William Dargue A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames from A to Y
Camp Field
B75 - Grid reference SK118012
Camp Field, Camp Farm and Camp Road in the north of Sutton Coldfield near Watford Gap commemorate the military camp which was set up in response to the threat of a French invasion. In 1811 during the
Napoleonic Wars a camp was set up at Hill Wood to house the Edinburgh Militia, the Sussex Militia, the 7th Dragoon Guards and a brigade of artillery. After the British victory over the French at the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815 the militias were disbanded and the camp closed.
The 1841 Census records the occupants of Camp Farm as the Careless family. Close by at Camp Field lived the family of agricultural labourer William Blackwell and of shepherd, George Tallis.
William Dargue 23.01.2009/ 01.08.2010
For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online.
Map below reproduced from Andrew Rowbottom’s website of Old Ordnance Survey maps Popular Edition, Birmingham 1921. Click the map to link to that website.
