William Dargue - A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . .  from A to Y

Little Sutton, Little Sutton Common

B75 - Grid reference SP129994

Use the grid reference on the Ordnance Survey website - Get-a-map. 

Lytle Sutton: first record 1569

Names prefixed with 'little' were often set up as secondary settlements. Although the first record of Little Sutton is not found until the 16th century, the settlement and placename are probably much older. Until the time of Henry VIII, the manor belonged to the nearby Canwell Priory in Staffordshire. With the dissolution of the monasteries, the estate went to the Cardinal's College Oxford. This was founded by the King's chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, and is now known as Christ Church College.

Little Sutton is on an area of higher ground at the junction of Little Sutton Road, Sladfe Lane and Grange Lane, two miles north of Sutton Coldfield. By 1834 there was a small rural village here of some twenty houses. Private housing development took Little Sutton into the Sutton conurbation in the mid-20th century and the district now lies on the eastern edge of the built-up area.

At Little Sutton Common on Fox Hill on the Tamworth Road crop marks have been noted indicating a settlement of uncertain date. The marks possibly show buildings and field enclosures of a late Bronze Age or Iron Age date.

During the 18th century Fox Hill was the location of a gibbet. Highwaymen were a constant danger at this time. A public spectacle was made of captured criminals whose tarred bodies were left to hang on the gibbet until replaced by another.

See also Sutton Coldfield.

William Dargue 04.04.09

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For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online - Maps.

Map below reproduced from Andrew Rowbottom’s website of Old Ordnance Survey maps Popular Edition, Birmingham 1921. See Acknowledgements. Click the map to link to that website.