The origins of Vesey House, now 3 High Street, are obscure but it is reputed to be one of Bishop Vesey's 16th century properties. It was at one time known as Brick House and was occupied in about 1577 by Raphael Harman, a Vesey nephew. It is said that during the Civil War it was the home of Thomas Willoughby the Cromwellian Magistrate and Administrator of the town.

In 1677 it was owned by John Addyes by whom it was bequeathed to the Hackett family. In 1828 Ann Bracken was their tenant.

The frontage was much altered when the road was turnpiked in 1807 ; the roadway was lowered in 1827 to reduce the steep slope up the hill and steps had to be built up to the entrance. In 1850 the property was divided to become two dwellings, one of which was occupied in 1857 by Agnes Bracken a local artist, author and historian.

Further alterations were made , the steps were removed and the unusal bay windows reduced and remodelled when the 20th century shop fronts were installed

In the years after the Norman Conquest the town was the fiefdom of the Earls of Warwick and later, after their disgrace, the Crown. The influence of Bishop Vesey with Henry V111 resulted in the town gaining its independance from the Crown by virtue of the Royal Charter of 1528.

The Charter, by the standards of the day was an amazing document, establishing the right to local government by the populace through a body of 25 residents appointed to form a Corporation known as Warden and Society.

The first Warden appointed by the Charter was William Gibbons son in law of the Bishop. The other 24 members of the Society were elected for life by the small population of the town.

Although the Charter provided for self government and gave the inhabitants of the town rights and priviledges particularly in relation to the use of Sutton Park, there was one major flaw; the future Wardens were to be appointed by the Society and any future vacancies in the Society were to be filled, not by local elections, but by the existing and remaining members of the Society.There is no doubt that during the Riland and Riland Bedford years the rector had a considerable influence over the appoinment of Wardens and members of the Society and a number of his curates and assistants were appointed to high office. Over time the Society became, or at least was seen to become, a self electing and self preserving group of the wealthy and priviledged residents of the town.

During the 18/19th centuries this was to impede the development of the town during periods of population growth and bring allegations of mismanagement, which were only partially resolved by the Court of Chancery in 1825 , and the Great Reform Act 1832. Parliament eventually granted a new Charter in 1886 providing for ademocratically appointed Corporation but even thereafter the established conservatism of the elected officers continued .

Examples of the reluctance to accept ‘progress’ include

1. In 1908 the Corporation decided that following the loss of their parliamentary bill the time was not yet ripe for Birmingham Trams to be allowed into Sutton. They never arrived at least beyond Wylde Green

2. The Public Libraries Act was not adopted in Sutton until 1938; one of the last local authorities to do so

3. The Corporation refused to allow Walsall Corporation buses to enter the town. Eventually Midland Red buses were admitted but only single deckers

4. There were no indoor public baths in Sutton until the 1971

5. The Corporation justified the delay in accepting responsibility for water and sewerage in the town on the flimsy technicality that the legislation requiring local authority action failed to mention the words ‘Warden and Society’

See CHARTER

Arnold Horace Santo Waters was born in Plymouth in Sept 1886. He served in the 218th Field Company Royal Engineers in WW1 and was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery in the bridging of the Oise Sambre Canal in France in November 1918. Later knighted, he was President of the Institute of Structural Engineers and lived in Sutton Coldfield.

Sir Arnold VC MC DSO CBE was cremated at Sutton Crematorium in January 1981. His VC is held at the Royal Engineers Musuem at Chatham

For the Webster family of Penns Hall and Penns Mills, see PENNS

John Wyatt born near Lichfield was related to Sarah Ford , Doctor Johnsons mother. A carpenter by trade he began work in Birmingham on the development of a spinning machine. In 1733 he was working in the mill at New Forge ( Powells) pool, Sutton Coldfield attempting to spin the first cotton thread ever spun by mechanical means.

His principal partner was Lewis Paul who was sponsored by the Duke of Shrewsbury. and together they developed the concept of elongating cotton threads by running them through rollers and then stretching them through a faster second set of rollers. They produced the first ever roller spinning machine but it was not successful. Paul took out patents in 1738 and in 1758 the year before he died.

