would not increase the rates. When roads and sewers needed to be repaired, the town council preferred to borrow prudently from the Local Government Board.
Stone, himself a keen admirer of the monarchy, ensured that in June 1887 the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated in style in Sutton Coldfield. Jubilee medals and brooches were presented to the boys and girls of the town, and, in Sutton Park, there was a dinner in a marquee for the elderly, the planting of two oak trees, sports, maypole-dancing and the letting off of fireworks. Stone loved maypole dancing, and he was to arrange more demonstrations in Sutton Park up to his retirement as mayor in 1890. At least one town councillor grew weary of the maypole dancing, but the events did raise a large part of the funds needed to open a dispensary, where local subscribers could obtain advice and medicines, in the town.
At the mayor’s parlour in Sutton Park Stone and other members of the Vesey Club would meet once a month to discuss matters of a scientific and antiquarian nature. Those who were invited to join this private club paid an annual subscription of ten shillings; membership was never much more than 40. These men were all self-taught but true experts in their fields – for example, the Unitarian minister Henry Crosskey and J.E. Bagnall who published papers and books on, respectively, glaciation and flora were both regularly in attendance.
Sir Benjamin Stone was a genial, easy-going man, whose contentment was founded on strong friendships with similarly-minded men and strong family ties. He died at The Grange in Erdington in July 1914. He and Jane, who died three days after him, became residents of the cemetery in Rectory Road.
Stephen Roberts, July 2020