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PACKWOOD
Rev James Packwood born in Worcestershire in 1798 was another curate at Holy Trinity who served a term as Warden of the town. In his case three years 1828 to 1830. In 1841 he lived in Coleshill Street but otherwise very little is known, except that he is mentioned in Holbeche Diary as a curate who preached often at Holy Trinity ‘ in the Rectors absences’
PARK HOUSE/BLADE MILL
The existance of a Blade Mill in Sutton Park in 1597 is evidenced in the Birmingham archives. ‘Four acres of meadow with house and mill called Blade Mill , inclosed with running water from Bracebridge Pool, in the occupation of John Hayberd’, was then sold to John Tuttell.
The same was sold for £50 in 1623 by Thomas Stanton to William Peyton, who in 1678 sold it on, whilst in the possession of William Pickerel, for £150 to Thomas Addyes. The property was described as ‘four acres of Park Meadow, pools heretofore a house and mill called Blade Mill now utterly destroyed and gone’
It seems clear that about this time the Blade Mill was rebuilt, as in 1695 a house and Blade Mill was let out for 22 years to Samuel Jeffries of Maney.
This land known as Park Meadow and the water driven Blade Mill had been specifically excluded from the Park as it was part of the Manor Farm estate, owned by the Lord of the Manor but let out to a series of tenants.
Until 1826 the only access out of the Park from the Mill was via Windley
In 1824 Brown was the tenant, in 1841 Dutton was the miller. The Holbeche Diary written in 1892 refers to ‘Wiggan had my fathers old house in the Park and Elliot lived there’
In 1881 Harriet Wiggan a widow ,was the tenant. In 1882 the property was ‘ a messuage or dwelling house, outbuildings, site of the mill and forge taken down, meadow 3 acres, land with fish ponds 1 acre, pool or land formerly covered with water 4 acres, land formerly an old road, other land 10 acres entirely surrounded by Sutton Park’.
In 1891 Henry Elliot a retired gunmaker, his family and still Harriet Wiggan ( probably his mother in law) were in occupation, and in 1898 the house was extensively altered. He died 1896 and the property remained in the ownership of the Elliot family until 1948 when they sold it for £19250 to the Sutton Corporation.
The property was then ‘ a house, two cottages, the site of a mill taken down and land in several parcels including the old road,totalling 20 acres.’
The property now known as Park House is a pub/restaurant.
PEDDIMORE
In about 1240 Thomas de Arden was granted land at Peddimore together with rights of fishing the Ebrook and hunting in the woods of Curdworth and Peddimore, and built himself a double moated house.
John de Arden was granted the right to a private chapel there in 1360.
When the Peddimore line of Ardens expired the estate fell to the Ardens of Castle Bromwich and was allowed to fall into disuse. In the early 17th century the site was derelict, only the moat remaining.
In 1659 a new house , designed by William Wilson and known as Peddimore Hall, was erected on the site of the old and was occupied by William Wood a prominent royalist, and Warden of Sutton Coldfield in 1662 and 1676. In a 1671 valuation of the town William Woods property is valued at £50 a year, the seventh highest in Sutton Coldfield.
Since then the house has remained in private occupation; in 1841 the tenant was John Booth, a farmer and in 1851 Thomas S Wilkins was farming 180 acres there.
Thomas Benjamin Wilkins of Peddimore gets a none too complimentary mention in the Holbeche Diary as ' Tom the Ben, fat, dirty and coarse'
PENNS
The first archival reference to Penns seems to be in 1618 when John Penn is said to be operating two water mills there for corn milling and for blade sharpening.
In 1776 the property is owned by Joseph Scott and tenanted by Joseph Webster and is described as 'a house and appertenances at Sutton Coldfield, two messuages adjoining a wire mill with three wheels for drawing wire which was formerly three water corn mills and one ---- fulling mill, called Penns Mills with the millpool, floodgates etc, two meadows ---- and waste called Echilhurst'.
The Websters, a presbyterian family, operated a blade mill at Perry Barr ( which they were still operating in 1844) . Joseph Webster (1) had remarried following the death of his first wife Martha Dickenson and in about 1750 he acquired the lease of the Penns Mills . He and his son Joseph Webster (11) developed a wire drawing business and additional premises were taken on at Plants Mill and Hints Forge.
Joseph Webster (111) son of Joseph(11) ( born 1783, died 1856) further expanded operations and in 1812 built cottages for the workers adjacent to the mills.( demolished in 1984) This Joseph was Warden of Sutton Coldfield in 1810.
By 1815 when Joseph Webster (1V) was born Penns Hall had become a substantial mansion and on census day in 1851 he was employing 105 men and 43 boys at the mills. He was also farming 30 acres.