Wyatt went to work for Matthew Boulton in his foundry in Birmingham. There he invented and produced a weighing machine and experimented with donkey power to run his spinning machine. He was brought down by his debts and was made bankrupt. He died in 1766.

Despite their failures they had laid the foundations for others who exploited their ideas and made lots of money ; particularly Sir Richard Arkwright.

Originally known as the Wyld, this was a somewhat barren area of the Common land, crossed by the Erdington to Sutton road, which saw very little early development. Old records refer to’ the Wyld and the quarry’ in 1590, and a lease was created on a property known as ‘Wiggestiddes’ in 1595.

Henry Spooner took a 21 year lease of land in Wylde Green in 1606. Randle Spooner was Warden of Sutton in 1619. Raphael Sedgewick leased ‘Spooners House’ in 1627, and in 1671 his house and land in Wildgreen was valued at £93 the fourth highest value in the town.

There were one or two ancient cottages on the Erdington road; two still stand almost opposite Monkseaton Road. Wylde Green Farm with its extensive fields may have had claims to some antiquity. Generally however the area was ignored until after the Enclosure Act 1825. Although the first school was provided to the area in 1840, even in 1841 there were only two small clusters of development. Seven households and 25 people lived around the ‘Green’ at the junction of the lane to Walmley ( Wylde Green Road) and another seven and 37 people around the junction with the lane to Penns Mill ( Penns Lane ) and around Green Lanes and Little Green Lanes.

In 1853 Henry Fielding a wealthy Birmingham silverware merchant , built a large mansion ‘Marchmount’ in over three acres of garden and paddock with outbuildings for stables, gardeners and grooms. Demolished in the 1950s the house is commemorated in the name of Marchmount Road.

Highbridge Road and Station Road were laid out in 1858, in anticipation of the coming of the railway, by John Smith of Wylde Green Farm the landowner.

The railway and the station at Wylde Green opened in 1862.

Albion Place and Alton Place were built in 1870.

A large number of imposing Victorian mansions were built along the main road in the second half of thr 19th century, some of which have survived ;-

‘Goldieslie’ once had extensive grounds which were taken the the bulding of Goldieslie Road

‘Roxton’ is now a nursing home

‘Wychbold’ in 1891 the family home of a Birmingham manufacturing jeweller. has for many years been a hotel

‘Donnington House’ the 1881 home of Dr Chavasse, his wife and daughter and five domestic servants, was in recent years a nursing home and has recently been incorporated into a development of apartments.

‘Claregate’ ‘Woodfield’ ( once the home of Henry Addenbrooke) and ‘Highfield’ three adjacent residences still stand proudly above the main road. They have survived largely because of the educational uses to which they were put in the 20th century ( Wylde Green College from 1922 and Highclare School)

‘Hollyhurst’ has recently been incorporated into a new residential apartment block

Other properties were not so lucky and have been demolished, athough several of them are remembered in street names.

‘Wylde Green House’ stood at the corner of the lane to Walmley. Its lodge, originally occupied by the owners coachman and his family, still stands.

‘Hawthorns’ and ‘ Oaklands’ did not survive proposals for new housing developments in the 1950s

‘Beech Hill’ , in 1891 the home of a Birmingham merchant his family of eight and four domestic servants, was sold to Walmley Golf Club in 1910 and was used as a clubhouse until demolished in 1962.

‘St Bernards’ with extensive grounds to the rear, was later an orphanage and childrens home until demolished for residential development

Emmanuel College , Cambridge owned substantial land holdings in Sutton including land in Wylde Green. The areas bounded by Green Lanes, Little Green Lanes and the main road and most of the Maney Hill, were held on leases from the College expiring in 1865, and were considered for development at that time, but in fact were not developed for housing until the 1930s.

Wylde Green became part of the newly created Boldmere parish in 1857 and a new Emmanuel church, designed by WH Bidlake, was built between 1909 and 1916. Wylde Green became an independant parish in 1923