St. Peter’s Church

To be honest, I’ve not been inside this church for years, but it’s not the inside that I’m concerned with.
St. Peter’s is a picturesque old church on the Sutton landscape and situated in the tiny part of the town which goes under the little-​used name of Maney (pronounced may-​knee). The small grounds are always well-​tended and it’s a beautiful location to get married at (as my parents did in 1981).
When I was a stroppy teenager, one of my favourite places to hang around and think was the public path at the side of St. Peters (but on their land) which runs from Maney Hill Road up to Pilkington Avenue. In summer, the path is in bloom and covered in all shades of green and lots of different flowers. By winter, it’s sparse but still a nice place to pass, especially in the snow. My friend and I used to sit on the step of the church tower playing our guitars too.
St. Peter’s has a small hall at its rear which I once believed to be the St. Peter’s Church Hall where the Beatles famously played in early 1963. It’s not and it turns out that Church Hall has long since been demolished to make way for the maisonettes which stand on the corner of Maney Hill Road and Birmingham Road. So even though I ended up a disappointed Fab Four devotee (the amount of times I looked into the newer hall and thought ‘the Beatles played there!’…) this still a lovely hidden corner of Sutton Coldfield that I’ve just given away.