John Sutton Nettlefold, JP (2 May 1866 – 3 November 1930) was a British social reformer. He was the fourth son of Edward John Nettlefold (the son of John Sutton Nettlefold, 1792–1866) and was born in London in 1866. In 1878, he came to Birmingham and after leaving school entered the Broad Street offices of Messrs. Nettlefold and Co. (later

GKN GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 an ...

). Subsequently, he resigned his post and became managing director of Kynoch Ltd, a position he retained for many years. He was also chairman of Thomas Smith's Stampings Ltd, and a director of Henry Hope and Sons Ltd for a considerable period. Memorial plaque to John Sutton Nettlefold within Moorpool Hall, Harborne - geograph

Memorial plaque to John Sutton Nettlefold within Moorpool Hall, Harborne - geograph

In 1898 he entered the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

as a representative of

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

and

Harborne Harborne is an area of south-west Birmingham, England. It is one of the most affluent areas of the Midlands, southwest from Birmingham city centre. It is a Birmingham City Council ward in the formal district and in the parliamentary constitu ...

Ward, and remained a Councillor until 1911. In addition to his work for social reform Nettlefold was interested in charitable and philanthropic movements. For several years he was honorary secretary, and afterwards chairman of the Women's Hospital, and a liberal subscriber to its funds. He was also at one time honorary treasurer of the Graham Street Charity School, and took a keen interest in the work of the Fazeley Street Mission. Nettlefold was a Justice of the Peace for Worcestershire, and also a magistrate for the city of Birmingham. Whilst living in Birmingham, Nettlefold commissioned a home for his family from the architect Joseph Lancaster Ball. The resulting Arts and Crafts style house was called Winterbourne and it and its grounds are open to the public, the latter forming the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

s' Winterbourne Botanic Garden. The garden was created by Nettleford's wife, Margaret, née Chamberlain. Nettlefold's most notable contribution was to the improvement of public housing in Birmingham for the working classes. In 1901, as the chairman of Birmingham's new Housing Committee he extended the city's

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

works. In 1907 when the majority of inner city housing was of a crowded back-to-back design, Nettlefold established the

garden suburb The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...

Moor Pool in

to provide low density affordable housing with many interspersed green spaces, centred around a community hall. His publications on urban planning included "Slum Reform and Town Planning", and "Practical Housing".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nettlefold, John Sutton 1866 births 1930 deaths English socialists English politicians People from Birmingham, West Midlands English reformers British social reformers English justices of the peace