STEPHEN ROBERTS

This book is an A-Z of the drinking places that existed in Sutton Coldfield between 1800 and1914. These pubs were at the heart of life in the town at a time when there were few other places to go. The book includes much fascinating and entirely new information about who owned and ran these pubs, how they made a living from them and the challenges they faced, including drunk and disorderly customers. Accompanied by engravings and photographs from the time, the book is an important contribution to our understanding of life in Sutton Coldfield in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This book tells the story of Sutton Coldfield between 1800 and 1914. With a focus on the struggles to bring to an end the self-appointed corporation, the arrival of the railway, shops, schools, law and order and leisure, it is a work of social history. During the period that this book covers, Sutton was transformed beyond any origins asa mere suburb of Birmingham. It could fairly be said that more of consequence happened in Sutton in the nineteenth century than any preceding century, including the sixteenth century when Bishop Vesey secured a royal charter. The book includes many contemporary images.