by Chris Peers

The area which is now Little Boldmere remained almost uninhabited until the 1820s, part of a more or less continuous ring of common land which surrounded the inhabited and cultivated centres of Sutton, Little Sutton, New Hall and Wylde Green.

From 1126 to 1528 it was part of Sutton Chase, the extensive hunting preserve which King Henry I gave to the Earls of Warwick, of which Sutton Park is the surviving remnant. The Borough Charter which made Sutton into a self-governing town, granted by Henry VIII in 1528 at the request of Bishop Vesey, abolished the hunting rights on the Chase and turned most of it into common land. The whole area probably looked much like parts of Sutton Park do today, comprising patches of scrub, gorse and rough pasture.

In 1825 the common was enclosed and divided up into fields, which were allocated to local landowners.  Follow the link for more information about the enclosures.

The name Boldmere first appears in the 1850s. It comes from “bald moor”, or the “bare lake”, which is believed to refer to a pool somewhere on the Chester Road, near where Lakehouse Road is today.

In 1856 the built-up area was still restricted to the northern end of Boldmere Road, where the main shopping centre is now, with all the land to the south being still fields. The smaller cluster of shops at the Chester Road end of Little Boldmere did not appear until the 1890s.

The population of the entire parish of Saint Michael’s at the time the church was consecrated in 1857 was estimated at between 500 and 750.

Things changed dramatically in 1862 with the opening of the Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield railway, and from then onwards Little Boldmere began its new incarnation as a suburb of Birmingham.

For more information see Little Boldmere before 1862 article.