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The Old Swan

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
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Wendy

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The Old Swan Sutton Coldfield 1896. This would be opposite where now is the Police Station. The building in the background is Bishop Vesey Grammer School.
 

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Sorry, Wendy, I've only just discovered this excellent picture. Thanks for putting it up. Would the school be in the same location as the BVGS I attended in the early 1960s? Sadly the memory becomes hazy (and sometimes plays tricks) ...
 
Yes Thyles, I used to take my lad there often in the 80's when he was a pupil, as we lived so far away and the bus rides were very complicated. A great school with tons of tradition. Did you know much about the eponymous Bishop? I often wondered who and what he was...
 
Yes it is Bishop Vesey. I went there for choir practice from my school Arthur Terry in the 60's. They did Songs Of Praise from there and I was in the choir about 1965 I think......it may turn up on youtube one day.....lol
 
This is indeed a great picture. A curious geographical relationship between the two establishments...being so close to each other. An easy walk for a lunchtime pint for the teachers.
 
Dennis Williams said:
... Did you know much about the eponymous Bishop? I often wondered who and what he was ...
Click to expand...

Not at the time, DW, even though his alleged portrait literally hung over us in Big School Hall. [Apparently this portrait is actually of someone else, but that's another story.]

But it does so happen that I've been researching BVGS in recent weeks, and can provide a couple of links concerning John Vesey aka John Veysy aka John Harman (circa 1462-1555), Bishop of Exeter and great benefactor of his birthplace Sutton Coldfield:
[1] Minimalist Wikipedia biography.
[2] George Oliver's Lives of the Bishops of Exeter (Exeter: William Roberts, 1861). Pages 120-132.​

Wendy, I must have seen that great view a thousand times, yet I don't remember it! I suppose I was too busy looking at the buses and trains. Then there was that little peaked schoolboy cap ...

[I was thinking about starting a BVGS thread. Lots of history and memories there. Anyone interested?]
 
Dennis Williams said:
I think The Swan is still there, and it may be in this shot marked with a red blob. The School is easily visible..
Click to expand...

Thanks indeed for the aerial photo, DW, very useful to an exile!

George Oliver (1861) neatly sums up why Bishop Vesey is so fondly remembered by Suttonians:
Retiring to his native place (in 1551), he spent his income in works of charity; he rebuilt the aisles of the parish church of Sutton Coldfield, and added to its ornaments; erected a market-place there, paved the town, re-edified the street, defrayed the cost of two stone bridges, gave a meadow for the benefit of poor widows, founded a grammar-school, ... and he introduced the manufacture of "Devonshire kersies".​
 
For heaven's sake Thylacine I think it would be criminal NOT to expand on this more now you mention it. Go for it. if I could emulate (and plagiarise) Noddy Holder's festive crie de coeur at this time 'It's HISTORRRYYYYY"
 
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