Holy Trinity, Sutton Coldfield -  - E-Book

Holy Trinity, Sutton Coldfield E-Book

0,0

Beschreibung

For the first time in its 750-year existence, a full history of Holy Trinity is available to the general public. One of only a small number of parish churches to be Grade I listed, Holy Trinity displays its rich heritage through stained glass, memorials, unique woodwork and glorious painted ceilings. It also houses the tomb of Sutton Coldfield's most famous son, John Vesey, Bishop of Exeter. Vesey's work for the benefit of both church and town, with the blessing of King Henry VIII, continues to earn him the respect of the local community in every generation. Funded by the Heritage Lottery, this book is a complete and up-to-date history of an ancient place of worship, preserving its story alongside a major re-ordering of the church interior, which has created a space for church and community fit for the twenty-first century.

Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:

Android
iOS
von Legimi
zertifizierten E-Readern
Kindle™-E-Readern
(für ausgewählte Pakete)

Seitenzahl: 443

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Das E-Book (TTS) können Sie hören im Abo „Legimi Premium” in Legimi-Apps auf:

Android
iOS
Bewertungen
0,0
0
0
0
0
0
Mehr Informationen
Mehr Informationen
Legimi prüft nicht, ob Rezensionen von Nutzern stammen, die den betreffenden Titel tatsächlich gekauft oder gelesen/gehört haben. Wir entfernen aber gefälschte Rezensionen.



 

To the memory of the late Norman Evans, whom I sadly never met, and the late Margaret Gardner, who kindled my interest in the history of Holy Trinity Parish Church, with thanks for all their meticulous research and writing that paved the way for this book.

AMDGStella Thebridge

 

 

First published 2020

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© PCC Holy Trinity Sutton Coldfield, 2020

Text by Stella Thebridge except where stated as written by:

Elizabeth Allison

Marian Baxter

Carol Hoare

Sue Ingley

The right of Stella Thebridge to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 9544 3

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed in Turkey by Imak.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Foreword Roger Lea

List of Well-Wishers

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Contributors

List of Images

List of Tables

 

1

Early History

2

John Vesey

3

From Vesey to 1800

4

The Nineteenth Century

5

The Twentieth Century and Beyond

6

The Church in the Town Includes sections by Marian Baxter and Sue Ingley

7

Church Features: An Introduction

8

Memorials Marian Baxter

9

Stained Glass

10

Woodwork Carol Hoare

11

Rectors and Other Clergy Includes section by Elizabeth Allison

12

The Riland and Riland Bedford Clergy Sue Ingley

13

Parishioners of Note

14

Changes and Controversies

 

Timeline of Events Relating to Holy Trinity

Glossary

References and Further Reading

Unless otherwise stated, the text has been written by the editor, Stella Thebridge

FOREWORD

When my friend, the late Norman Granville Evans, led a tour of Holy Trinity Church in 1980, he had to borrow a key from the churchwarden, the church being locked when not in use for services, for security reasons. The church was rather dimly lit in those days, but the main items of historical interest (which are described in this book) were pointed out and explained. Norman later began his investigation of the history of the church, using many primary sources as well as the published accounts, resulting in what I considered to be a definitive work.

How different now for a visitor to the church, welcomed by a steward to a brightly lit interior and free to wander round with the guidebook in hand. The church has been re-ordered since Norman died in 1992; the main features are spot-lit and the west window stained glass revealed. Historic items have been given more prominence, mostly thanks to the hard work of the heritage group under the leadership of the editor of this history.

In view of these changes, the present volume was begun, the various writers experiencing the satisfactions of making new discoveries about aspects of the past as well as the frustrations of having to give up a line of research through lack of evidence. Puzzles remain – for example three Sutton clergymen witnessed a charter dated c1200, so can we infer that there was a well-established church here before the conquest? Or, given that the mediaeval rectory was not located in Coleshill Street, as Norman Evans supposed, where was it?

The Church has had a central role to play throughout the history of the town, so this new history should find its way into every Sutton household, to be read with interest and enjoyment, and the many illustrations inspire you to visit the church to see for yourself.

Roger LeaChairmanSutton Coldfield Local History Research Group

LIST OF WELL-WISHERS

The following list of names and organisations is linked to those who have purchased a copy of the book prior to publication and who have asked for their own name, and/or that of a loved one who has passed away, to be recorded here. A cross (†) following a first or surname denotes a name given in memoriam.

Because in some instances individuals wished to be recorded alongside their loved ones, those whose names are given in memoriam are recorded with a cross following the first name. Where all the names recorded are in memoriam and from the same family, then the cross comes at the end of the surname.

The authors are very grateful to all who have shown their commitment to the book and to the church of Holy Trinity in this way, from the congregation, past and present, and the wider community.

 

Janet Al-Rubaie

The Ambler family

Tanya Arroba

The Baines and Beales families

Archives & Collections, Library of Birmingham

Michael† and Margaret Box

Andrew and Gillian Bullock

Judith and Michael Carr

Chris D Cherry† and Pam, Belinda and Fiona

David† and Vivien Chubb

Chris, Louise, Daniel, Lily and Charlotte Chubb

Ralph Harmar Collins†

Revd John and Gill Cooper

The Deanery CE Primary School

Brian and Mary Dixon

Ba, Denis, Lindsay and Ian Dodd† and Rosemary Young (née Dodd)

