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Sutton Road Erdington: large houses and their residents

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nick Avery
  • Start date Start date
In the 1940 directory it is listed as
1617557705457.png

Perhaps it was only called that when it was a guest house and the later owners reverted to the original name.
 
I tried checking on e rolls but they don't list house names only numbers. However, Eunice Barrasford is listed at 78 in the e rolls as well.
I only have access to certain years via Ancestry so cannot check other dates.
 
A short description of the house when it was advertised to let in November 1914. By April 1915=it was a temporary hospital. Viv.

Source: British Newspaper Archive
 

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Hi Tim, although you posted in October 2008 i have only just come across this site and the information regarding the grand houses of Sutton Road
My Great Grandfather Charles Britton and his family, my grandfather William Stanley Britton being one of them, lived at "Melrose House"
Charles Britton was a Cycle Pump manufacturer, his son william stanley took over the business in 1932. Charles Britton is the greast grandfather of Fern Britton[tv fame etc] William Stanley married Vera Eastwood, her grandparents Messrs Eastwood & Moore owned the Midland Vinegar Company..HP Sauce etc. The Eastwoods,Brittons and Moores all lived on the Sutton Road more or less side by side, The Brittons at Melrose, The Moores at York Lodge. If you can help with any photographs etc for a book i am in the process of writing it would be most appreciated. Yours Nigel Britton.
 
Dear Nigel.
I was just looking this history thread again and was wondering if you published the book you mentioned.
If so I would be very interested in purchasing one
Kind regards
Tim O'Sullivan
 
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Viv.
 
This article gives some interesting history of the area around Sutton Road and its changes just before the Kingshurst Estate was to be developed in 1956. VIv.

8F00412B-DAAE-4186-B5FC-63D129B880AA.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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I’ve just posted an article in post #68 of this thread which may be of interest in terms of the history around Sutton Road. Viv.

 
Slight off topic but watching Sense & Sensibility today, I noted that the original home of the Dashwoods was 'Norlands'. I wonder if that's where the name came from on the map in Post #21, from Janice.
 
For anyone interested in Josiah Mason’s Norwood House and the St Agnes School and Edmund Campion connection, there’s a thread here, especially post #7. Very complicated history as far as the school connections go ! Viv.

 
Viv, there's quite a lot of information about the large houses on Sutton Road on various threads, if I remember correctly. I remember someone was researching the Moore's (HP Sauce) who lived in one and Edward Ansell (the brewer who later moved to and rebuilt Moor Hall). I'm afraid I get a bit confused over which thread is which but recently I saw a photo of one of the houses which was occupied by J A Chatwin, the Birmingham architect. I suppose it's only to be expected that these houses were originally occupied by wealthy business people.
 
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Returning to the building in post #1 again. The blurb accompanying the house development says it was built by Josiah Mason in the 1900s. Impossible. Josiah died in 1881. The house definitively looks to be the early part of the 1900s or at least not as far back as pre-1880s. Maybe the ref to Josiah Mason meant the estate of JM ?

Having said that, there’s nothing to say it wasn’t a girls’ school for a while. We know the Lyndhurst School moved to newly built premises in Holly Lane around 1914, and the style of the house seems to me to fit with that. The school was there until at least 1918.

I wondered, given the house looks like a domestic premises whether one of the named teachers (eg Jordan and/or Coombs) owned it in 1914 ? They were both at Orchard Road in 1913. Viv.
This dating is in line with my thinking. The house is typical of those built shortly after WW1, and it is not shown on the 1912 OS survey. So 1914 - 1919 seems reasonable.
 
I think that's the case Viv. Well done Janice! tpos posted on the Sutton Road thread with a lot of information. I believe the houses along Sutton Road were built several years before the Holly Lane property.


Much of the land around here was owned by Josiah Mason so I expect he owned the Lyndhurst estate land too. We paid our ground rent to the Josiah Mason's trust before we bought the freehold and we live the opposite side of the Lyndhurst Estate to Holly Lane.
I believe that Lyndhurst Estate was built on land owned by the Walter Stanley Trust.
 
The houses on what is now the Lyndhurst Estate were large merchants' houses built in the 1850s on 99 year leases, typically in the white stucco Victorian neo-classical style. Come the 1950s, the leases expired and the houses fell into disrepair and demolition. After the War, my grandparents owned 'Newstead' the property between 'Norlands' and St Agnes Convent, but sold up smartly when they were tipped off about plans for the Lyndhurst Estate. There is one remaining 1850s property on Chester Road just before the railway bridge.

'Norlands' was ultimately converted into 2 flats and occupied by Alfred Bliss and Anton Dorcinic prior to demolition.
Just realised the last name "Anton Dorcinic". The lady running Lyndhurst Guest House (Eunice Barrasford) became Mrs Dorcinic.
 
Thomas Oswald Williams was Lord Mayor of Birmingham from 1923-1924 and lived in
Parkfield House, nr 84,Sutton Road
 
1921 directory still has Misses Jordan and Coombs at 32 entry as the 1915 entry from Mike.
l understand that these posts on the Lyndhurst Estate houses are to be moved to a pre-existing thread. Meanwhile, I've now looked at that thread, and the first post details the occupiers prior to demolition, which must have come from the same source that my info came from. However, whilst I have extracted #70 as Norlands, that pre-existing post has Norlands at #78, which agrees with yourself. As my grandparents' house opposite Norlands was #75, I'm going to have to concede that my #70 address is probably incorrect and #78 was indeed both 'Norlands' and 'Lyndhurst'.
 
Hello Canonvela,
I have just sent the 1953 list of names of all the occupants to you in a private reply,
96:Normanhurst had 20 occupants!
there was some suggestion that this was used to house nurses,
Would be interesting if anybody has photographs of some of the'missing'houses
Kind regards
Tim O'Sullivan
You would think that 'Normanhurst' would be a unique name for a house, but there was another 'Normanhurst' just down the road on the corner of Boldmere Road and Station Road.
 
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Don’t think Blythe House is listed in this thread. Maybe the name was changed. It was on the opposite side of the road to Wilmot House.

It was a boys’ college in the 1890s. Viv.

5CBD5CCB-EA85-4184-9FE5-9A2B4418EF1D.jpeg
 
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You would think that 'Normanhurst' would be a unique name for a house, but there was another 'Normanhurst' just down the road on the corner of Boldmere Road and Station Road.
This “Normanhurst” at, I think, 40 (?) Sutton Road, was a Home for the frail - it opened in 1958. VIv.1D48552C-DE3F-4FEF-9257-F65C332C811B.jpeg
Source; British Newspaper Archive
 
This “Normanhurst” at, I think, 40 (?) Sutton Road, was a Home for the frail - it opened in 1958. VIv.View attachment 155587
Source; British Newspaper Archive
This archive post is interesting , number 40 Sutton Road is now part of the Abbey Catholic School but in 1958 was named Normanhurst, possibly re-named after number 96 , also called Normanhurst,after it was demolished.
 
This archive post is interesting , number 40 Sutton Road is now part of the Abbey Catholic School but in 1958 was named Normanhurst, possibly re-named after number 96 , also called Normanhurst,after it was demolished.
The last 'Normanhurst' on Sutton Road, as far as I know is the one on the map and photo recently posted by PJMBurns,
I remember delivering Harvest Festival parcels there as a school child,
This 'Normanhurst' is now part of Erdington history,Quite a popular name ! ,wondering if it will re-appear on a new building in the future
 
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