O
O.C.
Guest
If walking along Mill Street in Sutton Coldfield which is by the railway station and you could see into the past you would see a very different Sutton to what it is now
In Norman times the Lord of the Manor could at his pleasure seize a third of all your goods if you were a serf, as a serf was no more than a slave.
They were forced to grind corn at the Lords water mill which stood at the bottom of Mill Street till 200years ago if not working their at his other mill, a windmill on Maney Hill. Not only did they have to work they were forced among other things to repair the mill-pool with earthworks, when harvest time came they had to help in the lords fields for which they were paid for their service’s one fat sheep, four pennyworth of white bread (which they made) and twelve casks of beer.
On the other hand they had rights so that they could buy and sell freely both in and out of the Lordship of Sutton without challenge they also had a strange custom called House-Bote or Hay-Bote were they where given the right to have enough wood to repair their houses and hedges from the woods in Sutton Park in the time of Lent also taking any dead wood for the fire which as far as I know that law still exists today.
The Earl of Bracebridge built the dam of Bracebridge Pool in 1419 and like Keepers Pool and most of the older pools were made purely for the purpose of keeping fish which was mainly bream
In later years The Pools in Sutton Park unlike the earlier fishing pools were made for waterpower to drive the mills attached to them.
Holland Pool in later years supplied England’s arm trade with gun barrels which they ground at the mill.
The pond which is in the enclosure now just inside the park gates were the old racecourse was worked an edged tool forge making all kinds of farming and cutting tools.
At Longmoor Pool there was Longmoor Mill which was a Button Mill, button making was a flourishing trade centuries ago in Sutton.
Blackroot Pool was Blackroot Leather Mill making all kinds of leather goods from belts to saddles.
Spade Mill which still existed 100years ago at Powell’s Pool made spades and later on rolled steel for pen nibs.
Other mills in the Park were
Blade Mill, Stonehouse Mill which was used for Steel rolling and evidence that at least another three were known to exist
The photo shown below of Spade Mill in Sutton Park was taken over 100years ago
An interesting letter to the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1762 contained the paragraph
Below: -
Some Rivulets which take their rise in the Park feed several mills built in and near it,
Not only for the grinding of corn but for boring musket barrels, polishing metal buttons, making saws, grinding axes, knifes and bayonets, and performing various other operations for the mechanical traders in Birmingham, who having had a great number of their workmen impressed or voluntarily into his Majesty’s service during this war have set their invention to work to perform by mills many operations which use to employ more hands that can be procured in the later end of the war when so many have been buried in Germany and Canada (Minden and Quebec)
Another interesting fact that I came across is that the enormous Staple trade of Lancashire was started in Sutton and what is claimed to be the first contraption for spinning cotton by machinery was invented and tried in Sutton long before the time of Richard Arkwright.
1n 1733 John Wyatt spun the first thread of cotton without the aid of human fingers at Sutton by an arrangement of rollers in a small model.he made
The invention was tried on a practical scale at Birmingham near the well in the Upper Priory worked by an engine turned by two asses walking round an axis.
This first cotton mill did not prosper and was discontinued in 1742 but what a honour that Sutton originated one of the greatest of the Worlds industries
All around Sutton along streams and rivers stood Old Mills now long gone but still traceable by old records and maps
In Norman times the Lord of the Manor could at his pleasure seize a third of all your goods if you were a serf, as a serf was no more than a slave.
They were forced to grind corn at the Lords water mill which stood at the bottom of Mill Street till 200years ago if not working their at his other mill, a windmill on Maney Hill. Not only did they have to work they were forced among other things to repair the mill-pool with earthworks, when harvest time came they had to help in the lords fields for which they were paid for their service’s one fat sheep, four pennyworth of white bread (which they made) and twelve casks of beer.
On the other hand they had rights so that they could buy and sell freely both in and out of the Lordship of Sutton without challenge they also had a strange custom called House-Bote or Hay-Bote were they where given the right to have enough wood to repair their houses and hedges from the woods in Sutton Park in the time of Lent also taking any dead wood for the fire which as far as I know that law still exists today.
The Earl of Bracebridge built the dam of Bracebridge Pool in 1419 and like Keepers Pool and most of the older pools were made purely for the purpose of keeping fish which was mainly bream
In later years The Pools in Sutton Park unlike the earlier fishing pools were made for waterpower to drive the mills attached to them.
Holland Pool in later years supplied England’s arm trade with gun barrels which they ground at the mill.
The pond which is in the enclosure now just inside the park gates were the old racecourse was worked an edged tool forge making all kinds of farming and cutting tools.
At Longmoor Pool there was Longmoor Mill which was a Button Mill, button making was a flourishing trade centuries ago in Sutton.
Blackroot Pool was Blackroot Leather Mill making all kinds of leather goods from belts to saddles.
Spade Mill which still existed 100years ago at Powell’s Pool made spades and later on rolled steel for pen nibs.
Other mills in the Park were
Blade Mill, Stonehouse Mill which was used for Steel rolling and evidence that at least another three were known to exist
The photo shown below of Spade Mill in Sutton Park was taken over 100years ago
An interesting letter to the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1762 contained the paragraph
Below: -
Some Rivulets which take their rise in the Park feed several mills built in and near it,
Not only for the grinding of corn but for boring musket barrels, polishing metal buttons, making saws, grinding axes, knifes and bayonets, and performing various other operations for the mechanical traders in Birmingham, who having had a great number of their workmen impressed or voluntarily into his Majesty’s service during this war have set their invention to work to perform by mills many operations which use to employ more hands that can be procured in the later end of the war when so many have been buried in Germany and Canada (Minden and Quebec)
Another interesting fact that I came across is that the enormous Staple trade of Lancashire was started in Sutton and what is claimed to be the first contraption for spinning cotton by machinery was invented and tried in Sutton long before the time of Richard Arkwright.
1n 1733 John Wyatt spun the first thread of cotton without the aid of human fingers at Sutton by an arrangement of rollers in a small model.he made
The invention was tried on a practical scale at Birmingham near the well in the Upper Priory worked by an engine turned by two asses walking round an axis.
This first cotton mill did not prosper and was discontinued in 1742 but what a honour that Sutton originated one of the greatest of the Worlds industries
All around Sutton along streams and rivers stood Old Mills now long gone but still traceable by old records and maps