Robin Draper

Paul and Pat Duckers

Bob and Ros Dyke

Rahim, Gail, Deena and Tarik Elsharief

Val Ferneyhough

Paul John Fletcher†

David and Cicely† Gale

Clive, Margaret and Janet Gardner†

Robin† and Shelagh Gelling

Muriel Goldsby†

The Griffiths family

Donald E Grove†

Richard Halsey

Karen Hancox†

George and Marjorie Harvey†

Frank† and Wendy Hill and family

Terence Hoare

Benedict Hoare and family

Dr Daniel Hoare and family

Deborah Hodgson

Paul and Stella Holden†

Peter† and Nina Hollow

Rt Revd Anne Hollinghurst, Bishop of Aston

Gerald and Dodie† Hollyoak

Keith and Janet Jordan

Shaun† and Wendy Kent

Chris and Judy Kettel

Jack Larwood

Diane Littler

Ted and Rose Longman

Andrew MacFarlane

Pauline Manfield

Rt Hon Andrew and Dr Sharon Mitchell

Brenda Moore†

Robert Morffew and parents†

Russ Mulholland

Harold WS Osborne†

Kerry Osbourne

Viva Owen† and AGB Owen

Oliver and Elizabeth Pearcey Elizabeth, Richard, James and Helen Petley

Bryan† Pickles

Marie and John Prestage†

Nick and Nicola Revell

Michael Richmond†

Sheila and Alan Roberts

Pat Round

Tony and Barbara Seal†

Jim† and Mary Simmons

John Slater†

Elsie Smith†

Mike and Steph Somers

Tony and Maureen Spinks

Staffordshire Libraries and Arts Service

Nigel† and Jane Steeley

Sutton Coldfield Library

Jenny Taylor

The Teece family†

Phil Thebridge

Brenda Thorogood

David and Diane Tipping

Barry and Sylvia Ulyatt

Judith Wareham

Warwickshire County Record Office

Warwickshire Libraries

Graham and Sarah West

Marjorie & Bertie Williams†

Kara Jayne Willis†

Revd Carole Young

INTRODUCTION

The re-ordering work of 2016–2018, which saw the transformation of the interior of Holy Trinity Parish Church, led to a renewed interest in the heritage of the church: its building and people.

The congregation wished to share the new comfort and accessibility of the building. There had always been a welcome for worship and occasional events within the church such as fairs and flower festivals, and from 2013 the new Friends of Holy Trinity organisation began its annual series of six ticketed events of concerts and theatre performances. However, the standard closure of the church outside of service or event times meant that the interior was rarely seen by the community.

Coupled with a wish to open the church more frequently was a will to draw together the many resources written about its long history.

GRADE I LISTING

On 18 October 1949, Holy Trinity, along with a number of other buildings of historical interest in Sutton Coldfield, became ‘listed buildings’. This affords them legal protection from changes to the structure or features without special permission. Holy Trinity is Grade I listed, and, according to the website of listed buildings at www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk, ‘Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important. Just 2.5% of listed buildings are Grade I.’

The entry for the listing gives specific features of interest as follows:

West tower late C15. Aisles circa 1533. Mid C16 north and south chapels. Nave with clerestory rebuilt circa 1760. C13 chancel, restored and altered by C E Bateman 1914, retains C15 arch and east window. North aisle doubled 1874-9. South porch early C16. South aisle gallery circa 1760. Earlier C17 ornate screens and panelling, re[m]oved 1864 from choir and organ casing at Worcester Cathedral, installed 1875. Interlaced aroaded [?eroded] circular Norman font, removed C19 from Church of St Lawrence, Over Winacre, Nottinghamshire. Earlier C18 wrought iron porch gates, 1748, moved from round Bishop Vesey monument of circa 1555 with effigy. Pudsey monuments 1677 (with busts in aedicule), 1719. Finely carved Sacheverell wall monument 1715. Jesson monument with busts 1705. Holy Trinity Church and No 16 Coleshill Street form a group.

(See ‘Grade I listing’ under ‘Websites’ in References)

We can see some mistakes here, including the name of the village and county of the church from which the font ultimately found its way to Holy Trinity (it also did not come directly from the original church), and also the date of the woodwork from Worcester Cathedral, now discovered to be earlier. Here the north and south aisles are described as dating from 1533 and the chapels as mid-sixteenth century, and it is now thought the aisles are late-fifteenth century and the chapels part of Vesey’s work in 1530 or so.

HISTORIES OF THE TOWN AND CHURCH

Much is already in print about the history of Sutton Coldfield. The town itself is in Domesday Book of 1086. Since then there have been numerous mentions, not least in the work of Dugdale (1656; 1730).

In the nineteenth century, a long-standing Rector, William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford, wrote a concise volume which was published in 1891 and which the town corporation saw fit to reprint in 1968.

However, earlier writers had researched the subject and written works which have been used as sources ever since. One was Thomas Bonell who is thought to have written the unpublished History of Sutton Coldfield by an impartial hand (Bonell, 1762). Another is the acclaimed member of Holy Trinity congregation, Agnes Bracken, who wrote The forest and chase of Sutton Coldfield, published in 1860.

A third was Zachariah Twamley, whose unpublished history is in Sutton Coldfield Library and available on the website of the local history research group, having been transcribed and indexed by Janet Jordan. Twamley wrote of himself as author as follows:

With deference he submits to his fellow native parishioners and friends: a compendious account of the history of Sutton Coldfield, together with … dates of different occurrences. (Twamley, 1855)

Moving into the twentieth century, 1904 saw the publication of Midgley’s A short history of Sutton Coldfield Town and Chase. Rectors at the church wrote or commissioned church guides of varying length throughout the twentieth century, and there was often a history of the church in town guides of the period. The church features in county histories such as W Hobart Bird’s book about churches in Warwickshire (1940), Arthur Mee’s book in the King’s England county series (1947) and Pevsner’s guide to the buildings of Warwickshire (1966).

