Boldmere is a suburb and residential area of

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield ( ), is a town and civil parish in the city of Birmingham, West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south of L ...

City of Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England. It is bordered by

New Oscott New Oscott is an area of Birmingham, England. It was named after the Oscott area of Birmingham, when St. Mary's College, the Roman Catholic seminary, moved from that site to the new one. The original then became known as Old Oscott. The only ...

, Sutton Park,

Wylde Green Wylde Green is a residential area within the town of Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, England in the West Midlands. It was historically part of Warwickshire. The area is in the Sutton Vesey ward. History In the 16th century, this area of barren ...

and

Erdington Erdington is a suburb and ward of Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Warwickshire, it is located northeast of central Birmingham, bordering Sutt ...

, and is in the

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of Sutton Vesey.

History

Toponymy

"Boldmere" is a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

of the word "Baldmoor", coming from the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

''bald'' (meaning ''" a white patch"'') and the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

''moor'' (meaning ''" boggy land"''). Therefore, Boldmere literally means a "bald moor"; a treeless patch. ''Bald'' (meaning ''" bold"'') was also a personal name used by the Anglo-Saxons.

Name history

At the time of

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

's 1610 atlas '' The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine'', Boldmere was known as Cofield Wast. The area was described as "an open, wild and windy expanse, covered with gorse". The United Kingdom Census of 1841 refers to the area as Baldmoor Lake, which was once a body of water south of the Chester Road. The lake has also been known as Bowen Pool, Baldmoor, and Bolemore Lake, though no lake is shown on Speed's map of 1610 (nor on other later maps). The census did, however, list a dwelling on the Chester Road as "Lake House". There is, however, a Lakehouse Road and Baldmoor Lake Road in the area. By 1856, the area had become known as The Coldfield, a name which lasted at least until the introduction of the railway.

Expansion

On introduction of the 1825

inclosure act The inclosure acts created legal property rights to land previously held in common in England and Wales, particularly open fields and common land. Between 1604 and 1914 over 5,200 individual acts enclosing public land were passed, affecting 28,0 ...

, the area saw little expansion due to

common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

becoming privately owned. The 1841 census listed eight families in the area, including agricultural workers, a painter, an Irish carrier, and a wire drawer. It is likely that the latter worked at Penns Mill, a nearby wire mill run by the Webster family (with Baron Dickinson Webster's business involvements including the

transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is a largely obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and dat ...

). Boldmere did expand, however, upon the introduction of the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

. Two stations opened in the region at

and Chester Road, in 1862 and 1863 respectively. A second housing boom occurred in the 1930s, with both private and council housing being built.

Administration

In 1857, Boldmere was designated as an

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, formed from the parish of St Michael's in Sutton Coldfield. When Sutton Coldfield was reorganised in 1885 (under the

Municipal Corporations Act 1882 The Municipal Corporations Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 50) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that replaced existing legislation governing municipal boroughs in England and Wales, and gave the Municipal cor ...

), Boldmere was created as a ward, before being divided into Boldmere West and Boldmere East in 1935. Boldmere is now part of the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council,Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council https://www.suttoncoldfieldtowncouncil.gov.uk/the-council/ which was formed following a consultative ballot in 2015. The role of this organisation is the same as a parish council. Boldmere is in the Sutton Vesey

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

Geography

Boldmere is triangular in shape and roughly bounded on the north by Sutton Park, on the east by the Cross-City railway line and on the south-west by Chester Road. Boldmere Gate provides access to Sutton Park. The main shopping centre of Boldmere is at the northern end of Boldmere Road, which runs north-south through the centre of Boldmere. The collection of shops at the southern end of Boldmere Road is known locally as Little Boldmere. Gibbet Hill, in the north-west of the area, is named after the

gibbet Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public ex ...

from which Edward Allport was

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

for the murder of London silk dyer John Johnson in the area on 28 March 1729. Although this site is no longer referred to as Gibbet Hill, and was undeveloped until (at least) 1906, the toponymy has survived in the name of Gibbet Hill Wood; an area which

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...

have identified as "an area of potential archaeological importance" due to "surviving archaeological remains".

Location in context

Economy

Boldmere is well-served with shops, hairdressers, pubs and restaurants. There are also a post office and a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

. All banks in Boldmere have now closed with the nearest branches being in Erdington or Sutton Town Centre.

Industry

In the 18th century, Powell's Pool (then known as New Forge Pool) near Boldmere Gate was the site of the mill used by John Wyatt to experiment with mechanised cotton spinning. Along with

Lewis Paul Lewis Paul (died 1759) was the original inventor of roller spinning, the basis of the water frame for spinning cotton in a cotton mill. Life and work Lewis Paul was of Huguenot descent. His father was physician to Lord Shaftesbury. He may have ...

