Landowners

From the Archives list, number 4 is the most interesting so far with a beautiful plan that shows the Digby land (blue on the overlay map) along with three pieces of land to the north of New Forge Pool being sold to the Hartopps for £5,384 18s 6d.

Number 7 was not relevant - very nice to look at but referring to land north of the railway line in the area of the current Ladywood and Four Oaks Park estates. Perhaps the one relevance is that it belonged to the Hartopps and indicates their accumulation of land in this area. Nice plans for a race course here!

Number 1 consisted of reams of sloping copperplate that was a fine work of Op Art. Skim read it but couldn't really fathom it out apart from Wriothesley Digby gained land from the will of Sir Lester Holte Baronet in 1769. He was one of many beneficiaries after the Aston Hall and grounds, etc. was left to Lady Holte and debts were paid. For 1818, there was something about land as security for a loan and Noel Digby which references Booths Farm in the occupation of Thomas Kendrick, along with various pools and mills and land. Some occupied by a Sir Edmund Hartopp'.

Number 6 details the exchange of land between the Cradock Hartopps and the Warden & Society in 1827. There is no definite identification of filed names but essentially the Hartopps gave 93 acres 3 roods and 36 perches in exchange for 63 acres and 31 perches. They also agreed to build a road 517 yards long and 30 feet wide at their own expense for the W & S that went from Sutton C. town to the Park and it crossed the land of various fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and others including Wriothesley Digby.

The land the Hartopps were given was "a slip of land adjoining Four Oaks Park and the greater part of Lady Wood and land adjoining." The land they sold to the W & S included "two closes of land and the greater part of the third close of land adjoining Sutton Park and to the New Forge Pool." Two closes of land called the Moors adjoining Sutton Park, and various parcels of land adjoining the Moors.

Towards the end the following: 'a conveyance for a valuable consideration from Wriothesley Digby of Meriden in the County of Warwick Esq. subject to the limitations contained in the Will of Sir Lester Holte Baronet deceased to the issue male of said Wriothesley Digby who was then of the advanced age of 80 years or thereabouts and had not any male issue and if he should have any the said Warden and Society would have a right of re-entrance of the lands so proposed to be given to them in exchange...' It is noted that WD died 26th October last [1826?] without male issue.

Unsurprisingly the W & S got the deal passed as it was said to be beneficial to the inhabitants of the town and parish. The road alone was reckoned to add £1000 in value!

Barns

Re. previous mail about Mr Grundy. The map of the proposed route of the rail line has no sign of him owning land here. A shame. Thought the mention of the barn might be the one in Barn Close but it would seem not. Would his estate have been the other side of the High Street?

Birmingham Z & Stamp Design & Site

There is an association with 'Birmingham Z', but there also seemed to be 'Sutton Z' on signs when we visited the site. Is this indication of increasing localisation?

Getting a bit specific now. Was there a standard typeface used on the stamps/first day covers in the mid-20th century? This could be one way (along with a colour palette) of getting that aesthetic threaded in.

The site has a trajectory and it is the various historical events that knock it 'off course'. A patch of land's beautiful parabola was pushed one way by the railway, then another by matters postal and then another by the proposed future development. Switches. Aren't railway points sometimes referred to as switches? We switch between times to create contrasts or suggest possibilities.

Grains

It seems to be that the more complex/detailed fine grain listings do something interesting in that they bind the site into the immediate neighbourhood (Tudor Hill, Richmond Road, Anchorage Road Conservation Area, and Sutton Park). This may help the development appear less like an outsider/intrusion.

Anchorage Road & Ownership

Interested to hear the importance of Anchorage Road - walked along there on Tuesday. There are still some very grand houses in different styles; noted a few 'Dutch' gables and some classic Edwardian era properties. The short history of Sutton Coldfield mentions one particular eminent resident having his stables in Anchorage Road and there are, indeed, still a few properties with high-gated garage-like entrances.

In 1824 there was also a Hannah Jackson occupying land owned by Samuel Smith. Other names associated with the fields on the site are: owners - Edward Croxall and Wriothesley Digby and occupiers - George Brown. Those are from the 1824 Corn Rent. In the 1856 valuation there is also Harriet Smith, 'Warden & Society', what looks like ? Hadhope and almost illegible M? Leader?.

Fault Line, Field names & Holte

Birmingham Archives have a few maps of use. Quick and very crude overlay attached puts the site mainly on land owned by Sir John Lister Holte of Aston Hall in the mid 1700s. Also attached is an excerpt from the 1977 map of 1760 fields that they have at Birmingham and the site is mainly in 'Spring Close' and 'Eight Acres'. The name Tudor Hill doesn't seem to appear on maps until after about 1860.

On matters geological, the BGS map of the area shows a fault line running across the site north south roughly along the line of the underground sewer. The fault seperates Kidderminster formation sandstone from Bromsgrove formation sandstone.