Recent content by Lady Penelope

The stocks in Sutton Coldfield were outside what is now McDonald's which earlier had been the Baptist Church. Not sure what it was before though.

Ornette, I emailed Kerry Osbourne who agreed with EC being Emmanuel College. All properties on the west side of Mill Street belong to the college. VSL, the land adjoining Trinity Church belonged to the grammar school. AH must mean Andrew Hacket as the land marked AH coincides with John Snape's...

Thanks Viv, I grew up in Court Lane and we were virtually surrounded by allotments. They were in a large 'L' shape and the first bit to go was the foot when Shortheath park was extended. Then Topcroft Estate was built off Goosemoor Lane, followed by Jarvis Road which cut through from Gravelly...

Very interesting drawing in Post #155 Pedro. My umpteen times gt grandfather (wrong side of the blanket) gave his address as Deritend Bridge but I think the one in the picture was built in the early 1800's. Can't remember the exact date.

Were they Guinea Gardens? There seemed to be a lot of them in Birmingham but they gradually disappeared as the town spread.

Andrew, I couldn't resist Googling the children's rhyme and up came a video. I shall be singing it for the rest of the day especially the chorus!

The Friends have been working hard to improve the station appearance. During May they planted lots of wild flowers unfortunately this was during a really hot spell when water wasn't readily available. Undaunted they brought water carriers and took it in turns to keep the plants alive.

The Chester Road Station Friends are still going strong, they're on a litter-pick around the station and bridge today. We live down wind of the takeaway capital of the world and are surrounded by lots of HMO's (with insufficient bins) so a lot of litter gets trapped under the bridge. I think...

A Very Happy Birthday Eric. We were only talking about you with friends yesterday as we've just decorated our dining room and were re-hanging all the lovely pictures you'd painted for us over the years. Thank you for all the pleasure you've given us and have a really good day. Graham & Penny xx

Hi Again Ornette, I can't think what AH and LH stand for at the moment- there seem to be a lot of AH's - but my guess for EC is Emmanuel College (the college owned much land in Sutton and Emmanuel Church in Wylde Green is built on EC land). VSL I would think is land belonging to Vesey School. I...

Ornette, from what I was told yesterday Miss Bracken lived in a least two homes on the High Street. It was a little chaotic yesterday as there was so much to get through and we're not meeting for some weeks. I've made a note and if anything else comes to light I'll keep you posted. Shirley...

Exactly Lyn. I can get on the train and then the tram which sounds easy but with creaking limbs and very little get-up-and-go I view the prospect with dismay. I think we're going to try to go to the Wolfson Centre once a month but of course that depends on how things are at home. Some of...

Ornette, as promised I went to the library this afternoon and asked the question. JH Hill was a former member of the group some years ago. The inn was called The White Hart rather than The Hart. It wasn't exactly on the site of the Royal but just a little further up. Probably approximately where...

Hi Ornette, Thank you for posting the map. It may have been that the Hart Inn information wasn't available when Roger wrote about The Royal. Lots of things have come to light about Sutton and I expect more will be discovered in the future. I'm going to the Sutton Coldfield Local History...

Well researched Viv.