His eldest son Baron Dickenson Webster ,born 1818, was a JP, a freemason, a member of the Aston Union and of the Turnpike Trust and was Warden of the town in 1844 and in 1855-1858. A man of some prominence, he was much involved in the negotiations with railway companies regarding their plans for routes to and through the town.
In 1855 the business of Websters was merged with that of Horsfall at Hay Mills, Birmingham and in 1859 the whole business was transferred to Hay Mills and the Penns Mills were closed down, with serious financial consequences for many workers and the economy of the Walmley area of Sutton.
Joseph (1V) died in 1860 and in 1865 Penns Hall was bought by James Horsfall, whose son Henry was resident there in 1891.
In 1947 the property was sold to Ansells Brewery who opened Penns Hall Hotel there in 1950
The 1971 book 'The Ironmasters of Penns' by John Horsfall is highly recommended for a fully detailed history.
Montague Webster born 1819 a son of Joseph (1V) followed a career in the army before taking holy orders when he was appointed the Vicar parish of Hill, Sutton Coldfield. He was Warden of the town in 1874 and 1875.
Walmley parish church has a memorial to the Webster family in the form of a stained glass window
POLICE
In the 17th and 18th centuries policing was in the hands of the local Justices who were empowered to appoint inhabitants as unpaid parish constables. There was no national or regional law enforcement agency.
Parliamentary committees had reviewed and condidered crime and policing policies from 1812 and the Peel Committee of 1828 paved the way for the Police Bill and the creation of an organised police force in London.The first policeman in Sutton was Thomas Butler who was appointed by the Corporation in 1836 and who in 1841 was living in Mill Street.
Riots in Birmingham in 1839 led to the creation of a city police force and the Warwickshire Constabulary was formed in 1840.
Butler's successor was George Commander who is referred to in the Holbeche Diary as resident in Coleshill Street.
A purpose built police station,court and jail was established in Hackett Street ( now Station Street) in 1886. The 1891 census discloses George Smye, police sergeant, resident there together with his family of six and four prisoners.
In 1956 an old 18th house 'The Rookery' was demolished with a view to site accomodating a new police and court building. Economic restrictions delayed the project for four years and the new facility opened in 1960. The Station Street premises were demolished in 1967.
POPULATION
It has been estimated by reference to the Domesday Book that shortly after the Norman Conquest the population of Sutton Coldfield was between 150 and 500.
The 1327 Lay Subsidy Roll recorded sixtynine taxpayers and from this Roger Lea has estimated the total population at about 1400.
The plague reduced the national population by some two thirds later in the 14th century so that by 1400 Sutton was back to about 500 souls.
The 1416 Court Roll records 127 houses suggesting to Lea a total of about 600/700 people but by 1546 there were 180 houses and perhaps a thousand folk.
In 1674 Hearth Tax records indicated 314 houses which points to about 1400 inhabitants. From this time the population grew slowly but steadily and in 1784 there were 504 premises housing 2487.
The people were mainly engaged in agriculture throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries but the railway age brought large numbers of city merchants and industrialists from Birmingham to the clean air of Sutton and began the transformation of the town into a dormitory suburb.
Population figures from census returns:-
1801 2847
1851 4574
1861 4600
1871 5900
1881 7737
1901 14264
1911 20132
1931 29928
1951 47590
1961 72143
1991 102572
POWELLS POOL / NEW FORGE POOL
In about 1730 the stream from Longmoor was dammed by the then Lord of the Manor, Sir Thomas Holte of Aston, to create a 48 acre pool for industrial purposes out of land formerly part of Booths Farm. By 1733 a water mill had been built adjacent to the dam and was in use as a forge; the pool and mill were unsurprisingly known as New Forge Pool and Mill.
An early tenant was John Wyatt who developed an important experimental cotton spinning machine.
In the 1750s the mill was taken over by William Powell for steel rolling. From 1830 the mill was used for spade manufacture by Francis Parkes. In 1844 he built, for his own occupation, a house which became known as Stone House , close to themill. In 1855 the mill was employing thirty employeees. The Parkes were tenants for about forty years.
In 1881 the tenant operating the mill for steel rolling with ten workers, and living in the Stone House, was Henry Done. The pool was also used for recreational activities. In 1880 a steamboat ‘Foam’ operated on the pool and Done offered fishing and rowing boats for hire. A water carnival was held on the pool in 1886.
After production ceased, the mill was disused for some years, but it was brought back into production in 1914 by Brosch to make brass strip for the war effort.
The mill was demolished in 1936 and in 1937 the pool and surrounding land was sold by the then owners the Somervilles to the Sutton Corporation for public recreation under an agreement for the develop[ment of housing along the southern boundary of the Park.
SEE WYATT
SEE PARKES