The King’s Standing

Round Barrow(s)
SP080956

Nearest town:

Sutton Coldfield (4km E)

OS reference:

SP080956

OS sheet:

139

Latitude:

52° 33' 27.89 N

Longitude:

1° 52' 55.14 W

Added to TMA by

baza

Images (2)
Fieldnotes (1)
Folklore (2)
Miscellaneous (1)

Images

The King`s Standing round barrow

baza Jul 26, 2003

The King`s Standing round barrow

baza Jul 26, 2003

Articles

The King’s Standing

Round Barrow(s)

baza Jul 26, 2003

This bump in the grass by the side of Kingstanding Lane, in the district of Kingstanding, is all that remains of the last surviving barrow in Birmingham (that I am aware of).

If it hadn`t been for an incident in comparatively modern history, there`d probably be houses on this one, too.

The King’s Standing

Round Barrow(s)

Rhiannon Dec 22, 2024

To the Editor of the Walsall Observer.
Sir, – I have been rather interested in your notes and the correspondence about Henry VIII and Sutton Coldfield. I shall be much obliged if you, or any of your correspondents, can clear up a certain puzzle about the origin of the name, or place, called King’s Standing. By the way, is this the place where King Henry was supposed to be standing when he was said to be attacked by a wild boar?
I have been told two quite different versions about the origin of the name King’s Standing. First, I was informed that this was the place where the Tudor Monarch used to stand to watch the hunting, or that he started the hunt from this spot, and this was one reason why Sutton was allowed to use the Tudor Rose on its coat of arms, etc.
Later on, I was informed that this was the place where Charles I stood to watch one of the battles between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians.
It is quite obvious that both these accounts of the origin of the name of King’s Standing cannot be true. Can anyone say which is the correct version of this interesting bit of local history. – Yours, etc., G.M Wood.

The newspaper (dully?) replies that Duignan says in ‘Staffordshire Place Names’ that it’s about Charles I, and that he didn’t have any evidence that the area was known as King’s Standing before 1642.

From the Walsall Observer, 9th August 1941.

The King’s Standing

Round Barrow(s)

baza Jul 25, 2003

During the English Civil War, on the 19th of October, 1642AD, King Charles I stood on this round barrow to address his local recruits, hence The King`s Standing.

The King’s Standing

Round Barrow(s)

Chance Mar 8, 2012

Details of site on Pastscape

Remains of a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age round barrow or possibly a Roman barrow. It is said to be the spot where King Charles I stood when he harangued the troops he brought out of Shropshire at the beginning of the Civil War. The barrow is up to 1.25m high and 20m across. Scheduled.

[SP 0804 9560 ] King’s Standing [G.T.]
” ... King’s Standing, a little artificial mount where Charles I is said to have stood when he harangued the troops he brought out of Shropshire at the beginning of the civil war.”
Duignan quotes Shaw (2) and other authors (a & b) regarding the use of King’s Standing by King Charles in 1642 and concludes, “It is doubtless a prehistoric tumulus, though it may have been used by Charles. The mound is about twenty feet in diameter and five feet high in the middle, and is enclosed with iron hurdles and planted with young trees.”
” ... the Tumulus of King’s Standing seems to have been a roadside tomb, for the labourers obtained a considerable treasure of silver chains, etc., when the wood was cleared ... I am told that the Tumulus was destroyed in ignorance by a new tenant in clearing the ground and the present landmark was thrown up and enclosed by him when his neighbours told of King Charles I’s review of troops there.
‘The King’s Standing’, Mound – Scheduled as an Ancient Monument under ‘Burial Mounds’.
King’s Standing consists of a very mutilated mound, the surface area of which is wooded and grass covered. It has a maximum height of 1.2 metres and a diameter averaging 16.0 metres. There are no traces of a surrounding ditch. A wooden pallisade encloses the site which is at the highest point of a hill.
The mound has been surveyed on 25” AM. No change.

King’s Standing, a mound, at the side of Ryknield Street, which has given its name to this district of Birmingham.
It is situated upon relatively high ground which falls away gently to the north and more steeply to the south, towards Birmingham. The feature has been lately remodelled and turfed over by the council and the surrounding fence removed. Four young treees grow upon the mound. It now has a diameter of 20.0m and a maximum height of 0.8m.
In its present restored condition, it is no longer possible to ascertain whether the mound represents the remains of a tumulus (Roman or Bronze Age) or whether it is a modern feature as inferred by Benton.(4)
Published 1:1250 survey, 1962,correct.
Noted in list of possible barrows of the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age. (9)