The Garnetts were long established in Kirby Lonsdale near Kendal but Robert Garnett Snr was born in Ulverston in 1780 and married Louisa Ann Lyon of Tamworth in 1810.

The Garnetts moved on and in 1881 Robert then a widower was living in some style,with a butler and eight other servants, at Netherseal Hall, Leicestershire the former home of Lord Gresley. ( Note the Gresley connection with Four Oaks Hall 1778 to 1785)

Robert died in 1893.

The Sutton Coldfield Gas Light and Coke Co Ltd was established in 1853 and built a Gas Works on a site on the corner of Riland Road and Coleshill Road ( now occupied by the Recycling Centre)

The first gas street lamp was erected about 1861 and by 1870 most streets and houses in the town were supplied with gas lighting

The Gas Works closed in 1892 and thereafter gas was supplied to the town from Birmingham.

In 1544 the King granted the village of Polesworth near Tamworth to Francis Goodere of Herts, who built himself a house, Polesworth Hall, on the site of the former Abbey. Henry, his son b.1534, was acquitted of treason charges in 1571, and was so restored to favour that he was knighted in 1588.

In 1582 he took a lease of Pool Hall in Sutton Coldfield, but probably did not occupy it,as he conveyed his rights in that property to John Aylmer, Bishop of London in 1583

Polesworth Hall was demolished in 1860 and the present vicarage stands on the site.

Bishop Veseys Grammar School was not always the thriving and successful institution we see today.

The first foundation deed set up by Vesey in 1527 provided an endowment from property income of £7 a year and twenty one of the great and good of Sutton and Vesey relatives were appointed Trustees to manage the school and pay a fit and proper person to teach Grammar and Rhetoric.

There is no record of any action by the Trustees at that time, nor of the destination of £7 a year. It was not until 1540 that a second deed was set up providing for the endowed properties to be held by the Warden and Society and layman John Savage was appointed as the first master.

Until 1544 St Marys Hall was used as a schoolroom and then a school was built close to the church on Blind Lane.

It seems that over the next century neither the Trustees nor the Corporation carried out their duties to the school diligently and after years of inaction the problems were brought before the Chancery Court which ordered in 1636 that control be transferred to a new board of fourteen Trustees.

In 1728 the Warden and Society provided land for a new school building behind the old Swan Inn on High Street one of the conditions being that the headmaster Paul Lowe should agree to English, writing and arithmetic to twelve parish boys.

At that time there was no stipulated age of entry to the school, the qualification required being the ability to read and usually to pay.

William Webb was appointed headmaster in 1764 and under him a sound basic education was provided and the school prospered. Zachariah Twamley who was admitted to the school aged seven in 1780 was a parish boy whose parents paid 6d a week

Webb was prominent in the town. He was Warden in 1772 and a Capital Burgess. He was headmaster for 53 years until his death in 1817.

His successor Charles Barker had an entirely different view of the role of the school. His only interest was in the teaching of Classics. He often had only a handful of students and in 1840 only one pupil was enrolled at the school. He was a strong supporter of the proposal for the setting up of National schools for the provision of general education.

On his death in 1842 James Eccleston was appointed. He was appointed in addition as Warden of the town in November 1848 but was so embroiled in debt that in order to avoid prison he departed in June 1849 for Tasmania.

In 1840 the Grammar Schools Act tightened up controls on such schools and with better controls and a basic curriculum the school again began to prosper.Under Joseph Wright appointed in 1859 a full general education was offered. The buildings were extended in 1861 and in 1863 there were 26 boys enrolled, 51 in 1866, 69 in 1869 and this had increased to 105 in 1875.

The 1881 census shows the headmaster Rev Albert Smith resident with his family, a second master Major Dunn, six staff including domestic servants and ten boarding boys. At this time there were also about eighty day boys who were expected to pay either 10s a quarter if from the parish or £2.10s a quarter if from elsewhere. In 1891 the census showed no boarders.

For a fully detailed history of the school see ‘ A History of Bishop Veseys Grammar School’ by Kerry Osbourne whose legal firm of Eddowes Perry and Osborne and their predecessor firms have acted as Clerk to the Governors since 1844.