The latter half of the century saw a great deal of work by local historians – Douglas V Jones, Marian Baxter and Roger Lea in particular – as well as evidence of a growing body of work by a number of other local history researchers as sources became more readily traceable, both in local archives and through the emergence of the internet.

NORMAN EVANS (1911-1992)

A key amateur historian writing about Holy Trinity was Norman Granville Evans, a native of Sutton Coldfield and a local dentist who was also an active member of the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group (see below).

In 1987 Evans produced ‘An investigation of Holy Trinity Parish Church’, a typescript of which a few copies were made and distributed to the church, the local library and one or two other individuals, but it was not generally for sale. The book was the result of an approach by the Rector in 1983, Alaric Rose, for a new guidebook. Evans found there was so much potential content that he embarked on this much fuller work.

Margaret Gardner, a worshipper at Holy Trinity and Parish Archivist at the time, then drew extensively on Evans’ work (and with his permission) to compile that new church guidebook, which also incorporated a great deal of the history of the church and some good colour photographs. It also appeared in 1987 and was in use (with minor additions to take account of the building of the Trinity Centre in 1996) until the major re-ordering of the church interior in 2016.

Evans’ book is a rich source for much of the information in this history. Sadly it appeared just before the explosion of the internet and massive changes in publishing methods. In order to create a work which could be reproduced on a duplicating machine, Evans drew and annotated many of his images from photographs, a true labour of love. Our book is able to incorporate a greater quantity of information about Holy Trinity, benefitting from the advantages of wider dissemination of research material via the internet to produce a text together with images in black and white and colour. As a published work, with complementary website, this, at last, makes the history accessible to a much wider audience, as Norman Evans would, we hope, have liked.

SUTTON COLDFIELD LOCAL HISTORY RESEARCH GROUP

The members of this long-standing group have been a major force for progress in both the research and writing of the history of the whole town, and their publications have included a large number of articles and booklets on areas which touch closely on the church as well. Many of these writings are listed in the references. The Parochial Church Council of Holy Trinity remains indebted to the many historians who have chosen to research aspects of the town’s history, and its citizens owe a debt of gratitude to those who in most cases have done this entirely voluntarily from a desire to establish facts, to confirm the chronology of events and to disseminate information about the history of the town and church.

WHY THIS BOOK?

In addition to the need to bring together the array of disparate writings about Holy Trinity, there have been other factors, notably the administrative changes, such as the move of the borough from the county of Warwickshire to Birmingham City Council within the new West Midlands authority in 1974. This diversified the retention of archives, with some remaining in the Warwickshire County Record Office in Warwick and newer items being deposited in Birmingham Central Archives, whose accommodation moved to the new Library of Birmingham in 2013. Early diocesan records are actually with the records of Lichfield Record Office in Staffordshire (now housed in Stafford), as Holy Trinity was, for the majority of its history, part of the Archdeaconry of Coventry in the extensive diocese of Lichfield and Coventry. Holy Trinity also has valuable silverware deposited at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Sutton Coldfield Library has an excellent archive and local history section but has not escaped the austerity in local government of the twenty-first century, meaning that capacity to preserve and store materials is constrained.

All these factors have contributed to a feeling among the church congregation that a dedicated project was needed, to record in one place historical information about the church which is currently scattered, and to promote it to a wider public in person, in print and online.

HOLY TRINITY’S HERITAGE PROJECT

A bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (Heritage Interpretation Fund) in 2016 was successful, and the publication of the history of the church was made possible as part of that grant. The project ran from 2017–2019 and secured the following:

 

• The creation of a new church website with a large section devoted to the history of the church.

• The establishment of a formal recruitment and training programme for volunteer stewards to enable the church to open during the week every week.

• The production of a new church guidebook.

• This full history of the church.

Artists were commissioned who worked with the local community to create a booklet reflecting on the church’s relationship with the town and to produce some of the website content, notably films about the history of the town with a local school.

The fully illustrated church guidebook, published in December 2018, describes a tour of the church, pointing out the key features of the building and supporting historical information as required. It also provides a memento of the visit in a similar way to guidebooks of stately homes, cathedrals and other churches.

The website provides the history in a format that is easy to search, but also keeps the text to a minimum. It also, at last, provides a means for information to be updated as new discoveries about the history of the church are revealed.

This history book aims to provide fuller information for those who wish to know more about the long history of our building and its place in the community. It also pulls together the stories that make the history come alive: of parishioners, clergy and townspeople. In short, it attempts to distil the many sources into a coherent whole, while avoiding stating as facts any contentious areas of the history which may subsequently be clarified following future research.

The comprehensive list of sources in the references section of this volume makes clear what a task this is. We have sometimes referred to this as the definitive history, but it quite clearly will never be that. We hope that it remains the most comprehensive history to date in one volume and that it can be supplemented by new information on the website. If a new edition becomes inevitable, we will look to honour that on a future occasion!

Meanwhile, if the reader does find any errors or omissions, we would be most interested to receive them via email at: [email protected]

FORMAT

Such a vast history needs breaking into manageable parts. This will enable readers to dip in and out as well as being able to read through the whole text if they prefer. For this reason we have chosen to recount first the history of the church building and the many alterations it has undergone, as well as changes to the hilltop location, now part of a designated conservation area in Sutton Coldfield, Church Hill. This chronological account describes the bigger structural changes, such as galleries and extensions, as well as giving information about refurbishments, decoration and larger-scale memorials and items of furniture. It also covers related building work in the town, e.g. rectories, graveyards and church halls.

Other chapters describe in more detail specific features of the church which are unique to the building and have been central to the heritage project of 2017–19. There is a chapter dedicated to events where the church and the royal town have worked together to commemorate great occasions or to raise funds. Several chapters tell the stories of people associated with the church, from the most well-known – Bishop John Vesey – through the long line of Rectors and other clergy to prominent and less well-known parishioners.

