William Pepper of Nottingham married Elizabeth Sanders in 1803 and had four children . The family moved to Sutton and became the first tenants of the Georgian style house, Falcon Lodge, built on newly enclosed land in about 1820. The house had nine bedrooms, together with a barn, stable, cowhouse, yard ,garden and orchard. In 1841 the Peppers of independant means , had the assistance of three domestic servants and a gardener living in an adjoining cottage. In 1852 the estate comprised 54 acres of meadow, pasture and arable land. The family is mentioned in the Holbeche Diary; a son Sanders is a surveyor and there are two married daughters Mrs Dunloe and Mrs Spurrier.

Later the house was occupied by Joseph Parkes ( of Powells Pool Mill). In 1881 his widow Lydia and her unmarried daughters were resident and in 1898 JH Parkes Jnr his son.

In 1937 the house and estate was sold by Cattell to the Sutton Coldfield Corporation for £39500 for housing. The World War delayed the development but Falcon Lodge Estate was completed between 1948 and 1950.

Fernwood Grange was a substantial Victorian mansion built on Chester Road, New Oscott in 1872 by Birmingham jeweller and naturalist Alfred Antrobus. Theextensive grounds and gardens extending to over 8 acres were laid out in the style of an arboretum cotaining many rare shrubs and trees.

On the death of Antrobus in 1907 the property was sold to Birmingham bookmaker Edward Beeston who extended and ‘improved’ the house andc grounds in flambouyant style.

He added a music room, a cinema, an Abbysinian boudoir, a Chinese lounge and a ballroom. The new house had 20 bedrooms and St Bernard dogs and peacocks roamed the grounds.

Beeston was a friend of Horatio Bottomley with whom he became embroiled in racing and betting schemes. These led to financial problems and in 1926 the estate ,then comprising eleven acres including a cricket field , was put up for sale. No satisfactory sale was achieved until in 1937 the property was sold for demolition and redevelopment. The auction sale of contents prior to demolition included fifty oak doors and over 3000 sq feet of oak panelling.

Although the mansion is long gone some of the trees planted by Antrobus survive in the gardens of the present housing estate and the original lodge to the great house still stands on the Chester Road corner of Fernwood Drive.

See ANTROBUS

Heneage Finch , 4th Earl of Aylesford, who was High Steward of Sutton Coldfield from 1796 until his death in 1812 had married , in 1781, Louisa Thynne the daughter of Sir Thomas Thynne 1st Marquis of Bath, his predecessor in the office.

He was descended from Heneage Finch 1st Earl of Nottingham and from Heneage Finch, Baron Guernsey who became 1st Earl of Aylesford and , on his mothers side, from the Seymours and Devereux.

The family home was at Packington Hall near Stonebridge. He was an artist of some repute. Eleven of his works are held by the National Museum at the Tate Gallery ( see Oppe Collection)

His son also Heneage Finch 5th Earl of Aylesford of Packington Hall was High Steward of Sutton Coldfield from 1835 until his death in 1859

SEE HENEAGE

The Public Health Act 1875 required local authorities to form fire brigades but the new law was ignored in Sutton Coldfield because the 300 year old Royal Charter was silent as to such necessity. But in 1885 the new law setting up a Municipal Corporation for Sutton caused the new Council to act and a volunteer fire brigade was formed.

The first fire station was situated adjacent to the then Town Hall in Mill Street , and was little more than a shed to house the engine. The brigade owned no horses which had to be hired ,as and when a fire was reported, from local tradesmen. Response in emergencies was probably somewhat tardy.

The sale of the old Town Hall necessitated the use of temporary premises at the Hollies, on the corner of Upper Clifton Rd and Anchorage Rd in 1904

A new purpose built fire station was brought into commission on 1st December 1906. Adjacent to the new Town Hall ( previously the Royal Hotel and Sutton Sanatorium) the new building in Georgian style boasted an impressive clock tower and remained in use umtil 1963 when a modern facility was built on Lichfield Road. The old fire station was converted into, and stills remains, the Bedford Suite.

