The Story of Sutton Coldfield

The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, now part of the City of Birmingham, has 100,000 inhabitants and an interesting history. By 1086, when it is recorded in the Domesday Book, there was a mixture of arable land, woodland, heath and common giving variety to the lives of the 500 people living there.

This history traces the fortunes of these ordinary people and their successors through the next 900 years. In the medieval period the local economy flourished and then decayed; in Tudor times the town became a self-governing royal town. In the nineteenth century came the threat of industrialisation, but Sutton did not succumb, instead developing a reputation as a desirable place to live, with its healthy air, huge park and easy distance from the metropolis of Birmingham. The rapid growth of population over the last hundred years has brought further changes which continue to fascinate the social historian.