Some individual elements of the history, where there is a large amount of detail, will be published separately in the future, most particularly information on the people commemorated in the many memorials in the church and grounds. This is explained further in Chapter 8.

Our aim is to inform, be accurate and write in a way which helps our readers engage with the rich history of this church and its people. In turn, we hope there will be increased understanding by all age groups of both Holy Trinity Parish Church and the town of Sutton Coldfield with which it is so closely interwoven – understanding of the past, to inform us in the present and to secure the future of this place, so that there can continue to be a welcome for all, whether people come to worship, to walk around, or just to reflect within its space.

Stella ThebridgeEditor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The process of writing this book has relied on help from a number of people in different ways. I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to the following:

 

• The group of writers who researched and wrote some of the sections of the book – Elizabeth Allison, Marian Baxter, Revd Carol Hoare and Sue Ingley.

• The commissioned artists on the heritage project, Holy Trinity Parish Church: heritage at the heart of Sutton Coldfield (2017–19), notably Louise Jackson, who took photographs, and Bob Moulder, who created four artists’ impressions of Holy Trinity at different times in its history. All four of these pictures appear in this book. Mandy Ross and Pyn Stockman of Secret City Arts created high quality historical resources, including films and print materials, which continue to be of use for individuals and groups visiting the church.

• Esteemed local historians, especially Marian Baxter, who is also a contributor to the volume, and Roger Lea, who has been the main adviser on the heritage project and church publications and is the source of some of the most insightful and helpful writing about the church and town. We are privileged that he agreed to write the foreword to this volume.

• Other members of the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group, especially Janet and Keith Jordan, and those who worked on the memorial histories with Marian: Eileen Donohoe, Ann Geraghty, Janet Lillywhite and Don McCollam.

• Jon Bayliss, monuments researcher.

• Robin Draper, a local monuments historian and church tour guide.

• Andy Foster, a local historian and writer of guides to different areas of Birmingham and the surrounding area including Sutton Coldfield.

• Revd David Frost for information on John Vesey.

• The late Margaret Gardner, parishioner of Holy Trinity and designated church archivist from the 1980s until the turn of the century.

• Richard Halsey who decoded and translated Latin abbreviations.

• Dr Mike Hodder, archaeologist on the Birmingham Diocesan Advisory Committee.

• Dr Nicholas Riall, who first alerted us to the true and unique nature of our woodwork acquired from Worcester Cathedral in the nineteenth century, and generously shared his research with us.

• Susie Walker, who trawled internet resources and came up with answers to many questions for all the writing team, helping us to round out many unfinished stories of people associated with the church.

• Tony Walker for sense-checking and style-editing of the text.

I am most indebted to the late Norman Granville Evans (1911-1992), whose painstaking research and scrutiny of original documents has enabled this book to be published where his own work was not. Not only did Norman study these documents and write about them, he transcribed large parts of some of them and, in addition to the main section of his work, he produced a 100-page appendix, covering numerous subjects in greater depth that were not strictly required for a church guidebook. However, for the purposes of this full history they have shown their worth repeatedly, enabling us to write with authority on matters as diverse as church tithes, faculties for new work in the building, marriages during the period of the Commonwealth, and the detail of changes in religious persuasion in England from the time of Henry VIII and the consequent changes to the liturgy at Holy Trinity. The more we read of Evans’ work, the more we appreciate what he achieved without the benefit of the internet or modern reprographic methods. Hopefully we have been able to build on his work and to be as certain as we can that we have only deviated from his original information where we have established new facts reliably through the increased access to sources that the internet has brought us.

For images, I am extremely grateful to the staff at Sutton Coldfield Library, especially Abi and Emma, for their help in sourcing photographs in their keeping, as well as to Marian Baxter and Roger Lea.

As well as all those mentioned above, there have been others from the church congregation who have helped in a variety of ways as follows:

 

• Chris Chubb (photographs).

• Brian Dixon (primary sources).

• Ros Dyke (churchwarden).

• Colin Ingley (churchwarden).

• Nick Revell (chair of Friends of Holy Trinity).

• Revd John Routh (Rector).

• Kristina Routh (guidebook and website editing).

• Mike Somers (chair of the Re-ordering Campaign of 2016 and firm believer in the potential merits of a heritage project).

• Phil Thebridge (word-processing).

• Karen Wright (initial research).

• Revd Carole Young (church administrator).

• The team of ‘heritage’ stewards who have been supportive in so many ways.

• Many friends and family members who put up with my lack of hospitality over the last year or more.

The last and most important person to thank is Dave Thebridge, my husband, who weathered my regular slinking off to the computer to ‘write a bit more’ and furnished me not only with meals but also with many cups of tea and coffee along the way.

Stella Thebridge

CONTRIBUTORS

These are listed in the order that their contributions first appear.

STELLA THEBRIDGE

Stella is a lifelong Anglican who has been an active member of the congregation at Holy Trinity since moving to Sutton Coldfield with her husband in 1986. Their three children were all born and brought up in the parish, and the church has always been a major part of family life.

Stella’s degree subjects at Sheffield University were German and Music, and she subsequently qualified as a librarian. Her work in a range of libraries has included six years as a researcher, and she has always loved writing and editing, including the magazines of three churches with which she has been associated (including Holy Trinity’s).

Her interest in the history of Holy Trinity and the wider town has grown over the years, and, when the re-ordering project was completed, she found she had volunteered to co-ordinate the heritage project that followed. She has co-created the new church guidebook (with Kristina Routh) and also written and compiled the majority of the history content of the new church website. Despite the encroachment of the day job, she has loved every minute of it.