, he developed the roller spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system (Paul patented the former on 24 June 1738). In 1750, the mill was used by William Powell to manufacture spades (using locally-grown

ash wood ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...

for the handles). It is believed that the first steel

garden fork A garden fork, spading fork, or digging fork (in the past also an ''asparagus fork'', the same name as a very different utensil) is a gardening implement, with a handle and a square-shouldered head featuring several (usually four) short, sturdy ...

was manufactured at the mill. The building was later used to produce steel for the production of pen nibs. The

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

's First Series map (1834) identifies a

forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to the ...

in this area, of which John Willets (a forgeman), John Page (a spade maker), and John Harris (a saw maker) have all been identified as proprietors. The mill was demolished some time after 1936, after lying unused and dilapidated for a number of years. Although none of the building's structure remains, a waterfall (providing a

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

to Powell's Pool) is now sited where the millrace was located.

Transport

Boldmere's main roads are Jockey Road ( A453), Chester Road ( A452) and Boldmere Road (B4142). Boldmere is served by

and Chester Road railway stations, both on the Cross-City railway line, which runs between Lichfield Trent Valley and

Redditch Redditch is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Worcestershire, England. It is located south of Birmingham, east of Bromsgrove, north-west of Alcester and north-east of Worcester. In 2021, the town had a population of ...

(via

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street, also known as New Street station, is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti ...

). Boldmere is served by a number of

National Express West Midlands National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is bus operator in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. It is a subsidiary of Mobico Group (formerly National Express Group) and is the largest bus operator in the region, as well as one of ...

bus services, including routes 5, 66, 77 and 907.

Places of worship

The churches in the area are St Michael's (

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

), St Nicholas's (

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

), Chester Road

Baptist Church Baptists are a denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers ( believer's baptism) and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches generally subscribe to the doctrines of ...

, Boldmere

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

, and Wylde Green

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

. St Nicholas's Church was preceded by a chapel that was designed by

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 1812 – 14 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival style of ar ...

and which opened in 1841. These churches take their name from

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Nicholas Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was an English Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1 ...

. The

ring of bells A "ring of bells" is the name bell ringers give to a set of bells hung for English full circle ringing. The term "peal of bells" is often used, though peal also refers to a change ringing performance of more than about 5,000 changes. By r ...

at St Michael's church are noted as being one of the few rings in Birmingham still in existence that were produced before the introduction of scientific bell tuning in the 1890s (

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...

installed Birmingham's first harmonic ring at St. Barnabas' Church, Erdington in 1906). The bells' 18th–19th century tonal quality is rare as most pre-scientific bells in Birmingham have been recast by the Taylor or Whitechapel foundries. In 1964, St Michael's church was partially destroyed by fire, with only the tower and south aisle surviving. The building's reconstruction was not without controversy, particularly due to the unconventional use of

Staffordshire blue brick Staffordshire blue brick is a strong type of construction brick, originally made in Staffordshire, England. The brick is made from the local red clay, Etruria marl, which when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere t ...

Education

Educational facilities in the area include Boldmere Infant and Nursery School, Boldmere Junior School, St Nicholas Catholic Primary School, and Boldmere Adult Education Centre. In 1848, Reverend W. K. Riland Bedford worked towards opening Boldmere National School for Girls and Infants. The building served as Boldmere's

Anglican church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

until the opening of St Michael's in 1857, and is now a health clinic.

Leisure

Culture

Boldmere is home to

Highbury Theatre Centre Highbury Theatre is a amateur theatre, non-professional theatre situated in the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. It is one of the oldest, established amateur theatres in the city and a founding member of the Little Theatre Gu ...

, a

community theatre Community theatre refers to any Theatre, theatrical performance made in relation to particular Community, communities—its usage includes theatre made by, with, and for a community. It may refer to a production that is made entirely by a communit ...

organisation. The theatre has been in its current location since it was built by its original members in 1942.

Sport

Boldmere Wanderers FC who were founded in 2018, play their home games at Rectory Park, Sutton Coldfield. Boldmere Golf Course is located on the northern edge of Boldmere, and hosts Europe's longest-running pro-am golfing competition. The annual Great Midlands Fun Run uses Boldmere Gate as the entrance to Sutton Park. Boldmere St. Michael's Football Club is a football club based in Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield, England. They are currently members of the Midland League Premier Division and play at the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground.

Famous residents

Hazel Court, a British actress known for her appearances in

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

s of the 1950s and 60s, lived in the area and attended Boldmere School and Highclare College.

Emma Willis Emma Louise Willis (' Griffiths; born 18 March 1976) is an English broadcaster. She is known for her television and radio work with Channel 5, BBC, ITV and Heart FM.

, née Griffiths, who was born in 1976 lived on Boldmere Road during her childhood and attended Wylde Green Primary School.