Image: Midgley informs us that there were 24 park keepers in Sutton Park at the turn of the twentieth century
Reproduced with the permission of Sutton Coldfield Library
I recently bought a copy of A Short History of the Town and Chase of Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, 1904) by W. Midgley. It is a sturdy volume and, although well over a hundred years old, in very good condition. When the book was published it cost five shillings; I paid £30 for my copy. What makes the book particularly attractive is that it includes 64 images, 56 of them photographs. The publisher was a local newspaper, the Midland Counties Herald. This was not the first history of Sutton to be written, but for those who wanted an alternative to the great detail of Agnes Bracken’s History of the Forest and Chase of Sutton Coldfield (1860) or the tiny print of W.K. Riland Bedford’s History of Sutton Coldfield (1891), it was ideal. A review of the book described it as ‘a handsome volume … deserving of warm praise.’
Who was W. Midgley? His full name was William Charles Midgley. His parents were Charles and Mary Midgley of Birmingham, his father being a coal merchant. Midgley was born in 1865 and baptized at the Church of the Saviour by the famous preacher, George Dawson. He was educated at King’s Edward’s Camp Hill and spent a long period training as an artist at the School of Art. He could not make a living by selling paintings and therefore became an art teacher. He was elected a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1906. In 1901 we find Midgley living in Battersea, but by 1911, he was married with a daughter and a resident of Sutton Coldfield.
The photographs that appear in A Short History of the Town and Chase of Sutton Coldfield are not attributed. Given Midgley’s artistic interests, it seems likely that they were taken by himself. Many of them are of Sutton Park. This are, for example, lovely photographs of the pools at Wyndley and Bracebridge. In the accompanying text Midgley eulogizes Sutton Park. He describes it as ‘that wonderful experiment in municipal socialism’, a term that would have meant something to readers of his day but would be lost on many modern readers. Municipal socialism was a term used to describe a facility – for example, the school of art or the provision of water in Birmingham – being run by the town council.
Twenty five years after it happened, Midgley remained angry about the building of a railway line across Sutton Park. He refers to it as ‘desecration … the dreadful scar’ and its leading local proponent George Boddington as ‘an eccentric Sutton doctor’. The ‘gallant fight’ of those who opposed the plan such as W.K. Riland Bedford and E.H. Kittoe, the vicar of Boldmere, is recorded.
Midgley’s portrait of Sutton is romantic. He claims that there were Druids at Maney – an insight into what the cultured men of Sutton of those times wanted to believe but, unfortunately, erroneous. Sutton is described in the sixteenth century as being ‘this little town … surrounded by its commons and beautiful woodlands, clean, well paved, the quaint half-timbered stone houses round the church …’ It is doubtful if the agricultural labourers who toiled on the land saw it in such idyllic terms.
William Midgley died in June 1933 at ‘Rohedin’ in Richmond Road in Sutton. He was a man of modest wealth, leaving £5,744 9s 3d. His legacy, however, was A History of the Town and Chase of Sutton Coldfield. It is delightful book, drawing on a range of sources and very easy to read. There is a copy in Local Studies at Sutton Coldfield Library and it is well worth perusing.
Thanks to Yvonne Moore for her assistance.
Stephen Roberts, June 2021