MARIAN BAXTER

Following qualification as a librarian, Marian worked in the Birmingham Local Studies and Archives Department for several years before moving to Sutton Coldfield Library as the Local Studies Librarian from 1979–2012. While at the library she was secretary to the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group for many years and is now vice chair. She helped set up the Friends of New Hall Mill and has been their secretary, then chair, for over twenty years. She also helped set up the New Hall Valley Country Park and is currently the vice chair of the Friends of New Hall Valley. She is also the current chair of the Friends of Sutton Park, and on the Sutton Park Advisory Committee. She continues to give talks on local history to community groups and has to date published some eight photographic books, four of which have been about Sutton Coldfield and Sutton Park.

SUE INGLEY

Sue was born and raised in Sutton Coldfield and first became acquainted with Holy Trinity Parish Church when she married her husband Colin there, in 1982. In 1990, they were both confirmed and have since become active members of the congregation.

She has worked as a primary school teacher for thirty-two years and has always had an interest in history and art, gaining an MA in 2002.

When the chance came to explore the history of the church, she naturally rose to the opportunity and has enjoyed researching the long line of Rectors from the Riland and Riland Bedford families, who played such a large part in the history of the church and town for more than 200 years.

CAROL HOARE

Carol Hoare is an associate priest attached to Holy Trinity Parish Church. She was a secondary school English teacher in Sutton Coldfield for twenty years, was ordained as a deacon in 1991 and was one of the first women to be ordained as a priest in 1994.

History has always been one of her major interests, particularly the history of the English Church through the centuries. When first ordained, she was very pleased to be attached to an 800-year-old church on the edge of Sutton, and it was a further satisfaction to move to the beautiful parish church in the town centre in 2002.

Carol is married to Terry, a former history teacher, and has two sons, four grandchildren, and two step-grandchildren.

ELIZABETH ALLISON

Elizabeth has a BA (Hons) in History from Reading University and an MA in English Local History from Birmingham University. Over the years she has given numerous talks on Sutton Coldfield’s heritage generally, although her particular interest is in mediaeval church history. She has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her work with several local groups but in particular with Sutton Coldfield Civic Society, which of course champions the cause of the town’s built heritage.

LIST OF IMAGES

Fig.

Caption

1

Floor plan and elevation of Holy Trinity to 1300 (NGE)

2

Stonework beneath east end chancel wall (HTSC)

3

Exposed foundations of mediaeval chancel wall – north side (AW)

4

Mediaeval pewter chalices found in 2016 (AW)

5

Artist’s impression of Holy Trinity interior in mediaeval period (BM)

6

Face of John Vesey on his tomb effigy (HTSC)

7

Memorials to William and Joan Harman (Dugdale/NGE)

8

Carved stone from Manor House on tithe barn (SCL, Grundy)

9

Bishop Vesey’s tomb c1895 (SCL)

10

Vesey memorial in the Vesey Gardens (SCL)

11

Former tailor’s cottage, Coleshill Street. Drawing by Ken Williams (KW)

12

The Queen Anne Rectory, built 1701 (SCL)

13

Fishtail design coffin in Sacheverell vault (AW)

14

The south gallery and box pews of 1760 (HTSC)

15

John Snape’s map of Church Hill 1765 (NGE)

16

Artist’s impression of Church Hill based on Snape’s map (Fig. 15) (BM)

17

Snape’s map of Glebe land overlaid with newer landmarks by NG Evans (NGE)

18

Watercolour of High Street with Holy Trinity c1850. By AE Everitt (SCL)

19

Holy Trinity in 1910 showing small doorway in east end (HWSO)

20

Floorplan and elevation of Holy Trinity to 1874 (NGE)

21

Extension plan of 1891 (part) by Yeoville Thomason (not executed) (BA)

22

Canon Golden as Bishop Vesey in 1928 (SCL)

23

Nave looking east c1881 (SCL)

24

Church Hill in 1906 (SCL)

25

The Hope-Jones organ console in the Vesey chapel c1910 (HWSO)

26

Nave looking west c.1930 (SCL)

27

Architect and others who worked on the decoration of 1929 (HTSC)

28

Artist’s impression of church interior in 1950 (BM)

29

Bell-ringing chamber in tower (HTSC)

30

Foundations of the Trinity Centre (HTSC)

31

Current floor plan (Bluflame)

32

Celebration of heritage project in church February 2019 (BHD)

33

Junction of Coleshill St, Mill St and High St 1887 with ‘pepperpot’ (weighbridge) (SCL)

34

Cover of bazaar programme 1899 (HTSC)

35

Remembrance parade, King Edward’s Square, 1950 (SCL)

36

Canon Golden (1928) as Bishop Vesey (SCL)

37

Internal changes in the tower to 1950 (NGE)

38

Font in nave c2005 (HTSC)

39

Weather vane on tower (HTSC)

40

Chancel ceiling – detail (BHD)

41

Vesey chapel ceiling – detail (BHD)

42

Tower ceiling (HTSC)

43

Gravestones round perimeter of Holy Trinity today (HTSC)

44

Brasses of Barbara Elyot and Josias Bull on chancel wall (HTSC)

45

Memorial to Bernard Winder (ED)

46

Memorial to Gilbert Rippingille (ED)

47

The Reay-Nadin memorial (MB)

48

Churchyard with railings – early twentieth century (NGE)

49

The Dawney tomb c1895 (SCL)

50

East window – detail (BHD)

51

The Bishops’ window in the Vesey chapel (BHD)

52

The ‘Mary Boggon’ window (HTSC)

