SUTTON-COLDFIELD,
a market-town and parish,
having separate jurisdiction,
though locally in the Birmingham
division of the
hundred of Hemlingford,
county of WARWICK, 26
miles (N. W. by N.) from
Warwick, and 110 (N. W. by
N.) from London, containing
3466 inhabitants. Thistown,
formerly called Sutton-Col-
ville, and King's Sutton, is of considerable antiquity,
having been of some note in the Saxon times. During
the reign of Edward the Confessor, the manor was in
the possession of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, but suhse-.
quently William the Conqueror held it in his own hands,
and Henry I. exchanged it with the Earl of Warwick
for other manors. In later times, the town having
nearly fallen into decay, it was indebted to the attach-
ment of Vesey, Bishop of Exeter, and chaplain to
Henry VIII., who was a native of this place, for that
munificence which led to its revival, and laid the foundation
of its future prosperity. It occupies a bleak
and exposed situation on rising ground of steep acclivity,
and consists principally of one long street; the
houses are mostly modern, well built, and of handsome
appearance, and the inhabitants are well supplied with
water from springs. Adjacent to it is a very extensive
and finely-wooded park, in which the inhabitants have
the privilege of pasturage, for a small payment to the
corporation; it is crossed by the Iknield-street, which
is distinctly traceable for two miles, entering the park
near a small artificial mount, called King's Standing
on the Coldfield, from the circumstance of Charles
having harangued his troops from Shropshire on this
spot, and taking thence a direction into the Lichfield
road. Here is a medicinal spring, called Rounton Well;
another, possessing sulphureous qualities, is now disused.
The principal occupation is the manufacture of spades,
saws, axes, and other implements; mills for grinding
gun-barrels are worked by streams of water issuing
from pools in the park, of which one covers from thirty
to thirty-five acres. The Birmingham and Fazely canal
passes through the parish. The market is held on Monday
and fairs are on Trinity-Monday and November
8th, for cattle, sheep, and pedlary. The town is governed
by a corporation, which obtained its charter from
Henry VIII., at the instance of Bishop Vesey, consisting of
a warden, two capital burgesses, and twenty-two other
corporate members. The warden, who is chosen annually,
and the capital burgesses, for life, by the corporation,
from their own body, are justices of the peace by virtue
of their office; the warden acts as coroner for the
town, manor, and lordship of Sutton. The corporation
are lords of the manor, and elect a lord high steward
and park-keepers; the former appoints his deputy, who
must be a lawyer, and presides at the courts leet and
baron. The other members are also chosen by the
corporation; the inhabitants are free and eligible by
residence. Under the charter they were empowered to
hold courts of Oyer and Terminer, and of gaol delivery,
which, from disuse, have been transferred to the
county town, the corporation paying a quota towards
the county rate; they hold a petty session at the town
hall, on the Friday in the week of general quarter sessions.
A court of record was formerly held, but it has
been discontinued since 1727. In the town hall, a neat
brick building, are the arms of Bishop Vesey, emblazoned
on a shield surmounted with a mitre.
The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Coventry,
and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated in
the king's books at £33. 9. 2., and in the patronage of
William Bedford, Esq. The church, dedicated to the
Holy Trinity, is a fine ancient structure, built probably
in the thirteenth century, though combining different
styles of English architecture: the aisles were added
by Bishop Vesey, whose effigy, in a recumbent posture,
with a mitre on his head and crosier in his right hand,
is in the chancel: part of the nave fell down about
seventy years ago, and was rebuilt by the corporation,
at the expense of £1500. The free grammar school
was founded, in the reign of Henry VIII., and endowed
with land in the parish, by Bishop Vesey: the salary of
the master is from £300 to £400 per annum, and a
handsome house was erected for him, chiefly at the expense
of the corporation, on the condition of his teaching
twenty-four poor boys additionally in reading,
writing, and arithmetic. National schools, in which
about two hundred and forty children of both sexes are
educated and clothed, are supported from funds belonging
to the corporation. Almshouses for five aged men
and five aged women, with gardens attached, were built
and are supported by the corporation. Among various
charitable benefactions, four marriage portions, of £24
each, are allowed annually to four poor maidens, natives
or long resident. Near Driffold house, so called
from the custom of driving and folding the cattle of the
parishioners, a farm-house occupies the site of the old
manor-house, formerly an episcopal palace of great
strength, of which a few remains are still visible. At
the north-west extremity of Sutton, near the Chester
road, is a pool called the Bowen, at the' extremity of
which are the remains of a fortification, called Loaches
Banks, enclosing a quadrangular area of nearly two
acres, surrounded by three large mounds and three
narrow trenches, supposed to be an ancient British
camp, from the neighbouring heath being named Drude
heath (i. e. Druids' heath); it is defended on three sides
by a morass, and accessible only on the side from the
Coldfield, where it is protected by a larger mound.