Archive notes

Railway

There is a plan of how the proposed line will cut across fields in the Tudor Hill area with landowners named. There are also one or two documents that cover the negotiations of the route and who was for and who against. They have some very attractive architect's drawings of Sutton Coldfield main station (almost Ruskinian) but I haven't yet found any for Sutton Park Station, although this is reported to be plain in comparison to other stations.

There is a useful section about Sutton Park Station in a book called 'Cross City Connections' by a chap called Bassett. This includes some interesting anecdotes including the royal 'visit' to the sidings. Bassett also refers to a book by Hendry that has a 'wealth of information' about stations in the area. The station is referred to as a coal depot prior to becoming a parcel depot. The station was used post-War as a training school for guards and drivers of motorised vehicles. There are various small businesses shown on the 1950s plan, including a builders' merchant using the Railway Shed.

Landowners

The older maps refer to Park House as a (blade) mill. There is also Richmond House a bit closer to the site that might be worth a bit of research. The field names might have some interest. Spring Close and Pit Piece may reference the geology and the fault that runs under the woodland at the east end of the site.

Maps

The two main older maps are an 1824 Corn Rent and an 1856 Valuation. The 1950s station yard map shows some interesting landforms at the west end of the site, it looks a bit like dumped soil which may account for the odd level changes (OS maps from 1897 and 1914 also show this feature). There is also a sand pit noted behind the current garage. Some form of banking also seems to be indicated on most maps in the area at the entrance to the site. On the proposed route map mentioned above there is no indication of gradients which makes me think that the whole of the station yard was excavated. Maybe soil excavated from the main yard area was pushed to the west end and so creating the tip-like landforms there.

Newspaper Reports

A newspaper cutting from a 1966 Suttton Coldfield News rumours the closure of Sutton's Foreign Parcels Depot on the opening of a new multi-million pound building in Birmingham. Three types of mail are mentioned in this article: inward, outward and in-transit. The article is accompanied by several useful photos. More recently, in March 2008, the Sutton Coldfield Observer reported the recent closure of 'Birmingham Z' the country's "only foreign postal depot" with operations being moved to London. This mentions that 'Birmingham Z' took its name from a 'railway spur near the station where cars were shunted off for loading'.