53

The west window in the tower (HTSC)

54

The Chevasse window – detail (BHD)

55

The ‘Eric Walker’ window (HTSC)

56

The chancel in 2011 showing woodwork from Worcester Cathedral (CT)

57

Aquatint by Charles Wild, 1823, of choir at Worcester Cathedral (Strange)

58

The chancel c.1970 showing the Worcester Cathedral woodwork (R&C)

59

‘Wounds of Christ’ on reredos (CT)

60

Lion’s paw clawed foot on bench leg (woodwork from Worcester Cathedral) (CT)

61

Pulpit of 1760 (prior to 2016) (HTSC)

62

‘Fox and goose’ decoration on woodwork from St Michael’s, Coventry (CT)

63

Oak door in south porch (HTSC)

64

The Rectors’ board in the Vesey entrance (HTSC)

65

Title page of sermon by Revd F Blick (HTSC)

66

Rectors from Riland and Riland Bedford families (a tree) (ST from NGE)

67

John Riland I in boyhood, 1665 (WKRB)

68

Richard Bisse Riland aged 25 (WKRB)

69

John Riland II aged 60 (SCL)

70

Revd William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford (SCL)

71

The Pudsey monument in the Vesey chapel (SCL)

72

The Moat House designed by Sir William Wilson (SCL)

73

Chancel c2008 showing Holbeche lectern (KJ)

74

Variations in religious persuasion 1500–1740 (NGE)

75

Holy Trinity by candlelight 2018 (BHD)

PROVENANCE

The abbreviations against each image are explained below. Where there is no further information, the picture is deemed out of copyright. Where abbreviations relate to an individual or company, permission has been secured for the image to be used in this book only. The authors and editor have made every effort to contact copyright-holders.

‘qv’ after a name means that their work is referenced in the list of references and further reading.

 

BA

Birmingham Archives (in Library of Birmingham). Original item created for Holy Trinity

BHD

Beacon Heights Digital – single use only in the book

Bluflame

Current floor plan created for Holy Trinity’s use only

BM

Bob Moulder (artist)

CT

Christopher Tracy (qv)

Dugdale

Image originally in Dugdale 1656 (qv) and reused by Norman Evans

ED

Eileen Donohue

HTSC

Images created by the following members of the church for use on its website and in this book: Colin Ingley, Louise Jackson, Kristina Routh, Stella Thebridge

HWSO

Harold Osborne (qv)

KJ

Keith Jordan

KW

Ken Williams (SCL)

MB

Marian Baxter

NGE

Norman Evans – copyright for his work lies with Marian Baxter, and permission has been granted for acknowledged images to be used

R&C

Reilly and Constantine, photographers in Birmingham. Photograph used with permission of the family of the late Dennis Constantine. It appeared with others by this firm in a church guide book c1970.

SCL

In the collection of Sutton Coldfield Library and deemed out of copyright or permitted by the library.

ST from NGE

Stella Thebridge (editor) using information from Norman Evans (qv)

Strange

Image of Wild aquatint (out of copyright) was used from this book (qv)

WA

Warwickshire Archaeology – for images from report of 2019 (Coutts, qv)

WKRB

William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford, specifically images in his book of 1889 (qv)

WM

Walter Midgley (qv)

LIST OF TABLES

 

No.

Name

1

Benefactions of Bishop Vesey to Sutton Coldfield

2

Record of the tithes to the Rector in 1698

3

Prices at market in the reign of Edward I (1272–1307)

4

Shields in chancel ceiling

5

Apostles and their symbols depicted in the nave ceiling

6

Description of the stained glass in the east end window in the Vesey chapel

7

Description of the Boggon memorial window in the choir vestry (east wall)

8

Incumbents (Rectors) of Holy Trinity from 1250 until 1909

9

Summary of liturgical settings in Holy Trinity: sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

10

Registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths at Holy Trinity 1635–1662

1

EARLY HISTORY

Visitors sometimes ask, ‘How old is Holy Trinity Church?’

The answer is often given as the famous question ‘How long is a piece of string?’ This is not to be facetious, but it is because it is not possible to give a single date. The current church building has seen a large number of additions and alterations over many centuries, and some rebuilding.

In addition, we do not know if a wooden church might have pre-dated the first stone one, nor do we know the construction date of the first stone church. We believe from documentary evidence that it was constructed around 1250–90.

The church building bears a certain resemblance to the faithful broom that has gone on for generations with only three new heads and two new handles.

Fig. 1: Floor plan and elevation of Holy Trinity to 1300 (NGE)

In respect of the interior of the church, W Hobart Bird, in his guidebook Old Warwickshire Churches, wrote of Holy Trinity, ‘restorations have robbed the fabric of much of its antiquarian interest’ (Bird, 1940, p. 104).

This sounds harsh, but does reflect the fact that the continuing advantage to Holy Trinity of sufficient funds to extend the building and ‘improve’ it may have been at the expense of losing some very fine features as we might now think of them, though at the time the decision-makers may have thought they were modernising and improving at every step. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries there have been many safeguards in place with better understanding of ecclesiastical heritage, the listing of ancient monuments (Holy Trinity is Grade 1-listed) and the involvement of specialist groups for different periods of architectural history. While it irks some to have to make cases for change to outside bodies, it is important that examples of good craftsmanship are not lost, especially where they are unique to a particular building. While Holy Trinity has sadly lost features of its interior fabric, many are preserved, and there are still examples of all the different eras of woodwork, especially pews that were installed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The church also bought woodwork being discarded by Worcester Cathedral in the nineteenth century which we now know to be not only rare but probably unique.

So, to return to the church origins in the latter thirteenth century, these need to be set in the context of the town of Sutton Coldfield and its much longer history.

