In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Sutton Coldfield like this:
SUTTON-COLDFIELD, a town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Aston district, Warwick. The town stands on an eminence, at the terminus of a branch of the Northwestern railway, 7 miles NNE of Birmingham; took its name of Coldfield from a bleak adjacent tract on the W, not very long ago enclosed; dates from at least the Saxon times; was an ancient royal manor, which passed to the Earls of Warwick; got great advantages, in the time of HenryVIII., from BishopVesey, who was anative; is governed by a corporation, under a charter of Henry VIII., renewed by Charles II.; consists chiefly of one street, and has, of late years, been much improved; adjoins an extensive and fine park, available for the grazing of the inhabitants' horses and cattle, at small charge; is a seat of sessions and a polling place; carries on some cutlery manufacture; and has a post-office‡ under Birmingham, a r. ...
station, a hotel adjacent to the r. station-built in 1864 at a cost of about £10,000, a town hall erected in 1859, at a cost of £5,000, a police station, an ancient church, an Independent chapel, a Roman Catholic chapel, a literary institute, a free grammar-school, four other public schools, several alms houses, aggregate charities £2,295, and four annual fairs.—The parish includes Ashfurlong, Hill, Maney, Hill-Hook, Moor, Little Sutton, and Walmley; and comprises 13,030 acres. Real property, £29,678. Pop. in 1851, 4,574; in 1861, 4,662. Houses, 980. Four-Oaks Hall is the seat of Sir W. J.Hartopp, Bart.; New Hall, of J. De H. Chadwick, Esq.; Moor Hall, of A. Hacket, Esq.; and Penns, of J. Horsfall, Esq. There are numerous villas; many of them occupied by Birmingham merchants. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester. Gross value, £2,400.* Patron, the Rev. W. K. R. Bedford. The p. curacies of Boldmere, Hill, and Walmley are separate benefices.—The sub-district includes two other parishes, and comprises 17,396 acres. Pop., 5,527. Houses, 1,159.
Sutton Coldfield through time
Sutton Coldfield is now part of Birmingham district. Click here for graphs and data of how Birmingham has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Sutton Coldfield itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Sutton Coldfield, in Birmingham and Warwickshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/853
Date accessed: 19th April 2024
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