There is an informative article by David Chubb at page 133 ‘ Scenes from Suttons Past’

Fleetwood

James Fleetwood (d.17 July 1683) was an English clergyman and Bishop of Worcester from 1675.

He was descended from the old Lancashire family of Fleetwood and was the seventh son of Sir George Fleetwood of Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire.

He was educated at Kings College, Cambridge and upon his ordination was appointed chaplain to Dr Wright Bishop of Lichfield. He became vicar of Prees,Shropshire and a Prebendary of Eccleshall.

Fleetwood was a committed Royalistand served as chaplain in the King's Army during the Civil War.  In 1642 he was awarded a Doctorate of Divinity by Charles I  in recognition of his services at the Battle of Edge Hill, and in the same year was appointed Rector of Sutton Coldfield and chaplain to Charles, Prince of Wales.

Whilst in Sutton he lived at Moor Hall

At the end of the Civil War he was ejected from the living of Sutton Coldfield on account of his Royalist sympathies but on the Restoration in 1660 he was appointed as chaplain to Charles II and Provost of Kings College, Cambridge. He was later Rector of Anstey, Hertfordshire and of Denham, Buckinghamshire and in 1675 was appointed Bishop of Worcester.

He died in 1683 and was buried in Worcester Cathedral

On the death of the last of the Pudseys of Langley Hall, his widow remarried William Wilson, a mason and architect who had studied under Sir Christopher Wren and in 1680 Wilson designed and built Moat House for their own occupation.

The Langley estates were divided by agreement between Pudsey’s two daughters one of whom, Elizabeth married Henry 3rd Lord Ffolliat of Ballyshannon in 1677. Ffolliat exercised the right granted in the Royal Charter to enclose up to 60 acres of Common land for a new houseand engaged Wilson to design and build a substantial mansion at Four Oaks.

Ffolliat died childless in 1716; his widow continued to live there until 1744 and in 1751 sold the house and estate to Simon Luttrell, of an importanrt and influential Irish family. He set about remodelling and modernising the house in Palladian style. In 1757 with the approval of the Warden and Society he obtained, most exceptionally, Parliamentary consent to enclose 48 acres of the Common land in Sutton Park , at a rent of £12 a year, to annex to his existing estate and form a deer park.

Lutrell became Baron Luttrell of Luttrells Town in 1778 and Earl of Carhampton in 1786. He did not live at Sutton for long; the house being let out to various tenants from 1766 and in 1778 he sold the estate to Rev Thomas Gresley ( grandson of Sir Thomas Gresley 2nd baronet of Drakelow). On Gresley’s death it was sold to Hugh Bateman in 1785 ( later he was Sir Hugh Bateman of Hartington Hall, Derbys) and he in turn sold to Edmund Cradock-Hartopp in 1792.

Hartopp developed the estate further and in 1827 persuaded the Corporation to allow a further incursion into Sutton Park in order to create a more pleasing oval shape to his deer park. On this occasion however there was a much greater consideration required; Hartopp agreed to exchange 93 acres he owned adjacent to the Park near the town for 65 acres of Sutton Park and also to build a new entrance to the Park ( Town gate) and a new road ( Park Road) linking the new entrance with the town. ( Up to that time the entrance had been at Wyndley)

When in 1868 Hartopp offered the estate for sale it comprised the Hall and Dower House in 87 acres, the deer park 123 acres, meadow and arable land 209 acres and 21 acres of water at Bracebridge Pool ( let out at £100 a year)

In 1879 Four Oaks Racecourse Company aquired the estate . Grandstands were built and a racecourse opened in 1881. The optimism of the proprietors was misplaced; the venture was not succesful and racing at Four Oaks ceased about 1890.

The estate was then sold for residential development to the Marquis of Clanricarde who laid out roads that were named to commemorate the history and geography of the estate. Invitations to submit building plans for superior residences were issued and building began about 1895 and continued for some 20 years. Many reputable local architects were involved and many of their works are today protected by Listed Building status.

The neglected and dilapidated Four Oaks Hall was demolished in 1898. The site is now occupied by Carhampton House, 17 Luttrell Road.

SEE HARTOPP