EARLY SUTTON COLDFIELD

A key researcher of pre-Roman times in the town is Dr Mike Hodder, for many years Birmingham City Council’s planning archaeologist and also archaeologist on Birmingham’s Diocesan Advisory Committee (see Hodder, 2004, pp. 96ff, 2008 and 1989).

Finds from archaeological digs show evidence of settlements before the Bronze Age and then in Roman times.

The best remaining evidence of the Roman era is in the Ryknild or Icknield Street, which runs across what is now the western edge of Sutton Park, moving on into the area neighbouring the residential street known as Roman Road in Streetly.

It is probable that the land on which the church stands was used at least from Roman times for arable or grazing land. Margaret Gardner, Parish Archivist at Holy Trinity in the last part of the twentieth century, wrote in an article in the parish magazine about a water point in the Fordrift, a driveway opposite the east end of the church which was latterly the driveway to a former church hall. She writes:

Farmers on the Glebe land and Barn Field (the current Rectory Road cemetery) behind the street would have brought their animals to the Fordrift for water.

Water pipes from this source may well have gone back to Roman times, when wooden pipes were used.

(Gardner, 2000, p. 27)

DOMESDAY BOOK

Domesday Book of 1086 refers to Sutton Coldfield, and William Dargue has written about it on his churches website as follows:

In the time of Edward the Confessor, the manor of Sutton was held by the Anglo-Saxon Earl Edwin of Mercia, and in 1086 by King William himself. For tax purposes it was a manor worth four times the value of Birmingham with land for 22 ploughteams against Birmingham’s possible six. However, in Sutton only eight ploughteams were at work after the Conquest. With 10 acres, c4ha, of meadow it had more than any other Birmingham manor. And only Yardley with 100+ hectares had a greater amount of woodland than Sutton. However, the taxable value of Yardley’s woodland stood at 40 pence, while Sutton’s, when exploited, was worth 30 shillings i.e. 360 pence.

(William Dargue,https://ahistoryofbirminghamchurches.jimdo.com/)

So the town is mentioned but not a church. This may seem a clear indication that there was no church at this point, but recent work on the contents of Domesday Book in other areas of the country has apparently revealed that churches were not routinely listed in the book, as they were not central to the business of assessment for revenue collection.

Whether there was any church at that time or during the twelfth century has been impossible to prove to date.

There was certainly a chapel at the Manor House in Sutton (this area is now in the neighbouring parish of St Peter’s, Maney), which was built in the twelfth century and dedicated to St Blaise. St Blaise was a Bishop of Sebastea in Asia Minor who was martyred in 316CE. He became popular in England. His festival is 3 February, and in 1222 the Council of Oxford forbade all work on his feast-day, such was his popularity. Services continued in the chapel until the fifteenth century when the house itself fell into disrepair and was demolished. Carved stones were reused by Bishop Vesey – see Chapter 2.

Evidence of further work near the church is the old sandstone quarry, thought to have provided the first mass of sandstone (a type known as Lower Keuper) in the twelfth century to make the dam across the valley for the Mill Pool (on the site of what is now the town’s main shopping centre). Evans describes in detail the changes to this quarry area (now the upper car park of Sutton Baptist Church on Trinity Hill) and the measures taken to strengthen the wall with the stronger Upper Keuper sandstone in later years. (Evans, 1987, p. 77)

THE FIRST STONE CHURCH

There are several indicators that the first stone church was built before 1300. First is the mention in Vatican taxation records of Pope Nicholas in 1291, first noted by William Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, where the church of ‘Holy Trinitie’ is valued at XX (20) marks. (Dugdale, 1730, p. 914)

The second indication is in a document researched by local historian Roger Lea, which suggests a very much earlier date. The chapel of St Blaise at the Manor House would have been served by one chaplain, yet a document dating from the early thirteenth century is signed by several clerics, whose number and titles imply that they would have served a more substantial church than a private chapel.

Roger Lea writes:

The charter of Waleran, Earl of Warwick from 1184–1204, has thirteen named witnesses, including Roger of Ullenhall who was probably his steward. Hugh, the Prior of Canwell Priory, was another witness, but both Roger and Hugh were alive during the whole of Waleran’s earldom, so are of no help with dating the charter. Three of the witnesses, Henry the Priest of Sutton, William the deacon of Sutton, and John the clerk of Sutton are surprising because these three clergymen must have been attached to the parish church of Sutton. The charter must date from before 1204, but Holy Trinity Parish Church is generally thought to have been founded after 1250, and the spiritual needs of Suttonians prior to 1250 are generally supposed to have been satisfied by the Earl of Warwick’s Chaplain, based at the Chapel of St Blaise in the Manor House on Manor Hill. These witnesses disprove this theory, providing evidence for the existence of a church in Sutton in 1200 served by three clergymen – perhaps it was a timber structure, replaced by the present stone church later in the century. (Lea, Witnesses, HS 345 16 January 2015)

Fig. 2: Stonework beneath east end chancel wall (HTSC)

Fig. 3: Exposed foundations of mediaeval chancel wall – north side (AW)

Mike Hodder concurs with this view, saying:

the priest, deacon and clerk mentioned in the charter of 1184–1204 are likely to have been at a church on the site of Holy Trinity, demonstrating that there was a church there by 1204 at the latest and probably during the 12th century. (Mike Hodder, by email, 2019)

A third indication of the earliest building is the dating of the stonework beneath the window in the east end chancel wall. Described as the most ancient part of the church by Evans (p. 22) and visible only from the outside, the ‘plinth and clasping buttresses’ do appear to date from the thirteenth century (see Fig. 2).

Mike Hodder also notes findings from the archaeological investigation of 2016 as follows:

I think it’s important to emphasise that the oldest visible part of the church is 13th century – and predates the first mention of the church in the taxation of 1291, perhaps by as much as half a century. The archaeological work recorded the north side of the original chancel (now within the Vesey chapel) which has an identical plinth to that of the east end, showing that this is the original extent of the 13th century chancel. (Mike Hodder, by email, 2019, citing Coutts, 2019). See Fig. 3.

Agnes Bracken, in her history of Sutton Coldfield of 1860, gives some detail about the site of the village of Sutton and the chosen site for the church on Oker Hill as it appears to have been called, rather than Manor Hill (the site of the Manor House). The main reason appears to have been the favourable water supply, another the conspicuous position of the church, its being visible from ‘Barr Beacon, the Park, the Manor, Maney Hill, Walmley, Whitehouse Common and the upper end of Hill Village’. (Evans, 1987, p. 119)

RECTORS’ BOARD

One of the most useful historical records in Holy Trinity is the list of Rectors from 1250 to the present day, whose names are painted in gold on a wooden board. This board used to be in the south porch until the new entrance was created from the west side, and it was placed in 2016, beautifully restored, to the right of the entrance as people come into the church.

It is not known when the board was first erected or the source of dates for the early names listed there. Many sources, following Dugdale, give Gregory Harold as the first incumbent of Holy Trinity in 1305, but the board starts with Simon de Daventry in 1250 and then a lengthy gap before Richard de Bello in 1294, who reappears just three years after Gregory Harold, in 1308.

Dugdale refers to ‘a certain Chantrie founded by one Thomas Broadmeadow (but the time when appears not) for one priest to sing Mass, and to pray for the soul of the said Thomas and his parents;’ (Dugdale, 1730, p. 914). Dugdale gives as his source ‘Willis Hist. of Abbies, v 2 p 253.’ This refers to one of the books written by Browne Willis (1682–1760), an antiquary and Member of Parliament, who hailed from Dorset but devoted much of his attention in adult life to his home parish of Fenny Stratford in Buckinghamshire.

The designation ‘Rectors’ Board’ is a misleading term. Strictly speaking the names refer to incumbents of the living, yet this is also confusing in the early days, as the ‘advowson’ (also called the living or the patronage) was owned by local noblemen (in Sutton’s case, the earls of Warwick) or the Crown. Early incumbents (priests) may have been one and the same as the patron, the role being nominal and possibly also without involving the performance of any priestly duties.

Before the re-ordering work there was a preliminary archaeological investigation in 2015 and a further full investigation at the start of 2016. The report from the second investigation (Coutts, 2018) indicates that the original stone church does indeed roughly equate to the nave and chancel as they now appear, but that the pillars which currently delineate this space are not directly over the foundations of the earlier church. There is also an anomaly with a mediaeval burial of a priest in one case, which would appear to be beyond the church boundary at that time. This seems out of keeping with the standard practice to bury priests within the walls of the church: ‘Located within the church in supine position head at west end of grave cut. Thought to be a mediaeval priest due to the individual found with Paten bowl. Truncated by foundation of a stone pillar.’ (Coutts, 2018, p. 2, 6:18)

A later chapter of this book (Chapter 11) looks in more detail at the role of the clergy through the centuries and some of the key names in the long list of incumbents since 1250.

FROM THE ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURIES

Whether or not a timber church preceded the first stone church in Sutton, worship would have taken place at the chapel at the Manor House. In terms of wider local history, William the Conqueror executed the last Saxon Earl of Warwick in 1071 and confiscated his lands, making them Crown property. Norman earls succeeded to the title, and ownership of Sutton was restored to the earls of Warwick in 1126 under Henry I. who exchanged his Crown property in Sutton for two estates he wanted in Rutland owned by the then earl, Roger de Newburgh.

The building of a stone church at this point (noted in Vatican records of 1291) fits well with the timing of changes to the status of the town, coinciding with the granting of a charter to the Earl of Warwick from Edward I in 1298 to enlarge the village and hold a market on Tuesdays and an annual fair beginning on the eve of Holy Trinity (Evans, 1987, p. 6)

Mike Hodder confirms that market and fair charters are a context for more building activity at the church. In his book The Archaeology of Sutton Park he suggests that the park originally extended right up to the town centre and was later reduced in size, when the town was being developed by the earls of Warwick. (Hodder, 2013)

Hodder confirms by email that the stone chancel of Holy Trinity, and a nave accompanying it, were already in place at this point.

Local historian Roger Lea has written about the site of the current church at this period as follows:

If you stand on the Vesey Memorial looking across Vesey Gardens to High Street, you see a wide triangle of space enclosed by Mill Street and Coleshill Street. If you were standing here 800 years ago, you would be looking at the Earl of Warwick’s newly-laid-out town of Sutton with its large triangular market-place in front of you. (Lea, Church Hill, HS 98, 2 April 2010)

[The steep cobbled drive called Church Hill has, since the 1990s, become the main approach to the church from Mill Street. It now has the Sons of Rest building on the right, as one progresses uphill, and the Vesey Gardens on the left. At the top it opens out onto a cobbled ‘piazza’ with the church on the left and the Trinity Centre on the right, and the car park at the rear just above Trinity Hill.]

Norman Evans notes that cottages were erected on Church Hill and Trinity Hill during this time, surrounding the church, and in adjacent roads – Coleshill Street and High Street. Mike Hodder writes that there have been very few excavations in Sutton town centre. (Hodder, 2004) However, mediaeval remains including an oven and a wall footing were found in Coleshill Street and a building there still has a mediaeval smoke hood.

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY