# Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham/P

​ Packhorses.—In and about the year 1750 the only method of conveying parcels Of goods from here to London was by means of packhorses, the charge being at the rate of £7 to £9 per ton; to Liverpool and Bristol, £5.
Panorama.—A circular erection in New Street, and now partly incorporated in the Society of Artists building, where early in the century panoramas of various kinds were exhibited.
Panoramic View.—A peculiar view of this town was published in 1847 by Ackermann of London, and was thus called, as it purported to give the thoroughfares pictorially, showing the houses as they would appear from a balloon over Moseley Street. The size was 27½ in. by 14¾ in. As a curiosity it is prizable, but its correctness of delineation is marred very much by the plan adopted.
Pantechnetheca.—A large place of general business, opened in 1824, at the New-street end of Union-passage. In 1817, there stood on this spot a public house, known as the "Old Crown," the entrance to which was in a large, open gateway at its side, through which a path led to the cherry orchard. The Pantechnetheca was one of "the sights" of the town, the exterior being ornamented with pillars and statues; while the name was not only a puzzle to the "Black Country" visitors, but quite a subject of dispute as to its etymology among the Greek scholars of the Grammar School opposite.
Paradise Street.-The footpath on the Town Hall side used to be several feet higher than the causeway, and was supplied with iron railings. If the name had been given in late years, it might be supposed to have been chosen because the doors of the Parish Offices are in the street.
Parish Offices.—See "Public Buildings."
Parkesine.—A material used for knife handles and other purposes, so named after its maker, Alexander Parkes, a well-known local manufacturer, who said it was made from refuse vegetable fibre, pyroxyline, oil, naphtha, and chloride of sulphur.
Park Lane.—From Aston Cross Tavern to the Birchfield Road, originally being the road outside the wall of Aston Park. The first lots of land for building that were sold were those fronting Church Lane, and they fetched an average price of 2s. 2d. per yard, each lot being 12 yards by 60 yards. Te next were the lots marked out by the side of Park Lane, and it was at about the middle of Park Lane that the first house was built in Aston Park in 1854 or 1855.
Park Road.—Leading over the hill from Aston Cross to Aston Church, was the first laid out, and the first opened to the public (Easter Monday, 1855) through the old grounds belonging to the Holts.
Parks.—Thanks to the munificence of Miss Ryland, Lord Calthorpe, Sir Charles Adderley, and Mr. W. Middlemore, with the concurrent generosity of the Church authorities, in whom the freehold of our churchyards was invested, Birmingham cannot be said to ​be short of parks and public grounds, though with all put together the area is nothing like that taken from the inhabitants under the Enclosures Acts of last century. The first movement for the acquisition of public parks took the shape of a town's meeting, Dec. 22, 1853, when the burgesses approved the purchase, and in 1854 an Act was obtained for the formation thereof. The first to be opened was Adderley Park, Aug. 30, 1856, the gift of Sir Charles Adderley. Its area is 10a. 0r. 22p., and it is held nominally on a 999 years' lease, at a rental of 5s. per year. Calthorpe Park was opened June 1, 1857; its area being 31a. 1r. 12p., and it is held under a grant by the Calthorpe family that is equivalent to a conveyance in fee. Aston Park was opened Sept. 22, 1864; its area is 49a. 2r. 8p., and it belongs to the town by purchase. Cannon Hill Park, the gift of Miss Ryland, was opened Sept. 1, 1873; its area being 57a. 1r. 9p. In 1874, the Town Council gave the Trustees of Holliers' Charity the sum of £8,300 for the 8a. 8r. 28p. of land situated between the Moseley Road and Alcester Street, and after expending over £5,400 in laying out, fencing, and planting, opened it as Highgate Park June 2, 1876. In 1876 Summerfield House and grounds covering 12a. 0r. 20p. were purchased from Mr. Henry Wess for £9,000, and after fencing. &c., was thrown open as Summerfield Park, July 29, 1876. In the following year, Mr. William Middlemore presented to the town a plot of ground, 4a. 1r. 3p. in extent, in Burbury Street, having spent about £3,500 in fencing and laying it out, principally as a recreation ground for children (the total value being over £12,000), and it was opened as Hockley Park, December 1, 1877.—Small Heath Park, comprising 41a. 3r. 34p., is another of the gifts of Miss Ryland, who presented it to the town June 2, 1876, and in addition provided £4,000 of the £10,000 the Town Council expended in laying it out. The formal opening ceremony took place April 5, 1879. There are still several points of the compass directing to suburbs which would be benefited by the appropriation of a little breathing place or two, and possibly in due time they will he acquired. The Nechells people have had laid out for their delectation the waste ground near the gas works which may be called Nechells Park for the time being. The Earl of Dartmouth in June, 1878, gave 56 acres out of Sandwell Park to the inhabitants of West Bromwich, and they call it Dartmouth Park.
Park Street takes its name from the small park or wood surrounding Park House, once existing somewhere near to the burial ground.
Park Street Gardens—As they are now called, comprise the Park Street Burial Ground and St. Bartholomew's Churchyard, the possession of which (under a nominal lease for 999 years) was given by the Rectors of St. Martin's and Sr. Bartholomew's to the Corporation according to the provisions of the Closed Burial Grounds Act. The whole area included a little over five acres, and the site thus given was valued at £50,000. About half an acre was devoted to the widening of the surrounding streets, the remainder being properly fenced in and laid out as recreating grounds and gardens. The opening ceremony took place, June 25, 1880.
Parliamentary Elections.—Notwithstanding the safeguards provided by the Ballot Act, and all the deterrent measures enacted against bribery and intimidation, and those peculiar tactics known as "getting up steam," the period of an election for Parliamentary representatives is a time of great excitement even in these days. But it is comparatively naught to what it used to be, when the art of kidnapping Tory voters, or "bottling" Whigs, was considered as only a small part of the education required by aspiring political agents. Leading ​burly prizefighters to clear the hustings on nomination day, upsetting carriages containing voters going to poll, and such like practical jokes were all en regle, and as such "goings-on" were to be found as much on the one side as the other, neither party's pot had a right to call the opponent's kettle black. Prior to the enfranchisement of the borough, one of the most exciting elections in which the Brums had been engaged was that for the county of Warwick in 1774, when Sir Charles Holte, of Aston Hall, was returned. The nomination took place Oct. 13, the candidates being Mr. Shipworth (a previous member, Mr. (afterwards Lord) Mordaunt, and Sir Charles, who for once pleased the Birmingham folks by calling himself an "Independent." The polling, which commenced on the 20th, was continued for ten days, closing on the 31st, and as Mr. Mordaunt had the lead for many days the excitement was intense, and the rejoicings proportionate at the end when the local candidate came in with flying colours. The voting ran:— Shipwith, 2,954; Holte, 1,845; Mordaunt, 1,787.—A Birmingham man was a candidate at the next great county contest, forty-six years after. This was Mr. Richard Spooner, then (1820) a young man and of rather Radical tendencies. His opponent, Mr. Francis Lawley, was of the old-fashioned Whig party, and the treatment his supporters received at the hands of the Birmingham and Coventry people was disgraceful. Hundreds of special constables had to be sworn in at Warwick during the fourteen days' polling, business being suspended for days together, but Radical Richard's roughs failed to influence the election, as Mr. Lawley obtained 2,153 votes against Mr. Spooner's 970. As Mr. Spooner grew older he became more prominent in commercial circles, and was peculiarly au fait in all currency matters, but he lost his hold on local electors by turning to the Conservative side of politics. Of this he was more than once reminded in after years, when speaking in the Town Hall, by individuals taking off their coats, turning them inside out, and having put them on again, standing prominently in front of "Yellow Dick" as they then called him.
That the inhabitants of Birmingham, so rapidly increasing in numbers and wealth, should be desirous of direct representation in the House of Commons, could be no wonder even to the most bigoted politicians of the last and early part of the present century. Possibly, had there been '91 Riots, nor quite so much "tall talk," the Legislature might have vouchsafed us a share in the manufacture of our country's laws a little earlier than they did, and the attempt to forces member through the doors of the House could not have added to any desire that may have existed in the minds of the gentlemen inside to admit the representative of Birmingham. The Newhall Hill meeting of July 12th, 1819, may be reckoned as the first pitched battle between the invaders and defenders of the then existing Parliamentary Constitution. The appointment of Sir Charles Wolesey as "Legislatorial Attorney and Representative," with instructions to take his seat as M.P. for the town (and many so styled him, even though made at a meeting of 20,000 would-be electors, does not appear to have been the wisest way to have gone to work, notwithstanding the fact that Sir Charles himself said he had no doubt of their right to send him up as their Member. Prosecution of the leaders followed, as a matter of course, and if the twenty-and-odd-thousmds of the local Conservative electors of to-day were thus to try to obtain their due share of representation in the House, most likely the leaders of such a movement would be as liberally dealt with. The "battle of freedom," as the great Reform movement came lo be called, has often been described, and honour been given to all who took part in it. The old soldiers of the campaign should be allowed, if ​they choose, to "fight their battles o'er again," as long as they live, but it is about time that the hatchet of party spite, (hitherto so freely used in local political warfare) was buried out of sight, and all sides be as willing to give equal rights us their fathers were to fight for theirs. Birmingham, however, was not without some friends in Parliament, and on the occasion of the disfranchisement of the borough of East Retford in 1827, it was proposed by Mr. Charles Tennyson that the two seats thus voided should be given to Birmingham. Mr. George Attwood was High Bailiff at the time, and he at once called a public meeting to support Mr. Tennyson's proposition by petition. The Public Office was not large enough for those who attended the meeting (June 22, 1827) and they adjourned to Beardsworth's Repository, where speeches were delivered by the leading men of all parties. Petitions to both Houses were drawn up and signed, the county members, Dugdale Stratford Dugdale and Francis Lawley, Esqrs., being asked to introduce the one to the House of Commons, and Lord Dudley and Ward (Baron of Birmingham) and Lord Calthorpe to support the petitioners' prayer in the Upper House. Mr. Tennyson (who afterwards took the name of D'Eyncourt) brought in his Bill, but notwithstanding all that could be said or done by the friends of the town they were outvoted (March 21, 1828), and the Bill was thrown out. The next four years were full of trouble, and the news of the passing of the Reform Bill (June 7, 1832), which at last gave Birmingham its long-sought political rights was most welcome; indeed. The first election day was fixed for December 12, and for some time it was rumoured that Mr. Richard Spooner would stand in opposition to Messrs. Thomas Attwood and Joshua Scholefield, the chosen representatives of the Liberals; but the Conservative party, deeming it but right that those who had borne the brunt of the constitutional fight should be allowed the first honours of the local victory, declined to oppose those gentlemen, and they were accordingly returned without opposition. The hustings had been erected on a plot of land opposite the Public Offices and here the nominations took place at the early hour of 8 a.m. The proceedings were over by nine o'clock, but the "victory," as the popular party chose to consider it, did not satisfy them, and as there was an election on at Walsall the same day it was determined that the Birmingham Liberals should go there to help Mr. Bosco Attwood in his contest with Mr. Foster. A procession of some thousands;, with bands and banners, according marched the whole of the distance to Walsall, and if their behaviour there represented what they were prepared to do at home hid they not been allowed to have their own way, it was well for Birmingham they were not opposed. Long before evening this town was in the most fearful excitement, the passengers and guards of the various coaches which had passed through Walsall bringing the direst news of fire and riot, mixed with reports of the military being called out and firing on the people, numbers being killed, &c. Fortunately there was much exaggeration in these tales, and by degrees most of the Birmingham men found their way home, though many were in sad plight through the outrageous behaviour of themselves and the "victorious" crew who went off so gaily with them in the morning. The elections in after years may be briefly chronicled.
* Thomas Attwood 1,718 votes ) Returned.
* Joshua Scholefield 1,650 )
* Richard Spooner 915
* Thomas Attwood 2,145 ) Returned.
* Joshua Scholefield 2,114 )
* A. G. Stapleton 1,046
* Geo. Fred. Muntz 1,454—Returned
* Sir C. Wetherell 915
* Geo. Fred. Muntz 2,176 { Returned.
* Joshua Scholefield 1,963
* Richard Spooner 1,825
* Richard Spooner . . . 2,095 ) Returned.
* William Scholefield .. 1,735 )
* Joseph Sturge .. 346
* Geo. Fred. Muntz 2,830 ) Returned.
* William Scholefield 2,824 )
* Richard Spooner 2,302
* Serjeant Allen 89
| William Scholefield | 4,425 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | Returned. |
| John Bright | 4,282 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | Returned. |
| T. D. Acland | 1,544 |
| Geo. Dixon | 5,819 | Returned. |
| S. S. Lloyd | 4,214 |
| George Dixon | 15,188 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | Returned. |
| P. H. Muntz | 14,614 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | Returned. |
| John Bright | 14,607 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | Returned. |
| S. S. Lloyd | 8,700 |
| S. Evans | 7,061 |
Philip Henry Muntz 22,803 ) John Bright 21,986 ) Returned. Joseph Chamberlain 19,476) Major Burnaby 15,716 Hon. A. C. G. Calthorpe 14,270
An analysis of the polling issued by the Mayor about a week after the election showed that 16.098 voters supported the Conservative candidates and 33,302 the Liberals. Deducting the 2,004 who "split" their votes between the parties, and 380 whose papers were either rejected or not counted as being doubtful, the total gives 47,396 as the actual number whose votes decided the election. As a curiosity and a puzzle for future politicians, the Mayor's analysis is worth preserving, as here re-analysed:—
Plumpers.
Calthorpe only .. .. 42 Burnaby only . . . . 164 206 Chamberlain only .. .. 50 Muntz only .. .. 199 Bright only . . . . 86 335
Split Votes.
Calthorpe and Muntz .. 153 Calthorpe and Chamberlain 83 Burnaby and Muntz .. 1,239 Burnaby and Chamberlain.. 182 Bright and Calthorpe .. 104 Bright and Burnaby . . 243 2,004
Con. Party Votes,
Burnaby and Calthorpe . . 13,888 13,888
Liberal Party Votes.
Chamberlain and Muntz.. 9,410 Bright and Muntz .. .. 11,802 Bright and Chamberlain . . 9,751 30,963
Voting papers rejected and doubtful 380
Total number of voters polled 47,776
According to the published returns of January, 1884, Birmingham was then the largest borough constituency in England, the number of electors on the register then in force being 63,221; Liverpool coming next with ​61,336; and Lambeth third, with 55,588; but Glasgow was the largest in the United Kingdom, with 68,025. The largest county constituency in England and Wales was Middlesex, with 41,299 electors; the next being South-West Lancashire, with 30,624; the third, South-East Lancashire, with 28,728; and the fourth, the southern division of the West Riding, with 27,625. The total electorate for England and Wales, was 2,660,444; Scotland, 331,264; and Ireland, 230,156.
The following statistics have been taken from the returns named, showing in respect of each constituency in this neighbourhood, the area of each borough, city, or county division, the population, the number of inhabited houses, the number of voters and their qualifications, and the Members sent to Parliament prior to the passing of the Franchise and Redistribution Bills of 1885, and are worth preserving for future local reference:—
Parsonage.—The Old Parsonage, at the corner of Smallbrook Street and Pershore Street, an old-fashioned two-storey gabled house, was moated round and almost hidden by trees, and has been preserved for future historians in one of David Cox's sketches, which remains as a curious memento of the once rural appearance of what are now some of the busiest spots in town. The house was pulled down in 1826.
Parson and Clerk.-A noted public house on the old Chester Road is the Royal Oak, better known as "The Parson and Clerk." An old pamphlet thus gives the why and wherefore: ​"There had used to be on the top of the house two figures — one of a parson leaning his head in prayer, while the clerk was behind him with uplifted axe, going to chop off his head. These two figures were placed there by John Gough, Esq., of Perry Hall, to commemorate a law suit between him and the Rev. T. Lane, each having annoyed the other. Mr. Lane had kept the Squire out of possession of this house, and had withheld the licenses, while the latter had compelled the clergyman to officiate daily in the church, by sending his servants to form a congregation. Squire Gough won the day, re-built the house in 1788, and put up the figures to annoy Parson Lane, parsons of all sorts being out of his good books."
Parsons, Preachers, and Priests of the Past.—It would be a lengthy list or make note of all the worthy and reverend gentlemen who have, from pulpit or platform, lectured and preached to the people in our town, or who have aided in the intellectual advancement and education of the rising generation of their time. Church and Chapel alike have had their good men and true, and neither can claim a monopoly of talent, or boast much of their superiority in Christian fellowship or love of their kind. Many shepherds have been taken from their so-called flocks whose places at the time it was thought could never be filled, but whose very names are now only to be found on their tombs, or mentioned in old magazines or newspapers. Some few are here recalled as of interest from their position, peculiarities, &c.
John Angell James.—A Wiltshire man was John Angell James, who, after a short course of itinerary preaching came lo Birmingham, and for more than fifty years was the idolised minister of Carr's Lane congregation. He was a good man and eloquent, having a certain attractive way which endeared him to many. He lived, and was loved by those who liked him, till he had reached the age of 74, dying Oct. 1, 1859, his remains being buried like those of a saint, under the pulpit from which he had so long preached.
Samuel Bache.—Coming as a Christmas-box to his parents in 1804, and early trained for the pulpit, the Rev. Samuel Bache joined the Rev. John Kentish in his ministrations to the Unitarian flock in 1832, and remained With us until 1868. Loved in his own community for faithfully preaching their peculiar doctrines, Mr. Bache proved himself a man of broad and enlightened .sympathies; one who could appreciate and support anything and everything that tended to elevate the people in their amusements as well as in matters connected with education.
George Croft.—The Lectureship of St. Martin's in the first year of the present century was vested in Dr. George Croft, one of the good old sort of Church and King parsons, orthodox to the backbone, but from sundry peculiarities not particularly popular with the major portion of his parishioners. He died in 1809.
George Dawson.—Born in London, February 24, 1821, George Dawson studied at Glasgow tor the Baptist ministry, and came to this town in 18i4 to take the charge of Mount Zion chapel. The cribbed and crabbed restraints of denominational church government failed, however, to satisfy his independent heart, and in little more than two years his connection with the Mount Zion congregation ceased (June 24, 1846). The Church of the Saviour was soon after erected for him, and here he drew together worshippers of many shades of religious belief, and ministered unto them till his death, As a lecturer he was known everywhere, and there are but few towns in the kingdom that he did not visit, while his tour in America, in the Autumn of 1874, was a great success. His connection with the public institutions of this town is part of our modern history, and no man yet ever exercised such influence or did more to advance the intelligence and culture ​of the people, and, as John Bright once said of Cobden "it was not until we had lost him that we knew how much we loved him." The sincerity and honesty of purpose right through his life, and exhibited in all his actions, won the highest esteem of even those who differed from him, and the announcement of his sudden death (Nov. 30, 1876) was felt as a blow by men of all creeds or politics who had ever known him or heard him. To him the world owes the formation of the first Shakesperian Library—to have witnessed its destruction would indeed have been bitter agony to the man who (in October, 1866) had been chosen to deliver the inaugural address at the opening of the Free Reference Library, to which he, with friends, made such an addition. As a preacher, he was gifted with remarkable powers; as a lecturer, he was unsurpassed; in social matters, he was the friend of all, with ever-open hand to those in need; as a politician, though keen at repartee and a hard hitter, he was straightforward, and no time-server; and in the word of his favourite author, "Take him all in all, we ne'er shall look on his like again."—See "Statues," &c.
W. D. Long.—The Rev. Wm Duncan Long (who died at Godalming, April 12, 1878), according to the Record, was "a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." In our local records he is noted as being distinguished for hard work among the poor of St. Bartholomew's, of which parish he was minister for many years prior to 1851.
Thomas Swann.—The Rev. Thomas Swann, who came here in January 1829, after a few years' sojourn in India, served the Cannon Street body for 28 years, during which time he baptised 966 persons, admitting into membership a total of 1,233. Mr. Swann had an attack of apoplexy, while in Glasgow, on Sunday, March 7, 1857, and died two days afterwards. His remains were brought to Birmingham, and were followed to the grave (March 16) by a large concourse of person-!, a number of ministers taking part in the funeral service.
W. L. Giles.—The Rev. W. Leese Giles, who filled the pulpit in Cannon Street from Oct., 1863, to July, 1872, was peculiarly successful in his ministrations, especially among the young.
Lewis Chapman.—The Rev. Lewis Chapman (taken to his fathers Oct. 2, 1877, at the age of 81), after performing the duties and functions of Rabbi to the local Jewish community for more than forty-five years, was, from his amiability an I benevolence, characterised by many Gentile friends as "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."
Hon. G. M. Yorke.—Brother to the late Earl of Hardwicke, and born in 1809, Mr. Yorke, on finishing his University education, entered the army, obtaining a commission in the Fourth Dragoons: and, considering his subsequent connection with Birmingham in a widely different character, it is curious that his first visit here should have been paid as an officer of dragoons in the Chartist riots of 1839. Mr. Yorke's personal tastes, however, led him to prefer the Church to the army, and he entered into holy orders, the Bishop of Worcester, in 1844, presenting him to the rectory of St. Philip's: and at a later period he was nominated Rural Dean. Mr. Yorke held the living of St. Philip's for the long period of thirty years—until 1874—when the Prime Minister appointed him Dean of Worcester. During his residence in Birmingham Mr. Yorke did much public service in connection with various educational institutions. He promoted good schools in St. Philip's parish, and was an active member of the committee of the Educational Prize Scheme, and then of the Education Aid Society, both of them institutions which were of great value in their day. He also took a strong interest in the affairs of Queen's College, of which he was for many years the Vice-president. In the Diocesan Training College, at Saltley, he ​likewise took part as a member of the managing body and he was interested in the School of Art and the Midland institute. Wherever, indeed, there was work to be done, the Rector of St. Philip's was sure to be found helping in it; and though there have been many Rectors at the church it can be truly said that none left more regretted by the poor, notwithstanding the aristocratic handle to his name, than did Mr. Yorke. The Hon. and Rev. gentleman died at Worcester, Oct. 2, 1879.
J.C. Miller.—The Rev. John Cale Miller (born at Margate, in 1814), though only thirty-two, had already attracted the notice of the Evangelical party in the Church, and his appointment to St. Martin's (Sept. 1846), gave general satisfaction. His reputation as a preacher had preceded him, and he soon diffused a knowledge of his vigour as a worker, and his capacity as an administrator. Few men have entered so quickly into popular favour as Dr. Miller did, which may, perhaps, be accounted for by the fact that he not only showed a sincere desire to live in harmony with the Dissenters of all shades, but that he was prepared to take his full share in the public work of the town, and determined to be the minister—not of any section of the people, but of the parish altogether. Under his direction St. Martin's became a model parish. New facilities were afforded for public worship, schools were established, parochial institutions multiplied under his hand, an ample staff of curates and scripture-readers took their share of labour, and the energies of the lay members of the congregation were called into active exercise. To the Grammar School, the Midland Institute, the Free Libraries, the Hospitals and Charities of the town, the Volunteer movement, &c. , he gave most assiduous attention, and as long as he remained with us, his interest in all public matters never failed. In the early part of 1866, Dr. Miller was presented to the living at Greenwich, taking his farewell of the townspeople of Birmingham at a meeting in the Town Hall, April 21, when substantial proof of the public goodwill towards him was given by a crowded audience of all creeds and all classes. A handsome service of plate and a purse of 600 guineas were presented to him, along with addresses from the congregation of St, Martin's, the Charity Collections Committee, the Rifle Volunteers (to whom he had been Chaplain), the Committees of the Hospitals, and from the town at large. The farewell sermon to St. Martin's congregation was preached April 29. In 1871 Dr. Miller was appointed residential Canon of Worcester, which preferment he soon afterwards exchanged for a Canonry at Rochester as being nearer to his home, other honours also falling to him before his death, which took place on the night of Sunday, July 11, 1880.
George Peake.—The Rev. G. Peake, Vicar of Aston, from 1852 to his death, July 9, 1876, was a ripe scholar and archaeologist, a kind-hearted pastor, and an effective preacher.
Isaiah Birt.—Mr. Isaiah Birt, a native of Coleford, undertook the pastorship of Cannon Street in 1800, holding it until Christmas, 1825, when from ill-health he resigned. The congregation allowed Mr. Birt an annuity of £100 until his death, in 1837, when he had reached 80 years of age.
Thomas Potts.—The Rev. Thomas Potts, who died in the early part of December, 1819, at the age of sixty-and-six, was, according to the printed funeral oration pronounced at the time, "an accurate, profound, and cautious theologian," who had conducted the classical studies at Oscott College for five-and-twenty years with vigour and enthusiasm, and "a grandeur of ability peculiarly his own."
Sacheveral.—Dr. Sacheveral, the noted and noisy worthy who kicked up such a rumpus in the days ​of Queen Anne, was a native of Sutton Coldfield, and his passing through Birmingham in 1709 was considered such an event of consequence that the names of the fellows who cheered him in the streets were reported to Government.
Pearce.—Ordained pastor of Cannon Street, Aug. 18, 1790. Mr. Pearce, in the course of a short life, made himself one of the most prominent Baptist divines of the day, the church under his charge increasing so rapidly that it became the source of great uneasiness to the deacons, Mr. Pearce took great interest in the missionary cause, preaching here the first sermon on behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society (Oct., 1792), on which occasion £70 was handed in; he also volunteered to go lo India himself. Suffering from consumption he preached his last sermon Dec. 2, 1798, lingering on till the 10th of October following, and dying at the early age of 33. He was buried at the foot of the pulpit stairs.
Slater.—Hutton says that an apothecary named Slater made himself Rector of St. Martin's during the days of the Commonwealth, and that when the authorities came to turn him out he hid himself in a dark corner. This is the individual named in Houghton's "History of Religion in England" as being brought before the Court of Arches charged with having forged his letters of orders, with preaching among the Quakers, railing in the pulpit at the parishioners, swearing, gambling, and other more scandalous offences.
Scholefield.—The pastor of the Old Meeting Congregation iu 1787 was named Scholefield, and he was the first to properly organise Sunday Schools in connection with Dissenting places of worship.
Robert Taylor.—The horrible title of "The Devil's Chaplain" was given the Rev. Robert Taylor, B.A., who in 1819-20 was for short periods curate at Yardley and at St. Paul's in this town. He had been educated for the Church, and matriculated well, but adopted such Deistical opinions that he was ultimately expelled the Church, and more than once after leaving here was imprisoned for blasphemy.
Charles Vince.—Charles Vince was the son of a carpenter, and was a native of Surrey, being born at Farnham in 1823. For some years after reaching manhood Mr. Vince was a Chartist lecturer, but was chosen minister of Mount Zion Chapel in 1851, and remained with us till Oct. 22, 1874, when he was removed to the world above. His death was a loss to the whole community, among whom he had none but friends.
John Webb.—The Rev. John Webb, who about 1802 was appointed Lecturer at St. Martin's and Minister of St. Bartholomew's was an antiquarian scholar of some celebrity; but was specially valued here (though his stay was not long) on account of his friendship with Mendelssohn and Neukomm, and for the valued services he rendered at several Festivals. He wrote the English adaptation of Winter's "Timoteo," or "Triumph of Gideon," performed at the Festival of 1823, and other effective pieces before and after that date, interesting himself in the success of the Triennials for many years. He died February 18, 1869, in Herefordshire.
William Wollaston.—That eminent English divine, the Rev. William Wollaston, who was born in the neighbouring county of Stafford, in 1659, was for several years assistant, and afterwards head master at our Free Grammar School, but, coming into a rich inheritance, retired. He died in 1724.
And so the list might go on, with such names as the Rev. Charles Curtis, of St. Martin's (1784) the Rev. E. Barn, of St. Mary's (1818), the Rev. John Cook, of St. Bartholomew's (1820 the Rev. W. F. Hook, of Moseley (1822), afterwards Dean of Christchurch; Dr. Outram, of St. Philip's (who died in 1821) ; Rann Kennedy, of St. Paul's; G. S. Bull, of St. ​Thomas's; with I. C. Barratt, of St Mary's, and many other clergymen and ministers, who have departed in these later years.
Patents.—The first patent granted to a Birmingham inventor is dated May 22, 1722, it being granted to Richard Baddeley for having "with much pains, labour, and expense, invented and brought to perfection 'An Art for making streaks for binding Cart and Wagon Wheels and Box Smoothing Irons' (never yet practised in this our kingdom) which will be more durable and do three times the service of those made of bar iron," &c., &c. It is not particularly wonderful that the toyshop of England should stand fir:st on the list as regards the number of patent grants applied for and taken out. As Bisset said—
   Inventions curious, various kinds of toys, Engage the time of women, men, and boys; And Royal patents here are found in scores, For articles minute—or pond'rous Ores.
By the end of 1799 the list shows that 92 patents had been granted to Birmingham men after Richard Baddeley had brought out his "patent streaks," and during the present century there have been many hundreds of designs patented or registered, scores of fortunes being made and thousands of hands employed, but often the inventors themselves have sold their rights for trifling amounts or succumbed to the difficulties that stood in the way of bringing their brainwork into practical use. Could the records of our County Asylums be thoroughly inspected, it is to be feared that disappointed inventors would be found more numerous than any other class of inmates. The costs of taking out, renewing, and protecting patents were formerly so enormous as practically to prevent any great improvements where capital was short, and scores of our local workers emigrated to America and elsewhere for a clearer field where n to exercise their inventive faculties without being so weighted down by patent laws. The Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852 was hailed with rejoicing, but even the requirements of that Act were found much too heavy. The Act which came into force Jan. 1, 1884, promises to remedy many of the evils hitherto existing. By this Act, the fees payable on patents are as follow:—On application for provisional specification, £1; on filing complete specification, £3; or, on filing complete specification with the first application, £4. These are all the fees up to the date of granting a patent. After granting, the following fees are payable: Before four years from date of patent, £50; and before the end of eight years from the date of patent, £100. In lieu of the £50 and the £100 payments, the following annual fees may be paid: Before the end of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years, £10 each year; before the end of the eighth and ninth years, £15 each year; and before the end of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth years, £20 each year.—If the number of words contained in the specifications constitutes the value of a patent, that taken out by our townsman. James Hardy (March 2S, 1844), for an improvement in tube-rolling must have been one of the most valuable ever known. The specifications filled 176 folios, in addition to a large sheet of drawings, the cost of an "office copy" being no less than £12 18s.! The Mechanics' Magazine said it could have all been described in 176 words,
Patriotic Fund.—The local collection for this fund was commenced October, 25, 1854, and closed February 22, 1858, with a total of £12,936 17s. 3d.
Paving.—A "patent" was obtained in 1319, 12th Edw. II, to "take toll on all vendible commodities for three years, to pave the town of Birmingham;" and as the funds thus raised were not sufficient for such a "town improvement," another "patent" for the purpose was procured in 1333, 7th Edw. III, the toll ​being fixed at one farthing on every eight bushels of corn. What the paving was in the early part of the present century is best told in the following extract from Bissett's "Magnificent Directory," published in 1800:—
   The streets are pav'd, 'tis true, but all the stones Are set the wrong end up, in shape of cones; And strangers limp along the best pav'd street, As if parch'd peas were strew'd beneath their feet, Whilst custom makes the Natives scarcely feel Sharp-pointed pebbles press the toe or heel.
About 1819-20 the roadways were stoned with the aid of a steam paving-engine, supplied with a row of six heavy rammers, which dropped on the uneven stones and drove them into the roads, the engine moving about a foot after each series of blows. A wood roadway was laid in Moor Street in April, 1873; and in June, 1874, the Council decided also so to pave New Street, High Street, and Bull Street. At their meeting, June 1876, it was resolved to spend £30,000 a year for six years in paving streets, and they have done all that.
Pawnbrokers.—In December, 1789, a Bill was prepared for presentation to Parliament "to suppress all pawnbrokers within the town." and to establish in lieu a general office for pledges. Wonder what our uncles thought of it.
Peace.—A branch of the Work-men's Peace Association was formed December 18, 1871.
Pebble Mill Pool.—The last few years a favourite spot for suicides, no less than thirty-nine persons having drowned themselves there since 1875. Strangely enough there was not a single similar case in the four years preceding, and only three cases of accidental drownings in the last 27 years.
Peck Lane.—Originally called Feck Lane, leading out of New Street, next to the Grammar School, was closed and cleared for the Railway Station. Steep and narrow as the old thoroughfare was, it was at one time thought quite as much of as Bull Street.
Pearls and Pearl Fisheries.—A few small pearls are occasionally found enclosed in the nacre(or mother-of-pearl) of shells cut up for buttons, &c., but seldom of much value, though it is related that a few years back a pearl thus discovered by a workman, and handed over to his employer, was sold for £40, realising £150 afterwards. In March, 1884. Mr. James Webb. Porchester Street, had the good fortune to find a pearl weighing 31 grains in an Australian shell he was cutting up, and it has been valued at £100. As there is a good market here for pearls, no doubt many others have been found that "have not come to light." A few years back, "pearl fisheries" of rather an extraordinary kind were here and there to be found in the outskirts, the prices of good workable shell having risen to such an extent that it paid to hunt for and dig up the scrap flung away in former years, as much as 15s. to 20s. per bag being obtained for some of these finds. One smart little master who recollected where his scrap was deposited some years before, in the neighbourhood of St. Luke's, paid the spot a visit, and finding it still unbuilt upon, set to work, and carted most of it back, and having improved tools, made a handsome profit by this resurrection movement.—See "Trades."
Pens.—The question as to who made the first steel pen has often been debated; but though Perry and Mason, Mitchell and Gillott, and others besides, have been named as the real original, it is evident that someone had come before them; for, in a letter written at least 200 years back (lately published by the Camden Society), the writer, Mary Hatton, offered to procure some pens made of steel for her brother, as "neither the glass pens nor any other sort was near so good." Silver pens were advertised for sale in the ​Morning Chronicle, in June, 1788, as well as "fountain pens;" and it has been claimed that an American supplied his friends with metallic pens a dozen years prior to that date. There was a Sheffield artisan, too, before our local men came to the front, who made some pens on the principle of the quill, a long hollow barrel, pointed and split; but they were considered more in the light of curiosities than for use, and fetched prices accordingly. Mr. James Perry is said to have given his workmen 5s. each for making pens, as late as 1824; and Mr. Gillott got 1s. each for a gross he made on the morning of his marriage. In 1835, the lowest wholesale price was 5s. per gross; now they can be had at a little over 1d. per gross. Even after the introduction of presses for the manufacture of steel pens (in 1829), there was considerable quantities of little machines made here for cutting quill pens, the "grey goose quill" being in the market for school use as late as 1855, and many hankers and others have no: yet discarded them. In May, 1853, a quantity of machinery was sent out to America, where many skilled workmen had gone previously; and now our Yankee cousins not only make their own pens, and run us close in all foreign markets, but actually send their productions to Birmingham itself.—See "Trades."
People's Hall.—The foundation stone of the People's Hall, corner of Loveday and Princip Streets, was laid on Easter Monday, 1841, by General (then Colonel) Perronet Thompson. The cost of the building was £2,400, and, as its name implies, it was intended, and for a short time used, as a place for assemblies, balls, and other public purposes. Like a number if other "institutions for the people," it came to grief, and has long been nothing more than a warehouse.
Pershore Road was laid out in 1825.
Perry Barr.—Three miles from Birmingham, on the road to Lichfield, is one of the ancient places that can claim a note in Domesday. Prior to the eighteenth century there had been a wooden bridge over the Tame, the present curiously-built stone erection, with its recesses to protect the wayfarers from contact with crossing vehicles, being put up in 1711-12 by Sir Henry Gough, who received £200 from the county, and contributions from the neighbouring parishes, towards the cost. The date oi the early church is unknown, the present one being built and endowed by Squire Gough in 1832. Like other suburbs Perry Barr bids fair to become little more than an offshoot to Birmingham, the road thereto fast tilling up with villa and other residences, while churches, chapels, and schools may be seen on all hands. The Literary Institute, built in 1874, at a cost of £2,000, contains reading and class rooms, lecture hall, &c., while not far off is a station on the L. and N.W. line. Perry Hall, the seat of the Hon. A. C. G. Calthorpe, has been the home of the Lords of the Manor for many generations.
Pest and Plague.—The year 1665 is generally given as the date of "the great plague" being here; but the register of St. Martin's Church does not record any extraordinary mortality in that year. In some of the "news sheets" of the 17th century a note has been met with (dated Sept. 28, 1631), in which the Justices of the Peace inform the Sheriff that "the plague had broken out in Deritend, in the parish of Aston, and spread far more dangerously into Birmingham, a great market town." St. Martin's registers of burials are missing from 1631 to 1655, and those of Aston are not get-at-able, and as the latter would record the deaths in Deritend, there does not appear any certain data to go upon, except that the plague was not a casual visitor, having visited Coventry in 1603 and 1625, Tarn worth in 1606 and 1625, and Worcester in 1825 and 1645, the date generally given (1665) being that of the year when the most ​deaths 68,596, occurred in London. The tradition is that the plague contagion was brought here in a box of clothes conveyed by a carrier from Loudon. It is said that so many persons died in this town that the churchyard would not hold the bodies, and the dead were taken to a one-acre piece of waste land at Ladywood Green, hence known for many generations as the "Pest Ground." The site has long been built over, but no traces of any kind of sepulture were found when house foundations were being laid.
Pewter.—To have bright pewter plates and dishes ranged on their kitchen shelves was once the delight and the pride of all well-to-do housewives, and even the tables of royalty did not disdain the pewter. At the grand dinner on George IV.'s Coronation-day, though gold and silver plate was there in abundance for the most noble of the noble guests, the majority Were served on brightly-burnished pewter, supplied from Thomason's of Birmingham. The metal is seldom seen now except in the shape of cups aud measures used by publicans.
Philanthropic Collections.—The following are a few not mentioned in previous pages:— A local fund for the relief of sufferers by famine in Asia Minor was opened May 6, 1875, the amount collected being £682.—In 1875, a little over £1,700 was gathered to aid the sufferers from the inundations in France that year.—November 25, 1878, at a meeting held to sympathise with the losers through the failure of the Glasgow Bank more than £1,000 was subscribed; £750 being gathered afterwards.—The Mayor's Relief Fund, in the winter-time of 1878-79, totalled up to £10,242, of which £9,500 was expended in relief, £537 in expenses, and the balance divided between the Hospitals. The number of separate gifts or donations to the poor was 500,187, equivalent to relieving once 103,630 families.
Philanthropic Societies.—Are as numerous as they are various, and the amount of money, and money's worth, distributed each year is something surprising. The following are the principal ones:—
Aged Women.—A society was commenced here in 1824 for the relief of poor women over 60 years of age, and there are now on the books the names of nearly 200 who receive, during the year, in small amounts, an average of 17s to 18s. each. Miss Southall, 73, Wellington Road, is one of the Hon. Secs., who will be pleased to receive additional subscriptions. Fifty other aged women are yearly benefitted through Fentham's Trust.—See "Blue Coat School."
Architects.—There is a Benevolent Society in connection with the Royal Institute of British Architects, for relieving poor members of the profession, their widows, or orphans. The local representative is Mr. F. Cross, 14a, Temple Row.
Aunt Judy's Work Society.—On the plan of one started in Loudon a few years back; the object being to provide clothes for poor children in the Hospitals. The secretary is Mrs. W. Lord, Brakendale, Farquhar Road, Edgbaston.
Bibles, &c.—The Birmingham Depositorv of the British and Foreign Bibie Society is at 40, Paradise Street; and that of the Christian Knowledge Society is at 92, New Street.
Boarding-out Poor Children.— A Ladies' Society for Befriending Pauper Children by taking them from the Workhouse and boarding them out amoug cottagers and others in the country, has been quietly at work for some dozen years before the Marston Green Homes were built, but whether the latter rule-of-thumb experiment will prove more successful than that of the ladies, though far more costly, the coming generation muse decide.
Boatmen's Friend Society.— A branch of the British Seamen's and Boatmen's Friend Society, principally for the supply of religious education to the ​boatmen and their families on the canals, the distribution among them of healthy literature, and the support of the work carried on at the Boatmen's Hall, Worcester Wharf, where the Superintendent (Rev. R. W. Cusworth) may be found. The subscriptions in 1882 amounted to £416.
Church Pastoral Aid Society.—The name tells what subscriptions are required for, and the Rev. J. G Dixon, Rector of St. George's, will be glad to receive them. The grants of the Parent Society to Birmingham in 1882 amounted to £3,560, while the local subscriptions were only £1,520.
Clergymen's Widows.— The Society for Necessitous Clergy within the Archdeaconry of Coventry, whose office is at 10, Cherry Street, has an income from subsriptions, &c., of about £320 per year, which is mainly devoted to grants to widows and orphans of clergymen, with occasional donations to disabled wearers of the cloth.
Deritend Visiting and Parochial Society, established in 1856. Meeting at the Mission Hall, Heathmill Lane, where Sunday Schools, Bible classes, Mothers' Meetings, &c., are conducted. The income for 1883 was £185 7s. 4d., and the expenditure £216 16s. 7d., leaving a balarce to be raised.
District Nursing Society, 56, Newhall Street, has for its object the nursing of sick poor at their own homes in cases of necessity. In 1883 the number of cases attended by the Society's nurses was 312, requiring 8,344 visits.
Domestic Missions, of one kind and another, are conected with all the principal places of worship, and it would be a difficult task to enumerate them. One of the earliest is the Hurst Street Unitarian, dating from 1839.
Flower Mission.—At No. 3, Great Charles Street, ladies attend every Friday to receive donation of flowers, &c., for distribution in the wards of the Hospitals, suitable texts and passages of Scripture accompanying the gifts to the patients.
Girls' Friendly Society.—The local Branch, of which there are several sub (or parochial) branches, has on its books near upon 1,400 names of young women in service, &c., whose welfare and interests are looked after by a number of clergymen and ladies in connection with the Church of England.
Humane Society.— A Branch on the plan of the London Society was established here in 1790, but it was found best to incorporate it with the General Hospital in 1803.
India.—A Branch of the Christian Vernacular Education Society for India was formed here in 1874. There are several branches in this town and neighbourhood of the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society for making known the Gospel to the women of India, and about £600 per year is gathered here.
Iron, Hardware, and Metal Trades' Pension Society was commenced in this town in 1842. Its head offices are now in London; the local collector being Mr. A. Forrest, 32, Union Street.
Jews and Gentiles.—There are local Auxiliary Branches here of the Anglo-Jewish Association, the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, and the British Society for Propagating the Gospel among Jews, the amounts subscribed to each in 1882 being £72, £223, and £29 respectively.
Kindness to Animals.—Mainly by the influence and efforts of Miss Julia Goddard, in 1875, a plan was started of giving prizes among the scholars and pupil teachers of the Board Schools for the best written papers tending to promote kindness to animals. As many as 3,000 pupils and 60 teachers send papers in every year, and the distribution of 500 prizes is annually looked forward to with interest. Among the prizes are several silver medals—one (the champion) being given in memory of Mr. Charles Darwin, another in memory of Mr. E. F. Flower, a third (given by Mr. J. H. Chamberlain) in memory of Mr. George Dawson, and a fourth given by the Mayor.
​Ladies' Useful Work Association.—Established in 1877 for the inculcating habits of thrift and the improvement of domestic life among mothers of families and young people commencing married life. A start was made (Oct. 4) in the shape of a series of "Cookery Lessons," which were exceedingly well attended. Series of useful lectures and lessons have followed since, all bearing on home life, and as it has been shown that nearly one-half of the annual number of deaths in Birmingham are those of children under 5 years of age, it is to be hoped that the "useful work " the ladies of the Association have undertaken may be resultive in at least decreasing such infantile mortality. Office, No. 1, Broad Street Corner. In March, 1883, the ladies had a balance in hand of £88.
Needlework Guild.—Another Ladies' Association of a similar character to the above was established April 30, 1883.
Negroes' Friends.—"When slavery was as much a British as American institution it was not surprising that a number of lady residents should form themselves, in 1825, into a Negroes' Friend Society. The funds now collected, nearly £170 a year, are given in grants to schools on the "West Coast of Africa and the "West Indies, and in donations to the Freedmen's Aid Society, the Anti-Slavery Society, &c.
Old Folks Tea Party.—In 1857, a few old people were given a treat just prior to Christmas, and the good folks who got it up determined to repeat it. The next gatherings were assembled at the Priory Room^, but in a few years it became needful to engage the Town Hall, and there these treats, which are given biennially, are periodically held. At the last gathering there attended over 700, not one of whom was under sixty years of age, while some were long past their three-score and ten, and a few bordered on ninety. The funds are raised by the sale of tickets (to be given by the purchasers to such old people they think deserve it), and by subscriptions, the recipients of the treat not only having that enjoyment, but also take home with them warm clothing and other usefuls suited to their time of life.
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.—A Birmingham Society for this purpose was established in 1852, and its officers have frequently been the means of punishing inhuman brutes who cruelly treated the animals entrusted to their care. Cases of this kind should be reported to Mr. B. Scott, the Society's Secretary, 31, Bennett's Hill. In 1882, 125 persons were summoned, and 107 of them convicted, the year's expenditure being £344.
Religious Tract Society.—A local auxiliary was established here in 1853 in which year £409 were realised, by the sale of books, tracts, and religious periodicals; in 1863 that amount was quadrupled; in 1873 the receipts were nearly £2,000. Last year (1883) the value of the sales reached £2,597, and, in addition, there hid been free grants made of more than 13,000 tracts and magazines—the Hospitals, Lunatic Asylums, Workhouses, Police Stations, Cabmen's Rests, &c., being supplied gratuitously.
St. John Ambulance Association.—The Birmingham Branch of this Association was organised in 1881, and some hundreds of both sexes have since then passed the examination, and obtained certificates of their proficiency in ambulance work, and in the treatment of ordinary cases of accident or sudden illness. It would be a good thing if every man and woman in the town had similar knowledge, and would make use of it when occasions require quick thought and ready hand. The secretary is Mr. J. K. Patten, 105, Colmore Row.
St. Thomas's Day Charity.—A very old custom in Edgbaston has been the collection of donations for a Christmas distribution to the poor and old of he parish. Regular accounts have been booked for over fifty years, but ​how much longer the custom has existed is uncertain. At first, money only was given, afterwards part was given in bread and packets of tea, while of later years a stock of about 500 blankets has been provided for lending out. The receipts per year are about £200.
True Blues.—In 1805 a number of young men who had been brought up at the Blue Coat School and who called themselves the "Grateful Society," united their contributions and presented that charity with £52 10s. 3d. in gratitude for the benefits they had received, a worthy plan which was followed for several years. These same young men originated the "United Society of True Blues" (composed of members who had been reared in the School) for the purpose of forming a fund for the relief of such of their number as might be in distress, and further to raise periodical subscriptions for their old school, part of which is yearly expended in prizes among the children.
Philanthropic and Benevolent Institutions—Birmingham cannot be said ever to have wanted for charitable citizens, as the following list of philanthropic institutions, societies, and trusts will show:—
Blind Institution, Carpenter Road, Edgbaston.—The first establishment in this town for teaching the blind was opened at 113, Broad Street, in March, 1847, with five boarders and twelve day pupils. At Midsummer, in the following year, Islington House was taken, with accommodation for thirteen resident and twelve day scholars, but so well did the public meet the wishes of the patrons and committee of the Institution, that the latter were soon in a position to take upon lease a site for a permanent building (two acres, at £40 a year for 99 years), and on the 23rd of April, 1S51, the corner-stone was laid of the present handsome establishment near to Church Road, the total cost of completion being about £7,000. Nearly another £7,000 has since been expended in the erection of workrooms, master's residence, in furniture, musical instruments, tools, &c,, and the Institution may be considered in as flourishing a condition as any in the town The 37th annual report (to Lady-day, 1884), stated that the number of in-door pupils during the past year had been 86—viz., 51 males and 35 females. In the same period 4 paid teachers, 15 out-door blind teachers and workmen, and 4 females had been employed. The number of adult blind residing at their own homes, and visited by the blind teachers engaged in this department of the work was 253. The total number of persons benefited by the institution was therefore 362. The financial statement showed that the expenditure had been £6,067 2s. 7d., of which £1,800 had been invested in Birmingham Corporation Stock. The receii'ts amounted to £6,403 7s. 9d., leaving a balance of £336 5s. 2d. in the treasurer's hands. The statement of receipts and payments on behalf of the adult blind home-teaching branch, which are kept separately, showed a balance due to the treasurer of £71 5s. 9d.
Bloomsbury Institution.—Commencing in 1860 with a small school, Mr. David Smith has gradually founded at Bloomsbury an institution which combines educational, evangelistic, and missionary agencies of great value to the locality. The premises include a mission hall, lecture room, class rooms, &c., in addition to Cottage Homes for orphan and destitute children, who are taught and trained in a manner suited to the future intended for them in Canada. The expenditure of the Institution is now about £1,500 a year, bat an amount equal to that is wanted for enlargement of buildings, and other philanthropists will do well to call upon their brother Smith.
Children's Day Nursery, The Terrace, Bishopsgate Street, was first opened in 1870, to take care of the children in cases where the mothers, or other guardians, have to go to work. ​About 6,000 of the little ones are yearly looked after, at a cost of somewhat under £200. Parties wishing to thus shelter their children must prove the latter's legitimacy, and bring a recommendation from employer or someone known to the manager.
Children's Emigration Home, St. Luke's Road.—Though ranking among our public institutions, the philanthropic movement of picking up the human waifs and strays of our dirty back streets may be said to have hitherto been almost solely the private work of our benevolent townsman, Mr. Middlemore. The first inmate received at the Homes (in 1872) was a boy who had already been in prison three times, and the fact that that boy is now a prosperous man and the owner of a large farm in Canada, should be the best of all claims to the sympathy and co operation of the public in the beneficent work of pacing our "Street Arabs" in new homes where they will have equal chances of getting on in the world. The batch of children leaving this town (June 11, 1884), comprised 110 boys and 50 girls, making the total number of 912 sent out b}' Mr. Middlemore in the twelve years.—In connection with the Bloomsbury Institution there is also a Children's Home, from which 23 children have been sent to Canada, and at which some 30 others are at present being trained ready to go.
Deaf and Dumb Institution, Church Road, Edgbaston.—This is the only institution of its kind within a radius of a hundred miles, and was the second established in England. Its founder was Dr. De Lys, an eminent physician, resident here in 1810, in which year a society was established for its formation. The first house occupied was in Calthorpe Road (1812), Lord Calthorpe giving the use of the premises until the erection of the institution in Church Road, in 1814. The school, at first, would accommodate only a score of pupils, but from time to time additions were made, and in 1858 the whole establishmant was remodelled and enlarged, at a cost of £3,000, so that now there is room for 120. The number on the books at Midsummer, 1883, was 109—64 boys and 45 girls. The year's receipt's amounted to £3,152 12s. 4d., and the expenditure to £2,982 12s. 8d. The children, who are elected at the annual meeting of subscribers in September, are received from all parts of the kingdom, but must not be under eight or over thirteen years of age. Subscribers of a guinea have the right of voting at the elections, and the committee have also power to admit children, on an annual payment of £25. The parents or guardians of the elected candidates, must pay £6 per year towards clothing, &c. The office of the Secretary is at City Chambers, 82 New Street.
Friendless Girls.—The Ladies' Association (established 1878) for the recovery of girls who have given way to temptation for a short time, or who have been convicted of a first offence, has been the means of rescuing many from the streets and from a life of crime. The Home is in Spring Road, and Mrs. Pike, Sir Harry's Road, is the treasurer, to whom contributions can be sent; and that they will be welcome is shown by the fact that there is a balance at present against the Institution's funds.
Girls' Home, Bath Row, established in 1851, to provide shelter for young women of good character, when out of situations. A free registry is kept, and over 300 girls avail themselves of the Home every year.
Girls' Training Institution, George Road, Edgbaston, was opened in 1862, to prepare young girls from twelve to fifteen, for domestic service.
Industrial and Reformatory Schools,—Gem Street Industrial School, for the recovery of boys who had began a life of crime, was opened in 1850, and at the close of 1883 it contained 149 boys, under the charge of nine officers. ​According to the report of Her Majesty's Inspector, the boys cost 7s. 8d. per head per week, but there was an industrial profit of £601 11s. 4d., £309 0s. 11d. having been received for hire of boys' labour. The Treasury paid £1,350 14s., the rates no less than £1,007 18s. 11d., and subscriptions brought in £83 13s. Of 125 discharges, only 40 per cent, were reported to be doing well, 4 per cent. convicted, 16 per cent. doubtful, and as many as 40 per cent. unknown.—Penn Street School, an establishment of a similar character, was certified in Jan., 1863. There were 60 boys and 5 officers. The boys cost only 5s. 6d. par head per week. The school received £673 16s. 11d. from the Treasury, £275 0s. 10d. From the rates, £93 2s. from subscriptions, and £100 9s. 3d. from the hire of boy labour. There is an industrial profit of £136 193. 11d. Of 37 discharges 70 per cent. are said to be doing well, 6 per cent. to be re-convicted, 3 per cent. dead, and 21 per cent. unknown.—At Shustoke School, certified in February, 1868, there were 130 boys, under 11 officers. The boys cost 6s. 8d. per head per week. £1,580 I7s. 11d had been received from the Treasury; £1,741 16s. from the rates, of which, however, £1,100 had been spent in building, &c.; industrial profit, £109 3s. 7d. Of 27 discharges 74 per cent. were reported to be doing well, 18 per cent. to be convicted, 4 per cent. to be doubtful, and 4 per cent. to be unknown.—Saltley Reformatory was established in 1852. There were 91 boys under detention and 16 on license at the time of the inspector's visit; 9 officers. This school received £1,371 14s. 3d. from the Treasury, £254 19s. 1d. from the rates, and £99 16s. 6d. from subscriptions. The boys cost 6s 8d. per head per week, and there was £117 9s. 10d. industrial profit, representing the produce of their labour. Of 74 boys discharged in 1879-81, 69 per cent. are reported to be doing well, 19 per cent. to be reconvicted, and 12 per cent. unknown.—At Stoke Farm Reformatory, established in 1853, there were 78 boys under detention, in charge of 10 officers; and 19 on license. Stoke received £1,182 19s. 8d. from the Treasury, £102 17s. 6d. from the rates, and £100 from subscriptions. The boys cost 6s. 11d. per head per week, and there was an industrial profit of £18 14s. 11d. Of 62 boys discharged in 1879-81, 76 per cent. were reported to by doing well, 16 per cent. to be convicted of crime, 5 per cent. doubtful, 1⅓ per cent. dead, 1½ per cent. unknown.
Licensed Victuallers Asylum, Bristol Road, founded in 1848, to receive and maintain for life distressed members of the trade and their wives or widows.—The Secretary is Mr. H. C. Edwards, The Quadrant, New Street.—See "Trade Societies."
Little Sisters' Home.—Founded in 1864, by three French and two English members of the Catholic "Order of Little Sisters of the Poor," the first home being at one of the large houses in the Crescent, where they sheltered, fed, and clothed about 80 aged or broken-down men and women. In 1874 the Sisters removed to their present establishment, at Harborne, where they minister to nearly double the number. The whole of this large family are provided for out of the scraps and odds-and-ends gathered by the Sisters from private houses, shops, hotels, restaurants, and bars of the town, the smallest scraps of material, crusts of bread, remains of meat, even to cigar ends, all being acceptable to the black robed ladies oi' charity daily seen in the town on their errand of mercy. Though essentially a Catholic institution, the "Little Sisters" bestow their charity irrespective of creed, Protestants being admitted and allowed freely to follow their own religious notions, the only preference made being in favour of the most aged and destitute.
Magdalen Asylum and Refuge.—First established in 1828, the chapel in Broad Street being opened in 1839. ​Removed to Clarendon Road, Edgbaston, in 1860. There are usually from 35 to 40 inmates, whose labour provides for great part of the yearly expenditure; and it is well that it is so, for the subscriptions and donations from the public are not sent in so freely as could be wished. The treasurer is Mr. S. S. Lloyd.
Medical Mission.—Opened in Floodgate Street, Deritend, in 1875. While resembling other medical charities for the relief of bodily sickness, this mission has for its chief aim the teaching of the Gospel to tie sick poor, and in every house that may be visited. That the more worldly part of the mission is not neglected is shown by the fact that the expenditure for the year ending Michaelmas, 1883. reached £643.
Night Refuge.—Mr. A. V. Fordyce, in July, 1880, opened a night asylum in Princess Road, for the shelter of homeless and destitute boys, who were supplied with bed and breakfast. The necessity for such an institution was soon made apparent by larger premises being required, and the old police station, corner of Bradford Street and Alcester Street, was taken. This has been turned into a "Home," and it is never short of occupants, other premises being opened in 1883, close to Deritend Bridge, for the casual night-birds, the most promising of whom are transferred to the Home after a few days' testing. A somewhat similar Refuge for Girls has also been established, and if properly supported by the public, these institutions must result in much good.
Nurses.—The Birmingham and Midland Counties' Training Institution for Nurses, organised in 1868, has its "Home" in the Crescent. It was founded for the purpose of bringing skilled nursing to the homes of those who would otherwise be unable to obtain intelligent aid in carrying out the instructions of their medical attendants. The subscription list for 1882 ammonted to £282 1s., and the sum to the credit of the nurses' pension fund to £525 1s. The committee earnestly appeal for increased support, to enable them to extend the work of the institution, from which at present the services of four nurses are granted to the District Nursing Society. Newhall Street, for attendance on the sick poor. The staff included 66 trained nurses, with 18 probationers, the latter passing for their training through the General, Children's, and Homeopathic Hospitals. The nurses from the "Home" attend on an average over 500 families in the year, those from the District Society conferring their services on nearly 200 other families.
Protestant Dissenting Charity School, Graham Street.—-This is one of the oldest of our philanthropical institutions, having been established in 1760—the first general meeting of subscribers being held June 22, 1761. The first house taken for the purposes of the charity was in New Meeting Street, and both boys and girls were admitted, but since 1813 only girls have received its benefits. These are taken from any locality, and of any Protestant denomination, being housed, fed, clothed, educated and trained for domestic servants. There are usually about 45 to 48 inmates, the cost per child averaging in 1883 (tor 56 girls) nearly £20 per head. At the centenary in 1861 a fund of nearly £1,500 was raised by public subscription in aid of the institution, which has but a small income from investments. Subscribers of a guinea per year have the right of nominating and voting for the admission of one child every year. The present home in Graham Street was erected in 1839, and application should be made to the matron for information or for servant girls.
Sanatorium, situated at Blackcwell, near Bromsgrove.—This establishment, which cost £15,750, of which £2,000 was given by Miss Ryland, was built to provide a temporary home, with pure air, rest, and nourishing diet for convalescent patients, who ​otherwise might have had to pine away in the close-built quarters of this and neighbourhood towns. The buildings, which will accommodate sixty persons, were opened April 16, 1873, and take the place of a smaller establishment to which Miss Ryland hid devoted for some years a house at Sparkbrook. The average number of inmates is put at fifty, and the number who pissed through the house in 1883 was 1,052. the expenditure for the year being £1,780 8s. The income was derived from annual subscriptions, £901 10s.; special subscriptions, £347 11s. 6d.; paid by hospitals for maintenance of patients, £192 6s.; grant from the General Hospital, £26 5s.; share of Hospital Saturday collection, £211 0s. 4d. The Secretary, from whom all information can be received as to terms of special and other tickets, is Mr. E. J. Bigwood, 3, Temple Row West.
Servants' Home and Training Institution, established in 1860, finds shelter for a time to as many as 210 young women in the course of a year, many looking upon it as the only home they have when out of a situation. In connection with it is a "training School" and laundry, where a score or more girls are taught. Both parts of the institution pay their way, receipts and expenditure (£180 and £350 respectively) generally balancing. The Servants' Home is at 30, Bath Row, where there is a Registry for servants, and also for sick and mouthy' nurses.
Town Mission—Established in 1837, and re-modelled in 1850. This institution seeks work in a variety of ways, its agents visiting the homes of the poor, the wards of the Hospitals, the lodging-houses, and even the bedsides of the patients in the smallpox and fever hospitals. In addition to the providing and looking after the "Cab-men's Rests," of which there are sixteen in the town, the Mission employs a Scripture reader specially to deal with the deaf and dumb members of the community, about 200 in number. At the Noel Road Refuge (opened in 1859) about 40 inmates are received yearly, and at Tindal House (opened in 1864) about half that number, the two institutions having (to end of 1883) sheltered 1,331 females, of whom nearly a thousand have been brought back to moral and industrious habits. The income of the Society for 1883 was £1,690 17s. 3d., the expenditure being a little over that amount, though the laundries connected with the Refuges more than pay their way. The office is at the Educathional Chambers, 90, New Street.
Young Mens Christian Associahtion.—Instituted in 1849; incorporated in 1873. For many years its meetings were held at the Clarendon Chambers, but when the notorious "Sultan Divan" was closed in Needless Alley, it was taken for the purposes of this institution, the most appropriate change of tenancy that could possibly be desired, the attractions of the glaring dancing-rooms and low-lived racket giving place to comfortable reading-rooms, a cosy library, and healthy amusements. Young men of all creeds may here find a welcome, and strangers to the town will meet friends to guide them in choice of companions, or in securing comfortable homes. — A similar Association is that of the Church of England Y.MC.A., at 30, Paradise Street, which was commenced in 1849, and numbers several hundred members.—At a Conference held Nov. 24, 1880, it was decided to form a Midland District Union of Y.M.C.A.s in this and the surrounding counties.
Young Women's Christian Association, 3, Great Charles Street.—The idea of forming an institute for young women was first mooted in 1874, a house being taken for the purpose in Colmore Row in 1876, but it was removed to Great Charles Street in 1882, where lodgings may be obtained for 2s. 6d. a week. From returns sent in from various branches in connection with the Association, it would appear that the number of members in ​Birmingham was 1,500, which says much for its popularity among the class it was intended to benefit.
Philanthropic Trust Funds.—That our predecessors forgot not charity is well proved, though some of the "Trusts" read, strangely in these day.
Apprenticing Poor Boys.—A favourite bequest in past days was the leaving of funds for apprenticing poor lads to useful trades, and when workmen were so scarce and valuable that the strong arm of the law was brought in to prevent their emigrating or removing, doubtless it is a useful charity enough. Now-a-days the majority of masters do not care about the small premiums usually paid out of these trusts, and several such charities have been lost sight of or become amalgamated with others. The funds, however, left by George Jackson, 1696, and by Richard Scott, 1634, are still in the hands of trustees, and to those whom it may concern, Messrs. Horton and Lee, Newhall street, solicitors to both trusts, will give all needful information.
Banner's Charity.—Richard and Samuel Banner, in 1716, left some land at Erdington, towards providing clothing for two old widows and half-a-dozen old men, the balance, if any, to be used in apprenticing poor boys in Birmingham.
Dudley Trust.—Mr. William Dudley, at his decease in 1876 left £100,000 on trust for the purpose of assisting young tradesmen commencing business on their own account, to relieve aged tradesmen of the town who had not succeeded in life, and lastly to benefit the charities of the town. The rules require that applicants must be under fifty years of age; that they must reside within the limits of the borough; that they must not have been set up in business more than three years; that they must give satisfactory proof of their honesty, sobriety, and industry; and that they must give satisfactory security to the Trustees, either personal, viz., by bond with two or more sureties [each surety must give two or three references], or upon freehold, copyhold, or leasehold properties. All these conditions being satisfactorily met, the loans, which will be made free of cost, will bear interest at 2½ per cent. per annum, payable half-yearly, and must be repaid within five years, and if the money is wanted for more than two years, repayments by in.sallmuents must then commence. The benefactions to aged persons take the shape of grants, annual or otherwise, not exceeding £20 in any one year, in favour of persons who fulfil the following requirements: They must be of the age of sixty years at least, they must have been tradesmen within the limits of the borough; and they must be able to show to the satisfaction of the Trustees that they are of good character and need assistance, and that they have not received any parochial relief. The Trustees have made several large grants to charitable institutions. Offices: 20, Temple Row.
Fentham's Charity.—In 1712 George Fentham left about one hundred acres of land in Handsworth and Erdington Parishes, in trust, to teach poor children to read, and to clothe poor widows. The property, when devised, was worth £20 per year. At the end of the century it was valued at £100 per year; and it now brings in nearly £460. The twenty children receiving the benefits of this charity are admitted to the Blue Coat School, and are distinguished by their dress of dark green. Some fifty widows yearly share in the clothing gifts.
Food and Clothing.—John Crowley, in 1709, bequeathed an annuity of 20s. chargeable on property in the Lower Priory, to be expended in "sixpenny bread" for the poor at Christmas.—Some land at Sutton Coldfield was left, in 1681, by John Hopkins, to provide clothing and food for the poor of St. Martin's.—Palmer's Charity, 1867, funds about £40 per annum, which is distributed among eighty recipients ​selected by the Town Council, the majority being poor old women, who go fur their doles Dec. 12th.—In addition to the above there have been a number of minor charities left to the churchwardens (or providing food and clothing which have either been lost sight of, or mixed up with ohiers, some dating as far back as 1629-30.
George Hill's Charity is now of the value of nearly £5,000, bringing in about £120 yearly. Of this 52s. goes to the churchwardens of the parish church to provide bread for the most, necessitous and aged poor; 20s. to the incumbent of Deritend, and the residue in pensions of not more than £20 to decayed schoolmasters and schoolmistresses.
Hollier's Charity was devised in 1789, the land now known as Highgate Park (originally 10 acres) being left to clothe, annually, twenty poor persons, twelve from Birmingham and eight from Aston. The purchase money paid by the Corporation has been invested, and, under the direction of thy Charity Commissioners, the income of this charity is appropriated thus:— £50 for clothing for twelve poor men or women of Birmingham, and eight ditto of Aston; £25 for relieving deserving and necessitous persons discharged from Borough Lunatic Asylum; £150 to the Dispensaries of Birmingham and Aston; £25 each to the Children's Hospital and the Sanatorium; and the remainder to the General Hospital.
James's Trust, of 1869, which realises about £1,000 per year, was left to provide homes and pensions for deserving widows and others; five annuities for poor and decayed gentlewomen; and a scholarship at the Grammar School. The Secretary is the Vicar of St. Clement's, Nechells.
Kyleuppe's Charity.— Sept. 19, 1611. Richard Kyleuppe devised certain land at Sparkbrook for charitable purposes, the income of which is now handed to the General Hospital and General Dispensary, as nearly as possible following the testator's wishes.
Lench's Trust, which dates from 1539, is one of the most important charities of the town, and has an income of over £3,000 a year at present. The original objects of the trust were repairing the streets of the town and relief to the poor. From time to time other charities have been incorporated, and the funds administered with those of Lench's Trust. Among these are the "Bell Rope" fund for purchasing ropes for St. Martin's Belfry, the donor of which is not known; Colmore's Charity, dating from 1565, for relieving the poor and repairing streets; Redhill's and Shilton's (about 1520), for like purposes; Kyleuppe's 1610, for the poor, and a small sum towards repairing the church; Vesey's 1583, known as the "Loveday Croft" gift; Ward's 1573, and Wrexam's, 1568, both for gifts to the poor on Good Friday; Ann Scott's, 1808, providing small amounts to be given to the inmates of the Almshouses, &c. The Trust now maintains four sets of almshouses (Conybere Street, Hospital Street, Ravenhurst Street, and Ladywood) accommodating 181 inmates, all women, who receive 5s. a week each, with firing, medical advice and medicines when necessary, and sundry other small comforts beloved by old grannies. The solicitors to the Trust are Messrs. Horton and Lee, Newhall Street. The income of Lench's Trust for the year 1883 amounted to £3,321 10s., of which £1,825 14s. went to the almswomen, £749 1s. 8d. for matrons, doctors, and expenses at the almshouses, £437 9s. 4d. for repairs, insurance, rates, and taxes, and £309 5s. for clerks, collectors, auditors, law and surveyor's charges, printing, &c.
Milwards Charity.—John Milward in 1654 left property then worth £26 per annum and the Red Lion publichouse (worth another £26, but which could never be traced out), to be devided between the governors of the Free Grammar Schools of Birmingham ​and Haverfovrdwest and Brazennose College, for the support at the said college of one student from the above schools in rotation. The Red Lion having been swallowed up at a gulp, the other property would appear to have been kept as a nibbling-cake, for till the Charity Commissioners visited there in 1827 no scholar had ever been sent to college by its means. The railways and canals have taken most of the property of this trust, they invested capital arising from the sales bringing in now about £650 per year, which is divided between the two schools and the college above named, the Birmingham portion being sufficient to pay for two scholarships yearly.
The Nichol Charity provrides for the distribution of bread and coal to about 100 people on New Year's Day, by the vicar and churchwardens of St. David's.
Old Maids and Widows.—About £40 per year are dividcd by the Rector and Churchwardens of St. Philip's amongst ten old maids "or single women of virtuous character," and twelve poor widows attending divine service there, the invested money arising from Sheldon's Charity, 1826, and Wilkinson's Charity, 1830.—Thomas Pargeter (of Foxcote) in 1867, left money in trust, to provide annuities of £20 each, to unmarried ladies of fifty-five or more, professing Unitarianism, and about 100 are now reaping the fruit of his charity. Messrs. Harding and Son, Waterloo Street, are the solicitors.
Pidduck's Trust, for putting poor boys out apprentice, was devised in 1728, the property consisting of a farm at Winson Green. By direction of the Court of Chancery, the income is now directed, £70 to Gem Street Free Industrial School, and £20 to the British School, Severn Street. The trustees include the Mayor, the Rectors of St. Martin's, St. Philip's, St. Thomas's, St. George's, several Nonconformist ministers, and the Registrar of the Society of Friends.
Preaching Sermons.—By Salusbury's Charity, 1726, the Rectors of Sr. Martin's and St. Philip's are entitled to the sum of 15s. to preach sermons once a year for the benefit of the Blue Coat School—Ingram's Charity, 1818, consisting of the yearly interest of £500 4 par cent. India Stock, was intended to insure the preaching of an annual sermon on the subject of kindness to animals (especially to the horse) by a local clergyman of the Established Church, but the Governors of King Edward's School, who are the trustees, have obtained the sanction of the Charity Commissioniers to a scheme under which sermons on kindness to animals may take the form of one or more free lectures on the kind treatment of animals, and especially of the horse, to be delivered in any place of public worship, or other building or room approved by the trustees, and not necessarily, as heretofore, by a clergyman of the Established Church, and in a church.
Scripture Reading.—In 1853 Admiral Duff left a sum of money, which brings in about £15 per year, for the maintenance of a Scripture Reader for the town of Birmingham. The trustee of this fund is the Mayor for the time being, and the Scripture Reader may be heard of at the Town Clerk's office.
The Whittingham Charity, distributed at St James's, Ashted, in March, furnishes gifts to about eighty poor people (principally widows), who receive blankets, sheets, quilts, flannel, &c., in addition to bread and coal.
Philosophical Society.—A society with this name was formed in 1794, for the promulgation of scientific principles among mechanics. Its meetings were held in an old warehouse in the Coach Yard, and from the fact that many workmen from the Eagle Foundry attended the lectures, delivered mainly by Mr. Thomas Clarke, the members acquired the name of "the cast-iron philosophers." Another society was formed in 1800, for the diffusion of scientific knowledge amongst the ​middle and higher classes, and by the year 1814 it was possessed of a handsome Lecture Theatre, a large Museum, with good collections of fossils and minerals, a Library, Reading Room, &c., in Cannon Street. Like many other useful institutions of former days, the philosophical has had to give way to the realistic, its library of dead men's writings, and its fossils of the ancient world, vanishing in face of the reporters of to-day's doings, the ubiquitous throbs of the "Walter" and "Hoe" steam presses resounding where erst the voice of Science in chronicling the past foreshadowed the future.
Pillory.—This ancient machine for the punishment of prigs formerly stood in High Street. The last time it was used was in 1813. We pillory people in print now, and pelt them with pen and ink. The Act for abolishing this method of punishment was not passed until June 30, 1837. What became of the pillory here is not known, but there is, or was lately, a renovated specimen of the article at Coleshill.
Pinfold Street takes its name from the "pound" or "pinfold" that existed there prior to 1752. There used to be another of these receptacles for straying animals near to the Plough and Harrow in Hagley Road, and a small corner of Smithfield was railed off for the like purpose when the Cattle market was there established. The "Jacob Wilsons" of a previous date held a field under the Lords of the Manor wherein to graze their captured cattle, but one of the Town Criers mortgaged it, and his successors lost their right to the land which was somewhere about Caroline Street.
Places of Worship.—Established Church.—In 1620 there were 358 churches in Warwickshire, 130 in Staffordshire, and 150 in Worcestershire; but Sr. Martin's, Edgbaston, Aston, Deritend, and Handsworth, churches were all that Birmingham could boast of at the beginning of last century, and the number had not been increased to a very large extent even by the year 1800. As will be seen from the dates given in following pages, however, there was a goodly number of churches erected in the first half of this century, about the end of which period a "Church extension" movement was set on foot. The success was so apparent that a society was formed (Jan., 1865), and in March, 1867, it was resolved to raise a fund of £50,000, for the purpose of at once erecting eight other new churches in the borough. Miss Ryland heading the list of donations with the munificent gift of £10,000. It is difficult to arrive at the amount expended on churches previous to 1840, but the annexed list of churches, built, enlarged, or repaired in this neighbourhood from 1810 to 1875, will give an approximate idea of the large sums thus invested, the whole of which was raised solely by voluntary contributions.
To the above total of £228,336 expended on churches in or close to the borough, there should be added £57,640 expended in the erection, &c., of churches close at hand in the adjoining diocese of Lichfield; £25,000 laid out at Coleshill, Northfield, and Solihull (the principal residents being from Birmingham); and a still further sum of £150,000 spent on Church-school buildings. These figures even do not include the vast amounts invested for the endowments of the several churches and schools, nor is aught reckoned for the value of the land or building materials where given, nor for the ornamental decorations, fonts, pulpits, windows, and furnishings so munificently lavished on our local churches. Since the year 1875 it has been calculated that more than £100,000 has been devoted to similar local church-building purposes, so that in less than fifty years much more than half-a-million sterling has been voluntarily subscribed by the Churchmen of the neighbourhood for the religious welfare and benefit of their fellow men. Still there is room for more churches and for more preachers, and the Church Extension Society are hoping that others will follow the example of the "Landowner," who, in the early part of the year (1884) placed £10,000 in the hands of the Bishop towards meeting the urgent need of additional provision fur the spiritual wants of the inhabitants.—Short notes of the several churches can alone be given.
All Saints', in the street of that name, leading out of Lodge Road, is a brick erection of fifty years' date, being consecrated September 28, 1833. It was built to accommodate about 700 and cost £3,850, but in 1881 it was enlarged and otherwise improved at an outlay of over £1,500, and now finds sittings for 1,760, a thousand of the seats being free. The Rev. P.E. Wilson, M.A., is the Rector and Surrogate, and the living (value £400) is in the gift of the Birmingham Trust, The Nineveh schoolroom is used for services on Sunday and Thursday evenings in connection with All Saints.
All Saints', King's Heath, is built of stone in the perpendicular Gothic style, and cost £3,200, the consecration taking place on Apiil 27ih, 1860. There are sittings for 620, one half being free. The Rev. J. Webster, M.A., is the Vicar; the living (value £220) being in the gift of the Vicar of Moseley, King's Heath ecclesiastical parish being formed out of Mossley parish in 1863.
All Saints', Small Heath.—Rev. G.F.B. Cross, M.A., Vicar. Soon after the death of the Rev. J. Oldknow, D.D., of Holy Trinity, in 1874, it was resolved to carry out his dying wishes by erecting a church in the fast-filling district of^ Small Heath. At first the iron building formerly used as a place of worship in Cannon Hill Park was put up, and the Vicar was instituted in October, 1875. The foundation-stone of a permanent building was laid Sept. 8, 1882, which accommodates over 1,000 worshippers. That part of the future "Oldknow Memorial Church" at present finished, comprising the nave^ north aisle, and north transept, with seating for nearly 700 (all free), was consecrated July 28, 1883. The patronage is vested in trustees, the incumbent's stipend being £150.
All Saints', Stechford.—A temporary ​church of iron and wood, erected at a cost of £620, to accommodate 320 persons, all seats being free, was dedicated Dec.' 18, 1877.
Aston Church.—It is impossible to fix the date of erection of the first church for the parish of Aston, but that it must have been at a very early period is shown by the entry in the Domesday Book relative to the manor. The parish itself formerly included Bordesley and Deritend, Nechells and Saltley, Erdington and Witton, Castle Bromwich, Ward End, and Water Orton, an area so extensive that the ecclesiastical income was very considerable. In Henry III.'s reign the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield received twenty marks yearly out of the fruits of the rectory, the annual value of which was sufficient to furnish £26 13s 4d. over and above the twenty marks. Records are in existence showing that the church (which was dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul) was considerably enlarged about 300 years after the Conquest, and a renovation was carried out nearly a century back, but the alterations made during the last few years (1878-84) have been so extensive that practically it may be said the edifice has been rebuilt. The seating capacity of the old church was limited to about 500, but three times that number of persons will, in future, find accommodation, the cost oh the extensions and alterations having been nearly £10,000. The ancient monuments, windows, and tablets have all been carefully replaced in positions corresponding to those they filled formerly, with many additions in the shape of coloured glass, heraldic emblazonments, and chaste carvings in wood and stone. The old church, for generations past, has been the centre-point of interest with local antiquarians, as it was, in the days far gone, the chosen last resting-place of so many connected with our ancient history-the Holtes, the Erdingtons, the Devereux, the Ardens, the Harcourts, the Bracebridges, Clodshalls, Bagots, &c. Heie still may be seen the stone and alabaster effigies of lords and ladies who lived in the time of the Wars of the Roses, two showing by their dress that while one was Lancasterian, the other followed the fortunes of York. The tablets of the Holte family, temp. Elizabeth and Charles, and the Devereux monument of the Jacobean era, are well preserved, while all around the shields and arms of the ancient families, with their many quarterings, form the best heraldic collection anywhere near Birmingham. The parish registers date from the 16th century, and the churchwardens accounts are preserved from the year 1652. Among the facts recorded in the former we may note the burial of the dozen or so Royalist soldiers who lost their lives while defending Aston Hall from the attacks made on it by the Birmingham men in December, 1643; while in both there are quaint entries innumerable, and full of curious interest to the student and historian. The Rev. W. Eliot, M.A., the present vicar, was instituted in 1876 (commencing duty Feb. 25, 1877), the living (£1,600 value) being in the presentation of trustees. In connection with the Church there are Mission Rooms in Tower Road and in Alfred Street, with Sunday Schools, Bible classes, Dorcas, and other societies. The first portion of the late additions to the Church was consecrated July 5, 1880; the new chancel on Sept. 8, 1883.
Bishop Rider's, a square-towered brick edifice in Gem Street, was built in 1837-38, the laying of the foundation stone (August 23, 1837) being characterised by the almost unheard-of conduct of the low denizens of the neighbourhood, who pelted the Bishop of Lichfield with mud on the occasion. The consecration took place Dec. 18, 1838 and the building cost £4,600. The living, valued at £300, is in the hands of trustees, the present vicar being the Rev. J. P. Gardiner. The vicarage, ​which was completed in 1862 at a cost of £2,240, is in Sutton Street, Aston Road—too near a residence to the church not being deemed advisable even five-and-twenty years after the opening ceremony of 1837. In 1879 the galleries were removed, and the church re-pewed and otherwise renovated, the re-opening taking place July 28, there being now 860 free sittings.
Christ Church, New Street.—At first known as "The Free Church," this edifice was for no less than ten years in the hands of the builders. The cornerstone was laid July 22, 1805, by Lord Dartmouth, in the absence of George III., who had promised, but was too ill, to be present. His Majesty, however, sent £1,000 towards the building fund. It was consecrated July 13, 1813; finished in 1816; clock put in 1817. The patron is the Bishop of Worcester, and to the living (valued at £350), is attached a Prebendary in Lichfield Cathedral. The present Vicar, since 1881, is the Rev. E. R. Mason, M.A. There is accommodation for 1,500, all the seats being free, but at one time the worshippers were limited in their freedom of sitting by the males having to take their places on one side and the females on the other, a custom which gave rise to the following epigram:
   "Our churches and chapels we generally find Are the places where men to the women are joined;
   But at Christ Church, it seems, they are more cruelhearted, For men and their wives go there and get parted."
Mission services in connection with Christ Church are held in the Pinfold Street and Fleet Street Schoolrooms.
Christ Church, Gillott Road, Summer field. The foundation stone of a church to be erected to the memory of the late Rev. George Lea (for 43 years connected with Christ Church and St. George's, Edgbaston) was laid Nov. 27, 1883. It is intended to accommodate 850 persons,and will cost about £8,000, exclusive of a tower 110ft. high which will be added afterwards at a further cost of £1,200.
Christ Church, Quinton, was erected in 1S41, at a cost of £2,500, and will seat 600, two-thirds being free. The living is valued at £200, is in the gift of the Rector of Halesowen (in whose parish Quinton was formerly included), and is held by the Rev. C. H. Oldfield, B.A.
Christ Church, Sparkbrook, is a handsome Gothic erection, built on land given by Mr. S. S. Lloyd, the first stone being laid April 5, 1866, and the opening ceremony on October 1, 1867, The living, a perpetual curacy, is in the gift of trustees, and is valued at £350 per annum, and has been held hitherto by the Rev. G. Tonge, M.A. The building of the church cost nearly £10,000, the accommodation being sufficient for 900 persons, one-half the seats being free. The stained window in chancel to the memory of Mrs. S. S. Lloyd, is said by some to be the most beautiful in Birmingham, the subject being the Resurrection. There are Mission Rooms and Sunday Schools in Dolobran Road, Montpellier Street, Long Street, and Stratford Road, several thousands having been spent in their erection.
Christ Church, Yardley Wood, was built and endowed by the late John Taylor, Esq., in 1848, the consecration taking place April 4, 1849. Vicarage, value £185 ; patrons, trustees; Vicar, Rev. C. E. Beeby, B.A. Seats 260, the 60 being free.
Edgbaston Old Church.—It is not known when the first church was built on this site, some writers having gone so far back as to fix the year 777 as the probable date. The present edifice, though it incorporates some few remains of former erections, and will always be known as the "old" church, really dates but from 1809-10, when it was rebuilt (opened Sept 10, 1810) but, as the Edgbastonians began ​to increase and multiply rapidly after that time, it was found necessary to add a nave and aisle in 1857. There is now only accommodation for 670, and hut a hundred or so of the seats are free, so that possibly in a few more years the renovators and restorers will be busy providing another new old church for us. The patron is Lord Calthorpe, and the living is valued at £542, but the power of presenting has only been exercised three times during the last 124 years, the Rev. John Prynne Parkes Pixell, who was appointed vicar in 1760, being succeeded by his son in 1794, who held the living fifty-four years. At his death, in 1848, the Rev. Isaac Spooner, who had for the eleven previous years been the first incumbent of St. George's, Edgbaston, was inducted, and remained vicar till his death, July, 1884. In the Church there are several monuments to members of the Calthorpe family, and one in memory of Mr. Joshua Scholefield, the first M.P. for Birmingham, and alto some richly-coloured windows and ancient-dated tablets connected with the oldest families of the Middlemores and others.
Hall Green Church was built in Queen Anne's reign, and has seats for 475, half free. It is a vicarage (value £175), in the gift of trustees, and now held by the Rev. R. Jones, B.A.
Handsworth Church.—St. Mary's, the mother church of the parish, was probably erected in the twelfth century, but has undergone time's inevitable changes of enlargements, alterations, and rebuildings, until little, if any; of the original structure could possibly be shown. Great alterations were made during the 15th and 17th centuries, and again about 1759, and in 1820; the last of all being those of our own days. During the course of the "restoration," now completed, an oval tablet was taken down from the pediment over the south porch, bearing the inscription of "John Hall and John Hopkins, churchwardens, 1759," whose economising notions had led them to cut the said tablet out of an old gravestone, the side built into the wall having inscribed on its face, "The bodye of Thomas Lindon, who departed this life the 10 of April, 1675, and was yeares of age 88." The cost of the rebuilding has been nearly £11,000, the whole of which has been subscribed, the reopening taking place Sept. 28, 1878. There are several ancient monuments in fair preservation, and also Chantrey's celebrated statue of Watt. The living is valued at £1,500, the Rector, the Rev. W. Randall, M.A , being his own patron. The sittings in the church are (with a few exceptions only) all free and number over 1,000, Sunday and other services being also held in a Mission Room at Hamstead.
Holy Trinity.—The first stone of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Camp Hill, was placed in position Sept. 29, 1820. The building was consecrated Jan. 23, 1823, and opened for services March 16 following. The cost was £14,325, and the number of sittings provided 1,500, half to be free. The services have from the first been markedly of a Ritualistic character, and the ornate decorations of the church have been therefore most appropriate. The living (value £230) is a vicarage in the gift of trustees, and is at present held by the Rev. A. H. Watts, who succeeded the Rev. R. W. Enraght after the latter's suspension and imprisonment.—See "Ritualism."
Holy Trinity, Birchfields.—First stone placed May 26. 1863; consecrated May 17, 1864. Cost about £5,000. The living (value £320) is a vicarage in the gilt of the Rector of Handsworth, and is now held by the Rev. P. T. Maitland, who "lead himself in" May 16, 1875.
Holy Trinity, North Harborne, was built in 1838-39 at a cost of £3,750, and will seat 700, one half being free. The living (value £300) is in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield.
Immanuel Church, Broad Street.—The foundation stone was laid July
​12, 1864; the consecration took place May 7, 1865; the cost of erection was a little over £4,009; there are seats for 800, of which 600 are free; and the living (valued at £300), has been held until now by the Rev. G. H. Coleman, the presentation being in the hands of trustees. The "Magdalen" chapel was formerly on the site.
Iron Churches.—May 22, 1874, an edifice built of iron was opened for religious purposes in Canon Hill Park, but the congregation that assembled were so scanty that in July, 1875, it was deemed expedient to remove it to Small Heath where it was used as a temporary "Oldknow Memorial" Church. Other iron churches have been utilised in the suburbs since then, and there is now no novelty in such erections, a score of which may be found within half the number of miles.
St. Agnes', Moseley, off Wake Green Road.—The foundation stone was laid October 3, 1883, and its estimated cost is put at about £8,000. At present only a part sufficient to accommodate 400 persons is being proceeded with, but when completed the edifice will hold double that number, and will be 127ft. long by 48ft. wide, a tower and spire rising from the centre of the west end to a height of 137ft.
St. Albans.—A Mission chapel, dedicated to St. Alban, was opened in Leopold Street in September, 1865. This now forms a school belonging to the adjoining church, which was opened March 7, 1872. The curacy is held by the Revds. J. S. and T. B. Pollock, but the friends of those gentlemen have since erected a far handsomer edifice, the Church of St. Alban the Martyr, at the corner of Conybere Street and Ryland Street, at a cost estimated at £20,000— £1,500 being paid for the site. The first stone of this magnificent building was laid January 31, 1880, the opening service taking place at 6.30 a.m.. May 3, 1881. There is free seating for 1,000 in the new church, for 460 in St. Alban's, Leopold Street, and for a further 400 in the Mission Room—the services being entirely dependent on the gifts to the offertory, &c. On the Saint's day the special collections have for years been most remarkable, seldom less than £1,000 being given, while occasionally the amount has been more than four times that sum, The services are "High Church," with three daily celebrations and seven on Sunday.
St. Andrew's, Bordesley.—The foundation-stone was laid July 23, 1844, and consecration took place, Sept. 30, 1846. The cost of the building was about £5,000, the site being given. The value of the living is £320, the Bishop and trustees having the right of preferment alternately. There is accommodation for 800, one-fourth of the seats being free. The present Vicar is the Rev. J. Williamson, M.A. The iron-built church of S. Oswald, opposite Small Heath Park, Coventry-road, is attached to S. Andrew's.
St. Annes, Duddeston, consecrated Oct. 22, 1869, is a brick building, giving accommodation for 810, half the seats being free. The Bishop presents the living, being of the nett value of £260. Rev. T. J. Haworth is the Vicar. Services also at the Mission Room, Great Francis Street.
St. Anne's, Park Hill, Moseley.—This Chapel-of-Ease to Moseley was built at the expense of Miss Anderton, of Moseley Wake Green, the consecration taking place Sept. 22, 1874. The living is valued at £150, and is in the gift of the Vicar of Moseley, the present incumbent being the Rev. J. Leverett, M.A. Half the 400 seats are free.
St. Asaph's, Great Colmore Street,—the freehold of the site was given by Mr. Cregoe Colmore, and the erection of the church, which yet want the tower and spire, cost £5,450. The cornerstone was laid Aug. 22, 1867, and the building was consecrated Dec. 3, 1868. There are 950 sittings, of which 500 are free. Trustees present. The living, value £300, being now held by the Rev. R. Fletcher, M.A.
​St. Augustine's, Hagley Road, the foundation stone of which was laid Oct. 14, 1867, was consecrated September 12, 1868, the first cost being a little over £9,000, but a tower and spire (185ft. high) was added in 1876 at a further cost of £4,000. It is a Chapel-of-ease to Edgbaston, in the gift of the Bishop. Value £500. Held by Rev. J. C. Blissard, M. A. Seats, 650.
St. Barnabas', Erdington.—This church, originally built in 1823, at a cost of about £6,000, with accommodation for 700 only, has lately been enlarged so as to provide 1,100 sittings (600 free)—£2,700 being expended on the improvements. The Vicar of Aston is patron, and the living is valued at £300. The re-opening took place June 11, 1883. Rev. H. H. Rose, M.A., has been Vicar since 1850.
St. Barnabas', Ryland Street.—First stone laid Aug. 1, 1859; consecrated Oct. 24, 1860; renovated in 1882. Has sittings for 1,050, of which 650 are free. Value £300, in the gift of trustees. Present Vicar, Rev. P. Waller. Services also at Mission Room, Sheepcote Street.
St. Bartholomew's.—The building of this church was commenced in 1749, the site being given by William Jennens, Esq., and £1,000 towards the building by his mother, Mrs. Anne Jennens. Lord Fielding also gave £120 to pay for an altar-piece, which is greatly admired. Surrounded for very many years by a barren-looking graveyard, the huge brick-built edifice was very unsightly, and being close to the Park Street burial ground it was nicknamed "the paupers' church." Since the laying out of the grounds, however, it has much improved in appearance. The Rector of St. Martin's presents, and the living is valued at £280. There are 1,800 sittings, 1,000 being free. Week-night services are also hell in Mission Room, Fox Street.
St. Catherine's, Nechells.—Foundation stone laid July 27, 1877 ; consecrated November 8, 1878; cost nearly £7,000; seats 750, more than half being free. Yearly value £230; in the gift of trustees. Present vicar, Rev. T. H. Nock, M.A.
St. Catherine's Rotton Park.—The Mission Room in Coplow St. , in connection with St. John's, Ladywood, is the precursor of this church yet to be built.
St. Clement's, Nechells.—First stone laid, October 27, 1857 ; consecrated August 30, 1859. Seats 850 (475 free). Vicarage, value £300, in the gift of Vicar of St. Matthew's. Present incumbent, Rev. J. T. Butlin, B.A. Services also at Mission Room, High Park Street.
St. Cuthhert's, Birmingham Heath, was commenced April 19, 1871; opened March 19, 1872, and has seats for 800, half being free. Yearly value £250; in the hands of trustees. Present incumbent, Rev. W. H. Tarleton, M.A.
St. Cyprian's, Hay Mill.—The foundation-stone of this church (built and endowed by J. Horsfall, Esq.), was laid April 14, 1873, and the opening services were held in the following January. The ceremony of consecration did not take place until April 23, 1878, when a district was assigned to the church. Rev. G. H. Simms is the present Vicar, and the living (value £150) is in the gift of the Bishop.
St. David's, Bissell Street.—First stone was laid July 6, 1864, and the building was consecrated in the same month of the following year. The cost of erection was £6,200, and there is accommodation for 955, 785 seats being free. The living (value £300) is in the gift of trustees, and is at present held by Rev. H. Boydon, B.A. Week night services also at Mission Room, Macdonald Street.
St. Edhurgh's.—The parish church of Yardley, dating from Henry VII.'s reign, contains monuments relating to several of our ancient families of local note. The living is a vicarage (value £525) in the gift of the Rev. J. Dodd, the present vicar being the Rev. F. S. Dodd, M.A. There is accommodation for 600, a third of the seats being free.
St. Gabriel's, Pickford Street.—The ​first stone was laid in September, 1867, and the consecration took place Jan. 5, 1869, The sittings number 600, most being free. The living (value £300) is in the gift of the Bishop, and is held by the Rev. J. T. Tanse, vicar. A mission room at the west end of the church was opened Dec. 14, 1878. It is 105ft. long by 25ft. wide, and will seat 800. The cost was about £3,500, and it is said the vicar and his friends saved £2,500 by building the rooms themselves.
St. George's.—When first built, there were so few houses near Great Hampton Row and Tower Street, that this church was known as "St. George's in the Fields," and the site for church and churchyard (3,965 square yards) was purchased for £200. The foundation stone was laid April 19, 1820, and the consecration took place July 30, 1822. The tower is 114fc. high, and the first cost of the building was £12,735, Renovated in 1870, the church has latterly been enlarged, the first stone of a new chancel being placed in position (June, 1882) by the Bishop of Ballarat, formerly rector of the parish. This and other additions has added £2, 350 to the original cost of the church, which provides accommodation for 2,150, all but 700 being free seats. The living (value £500) is in the gift of trustees, and the present Rector is the Rev. J. G. Dixon, M.A. The church was re-opened March 13, 1883, and services are also conducted in New Summer Street and in Smith Street Schoolrooms.
St. George's, Edgbaston.—First stone laid Aug. 17, 1836 ; consecrated Nov. 28, 1838. Cost £6,000. Perpetual curacy (value £300), in the gift of Lord Calthorpe. 1,000 sittings, of which one- third are free, but it is proposed to considerably enlarge the building, and possibly as much as £8,000 will be spent thereon, with proportionate accommodation.
St. James's, Ashted.—Originally the residence of Dr. Ash, this building was remodelled and opened as a place of worship, Oct. 9, 1791. As Ashted Chapel it was sold by auction, May 3, 1796. Afterwards, being dedicated to St. James, it was consecrated, the ceremony taking place Aug. 7, 1807. The living (value £300) is in the gift of trustees, the present vicar being the Rev. H. C. Phelps, M.A. Of the 1,350 sittings, 450 are free, there being also a mission room in Vauxhall Road.
St. James's, Aston.—The mission room, in Tower Road, in connection with Aston Church, is known as St. James's Church Room, it being intended to erect a church on an adjoining site.
St. James's, Edgbaston, which cost about £6,000, was consecrated June 1, 1852, and has 900 sittings, one-fourth being free. Perpetual curacy (value £230) in the gift of Lord Calthorpe. The 25th anniversary of the incumbency of the Rev. P. Browne, M.A., was celebrated June 7, 1877, by the inauguration of a new organ, subscribed for by the congregation.
St. James's, Handsworth, was built in 1849, and has 800 sittings, of which one half are free. The living (value £300) is in the gift of the Rector of Handsworth, and the present vicar is the Rev. H. L Randall, B.A.
St. John's, Deritend.—The "Chapel of St. John's," was commenced in 1375; it was licensed in 1381 by the monks of Tickford Priory, who appointed the Vicars of Aston, in which parish Deritend then was; it was repaired in 1677, and rebuilt in 1735. Tne tower was added in 1762, and clock and bells put in in 1776. This is believed to have been the first church in which the teachings of Wycliffe and the Reformers were allowed, the grant given to the inhabitants leaving in their hands the sole choice of the minister. This rite was last exercised June 15, 1870, when the present chaplain, the Rev. W. C. Badger, was elected by 3,800 votes, against 2,299 given for a rival candidate. There is accommodation for 850, of which 250 seats are free. It is related that when ​the present edifice was erected (1735) a part of the small burial ground was taken into the site, and that pew-rents are only charged for the sittings covering the ground so occupied. The living is valued at £400. For a most interesting account of this church reference should be made to "Memorials of Old Birmingham" by the late Mr. Toulmin Smith. Services also take place at the School Room, and at the Mission Room, Darwin Street.
St. John's, Ladywood, built at a cost of £6,000, the site being given by the Governors of the Free Grammar School, and the stone for building by Lord Calthorpe, was consecrated March 15, 1854. In 1881, a further sum of £2,350 was expended in the erection of a new chancel and other additions. The Rector of St. Martin's is the patron of the living (valued at £330), and the present Vicar is the Rev. J. L. Porter, M.A. The sittings number 1,250, of which 550 are free. Services are also conducted at the Mission Room, Coplow Street, and on Sunday evenings in Osler Street Board School.
St. John's, Perry Barr, was built, endowed, and a fund left for future repairs, by "Squire Gough," of Perry Hall, the cost being about £10,000. The consecration took place Aug. 6, 1833, and was a day of great rejoicing in the neighbourhood. In 1968 the church was supplied with a peal of eight bells in memory of the late Lord Calthorpe. The living (valued at £500) is in the gift of the Hon. A. G. G. Calthorpe.
St. John the Baptist, East Harborne, which cost rather more than £4,000, was consecrated November 12, 1858. It has sittings for 900, of which number one half are free. Living valued at £115; patron Rev. T. Smith, M.A.; vicar, Rev. P. Smith, B.A.
St. John the Evangelist, Stratford Road.—A temporary iron church which was opened April 2, 1878, at a cost of £680. A Mission Room, in Warwick Road, Greet, is in connection with above.
St. Jude's, Tonk Street, which was consecrated July 26, 1851, has 1,300 sittings, of which 1,000 are free. In the summer of 1879, the building underwent a much-needed course of renovation, and has been still further improved by the destruction of the many 'rookeries" formerly surrounding it. The patronage is vested in the Crown and Bishop alternately, but the living is one of the poorest in the town, only £150.
St. Lawrcnce's, Dartmouth Street.—First stone laid June 18, 1867; consecrated June 25, 1868; has sittings for 745, 400 being free. The Bishop is the patron, and the living (value £320) is now held by the Rev. J. F. M. Whish, B.A.
St. Luke's, Bristol Road.—The foundation stone of this old Norman-looking church was laid July 29, 1841, but it might have been in 1481 to judge by its present appearance, the unfortunate choice of the stone used in the building giving quite an ancient look. It cost £3,700, and was consecrated Sept. 28, 1842. There are 300 free scats out of 800. The trustees are patrons, and the living (value £430) is held by the Rev, W. B. Wilkinson, M.A., vicar.
St. Margaret's, Ledsam Street.—The cost of this church was about £5,000; the first stone was laid. May 16, 1874; the consecration took place Oct. 2, 1875, and it finds seating for 800, all free. The Bishop is the patron of the living (a perpetual curacy value £300), and it is now held by the Rev. H. A. Nash, The schoolroom in Rann Street is licensed in connection with St. Margaret's.
St. Margaret's Olton, was consecrated Dec. 14, 1880, the first stone having been laid 30, 1879.
St. Margaret's, Ward End, built on the site, and partly with the ruins of an ancient church, was opened in 1836, and gives accommodation for 320 persons, 175 seats being free. The living, value £150, is in the gift of trustees, ​and is held by the Rev. C. Heath, M.A., Vicar.
St. Mark's, King Edward's Road.—First stone laid March 31, 1840; consecrated July 30, 1841. Cost about £4,000, and accommodates 1,000, about a third of the seats being free. A vicarage, value £300; patrons, trustees; vicar. Rev. R. L. G. Pidcock, M.A.
St. Martins.—There is no authentic date by which we can arrive at the probable period of the first building of a Church for the parish of Birmingham. Hutton "supposed" there was a church here about a.d. 750, but no other writer has ventured to go past 1280, and as there is no mention in the Domesday Book of any such building, the last supposition is probably nearest the mark. The founder of the church was most likely Sir William de Bermingham, of whom there is still a monumental effigy existing, and the first endowment would naturally come from the same family, who, before the erection of such church, would have their own chapel at the Manor House. Other endowments there were from the Clodshales, notably that of Walter de Clodshale, in 1330, who left twenty acres of land, four messuages, and 18d. annual rent, for one priest to say mass daily for the souls of the said Walter, his wife, Agnes, and their ancestors; in 1347, Richard de Clodshale gave ten acres of land, five messuages, and 10s. yearly for another priest to say mass for him and his wife, and his father and mother, "and all the faithful departed"; in 1428, Richard, grandson of the last-named, left 20s. by his will, and bequeathed his body " to be buried in his own chapel, "within the Parish Church of Bermyngeham." Besides the Clodshale Chantry, there was that of the Guild of the Holy Cross, but when Henry VIII. laid violent hands on all ecclesiastical property (1535) that belonged to the Church of St. Martin was valued at no more than £10 1s. From the few fragments that were found when the present building was erected, and from Dugdale's descriptions that has come down to us, there can be little doubt that the church was richly ornamented with monuments and paintings, coloured windows and encaustic tiles, though its income from property would appear to have been meagre enough. Students of history will readily understand how the fine old place came gradually to be but little better than a huge barn, the inside walls whitewashed as was the wont, the monuments mutilated and pushed into corners, the font shoved out of sight, and the stained glass windows demolished. Outside, the walls and even the tower were "cased in brick" by the churchwardens (1690), who nevertheless thought they were doing the right thing, as among the records of the lost Staunton Collection there was one, dated 1711, of "Monys expended in public charitys by ye inhabitants of Birmingham, wth in 19 years last past," viz.:—
In the nutter of architectural taste the ideas of the churchwardens seem curiously mixed, for while disfiguring the old church they evidently did their best to secure the erection of the splendid new church of St. Philip's, as among other entries there were several like these:—
From time to time other alterations were made, such as new rooting, shut​ting up the clerestory windows, piercing the walls of the chancel and the body of the church for fresh windows attaching a vestry, &c. The churchyard was partly surrounded by houses, and in 1781 "iron pallisadoes" were affixed to the wall. In this year also 33ft. of the spire was taken down and rebuilt. In 1807 the churchyard was enlarged by the purchase of five tenements fronting Spiceal Street, belonging to the Governors of the Free Grammar School, for £423, and the Commissioners having cleared the Bull Ring of the many erections formerly existing there the old church in its hideous brick dress was fully exposed to view. Noble and handsome places of worship were erected in other parts of the town, but the old mother church was kit in all its shabbiness until it became almost unsafe to hold services therein at all. The bitter feelings engendered by the old church-rate wars had doubtless much to do with this neglect of the "parish" church, but it was not exactly creditable to the Birmingham men of '49, when attention was drawn to the dangerous condition of the spire, and a general restoration was proposed, that what one gentleman has been pleased to call "the lack of public interest" should be made so manifest that not even enough could be got to rebuild the tower. Another attempt was made in 1853, and on April 25th, 1854, the work of restoring the tower and rebuilding the spire, at a cost of £6,000, was commenced. The old brick casing was replaced by stone, and, on completion of the tower, the first stone of the new spire was laid June 20, 1855, the "topping" being successfully accomplished November 22nd following. The height of the present spire from the ground to the top of the stonework is 185ft. l0½in., the tower being 69ft. 6in., and the spire itself ll6ft. 4½in., the vane being an additional 18ft. 6in. The old spire was about 3in. lower than the present new one, though it looked higher on account of its more beautiful form and its thinner top only surmounted by the weather-cock, now to be seen at Aston Hall. The clock and chimes were renewed at a cost of £200 in 1858: the tunes played being "God save the Queen [Her Majesty visited Birmingham that year], "Rule Britannia," "Blue Bells of Scotland," "Life let us cherish, the "Easter Hymn," and two other hymns. Twenty years after (in 1878) after a very long period (nine years) of inaction, the charming apparatus was again put in order, the chimes being the same as before, with the exception of "Auld lang syne," which is substituted for "God save the Queen," in consequence of the latter not giving satisfaction since the bells have been repaired [vide "Mail"]. The clock dial is 9ft. 6in. in diameter. The original bells in the steeple were doubtless melted in the troublesome days of the Commonwealth, or perhaps, removed when Bluff Hal sequestered the Church's property, as a new set of six (total weight 53cwt. 1qr. 151bs.) were hung in 1682. During the last century these were recast, and addition made to the peal, which now consists of twelve.
The ninth bell was recast in 1790; fourth and fifth have also been recast, by Blews and Son, in 1870. In the metal of the tenor several coins are visible, one being a Spanish dollar of 1742. The following lines appear on some of the bells;—
The handsome appearance of the tower and spire, after restoration, contrasted so strongly with the "dowdy" appearance of the remainder of the church, that it was little wonder a more determined effort should be made for a general building, and this time (1872) the appeal was no longer in vain. Large donations were given by friends as well as by many outside the pale of the Church, and Dr. Wilkinson, the Rector, soon found himself in a position to proceed with the work. The last sermon in the old church was preached by Canon Miller, the former Rector, Oct. 27, 1872, and the old brick barn gave place to an ecclesiastical structure of which the town may be proud, noble in proportions, and more than equal in its Gothic beauty to the original edifice of the Lords de Bermingham, whose sculptured monuments have at length found a secure resting-place in the chancel of the new St. Martin's. From east to west the length of the church is a little over 155ft., including the chancel, the arch of which rises to 60ft.; the width, including nave (25ft.) and north and south aisles, is 67ft.; at the transepts the measure from north to south gives 104ft. width. The consecration and re-opening took place July 20, 1875, when the church, which will accommodate 2,200 (400 seats are free) was thronged. Several stained windows have been put in, the organ has been enlarged, and much done in the way of decoration since the re-building, the total cost bring nearly £25,000. The living (£1,048 nett value) is in the gift of trustees, and has been held since 1866 by the Rev. AV. Wilkinson, D.D, Hon. Canon of Worcester, Rural Dean, and Surrogate. The burial ground was closed Dec. 9, 1848.
St. Mary's, Acock's Green, was opened Oct. 17, 1866. The cost of erection was £4,750, but it was enlarged in £1882, at a further cost of £3^000 There are 720 sittings, 420 being free. The nett value of the living, in the gift of trustees, is £147, and the present vicar is the Rev. F. T. Swinburn, D.D.
St. Mary's, Aston Brook, was opened Dec. 10, 'l863. It seats 750 (half free), and cost £4,000 ; was the gift of Josiah Robins, Esq., and family. Perpetual curacy, value £300. The site of the parsonage (built in 1877, at a cost of £2,300), was the gift of Miss Robins. Present incumbent. Rev. F. Smith, M.A.
St. Mary's, Moseley. — The original date of erection is uncertain, but there are records to the effect that the tower was an addition made in Henry VIII's reign, and there was doubtless a church here long prior to 1500. The chancel is a modern addition of 1873; the bells were re-east about same time, the commemorative peal being lung June 9, 1874; and on June 8, 1878, the churchyard was enlarged by the taking in of 4,500 square yards of adjoining land. The living, of which the Vicar of Bromsgrove is the patron, is worth £280. and is now held by the Rev. W. H. Colmore, M.A. Of the 500 sittings 150 are free.
St. Mary's, Selly Oak, was consecrated September 12, 1861, having been erected chiefly at the expense of G. R. Elkington and J. F. Ledsam, Esqrs. There are 620 sittings, of which 420 are free. The living is in the gift of the Bishop and trustee; is valued at £200, and the present vicar is the Rev. T. Price, M.A.
St. Mary's, Whittall Street, was erected in 1774. and in 1857 underwent a thorough renovation, the reopening services being held August 16. There are 1,700 sittings of which 400 are free. The living is a vicarage, with an endowment of £172 with parsonage, ​in the gift of trustees, and is now held by the Rev. J. S. Owen.
St. Matthews, Great Lister Street, was consecrated October 20, 1840, and has sittings for 1,400, 580 seats being free The original cost of the building was only £3,200, but nearly £1,000 was expended upon it in 1883. Five trustees have the gift of the living, value £300, which is now held by the Rev. J. Byrchmore, vicar. The Mission Room, in Lupin Street, is served from St. Matthew's.
St. Matthias's, Wheeler Street, commenced May 30th, 1855, was consecrated June 4, 1856. Over £l,000 was spent on renovations in 1879. The seats (1,150) are all free. The yearly value of the living is £300, and it is in the gift of trustees. The vicar is the Rev. J. H. Haslam, M.A.
St. Michaels, in the Cemetery, Warstone Lane, was opened Jan. 15, 1854, the living (nominal value, £50) being in the gift of the directors. Will accommodate 400-180 seats being free.
St. Michael's, Northfield.—Of the original date of erection there is no trace, but it cannot be later than the eleventh century, and Mr. Allen Everett thought the chancel was built about 1189. The five old bells were recast in 1730, by Joseph Smith of Edgbaston, and made into six. The present building was erected in 1856-7, and has seating for 800, all free The living, valued at £740, is held by the Rev. R. Wylde, M.A , and connected with it is the chapel-of-ease at Bartley Green.
St Michael's, Soho, Handsworth, was opened in 1861. It has 1,000 sittings, one-half of which are free. The living is valued at £370, is in the gift of the Rector of Handsworth, and is now held by the Rev. F. A. Macdona.
St. Nicolas, Lower Tower Street.—The foundation stone was laid Sept. 15, 1867; the church was consecrated Jul 12, 1868, and it has seats for 576 persons, the whole being free. The Bishop is the patron of the living, value £300, and the Vicar is the Rev. W. H. Connor, M.A.
St. Nicholas, King's Norton.—This church is another of the ancient ones, the register dating from 1547. It was partially re-erected in 1857, and more completely so in 1872, more than £5,000 being expended upon it. The Dean and Chapter of Worcester are the patrons of the living (nett value £250), and the Vicar is the Rev. D. H. C. Preedy. There arc 700 sittings, 300 of which are free.
St. Oswald's, situated opposite Small Heath Park, is an iron structure, lined with wood. It will seat about 400, cost £600, and was opened Aug. 10, 1882, being for the present in charge of the clergyman attached to St. Andrew's.
St. Patrick's, Highgate Street—Erected in 1873, at a cost of £2,300, as a "School-chapel" attached to St. Alban's, and ministered unto by the Revds. J. S. and T. B. Pollock. 800 seats, all free.
St. Paul's, in St. Paul's Square.—The first stone was laid May 22, 1777, and the church was consecrated June 2, 1779, but remained without its spire until 1823, and was minus a clock for a long time after that. The east window in this church has been classed as the A1 of modern painted windows. The subject, the "Conversion of St. Paul," was designed by Benjamin West, and executed by Francis Eggington, in 1789-90. In May, 1876, the old discoloured varnish was removed, and the protecting transparent window re-glazed, so that the full beauty and finish of this exquisite work can be seen now as in its original state, Of the 1,400 sittings 900 are free. The living is worth £300, in the gift of trustees, and is held by the Rev. R. B. Burges, M.A., Vicar.
St Paul's, Lozells.—The first stone was laid July 10, 1879, and the building consecrated September 11, 1880. The total cost was £8,700, the number of sittings being 800, of which one half ​are free. Patrons, Trustees. Vicar, Rev E. D. Roberts, M.A.
St. Paul's, Moseley Road, Balsall Heath.—Foundation stone laid May 17, 1S52, the building being opened that day twelvemonth. Cost £5,500 and has sittings for 1,300, of which number 465 are free. The Vicar of King's Norton is the patron of the living (value £300), and it is held by the Rev. B. Benison, M.A.
St. Peter's, Dale End, was begun in 1825, and consecrated Aug. 10, 1827, having cost £19,000. Considerable damage to the church was caused by fire, Jan. 24, 1831. There are 1,500 sittings, all free. The living is valued at £260, is in the gift of the Bishop, and is held by the Rev. R. Dell, M.A., Vicar.
St. Philip's.—The parish of St. Philip's was created by special Act, 7 Anne, c. 34 (1708), and it being the first division of Sr. Martin's the new parish was bound to pay the Rector of St. Martin's £15 per year and £7 to the Clerk thereof, besides other liabilities. The site for the church (long called the "New Church" and churchyard, as near as possible four acres, was given by Mrs. Phillips, which accounts for the Saint's name chosen. George I. gave £600 towards the building fund, on the application of Sir Richard Gough, whose crest of a boar's head was put over the church, and there is now, in the form of a vane, as an acknowledgment of his kindness. Other subscriptions came in freely, and the £5,000, first estimated cost, was soon raised. [See "St. Martin's"). The building was commenced in 1711, and consecrated on October 4th, 1715, but the church was not completed until 1719. The church was re-pewed in 1850, great part restored in 1859-60, and considerably enlarged in 1883-84. The height of the tower is 140ft., and there are ten bells, six of them dating from the year 1719 and the others from 1761. There is accommodation for 2,000 persons, 600 of the seats being free. The nett value of the living is £868, the Bishop being patron. The present Rector, the Rev. H. B. Bowlby, M.A., Hon. Canon of Worcester, and Surrogate, has been with us since 1375.
St. Saviour's, Saltley, was consecrated July 23, 1850." The cost of building was £6,000; there are 810 seats, 560 being free; the living is valued at £240, and is in the gift of Lord Norton; the present Vicar is the Rev. F. Williams, B.A.
St. Saviour's, Villa Street, Hockley.—Corner-stone laid April 9, 1872; consecrated May 1, 1874. Cost £5,500, and has seats for 600, all free. The living (value £250) is in the gift of trustees, and is now held by the Rev. M. Parker, Vicar.
St. Silas's Church Street, Lozells, was consecrated January 10, 1854, the first stone having been laid June 2, 1852. It has since been enlarged, and has now 1,100 sittings, 430 being free. The living (value £450) is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of trustees, and is held by the Rev. G. C. Baskerville, M.A. The Mission Room in Burbury Street is served from St. Silas's.
St. Stephen's, Newtown Row, was consecrated July 23, 1844. The building cost £3,200; there are 1,150 sittings, of which 750 are free; the living is valued at £250, is in the gift of the Bishop and the Crown alternately, and is now held by the Rev. P. Reynolds, Vicar, who also provides for the Mission Room in Theodore Street.
St. Stephen's, Selly Hill, was consecrated August 18, 1871, the first stone having been laid March 30, 1870. The patrons are the Bishop and trustees; the living is valued at £200; it is a perpetual curacy, and the incumbent is the Rev. R. Stokes. M.A. Of the 300 sittings 100 are free.
St. Thomas's, Holloway Head.—First stone laid Oct. 2, 1826; consecrated Oct. 22, 1829, having cost £14,220. This is the largest church in Birmingham, there being 2,600 sittings, of which 1,500 are free. In the Chartist riots of 1839, the people tore ​up the railings round the churchyard to use as pikes. The living (value £550) is in the gift of trustees, and is held by the Rev. T. Halstead, Rector and Surrogate.
St. Thomas-in-the-Moors, Cox Street, Balsall Heath.—The church was commenced to be built, at the expense of the ate William Sands Cox, Esq., in the year 1868, but on account of some quibble, legal or ecclesiastical, the building was stopped when three parts finished. By his will Mr. Cox directed it to be completed, and left a small endowment. This was added to by friends, and the consecration ceremony took place Aug. 14, 1883. The church will accommodate about 600 persons.
St. Thomas the Martyr.—Of this church, otherwise called the "Free Chapel," which was richly endowed in 1350 (See "Memorials of Old Birmingham" by Toulmin Smith), and to which the Commissioners of Henry VIII., in 1545, said the inhabitants did "muche resorte,") there is not one stone left, and its very site is not known. Stirchley Street School-Church was erected in 1863, at a cost of £1,200, and is used on Sunday and occasional weekday evenings.
Places of Worship.—Dissenters'.—A hundred years ago the places of worship in Birmingham and its neighbourhood, other than the parish churches, could have been counted on one's fingers, and even so late as 1841 not more than four dozen were found by the census enumerators in a radius of some miles from the Bull Ring. At the present time conventicles and tabernacles, Bethels and Bethesdas, Mission Halls and Meeting Rooms, are so numerous that there is hardly a street away from the centre of the town but has one or more such buildings. To give the hi.story of half the meeting-places of the hundred-and-one different denominational bodies among n.s would till a book, but notes of the principal Dissenting places of worship are annexed.
Antinomians.—In 1810 the members of this sect had a chapel in Bartholomew Street, which was swept away by the L. and N. W. Railway Co., when extending their line to New Street.
Baptists.—Prior to 1737, the "Particular Baptists" do not appear to have had any place of worship of their own in this town, what few of them there were travelling backwards and forwards every Sunday to Bromsgrove. The first home they acquired here was a little room in a small yard at the back of 38, High Street (now covered by the Market Hall), which was opened Aug. 24, 1737. In March of the following year a friend left the Particulars a sum of money towards erecting a meeting-house of their own, and this being added to a few subscriptions from the Coventry Particulars, led to the purchase of a little bit of the Cherry Orchard, for which £13 was paid. Hereon a small chapel was put up, with some cottages in front, the rent of which helped to pay chapel expenses, and these cottages formed part of Cannon Street; the land at the back being reserved for a graveyard. The opening of the new chapel gave occasion for attack; and the minister of the New Meeting, Mr. Bowen, an advocate of religious freedom, charged the Baptists (particular though they were) with reviving old Calvinistic doctrines and spreading Antinomianism and other errors in Birmingham; with the guileless innocence peculiar to polemical scribes, past and present. Mr. Dissenting minister Bowen tried to do his friends in the Bull Ring a good turn by issuing his papers as from "A Consistent Churchman." In 1763 the chapel was enlarged, and at the same time a little more land was added to the graveyard. In 1780 a further enlargement became necessary, which sufficed until 1805, when the original buildings, including the cottages next the street, were taken down to make way for the chapel so long known by the present inhabitants. During the period of demolition and re-erection ​the Cannon Street congregation were accommodated at Carr's Lane, Mr. T. Morgan and Mr. John Angell James each occupying the pulpit alternately. The new chapel was opened July 16, 1806, and provided seats for 900, a large pew in the gallery above the clock being allotted to the "string band," which was not replaced by an organ until 1859. In August, 1876, the Corporation purchased the site of the chapel, the graveyard, and the adjoining houses, in all about 1,000 square yards in extent, for the sum of £26,500, the last Sunday service being held on October 5, 1879. The remains of departed ministers and past members of the congregation interred in the burial-yard and under the chapel were carefully removed, mostly to Witton Cemetery The exact number of interments that had taken place in Cannon Street has never been stated, but they were considerably over 200; in one vault alone more than forty lead coffins being found. The site is now covered by the Central Arcade. Almost as old as Cannon Street Chapel was the one in Freeman Street, taken down in 1856, and the next in date was "Old Salem," built in 1791, but demolished when the Great Western Railway was made. In 1785 a few members left Cannon Street to form a church in Needless Alley, but soon removed to Bond Street, under Mr. E. Edmonds, father of the well-known George Edmonds.—In the year 1870 fifty-two members were "dismissed" to constitute a congregation at Newhall Street Chapel, under the Rev. A. O'Neill.—In the same way a few began the church in Graham Street in 1828.—On Emancipation Day (Aug. 1, 1838), the first stone was laid of Heneage Street Chapel, which was opened June 10, 1841.—In 1815 a chapel was erected at Shirley; and on Oct. 24, 1849, the Circus in Bradford Street was opened as a baptist Chapel. Salem Chapel, Frederick Street, was opened Sept. 14, 1851.—Wycliffe Church, Bristol Road, was commenced Nov, 8, 1859, and opened June 26, 1861.—Lombard Street Chapel was started Nov. 25, 1864.—Christ Church, Aston, was opened April 19, 1865.—The Chapel in Balsall Heath Road was opened in March, 1872; that in Victoria Street, Small Heath, June 24, 1873; and in Great Francis Street, May 27, 1877. When the Cannon Street Chapel was demolished, the trustees purchased Graham Street Chapel and schools for the sum of £14,200, other portions of the money given by the Corporation being allotted towards the erection of new chapels elsewhere. The Graham Street congregation divided, one portion erecting for themselves the Church of the Redeemer, in Hagley Road, (opened May 24, 1882), while these living on the Handsworth side built a church in Hamstead Road (opened March 1, 1883), each building costing over £10,000. The first stone of the Stratford Road Church (the site of which, valued at £1,200, was given by Mr. W. Middlemore) was laid on the 8th of June, 1878, and the building, which cost £7,600, was opened June 3, 1879. Mr. Middlemore also gave the site (value £2,200) for the Hagley Road Church, £6,000 of the Cannon Street money going to it, and £3,500 to the Stratford Road Church.—The Baptists have alto chapels in Guildford Street, Hope Street, Lodge Road, Longmore Street, Great King Street, Spring Hill, Warwick Street, Yates Street, as well as at Erdington, Harborne, King's Heath, Selly Oak, Quinton, &c.
Catholic Apostolic Church, Summer Hill Terrace.—This edifice, erected in 1877, cost about £10,000, and has seats for 400.
Christian Brethren.—Their head meeting-house is at the Central Hall, Great Charles Street, other meetings being held in Bearwood Road, Birchfield Road, Green Lanes, King Street, (Balsall Heath), New John Street, Venman Street, (opened in June, 1870), and at Aston and Erdington.
​Christadelphians meet at the Temperance Hall, Temple Street.
Church of the Saviour, Edward Street.—Built for George Dawson on his leaving the Baptists, the first turf being turned on the site July 14, 1846, and the opening taking place Aug. 8, 1847.
Congregational.—How the Independents sprang from the Presbyterians, and the Congregationalists from them, is hardly matter of local history, though Carr's Lane Chapel has sheltered them all in rotation. The first building was put up in 1747-48, and, with occasional repairs lasted full fifty years, being rebuilt in 1802, when the congregation numbered nearly 900. Soon after the advent of the Rev. John Angell James, it became necessary to provide accommodation for at least 2,000, and in 1819 the chapel was again rebuilt in the form so well known to the present generation. The rapidity with which this was accomplished was so startling that the record inscribed on the last slate affixed to the roof is worth quoting, as well on account of its being somewhat of a novel innovation upon the usual custom of foundation-stone memorial stone, and first-stone laying and fixing:—
In 1875-76 the chapel was enlarged, refronted, and in many ways strengthened and improved, at a cost of nearly £5,000, and it now has seats for 2,250 persons.—Ebenezer Chapel, Steelhouse Lane, which will seat 1,200, was opened Dec. 9, 1818. Its first pastor, the Rev. Jebeida Brewer, was the first to be buried there.—The first stone of Highbury Chapel, which seats 1,300, was laid May 1, 1844, and it was opened by Dr. Raffles in the following October.—Palmer Street Chapel was erected in 1845.—The first stone of the Congregational Church in Francis Road was laid Sept. 11, 1855, the opening taking place Oct. 8, 1856.—The first stone of the Moseley Road building was laid July 30, 1861, and of that in the Lozells, March 17, 1862.—The chapel at Small Heath was commenced Sept. 19, 1867, and opened June 21, 1868; that at Saltley was began June 30, 1868, and opened Jan. 26, 1869.—The chapel in Park Road, Aston, was began Oct. 7, 1873; the church on Soho Hill, which cost £15,000, was commenced April 9, 1878, and opened July 16, 1879.—The memorial-stones of the church at Sutton Coldfield, which cost £5,500, and will seat 640, were laid July 14, 1879, the opening taking place April 5, 1880; the Westminster Road (Birchfield) Church was commenced Oct. 21, 1878, was opened Sept. 23, 1879, cost £5,500, and will seat 900; both of these buildings have spires 100ft. high.—The foundation-stone of a chapel at Solihull, to accommodate 420, was laid May 23, 1883.—Besides the above, there is the Tabernacle Chapel, Parade, chapels in Bordesley Street, Gooch Street, and St. Andrew's Road, and others at Acock's Green, Erdington, Handsworth, Olton, Yardley, &c.
Disciples of Christ erected a chapel in Charles Henry Street in 1864; in Gooch Street in 1865; in Great Francis Street in 1873.
Free Christian Church, Fazeley Street—Schoolrooms were opened here in 1865 by the Birmingham Free Christian Society, which were enlarged in 1868 at a cost of about £800. Funds to build a church were gathered in succeeding years and the present edifice was opened April 1, 1877, the cost being £1,300.
Jews.—The Hebrew Synagogue in Blucher Street was erected in 1856, at a cost of £10,000.
Methodists.—The Primitive Methodists for some time after their first ​appearance here held their meetings in the open air or in hired rooms, the first chapel they used being that in Bordesley Street (opened March 16, 1823, by the Wesleyans) which they entered upon in 1826. Other chapels they had at various times in Allison Street, Balloon Street, Inge Street, &c. Gooch Street Chapel was erected by them at a cost of over £2,000 (the first stone being laid August 23, 1852) and is now their principal place of worship, their services being also conducted in Chapels and Mission Rooms in Aston New Town, Garrison Lane, Long Acre, Lord Street, Morville Street, Wells Street, Whitmore Street, The Cape, Selly Oak, Perry Barr, Sparkbrook, and Stirchley Street.—The Methodist New Connexion have chapels in Heath Street, Kyrwick's Lane, Ladywood Lane, Moseley Street, and Unett Street—The first stone of a chapel for the Methodist New Congregational body was placed July 13, 1873, in Icknield Street West.—The Methodist Reformers commenced to build a chapel in Bishop Street, November 15, 1852.—The Methodist Free Church has places of worship in Bath Street, Cuckoo Road, Muntz Street, Rocky Lane, and at Washwood Heath.
New Church.—The denomination of professing Christians, who style themselves the "New Church," sometimes known as "The New Jerusalem Church," and more commonly as "Swedenborgians," as early as 1774 had a meeting room in Great Charles Street, from whence they removed to a larger one in Temple Row. Here they remained until 1791, when they took possession of Zion Chapel, Newhall Street, the ceremony of consecration taking place on the 19 of June. This event was of more than usual interest, inasmuch as this edifice was the first ever erected in the world for New Church worship. The rioters of 1791, who professed to support the National Church by demolishing the Dissenting places of worship, paid Zion Chapel a visit and threatened to burn it, but the eloquence of the minister, the Rev. J. Proud, aided by a judicious distribution of what cash he had in his pocket, prevailed over their burning desires, and they carried their torches elsewhere. On the 10th of March, 1793, however, another incendiary attempt was made to suppress the New Church, but the fire was put out before much damage was done. What fire and popular enmity could not do, however, was accomplished by a financial crisis, and the congregation had to leave their Zion, and put up with a less pretentious place of worship opposite the Wharf in Newhall Street. Here they remained till 1830, when they removed to Summer Lane, where a commodious church, large schools, and minister's house had been erected for them. In 1875 the congregation removed to their present location in Wretham Road, where a handsome church has been built, at a cost of nearly £8,000, to accommodate 500 persons, with schools in the rear for as many children. The old chapel in Summer Lane has been turned into a Clubhouse, and the schools attached to it made over to the School Board. The New Church's new church, like many other modern-built places for Dissenting worship, has tower and spire, the height being 116ft.
Presbyterians.—It took a long time for all the nice distinctive differences of dissenting belief to manifest themselves before the public got used to Unitarianism, Congregationalism, and all the other isms into which Nonconformity has divided itself. When Birmingham was as a city of refuge for the many clergymen who would not accept the Act of Uniformity, it was deemed right to issue unto them licenses for preaching, and before the first Baptist chapel, or the New Meeting, or the Old Meeting, or the old Old Meeting (erected in 1689), were built, we find (1672) that one Samuel Willis, styling himself a minister of the Presbyterian persuasion, applied ​for preaching licenses for the schoolhouse, and for the houses of John Wall, and Joseph Robinson, and Samuel Taylor, and Samuel Dooley, and John Hunt, all the same being in Birmingham; and William Fincher, another "minister of the Presbyterian persuasion," asked for licenses to preach in the house of Richard Yarnald, in Birmingham, his own house, and in the houses of Thomas Gisboon, William Wheeley, John Pemberton, and Richard Careless, in Birmingham, and in the house of Mrs. Yarrington, on Bowdswell Heath. In Bradford's map (1751) Carr's Lane chapel is put as a "Presbiterian chapel," the New Meeting Street building close by being called "Presbiterian Meeting." It was of this "Presbiterian Chapel" in Carr's Lane that Hutton wrote when he said it was the road to heaven, but that its surroundings indicated a very different route. Perhaps it was due to these surroundings that the attendants at Carr's Lane came by degrees to be called Independents and the New Meeting Street folks Unitarians, for both after a time ceased to be known as Presbyterians The Scotch Church, or, as it is sometimes styled, the Presbyterian Church of England, is not a large body in Birmingham, having but three places of worship. The first Presbytery held in this town was on July 6, 1847; the foundation-stone of the Church in Broad Street was laid July 24, 1848; the Church at Camp Hill was opened June 3, 1869; and the one in New John Street West was began July 4, 1856, and opened June 19, 1857.
Salvation Army.—The invasion of Birniinghaui by the soldiers of the Salvation Army was accomplished in the autumn of 1882, the General (Mr. Booth) putting in an appearance March 18, 1883. They have several rendez-vous in the town, one of the principal being in Farm Street, from whence the "soldiers" frequently sally out, with drums beating and colours flying, much to their own glorification and other people's annoyance. Unitarians.—The building known for generations as the Old Meeting, is believed to have been the first Dissenting place of worship erected in Birmingham; and, as its first register dates from 1689, the chapel most likely was built in the previous year. It was doubtless but a small building, as in about ten years (1699) a "Lower Meeting House" was founded in Meeting House Yard, nearly opposite Rea Street. The premises occupied here were gutted in the riots of 1715, and the owner promised the mob that it should no more be used as a chapel, but when calmer he repented and services were held until the New Meeting House in Moor Street was opened. The rioters in 1715 partly destroyed the old Meeting and those of 1791 did so completely, as well as the New Meeting, which (began in 1730) was opened in 1732. For a time the congregations united and met at the Amphitheatre in Livery Stieet, the members of Old Meeting taking posses-ion of their re-erected chapel, October 4, 1795. New Meeting being re-opened April 22, 1802. The last-named building remained in the possession of the Unitarians until 1861, when it was sold to the Roman Catholics. The last services in Old Meeting took place March 19, 1882, the chapel and graveyard, comprising an area of 2,760 square yards, being sold to the L. & N.W.R. Co., for the purpose of enlarging the Central Station. The price paid by the Railway Company was £32,250, of which £2,000 was for the minister and £250 towards the expense of removing to private vaults the remains of a few persons whose friends wished that course. A portion of Witton Cemetery was laid out for the reception of the remainder, where graves and vaults have been made in relative positions to those in the old graveyard, the tombstones being similarly placed. A new church has been erected in Bristol Street for the ​congregation, with Sunday Schools, &c., £7,000 being the sum given for the site—In 1839, Hurst Street Chapel was built for the Unitarian Domestic Mission. May 1, same year, the first stone was laid of the Newhall Hill Chapel, which was opened July 10, 1840.—The Church of the Messiah, Bread Street, was commenced Aug. 12, 1860, and opened Jan. 1, 1862. This church, which cost £10,000 and will seat nearly 1,000 is built over a canal, one of the strangest sites ever chosen for a place of worship. In connection with this church, there is a chapel in Lawrence Street.
Welsh Chapels.—The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists meet in the little chapel, bottom of Hockley Hill, and also in Granville Street, near Bull Row. The Welsh Congregationalists (Independents) assemble at Wheeler Street Chapel, opened May 1, 1839.
Wesleyans.—The first Wesleyan Chapel in Birmingham was opened by John Wesley, March 21, 1761, the building having been previously a theatre. Cherry Street Chapel, opened July 7, 1782, was rebuilt in 1823.—Bradford Street Chapel was opened in 1786, Belmont Row in 1789, and Bath Street in 1839.—In 1825, a chapel was built in Martin Street, which was converted into a school on the opening (Nov. 10, 1864) of the present edifice, which cost £6,200.—Newtown Row Chapel was built in 1837) and Great Hampton Street and Unett Street Chapels in 1838, the latter being enlarged in 1814.—Branston Street Chapel was opened April 18, and Moseley Road, May 1, 1853.—The Bristol Road Chapel was opened January 18, 1854, and that in King Edward's Road, January 18, 1859.—The first stones were laid for the chapels in Villa Street April 21, 1864, Handsworth Oct. 21, 1872, Selley Oak Oct 2, 1876, Peel Street, August 30, 1877, Cuckoo Road, June 10, 1878, Nechells Park Road Oct. 25, 1880, Mansfield Road Feb. 19, 1883. Besides the above there are chapels in Coventry Road, Inge Street, Knutsford Street, Lichfield Road, Lord Street, New John Street, Monument Road, and Warwick Road, as well as mission rooms in several parts of the town and suburbs. Acock's Green, Erdington, Harborne, King's Heath, Northfield, Quinton, &c., have also Wesleyan Chapels.—The Wesleyan Reformers meet in Floodgate Street, and in Upper Trinity Street.
Miscellaneous.—Lady Huntingdon's followers opened a chapel in King Street in 1785, and another in Peck Lane in 1842 (both sites being cleared in 1851), and a third in Gooch Street, Oct. 26th, 1851.—The believers in Joannah Southcote also had chosen spots wherein to pray for their leader, while the imposture lasted.—The celebrated Edward Irving opened Mount Zion Chapel, March 24th, 1824. "God's Free Church," in Hope Street, was "established" June 4th. 1854.—Zoar Chapel was the name given to a meeting-room in Cambridge Street, where a few undenominational Christians met between 1830 and 1840. It was afterwards used as a schoolroom in connection with Winfield's factory.—Wrottesley Street Chapel was originally built as a Jewish Synagogue, at a cost of about 2,000. After they left it was used, for a variety of purposes, until acquired by William Murphy, the Anti-Catholic lecturer. It was sold by his executors, Aug. 2nd, 1877, and realised £645, less than the cost of the bricks and mortar, though the lease had 73 years to run.
Places of Worship.—Roman Catholics.— From the days of Queen Mary, down to the last years of James II. 's reign, there does not appear to have been any regular meeting-place for the Catholic Inhabitants of Birmingham. In 1687, a church (dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen and St. Francis) was built somewhere near the site of the present St. Bartholomew's but it was destroyed in the following year, and the very foundation-stones torn up and appropriated by Protestant ​plunderers. [See "Masshouse Lane."]
It was a hundred years before the next church, St. Peter's, near Broad Street, was erected, and the Catholic community has increased but slowly until the last thirty years or so. In 1S4S there were only seven priests in Birmingham, and but seventy in the whole diocese. There are now twenty-nine in this town, and about 200 in the district, the number of churches having increased, in the same period, from 70 to 123, with 150 schools and 17,000 scholars. The following are local places of worship:—
Cathedral of St. Chad.—A chapel dedicated to St. Chad (who was about the only saint the kingdom of Mercia could boast of), was opened in Bath Street, Dec. 17, 1809. When His Holiness the Pope blessed his Catholic children hereabouts with a Bishop the insignificant chapel gave place to a Cathedral, which, built after the designs of Pugin, cost no less than £60,000. The consecration was performed (July 14, 1838) by the Right Rev. Doctor (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman, the district Bishop, in the presence of a large number of English noblemen and foreign ecclesiastical dignitaries, and with all the imposing ceremonies customary to Catholic celebrations of this nature. The adjoining houses detract much from the outside appearance of this reproduction of mediæval architecture, but the magnificence of the interior decorations, the elaborate carvings, and the costly accessories appertaining to the services of the Romish Church more than compensate therefor. Pugin's plans have not even yet been fully carried out, the second spire, that on the north tower (150ft. high), being added in 1856, the largest he designed still waiting completion. Five of a peal of eight bells were hung in 1848, and the remainder in 1877, the peculiar and locally-rare ceremony of "blessing the bells " being performed by Bishop Ullathorne, March 22nd, 1877.
Oratory, Hagley Road—Founded by the Fathers of the Order of St. Philip Neri, otherwise called Oratorians. The Father Superior is the Rev. Dr. J. H. Newman (born in 1801), once a clergyman of the Church of England, the author of the celebrated "Tract XC.," now His Eminence Cardinal Newman.
St. Anne's, Alcester Street.—In 1851, some buildings and premises originally used as a distillery were here taken on a lease by the Superior of the Oratory, and opened in the following year as a Mission-Church in connection with the Congregation of the Fathers in Hagley Road. In course of time the property was purchased, along with some adjacent land, for the sum of £4,500, and a new church has been erected, at a cost of £6,000. The foundation-stone was laid Sept. 10th, 1883, and the opening ceremony took place in July, 1884, the old chapel and buildings being turned into schools for about 1,500 children.
St. Catherine of Sienna, Horse Fair.—The first stone was laid Aug. 23, 1869, and the church was opened in July following.
St. Joseph's, Nechells, was built in 1850, in connection with the Roman Catholic Cemetery.
St. Mary's, Hunter's Lane, was opened July 28, 1847.
St. Mary's Retreat, Harboure, was founded by the Passionist Fathers, and opened Feb 6, 1877.
St. Michae's, Moor Street, was formerly the Unitarian New Meeting, being purchased, remodelled, and consecrated in 1861.
St. Patrick's, Dudley Road, was erected in 1862.
St. Peter's, Broad Street, built in 1786, and enlarged in 1798, was the first Catholic place of worship erected here after the sack and demolition of the church and convent in Masshouse Lane. With a lively recollection of the treatment dealt out to their brethren in 1688, the founders of St. Peter's trusted as little as possible to the tender mercies of their ​fellow-towns-men, but protected themselves by so arranging their church that nothing but blank walls should face the streets, and with the exception of a doorway the wails remained unpierced for nearly seventy years. The church has lately been much enlarged, and the long-standing rebuke no more exists. In addition to the above, there are the Convents of "The Sisters of the Holy Child," in Hagley Road; "Sisters of Notre Dame," in the Crescent; "Little Sisters of the Poor," at Harborne; "Our Lady of Mercy," at Handsworth; and others connected with St. Anne's and St. Chad's, besides churches at Erdington, &c.
Police.—Though the Court Leet provided for the appointment of constables, no regular body of police or watchmen appear to have existed even a hundred years ago. In February, 1786, the magistrates employed men to nightly patrol the streets, but it could not have been a permanent arrangement, as we read that the patrol was "resumed" in October, 1793, and later on, in March, 1801, the magistrates "solicited" the inhabitants' consent to a reappointment of the night-watch. After a time the Commissioners of the Streets kept regular watchmen in their employ—the "Charleys" occasionally read of as finding sport for the "young bloods" of the time—but when serious work was required the Justices appear to have depended on their powers of swearing-in special constables. The introduction of a police force proper dates from the riotous time of 1839 [See "Chartism"], for immediately after those troublous days Lord John Russell introduced a Bill to the House of Commons granting special powers for enforcing a rate to maintain a police force here, under the command of a Commissioner to be appointed by the Government. The force thus sought to be raised, though paid for by the people of Birmingham, were to be available for the whole of the counties of Warwick, Worcester and Stafford. Coercive measures were passed at that period even quicker than Government can manage to got them through now adays, and notwithstanding Mr. Thos. Attwood's telling Little Lord John that he was "throwing a lighted torch into a magazine of gunpowder" and that if he passed that Bill he would never be allowed to pass another, the Act was pushed through on the 13th of August, there being a majority of thirteen in favour of his Lordship's policy of policeing the Brums into politeness. The dreaded police force was soon organised under Mr. Commissioner Burges (who was paid the small salary of £900 a year), and became not only tolerated but valued. It was not till some years after, and then in the teeth of much opposition, that the Corporation succeeded in getting into their own hands the power of providing our local guardians of the peace. Mr. Inspector Stephens was the first Chief Superintendent, and in March, 1860, his place was filled by the promotion of Mr. George Glossop. In April, 1876, the latter retired on an allowance of £400 a year, and Major Bond was chosen (June 2nd). The Major's term of office was short as he resigned in Dec. 1881. Mr. Farndale being appointed in his stead. In May, 1852, the force consisted of 327, men and officers included. Additions have been made from time to time, notably 50 in August, 1875, and 30 early in 1883, the total rank and file now being 550, equal to one officer for every 700 of population. February 8, 1876, the unpopular Public-house Inspectors were appointed, but two years' experience showed they were not wanted, and they were relegated to their more useful duties of looking after thieves and pick-pockets, instead of poking their noses into private business. In 1868, £200 was expended in the purchase of guns, pistols, and swords for the police and officers at the Gaol. The Watch Committee, in May, 1877, improved ​the uniorm by supplying the men with "spiked" helmets, doubtless to please the Major, who liked to see his men look smart, though the military appearance of the force has been greatly improved since by the said spikes being silvered and burnished.
Political Union.—See "Reform Leagues."
Polling Districts.—The sixteen wards of the borough are divided into 131 polling districts.
Polytechnic.—This was one of the many local literary, scientific, and educational institutions which have been replaced by our Midland Institute, Free Libraries, &c. It was founded in April, and opened in October, 1843, and at the close of its first year there were the names of very nearly 500 members on the hooks, the rates of subscription being 6s. per quarter for participation in all the benefits of the institution, including the lectures, library, classes, baths, &c. With the "People's Instruction Society," the "Athenic Institute," the "Carr's Lane Brotherly Society" (said to have been the first Mechanics' Institution in Britain), the Polytechnic in its day, did good work.
Poor Law and Poor Rates.-Local history does not throw much light upon the system adopted by our early progenitors in their dealings with the poor, but if the merciless laws were strictly carried out, the wandering beggars, at all events must have had hard lives of it By an act passed in the reign of Henry VIII., it was ordered that vagrants should be taken to a market town, or other convenient place and there to be tied to the tail of a cart, naked, and beaten with whips until the body should be bloody by reason of the punishment. Queen Elizabeth so far mitigated the punishment that the unfortunates were only to be stripped from the waist upwards to receive their whipping, men and women, maids and mothers, suffering alike in the open street or market-place, the practice being, after so using them, to conduct them to the boundary of the parish and pass them on to the next place for another dose, and it was not until 1791 that flogging of women was forbidden. The resident or native poor were possibly treated a little better, though they were made to work for their bread in every possible case. By the new Poor Act of 1783, which authorised the erection of a Workhouse, it was also provided that the "Guardians of the Poor" should form a Board consisting of 106 members, and the election of the first Board (July 15th, 1783), seems to have been almost as exciting as a modern election. In one sense of the word they were guardians indeed, for they seem to have tried their inventive faculties in all ways to find work for the inmates of the House, even to hiring them out, or setting them to make worsted and thread The Guardians would also seem to have long had great freedom allowed them in the spending of the rates, as we read it was not an uncommon thing for one of them if he met a poor person badly off for clothes to give an order on the Workhouse for a fresh "rig out." In 1873 the Board was reduced to sixty in number (the first election taking place on the 4th of April), with the usual local result that a proper political balance was struck of 40 Liberals to 20 Conservatives. The Workhouse, Parish Offices, Children's Homes, &c., will be noted elsewhere. Poor law management in the borough is greatly complicated from the fact of its comprising two different parishes, and part of a third. The Parish of Birmingham works under a special local Act, while Edgbaston forms part of King's Norton Union, and the Aston portion of the town belongs to the Aston Union, necessitating three different rates and three sets of collectors, &c. If a poor man in Moseley Road needs assistance he must see the relieving officer at the Parish Offices in the centre of the town ​if he lives on one side of Highgate Lane he must find the relieving officer at King's Heath; but if he happens to be on the other side he will have to go to Gravelly Hill or Erdington. Not long ago to obtain a visit from the medical officer for his sick wife, a man had to go backwards and forwards more than twenty miles. The earliest record we have found of the cost of relieving the poor of the parish is of the date of 1673 in which year the sum of £309 was thus expended. In 1773 the amount was £6,378, but the pressure on the rates varied considerably about then, as in 1786 it required £11,132, while in l796 the figures rose to £24,050. According to Hutton, out of about 8,000 houses only 3,000 were assessed to the poor rates in 1780, the inhabitants of the remaining number being too poor to pay them. Another note shows up the peculiar incidence of taxation of the time, as it is said that in 1790 there were nearly 2000 houses under £5 rental and 8,000 others under £10, none of them being assessed, such small tenancies being first rated in 1792. The rates then appear to have been levied at the uniform figure of 6d. in the £ on all houses above £6 yearly value, the ratepayers being called upon as the money was required—in and about 1798, the collector making his appearance sixteen or eighteen times in the course of the year. The Guardians were not so chary in the matter of out relief as they are at present, for in 1795 there were at one period 2,427 families (representing over 6,000 persons, old and young) receiving out-relief. What this system (and bad trade) led to at the close of the long war is shown in the returns for 1816-17, when 36 poor rates were levied in the twelvemonth. By various Acts of Parliament, the Overseers have now to collect other rates, but
the proportion required for the poor is thus shown:— :
| Year | Rate in £. | Rate in £. | Amount collected. | Paid to corporation. | Cost of In and Out Relief. | Parochial Expenditure. |
| | s. | d. | £ | £ | £ | £ |
| 1851 | 4 | 0 | 78,796 | 39,573 | 17,824 | 21,399 |
| 1861 | 3 | 6 | 85,986 | 33,443 | 14,878 | 14,878 |
| 1871 | 3 | 2 | 116,268 | 44,293 | 37,104 | 34,871 |
| 1881 | 4 | 8 | 198,458 | 107,520 | 42,880 | 48,058 |
The amounts paid over to the Corporation include the borough rate and the sums required by the School Board, the Free Libraries, and the District Drainage Board. In future years the poor-rate (so-called) will include, in addition to these, all other rates levyable by the Corporation. The poor-rates are levied half-yearly, and in 1848, 1862, and 1868 they amounted to 5s. per year, the lowest during the last forty years being 3s. in 1860; 1870, 1871, and 1872 being the next lowest, 3s. 2d. per year.
The number of persons receiving relief may be gathered from the following figures:— :
| Year | Highest No. daily | Lowest No. daily. |
| 1876 | 7,687 | 7,058 |
| 1877 | 8,240 | 7,377 |
| 1878 | 8,877 | 7,242 |
| 1879 | 14,651 | 8,829 |
| 1880 | 13,195 | 7,596 |
| 1881 | 11,064 | 7,183 |
| 1882 | 9,658 | 7,462 |
| 1883 | 8,347 | 7,630 |
Not long ago it was said that among the inmates of the Workhouse were several women of 40 to 45 who had spent all their lives there, not even knowing their way into the town.
Population.—Hutton "calculated" that about the year 750 there would be 3.000 inhabitants residing in and close to Birmingham. Unless a very rapid thinning process was going on after that date he must have been a long way out of his reckoning, for the Domesday Book gives but 63 residents in 108o for Birmingham, Aston, and Edgbaston. In 1555 we find that 37 baptisms, 15 weddings, and 27 deaths were registered at St. Martin's, the houses not being more than 700, nor the occupiers over 3,500 ​in number. In 1650, it is said, there were 15 streets, about 900 houses, and 5,472 inhabitants. If the writer who made that calculation was correct, the next SO years must have been "days of progress" indeed, for in 1700 the town is said to have included 28 streets, about 100 courts and alleys, 2,504 houses, one church, one chapel, and two meeting-houses, with 15,032 inhabitants. In 1731 there were 55 streets, about 150 courts and alleys, 3,719 houses, two churches, one chapel, four Dissenting meeting-houses, and 23,286 inhabitants. The remaining figures, being taken from census returns and other reliable authorities, are more satisfactory.
The inhabitants are thus divided as to sexes:
The increase during the ten years in the several parts of the borough shows :
These figures, however, are not satisfactorily correct, as they simply give the totals for the borough, leaving out many persons who, though residing outside the boundaries are 'o all intents and purposes 15irniinghatn people; and voluminous as census papers usually are, it is difficult from those of 1871 to arrive at the proper number, the districts not being subdivided sufficiently. Thus, in the following table, Handsworth includes Soho and Perry Barr, Harborne parish includes Smethwick, Balsall Heath is simply the Local included district, while King's Norton Board is Moseley, Selly Oak, &c.
For the census of 1881, the papers were somewhat differently arranged, and we are enabled to get a nearer approximation, as well as a better notion of the increase that has taken place in the number of inhabitants in our neighbourhood.
​The most remarkable increase of population in any of these districts is in the case of Aston Manor, where in fifty years the inhabitants have increased from less than one thousand to considerably more than fifty thousand. In 1831, there were 946: in 1841, the number was 2,847; in 1851 it was 6,429: in 1861 it reached 16,337; in 1871 it had doubled to 33,948; in 1881 there were 53,844. Included among the inhabitants of the borough in 1881 there were
Of the English-born subjects of Her Majesty here 271,845 were Warwickshire lads and lasses, 26,625 came out of Staffordshire, 21,504 from Worcestershire, 10,158 from Gloucestershire, 7,941 from London, 5,622 from Shropshire, and 4,256 from Lancashire, all the other counties being more or less represented. The following analysis of the occupations of the inhabitants of the borough is copied from the Daily Post, and is arranged under the groups adopted by the Registrar-General:—
The comparative population of this and other largo towns in England is thus given:—
Portugal House.—See "The Royal."
Post Offices.—Charles I. must be credited with founding the present Post Office system, as in 1635 he commanded that a running post or two should be settled "to run night and day between London and Edinburgh, to go thither and come back again in six days, and to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any post town in or near that road." Other "running posts" were arranged to Exeter and Plymouth, and to Chester and Holyhead, &c., and gradually all the principal places in the country were linked on to the main routes by direct and cross posts. It has often been quoted as a token of the insignificance of Birmingham that letters used to be addressed "Birmingham, near Walsall;" but possibly the necessity of some writer having to send here by a cross-country route, via Walsall, will explain the matter. That our town was not one of the last to be provided with mails is proved by Robert Girdler, a resident of Edgbaston Street in 1652, being appointed the Government postmaster. Where the earlier post offices were situated is uncertain, but one was opened in New Street Oct. 11, 1783, and it is generally believed to have been the same that existed for so many years at the corner of Bennett's Hill. As late as 1820 there was no Bennett's Hill, for at that time the site opposite the Theatre was occupied (on the side nearest to Temple Street) by a rick-yard, with accommodation for the mailcoaches and stabling for horses. Next to this yard was the residence of Mr. Gottwaltz, the postmaster, the entrance doorway being at first the only accommodation allowed to the public, and if more than four persons attended at one time the others had to stand in the street. When Bennett's Hill was laid out, the post office was slightly altered. So as to give a covered approach on that side to the letterbox and window, the mailcoaches being provided and horsed by the hotelkeepers to whom the conveyance of the mails was entrusted, the mail-guards, or mail-postmen, remaining Government officials. The next office was opened Oct. 10, 1842, on premises very nearly opposite, and which at one period formed part of the new Royal Hotel. The site is now covered by the Colonnade, the present convenient, but not beautiful, Central Post Office, in Paradise Street, being opened Sep. 28, 1873. There are 65 town receiving offices (52 of which are Money Order Offices and Savings' Banks and 13 Telegraph Stations), and 103 pillar and wall letter-boxes. Of sub-offices in the surrounding districts there are 64, of which more than half are Money Order Offices or Telegraph Offices. For the conduct of the Central Office, Mr. S. Walliker, the postmaster, has a staff numbering nearly 300, of whom about 250 are letter carriers and sorters. The Central Postal Telegraph Office, in Cannon Street, is open day and night, and the Central Post Office, in Paradise Street, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. On Sunday the latter office is open only from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m , but letters are dispatched by the night mails as on other days The Head Parcels Post Office is in Hill Street, on the basement floor of the Central Post Office, from which there are four collections and deliveries daily.
Postal Notes.—In 1748 letters were conveyed from here by post on six days a week instead of three as previously. To help pay the extra expense it was enacted that any person sending letters by private hands should be liable to a fine of £5 for every letter.—In 1772 a letter sent by "express" post was charged at the rate of 3d. per mile, with a 6d. fee for each stage and 2s. 6d. for the sending off".— Mails for the Continent were made up fortnightly, and once a month for North America—In 1780, when James Watt was at Truro and Boulton at Birmingham, it took thirteen days for the one to write to and get an answer from the other, and on one occasion a ​single letter was eleven days on the road. —A local "penny post" was commenced September 4, 1793, but there was only one delivery per day and the distance was confined to one mile from the office.—The postage on letters for London was reduced to 7d., December 1, 1796, but (and for many years after) if more than one piece of paper was used the cost was doubled.—In 1814 the postage of a letter from here to Warwick was 7d.—The system of "franking" letters was abolished in 1839. This was a peculiar privilege which noblemen, Members of Parliament, and high dignitaries possessed of free postage for all their correspondence, and very strange use they made of the privilege sometimes, one instance being the case of two maidservants going as laundresses to an Ambassador who were thus "franked" to their destination. This privilege cost the Post office about £100,000 a year.—The penny postage system of Rowland Hill came into operation January l0th, 1840.—In 1841-2 there were only two deliveries per day in the centre of the town, and but one outside the mile circle, an extra penny being charged on letters posted in town for delivery in the outer districts.—The collection of a million postage stamps for the Queen's Hospital closed Sep. 5, 1859.—Halfpenny stamps for newspapers were first used in 1870.—The telegraphs were taken to by the Post Office in 1876, the first soiree in celebration thereof being held at Bristol Street Board School, Jan. 29, 1877.—The Inland Parcels Post came into operation on August 1, 1883, the number of parcels passing through our local office being about 4,000 the first day, such trifles as beehives, umbrellas, shoes, scythes, baskets of strawberries, &c., &c., being among them. The number of valentines posted in Birmingham on Cupid's Day of 1844 was estimated at 125,000 (the majority for local delivery), being about 20,000 more than in the previous year.
Power.—That the letting of mill-power would be a great advantage to hundreds of the small masters whose infinitu'le of productions adiled so enormously to the aggregate of our local trade was soon "twigged" by the early owners of steam engines. The first engine to have extra shafting attached for this purpose was that made by Newcomen for a Mr. Twigg in Water Street (the premises are covered by Muntz's metal works now), who, in 1760, advertised that he had "power to let."
Presentations.—No local antiquarian has yet given us note of the first public presentation made by the inhabitants of this town, though to the men they have delighted to honour they have never been backward with such flattering and pleasing tokens of goodwill. Some presentations have been rather curious, such as gold- plated buttons and ornate shoe buckles to members of the Royal Family in hopes that the patronage of those individuals would lead to changes in the fashion of dress, and so influence local trade. The gift of a sword to Lord Nelson, considering that the said sword had been presented previously to a volunteer officer, was also of this nature. The Dissenters of the town gave £100 to the three troops of Light Horse who first arrived to quell the riots in 1791, and a similar sum was voted at a town's meeting; each officer being presented with a handsome sword. Trade should have been good at the time, for it is further recorded that each magistrate received a piece of plate valued at one hundred guineas.—Since that date there have been hundreds of presentations, of greater or lesser value, made to doctors and divines, soldiers and sailors, theatricals and concert-hall men, lawyers and prizefighters, with not a few to popular politicians and leading literary men &c. Lord Brougham (then plain Mr. ​being the recipient at one time (July 7, 1812); James Day, of the Concert Hall, at another (Oct. l, 1878); the "Tipton Slasher" was thus honoured early in 1865, while the Hon. and Very Rev. Grantham Yorke, D.D., was "gifted" at the latter end of 1875. Among the presentations of later date have been those to Dr. Bell Fletcher, Mr. Gamgee, Mr. W. P. Goodall, and other medical gentlemen; to Canon O'Sullivan, the late Rev. J. C. Barratt, and other clergymen; to Mr. Edwin Smith, secretary of Midland Institute; to Mr. Schnadhorst of the Liberal Association; to Mr. Jesse Collings, for having upheld the right of free speech by turning out of the Town Hall those who differed with the speakers; and to John Bright in honour of his having represented the town in Parliament for twenty-five years.—On April 30, 1863, a handsome silver repoussé table was presented to the Princess of Wales on the occasion of her marriage, the cost, £1,500, being subscribed by inhabitants of the town.
Price of Bread.—At various times during the present century the four-pound loaf has been sold here as follows:—At 4½d. in 1852; at 7½d. in 1845; at 9½d. in June, 1857, and June, 1872; at l0d. in December, 1855, June, 1868, and December, 1872; at l0½d. in February, 1854, December, 1855, December, 1867, and March, 1868, at 11d. in December, 1854, June, 1855, and June 1856; at ll½d. in November, 1846, May and November, 1847, and May, 1848; at 1s. and onwards to Is. 52d. in August, 1812, and again in July, 1816; and may God preserve the poor from such times again.—See "Hard Times."
Prices of Provisions, &c.—In 1174, wheat and barley sold at "Warwick for 2½d. per bushel, hogs at 1s. 6d. each, cows (salted down) at 2s. each, and salt at l½d. per bushel. In 1205 wheat was worth 12 pence per bushel, which was cheap, as there had been some years of famine previous thereto. In 1390 wheat was sold at 13d. per bushel, so high a price that historians say there was a "dearth of corn" at that period. From accounts preserved of the sums expended at sundry public feasts at Coventry (Anno 1452 to 1464) we find that 2s. 3d. was paid for 18 gallons of ale, 2s. 6d. for 9 geese, 5d. for 2 lambs, 5d. for a calf, l0d. for 9 chickens, 3d. for a shoulder of mutton, 1s. 3d. for 46 pigeons, 8d. for a strike of wheat and grinding it, &c. An Act of Parliament (24, Henry VIII.) was passed in 1513 that beef and pork should be sold at a half-penny per pound. In 1603 it was ordered that one quart of best ale, or two of small, should be sold for one penny. In 1682 the prices of provisions were, a fowl 1s., a chicken 5d., a rabbit 7d.; eggs three for 1d.; best fresh butter, 6d. per lb.; ditto salt butter, 3½d.; mutton 1s. 4d. per stone of 81b; beef, 1s. 6d. per stone; lump sugar, 1s. per lb.; candles, 3½d. per lb.; coals, 6d. per sack of 4 bushels; ditto charcoal, is. 2d. best, 8d. the smallest. Wheat averaged 50s. per quarter, but the greatest part of the population lived almost entirely on rye, barley, oats, and peas. Cottages in the country were let at about 20s. per annum. In 1694 a pair of shoes cost 3s. 6d.; a pair of stockings, 1s. 4d.; two shirts, 5s. 4d.; leather breeches, 2s.; coat, waistcoat, and breeches, 16s.; a coffin, 5s.; a shroud and a grave for a poor man, 3s. 10d. In November, 1799, the quartern loaf was sold in London, at 1s. l0½d. and in this town at 1s. 4d., the farmers coming here to market having to be protected by constables for months together.
Priory.—History gives us very little information respecting the Hospital or Priory of St. Thomas the Apostle [See "Old Square"] and still less as the Church or Chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr. The site of the Priory was most probably where the Old Square was laid out, though during the many alterations that have latterly been made not a single stone has been discovered to prove it so. A ​few bones were found during the months of Aug. and Sept., 1884, and it is said that many years back a quantity of similar remains were discovered while cellars were being made under some of the houses in Bull Street, and one late writer speaks of cellars or crypts, which were hastily built up again. From these few traces it is not unlikely that the Chapel existed somewhere between the Minories and Steelhouse Lane, monkish chants probably resounding where now the members of the Society of Friends sit in silent prayer. Ancient records tell us that in 1285 three persons (William of Birmingham, Thomas of Maidenbacche, and Ranulph of Rugby) gave 23 acres of land at Aston and Saltley (then spelt Saluteleye) for the "endowment" of the Hospital of St. Thomas the Apostle, but that rather goes to prove the previous existence of a religious edifice instead of dating its foundation. In 1310 the Lord of Birmingham gave an additional 22 acres, and many others added largely at the time, a full list of these donors being given in Toulmin Smith's "Memorials of old Birmingham." In 1350, 70 acres in Birmingham parish and 30 acres in Aston were added to the possessions of the Priory, which by 1547, when all were confiscated, must have become of great value. The principal portions of the Priory lands in Aston and Saltley went to enrich the Holte family, one (if not the chief) recipient being the brother-in-law of Sir Thomas Holte; but the grounds and land surrounding the Priory and Chapel appear to have been gradually sold to others, the Smallbroke family acquiring the chief part. The ruins of the old buildings doubtless formed a public stonequarry for the builders of the 17th century, as even Hutton can speak of but few relics being left in his time, and those he carefully made use of himself! From the mention in an old deed of an ancient well called the "Scitewell" (probably Saints' Well"), the Priory grounds seem to have extended along Dale End to the Butts (Stafford Street), where the water was sufficiently abundant to require a bridge. It was originally intended to have a highly-respectable street in the neighbourhood named St. Thomas Street, after the name of the old Priory, a like proviso being made when John Street was laid out for building.
Prisons.—Before the incorporation of the borough all offenders in the Manor of Aston were confined in Bordesley Prison, otherwise "Tarte's Hole" (from the name of one of the keepers), situate in High Street, Bordesley. It was classed in 1802 as one of the worst gaols in the kingdom. The prison was in the backyard of the keeper's house, and it comprised two dark, damp dungeons, twelve feet by seven feet, to which access was gained through a trapdoor, level with the yard, and down ten steps. The only light or air that could reach these cells (which sometimes were an inch deep in water) was through a single iron-grated aperture about a foot square. For petty offenders, runaway apprentices, and disobedient servants, there were two other rooms, opening into the yard, each about twelve feet square. Prisoners' allowance was 4d. per day and a rug to cover them at night on their straw. In 1809 the use of the underground rooms was put a stop to, and the churchwardens allowed the prisoners a shilling per day for sustenance. Those sentenced to the stocks or to be whipped received their punishments in the street opposite the prison, and, if committed for trial, were put in leg-irons until called for by "the runners." The place was used as a lock-up for some time after the incorporation, and the old irons were kept on show for years.—The old Debtors' Prison in 1802 was in Philip Street, in a little back courtyard, not fourteen feet square, and it consisted of one damp, dirty dungeon, ten feet by eleven feet, at the bottom of a descent of seven steps, with a sleeping-room, about same ​size, over it. In these rooms mile and female alike were confined, at one time to the number of fifteen; each being allowed 3d. per day by their parishes, and a little straw on the floor at night for bedding, unless they chose to pay the keeper 2s. a week for a bed in his house. In 1809 the debtors were removed to the Old Court House [See "Court of Requests"], where the sleeping arrangements were of a better character. Howard, the "Prison Philanthropist," visited the Philip Street prison in 1782, when he found that the prisoners were not allowed to do any work, enforced idleness (as well as semi-starvation) being part of the punishment. He mentions the case of a shoemaker who was incarcerated for a debt of 15s., which the keeper of the prison had to pay through kindly allowing the man to finish some work he had begun before being locked up. In these enlightened days no man is imprisoned for owing money, but only because he does not pay it when told t do so.—See also "Dungeon" and "Gaols."
Privateering.—Most likely there was some truth in the statement that chains and shackles were made here for the slave-ships of former days, and from the following letter written to Matthew Boulton in October, 1778, there can be little doubt but that he at least had a share in some of the privateering exploits of the time, though living so far from a seaport:—"One of the vessels our little brig took last year was fitted out at New York, and in a cruise of thirteen weeks has taken thirteen prizes, twelve of which are carried safe in, and we have advice of 200 hogsheads of tobacco being shipped as part of the prizes, which if now here would fetch us £10,000," &c.
Progress of the Town.—The Borough Surveyor favours us yearly with statistics giving the number of new buildings erected, or for which plans have been approved, and to show how rapidly the town is progressing in extent, we give a few of the figures. The year 1854 is memorable in the building trade, as there were 2,219 new houses erected, the average for years after not being 1,000. In 1861 the number was but 952; in 1862, 1,350: in 1863, 1,694; in 1864, 1,419; in 1865, 1,036; in 1866, 1,411; in 1867, 1,408; in 1868, 1,548; in 1869, 1,709; in 1870, 1,324; in 1871, 1.076; in 1872, 1,265; in 1873, 993. The building report for the last ten years is thus tabulated:—
​Under the heading of "Miscellaneous" are included such erections as libraries, public halls, clubs, arcades, slaughterhouses, cowsheds, and all other necessary and useful buildings appertaining to human hives, but which need not be
particularised.
Probate.—The Probate Registry Office is at No. 15, Old Square.
Promenades.—When Corporation Street is finished, and its pathways nicely shaded with green-leaved trees, it will doubtless be not only the chief business street of the town, but also the most popular promenade. At present the gay votaries of dress and fashion principally honour New Street, especially on Saturday mornings. Hagley Road, on Sunday evenings, is particularly affected by some as their favourite promenade.
Proof House.—The foundation stone of the Proof House, Banbury Street, was laid October 4th, 1813, the yearly number of gun, rifle, and pistol barrels proved at the establishment averages over half a million.—See "Trades"
Property.—The Birmingham Property Owners' and Ratepayers' Protection Association was formed in May, 1872. Out of 70,000 separate assessments the owners pay the rates in more than 50,000 cases.
Provident Dispensaries.—See "Dispensaries."
Provident Societies.—See "Friendly, Benevolent, and Provident Institutions."
Provincialisms.—Like the inhabitants of most other parts of the country Birmingham people are not without their peculiarities of speech, not so strongly characterised perhaps as those of the good folks of Somersetshire, or even some of our neighbours in the Black Country, but still noticeable. For instance, few workmen will take a holiday; they prefer a "day's out" or "play." They will not let go or abandon anything, but they "loose" it. They do not tell you to remove, but "be off.' They prefer to "pay at twice" in lieu of in two instalments. The use of the word "her" in place of "she" is very common, as well as the curious term "just now," for an indefinite time to come, as "Her'll do it just now," instead of "She will do it soon." In vulgar parlance this book is not your own or our own, but "yourn" or "ourn," or it may be "hisn" or "hern." In pronunciation as well, though perhaps not so markedly, our people are sometimes peculiar, as when they ask for a "stahmp" or put out their "tong," &c., stres being often laid also on the word "and," as well as upon syllables not requiring it, as dictionary, volunteers, &c.
Public Buildings.—The Guild Hall, in New Street, and the Roundabout House in High Street were at one time the only public buildings in the town, besides the Parish Church, the Lockup, and the Pinfold. The Market Cross, Public Office, Workhouse, &c., came after, and it is only of late years we have been able to boast of Town Hall, Market Hall, Parish Office Council House and all the other establishments so necessary to the dignity of a town ranking as third largest in the Kingdom. The huge piles that have been erected during the last dozen years or so are of so varied a character that it becomes somewhat difficult to draw a line between those which are strictly of a private nature and the so-called "public" buildings; under which heading perhaps even Railway Stations, Banks, and Theatres might properly come. The following are some of the chief edifices not noted elsewhere:—
County Court—The now County Court, at the corner of Corporation Street and Newton Street, was erected from the plans of Mr. J. Williams at a cost of about £20,000. It is built of Hollington Stone, in Italian style, ​though, like that other Government-built edifice, the new Post Office, it is of too heavy an appearance. The two entrances for the general public are in Newton Street, the Registrar's and principal Courts being on the first floor, though neither are near large enough for the business intended to be practised therein. The entrance to the Judge's rooms is in Corporation Street, under a portico with Doric columns.
Drill Hall.—In 1880 a company was formed, with a capital of £5,000 in £20 shares, for the purpose of building a Drill Hall and suitable head-quarters for the local Volunteers. A site in Thorpe Street, containing 2,287 square yards, was taken on lease for 99 years at £100 rental, and very suitable premises have been erected, the frontage to the street (183 ft.) allowing the formation of a lofty drill hall, 180 ft. long by 85 ft. wide, at the rear of the usual and useful offices and rooms required. The latter comprise on the ground floor an orderly room and strong room, sergeant-major's office, armoury, clothing store, non-commissioned officers' room, privates' meeting room, sergeant-major's and staff-sergeant's quarters, and stables. On the first floor there are an officers' meeting room, a sergeants' meeting room, long galleries, &c.; the whole building being characteristically laid out for military purposes.
Fire Engine Stations.—The Central Fire Brigade Station, which is in telephonic communication with all the police stations, the theatres, various public buildings, and chief manufactories, is situated in the Upper Priory, between the Old Square and Steelhouse Lane, and is easily distinguishable by the large red lamp outside its gate. There are here kept ready for instant use three manual and one steam engine, the latter being capable of throwing 450 gallons of water per minute to a height of 120 feet, the other also being good specimens of their class. Each manual engine has on board its complement of hose, branches (the brass pipes through which the water leaves the hose), stand-pipes for connecting the hose with the water mains), &c., while at its side hang scaling-ladders, in sections which can readily be fitted together to reach a considerable height. The engine-house also contains a tender to the steam machine, a horse hose-cart, a hand hose-cart, and a number of portable hand-pumps. It is with these hand-pumps that the majority of the fires in Birmingham are extinguished, and one of them forms a portion of the load of every engine. Several canvas buckets, which flatten into an inconceivably small space, are also taken by means of which, either by carrying or by passing from hand to hand, the reservoirs of the pump can be kept filled, and a jet of water be made available where, perhaps, it would be difficult or impossible to bring hose. The hose kept at the station amounts to a total length of 2,487½ yards, of which about 1,700 yards is always kept on the engines, hose-carts, tender, and fire escapes ready for instant use. The remainder forms a reserve to allow for repairs, drying, &c. Between the engine-house and the street is a commodious house for the assistant-superintendent, with a very pleasant yard on the roof of the engine-house. Adjoining the engine-house on the other side, is the stable, where five splendid horses are kept. In the yard stand three fire-escapes, each fitted with a box containing hose, stand-pipes and branches, so that it may be utilised for extinguishing fires independent of the engines. The total strength of the brigade is twenty-five, including the superintendent (Mr. A. R. Tozer), the assistant superintendent Mr. J. Tiviotdale), two engineers, and an assistant engineer. Eighteen of the brigade reside at the central station, the others being quartered at the seven divisional police stations and at the fire station in Bristol Street (opposite the Bell Inn), at each of which places ​are kept an escape, or an hose-cart, and one or two hand-pumps with the needful hose and appliances. The cost of the buildings in the Upper Priory, including the site (1,500 square yards at seven guineas per yard), was about £20,000, there being in addition to the offices and stables, a waiting-room (in which two men are on duty night and day), a drill ground 153 ft. long by 40 ft. wide, an engine-room large enough for six engines, good-sized recreation rooms, baths, &;c. The residences are erected upon the "flat" system, and have a special interest in the fact that they constitute the first important introduction of that style of building in Birmingham. The advantages and the drawbacks, if any, of the system may here be seen and judged of by all who are interested in the matter. On the ground floor there are three residences, each having a living room, which may be used as a kitchen and two bed rooms adjoining. A semi-circular open staircase gives access to the flats, and on the first floor there are four residences, one being formed over the firemen's waiting room and office. On this floor additional bed rooms are provided for men with families requiring them; and the second floor is a reproduction of the first. On the top of all there is a flat upon which ate erected five wash-houses, the remainder of the space being used as a drying ground or play ground for children, the whole enclosed with iron palisades. In the basement there is a lock-up cellar for each of the residences.
Fish Market.—A rather plain-looking erection, of the open-shed style of architecture was put up at the corner of Bell Street in 1870. the foundation stone being laid July 14. It has since been enlarged, and is now much more ornamental as well as being useful. The estimated cost of the alterations is put at £16,000 including fittings. The original area was only 715 square yards, but to that has been added 909 square yards, and Bell Street (to which it will have a frontage of 240 feet), which will be widened to 16 yards, is to be covered with iron and glass roof, Lease Lane is also to be widened for access to the market.
Lincoln;s Inn.—This is a huge block of offices erected in Corporation Street, opposite the County Court, in 1883, and which, like its London namesake, is intended for the accommodation of solicitors,accountants, and other professional gentlemen. There are a number of suites of offices surrounding an inner court (66ft. by 60rt.), with' from two to eight rooms each, the street frontages in Corporation Street and Dalton Street being fitted as shops, while there is a large room under the court (48ft. by 42ft.) suitable for a sale room or other purpose. The outside appearance of the block is very striking, having a large entrance gateway with a circular bay window over it, surmounted by a lofty tower. The tower has four clock faces, pinnacles at the angles, and a steep slate roof, and is 120 feet high. There are also two flanking towers, at the extreme ends of the front. These have canted bay windows below them, and their pediments are surmounted by figures representing Mercury and Athene. The space on each side between the central and the flanking tower is divided into three bays, having ornamental dormers above them, and being divided by niches, which will serve to hold allegorical figures of the arts. The windows are ornamented by tracery, and the façade is enriched by a free use of carving. The architect is Mr. W. H. Ward, and the cost of the pile about £22,000.
Market Hall.—The foundation stone was laid Feb. 28, 1833, and it was opened for business Feb. 14, 1835. The building, which is constructed of freestone, from the designs of Mr. Edge, cost about £30,000, though considerable sums have since been spent on it. The large vaults constructed under the Hall in 1875 cost about £4,000. It contains an area of 39,411 square feet, being 365 feet long, 108 ​feet broad, and 60 feet high, and was originally planned to give stall-room for 600 dealers. The liquor shop, house, and vaults beneath, at corner of Bell Street, were let on lease by auction (Nov. 1833) for 100 years, for the sum of £5,400 and a 20s, yearly rental, in 1876 the Corporation gave £15,000 to resume possession, afterwards reletting the premises at £800 a year, with a further £100 for the vaults. The Street Commissioners, when retiring from office, placed in the centre of the Hall a fountain of very appropriate design (uncovered Dec. 24, 1851), and ornamented with bronze figures characteristic of Birmingham manufactures, but which has been removed to Highgate Park. A clock was put above the spot where the fountain stood, in April, 1852, which cost £60.—A Market Hall was erected in Prospect Row in 1837, but was very little used as such. A few years back it was partly turned into a depôt for American meat, but is now simply used for warehouses.
Masonic Hall.—The first stone of this building, situated at the corner of New Street and Ethel Street, was laid Sept. 30, 1865, the ceremony of dedication taking place April 26th, 1870.
Municipal Buildings.—The advancement of the town in trade and prosperity, population, and wealth, made it necessary years ago for our local governors to look out for a central spot on which could be gathered the many offices and officers appertaining to the Corporation of a large town like Birmingham. They were fortunate in being able (in 1851) to secure so eligible a site, in such a central position, and with such commanding elevation, as the one at the corner of Ann Street and Congreve Street, though at first glance the acquisition would appear to have been a costly one. The price of the land and reversion thereto was £39,525, but (luring the years that elapsed before the ground was cleared ready for building (1872) the interest brought that sum up to nearly £70,000. The total area was 11,540 square yards, of which 4,455 square yards were thrown into the streets. Thus, though the original price was but 68s. 6d, per yard, by the time the buildings were erected the actual site cost over £9 per yard. The plans were approved Feb. 11, 1873, the contract for building being £84,120, but during the course of erection many important additions and alterations were ma le to the original plans, raising the cost to £144,743. Part of the ground was originally intended to be covered with Assize Courts, but have been devoted to the erection of a magnificent Art Gallery, &c., so that more than a quarter million sterling will ultimately have been spent on the spot. The foundation stone was laid by the then Mayor. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. June 17, 1874, and the erection took about five years, the "hoarding" being removed July 18, 1879. The design of the Municipal Buildings is essentially classical, but not of any particular style. Mr. Yeoville Thomasson, the architect, having given free rein to his own conceptions of what was required in a modern erection of the nature of a local Parliament House. The south, or principal front (to Ann Street), has a length of 296 feet, the frontage to Congreve Street is 122 feet, and that to Eden Place is 153 feet. From the ground to the top of the main cornice the height is 65 feet; the pediment over the central entrance is 90 feet high; the stone cornice of the dome 114 feet; and the top of the finial 162 feet, the dome rising behind the central pediment from the main staircase. Looked at from a distance, the features of the building that at first strike the spectator are the carved groups of life-sized figures in the six pediments. Te Ann Street and Congreve Street frontages have a pediment at each end, of semicircular shape, and the Eden Place frontage has one at the end where it joins the principal front. The pediment in the centre of the south front is triangular in shape, and contains a group of sculptured figures ​representing "Britannia rewarding the Birmingham manufacturers." In the other pediments the groups represent Manufacture. Commerce. Literature. Art, and Science. Under the central pediment, and within a semicircular arch over the central entrance, is a large and beautiful figure-subject in mosaic, executed by Messrs. Salviati and Co., of London. Besides the central entrance, which is reached through a portico supported by square and round columns, and is reserved for the use of the Town Council and state occasions, there are four entrances to the building, one at each end of the principal front, one in Eden Place, and the other within the gateway which runs through the Congreve Street wing into the courtyard at the back. By the last-mentioned staircase access is obtained by the general public to the Council Chamber. The building contains 94 rooms of various sizes, three of the largest devoted to occasions of ceremony, and the rest to the uses of the different departments of the Corporation work. The central of the three reception rooms is 30 feet square, and is divided from the other two by an open screen of marble columns, both rooms being 64ft, by 30ft. The Council Chamber is 39ft, wide and, including the gallery for spectators, is 48ft, long, the fittings and furniture being of the most substantial character as well as ornamental. In various parts of the building accommodation has been found for the Town Clerk, the Borough Treasurer. Surveyor. Analyst. Chief Constable, and every other department of Corporation work. The furnishing of the Council Chamber and the other parts of the Municipal Buildings amounted to £15,603, the laying in of the gas and water services being £2,418 additional.
Odd-Fellows Hall.—Before the New Street Railway Station was erected there was an Odd-Fellows' Hall in King Street. The first stone of the present building in Upper Temple Street was laid early in 1849, the opening ceremony taking place Dec. 3 same year. The principal room or "hall" will accommodate about 1,000 persons, the remaining portion of the premises being let off in offices.
Parish Offices.—The meeting-place of the Board of Guardians and their necessary staff of officers has from the earliest days of Poor Law government been the most frequented of any of our public buildings. Formerly the headquarters were at the Workhouse in Lichfield Street, but when that institution was removed to Birmingham Heath, the large building at the corner of Suffolk Street and Paradise Street was built for the use of the parish officers, possession being taken thereof Feb. 26, 1853 Thirty years seems but a short period for the occupation of such a pile of offices, hut as it has been necessary several times to enlarge the Workhouse, as well as to collect Very much larger sums from the ratepayers, it is but in the natural order of things that the Overseers. Guardians, and all others connected with them should be allowed more elbow-room. A parish palace, almost rivalling our Municipal Buildings in magnificence of ornate architecture, has therefore been erected at the junction of Edmund Street and Newhall Street, where poor unfortunate people going to the Workhouse, and whose ultimate destination will possibly be a pauper's grave, may have the gratification of beholding beautiful groups of statuary sculpture. Corinthian columns of polished granite, pilasters of marble, gilded capitals, panelled ceilings, coloured architraves, ornamental cornices, encaustic tiles, and all the other pretty things appertaining to a building designed in a "severe form of the style of the French Renaissance," as an architectural paper critic calls it. Ratepayers will also have pleasure in taking their money to and delivering it over in " one of the most convenient suites of poor-law offices in the kingdom," possibly deriving a little ​satisfaction from the fact that their descendants in less than a hundred years' time will have to build another such suite of offices, or buy this over again, as the Guardians only hold the site (1,700 square yards) upon a ninety-nine years' lease at a yearly rental of £600 (7s. per yard). The building contract was for £25,490, besides extras, the architect being Mr. W. H. Ward, and the fittings, internal decoration, and furnishing was estimated at about £5,000 more, though possibly as the chairs in the Boardroom are put down at £5 each, if other articles be in proportion, both sums will be materially increased. The work was commenced in June, 1882, the memorial stone being laid February 15th, the following year. The building, which has five storeys, stands on three sides of a square courtyard, and faces into Edmund Street. Newhall Street, and a new thoroughfare made in continuation of Bread Street. In general character the three faces are alike, the masonry being rusticated in Coxbench stone to the line of the second floor, the chiselling finishing with an entablature, and the remaining two storeys included in one order of Corinthian red granite pillars, which support the main entablature. The front in Edmund Street, 105 feet in length, is symmetrically divided by a central tower, on either side of which the Corinthian pillars are discontinued until the two corners are almost reached, where they support pediments. The tower, which for a distance above the root is square, contains lour clock-faces and supports an octagonal storey, covered by a panelled stone dome, surmounted in turn by a lantern and its finial. The height of the tower from the level of the street is 105 feet, the slated towers over the lateral pediments being smaller. The Newhall Street façade, 160 feet long, is broken into three portions of nearly equal length, and the middle portion is treated differently from the other two. Above the line of the second floor entablature the windows, instead of being in a double row in correspondence with the storeys, are in this middle section of the façade carried almost to the height of the columns, and the section is surmounted in its centre by an ornamental pedestal, which bears a group of sculpture, and at its extremes by slated flagstaff towers, whose sides are concave. The purpose of these larger windows is the effectual lighting of the Boardroom, which is of the height of two storeys. The length of the Bread Street front is 90 feet. The Boardroom is 60 feet long, 36 feet wide and 24 feet high, the room being lighted by two sun-burners suspended from the ceiling panels, and is handsomely decorated throughout. The offices of the Registrar of births, marriages and deaths are entered from Newhall Street, and there is a special waiting room for the use of marriage parties whilst they are preparing to go before the Registrar, a provision which will no doubt be fully appreciated by many blushing maidens and bashful bachelors.
Public Office.—The office for the meetings of the Justices was at one time in Dale End, and it was there that "Jack and Tom" were taken in November, 1780, charged with murdering a butcher on the road to Coleshill. The first stone of the Public Office and Prison in Moor Street was laid September 18, 1805, the cost being estimated at £10,000. It was considerably enlarged in 1830, and again in 1861, and other improving alterations have been made during the last three years, so that the original cost has been more than doubled, but the place is still inadequate to the requirements of the town.
Smithfield Market.—Laid out by the Street Commissioners in 1817, at a cost of £6,000, as an open market, has been enlarged by taking in most of the ground bordered by Jamaica Row.=, St. Martin's Lane and Moat Lane, and is nearly all covered in for the purposes of ​a wholesale market, the work being commenced in November; 1880. The main entrance is in the centre of the St. Martin's Lane front, and consists of a central roadway for carts and wagons, 15ft. wide and 24ft. high, together with a wide entrance on either side for foot passengers. The main piers supporting the large archway are of stone, but the arch itself is constructed of terra-cotta, richly moulded and carved. Over the arch way are two sculptured figures in red terra-cotta, representing "Flora" and "Pomona."
The whole of the carving and sculptured work has been executed by Mr. John Roddis. The archways are fitted with massive wrought-iron gates, manufactured by Messrs. Hart, Son, Peard, and Co. The entrances in Jamaica Row and Moat Lane have arched gateways and gates to match, though much higher to allow of the passage of laden wains. The market superintendent's offices on the left of the main entrance. Greatest part of the St. Martin's Lane front is occupied by the new Woolpack Hotel, and the remainder by shops. The buildings, which are from the designs of Messrs. Osborne and Reading, are designed in the style of the English Renaissance of the Stuart period, and are constructed of red brick, with red terra-cotta dressings. At each end of the St. Martin's Lane front are circular turrets, with conical roofs, flanked by ornamental gables, and in the centre is a gable with octagonal turret on each side.
Temperance Hall.—The foundation stone of this budding, which is in Upper Temple Street, was laid Jan. 12, 1858, and it was opened Oct. 11 following.
The Cobden.—Though the property of a private company, who have twenty other establishments in the town, the "Cobden," in Corporation Street, may rank as a public building if only from its central position and finished architecture. It was opened by John Bright. Esq.. Aug. 29, 1883, and cost about £10,000. In style it may be said to be French-Gothic of early date, with Venetian features in the shape of traceried oriel windows, &c., the frontage being of Corsham Down and Portland stone.
Town Hall.—For many years the pride and the boast of Birmingham has been its noble Town Hall, which still remains the most conspicuous building, as well as the finest specimen of architecture, in the town. It was erected by the Street Commissioners, who obtained a special Act for the purpose in 1828, to enable them to lay a rate to pay for it. The architect was Mr. T. Hansom, of the firm of Messrs. Hansom and Welch, who, by a curious provision, were also bound to be the contractors. Their original estimate was £17,000, with extras, which would have raised it to about £19,000, but so far were their figures out that £30,000 were expended prior to the first meeting being held in the Hall, and that sum had been increased to £69,520 when the building was finally completed in 1850 by the addition of the pillars and pediments at the back. The foundations and solid parts of the structure are built of brick, the casing or outside of the walls, the pillars, and the ornamental portions being of Anglesey marble, given to the contractors by the owner of Penmaean quarries. Sir Richard Bulkeley, Bart. The building was commenced April 27, 1832, and opened Sept. 19, 1834, being used for the Festival of that year; the first public meeting held in the Hall being on Nov. 28th. The outside measurements of the Hall are—Length 175 ft., breadth 100ft., height 83ft., viz., basement 23ft., columns 36ft., cornice 9ft., and pediment 15ft. The forty columns are each 3½ft. diameter. The hall, or great room, is 145ft, long, 65ft. broad, and 65ft. high; including the orchestra it will seat a few over 3,000 persons, while it is said that on more than one occasion 10,000 have found standing room. Considerable sums have been spent in trying to improve the ventilation and lighting of ​the Hall, as well as in redecorating occasionally, the medallions of eminent composers and other worthies being introduced in 1876. For description of Town Hall organ see "Organs."
Windsor Street Gas Works with its immense gas-holders, retort-houses, its own special canal and railway approaches, covers an area of about twenty-six acres, extending almost from Dartmouth Street to Aston Road. Though there can be no grand architectural features about such an establishment certain parts of the works are worthy of note, the two principal gasholders and the new retort-house being among the largest of their kind in the world. The holders, or gasometers as they are sometimes called, are each 240ft. in diameter, with a depth of 50ft., the telescope arrangement allowing of a rise of 170ft., giving a containing capacity equal to the space required for 6,250,000 cubic feet of gas. The new retort house is 455ft. long by 210ft. wide, and will produce about nine million cubic feet of gas per day, the furnaces being supplied with coal and cleared of the coke by special machinery of American invention, which is run upon rails backwards and forwards from the line of coal trucks to the furnace mouths. The quantity of coal used per week is nearly 4,000 tons, most of which is brought from North Staffordshire, and the reserve coal heap is kept as near as convenient to a month's supply, or 16,000 tons. The machinery for the purification of the gas, the extracting of the ammoniacal liquor, tar and residuals, which make the manufacture of gas so remunerative, are of the most improved description.
Workhouse.—The first mention of a local institution thus named occurs in the resolution passed at a public meeting held May 16, 1727, to the effect that it was "highly necessary and convenient that a Public Work House should be erected in or near the town to employ or set to work the poor of Birmingham for their better maintenance as the law directs." This resolution seems to have been carried out, as the Workhouse in Lichfield Street (which was then a road leading out of the town) was built in 1733 the first cost being £1,173, but several additions afterwards made brought the building account to about £3,000. Originally it was built to accommodate 600 poor persons, but in progress of time it was found necessary to house a much larger number, and the Overseers and Guardians were often hard put to for room; which perhaps accounts for their occasionally discussing the advisability of letting some of their poor people out on hire to certain would-be taskmasters as desired such a class of employees. In the months of January. February, and March, 1783, much discussion took place as to building a new Workhouse, but nothing definite was done in the matter until 1790, when it was proposed to obtain an Act for the erection of a Poorhouse at Birmingham Heath, a scheme which Hutton said was as airy as the spot chosen for the building. Most likely the expense, which was reckoned at £15,000, frightened the ratepayers, for the project was abandoned, and for fifty years little more was heard on the subject. What they would have said to the £150,000 spent on the present building can be better imagined than de.scribed. The foundation-stone of the latter was laid Sept. 7, 1850, and the first inmates were received March 29, 1852, in which year the Lichfield Street establishment was finally closed, though it was not taken down for several years after. The new Workhouse is one of the largest in the country, the area within its walls being nearly twenty acres, and it was built to accommodate 3,000 persons, but several additions in the shape of new wards, enlarged schools, and extended provision for the sick, epileptic and insane, have since been made. The whole establishment is supplied with water from an artesian well, and is such a distance from other buildings as to ensure the most healthy ​conditions. The chapel, which has several stained windows, is capable of seating 800 persons, and in it, on May 9, 1883, the Bishop of Worcester administered the rite of confirmation to 31 of the inmates, a novelty in the history of Birmingham Workhouse, at all events. Full provision is made for Catholics and Nonconformists desiring to attend the services of their respective bodies. In connection with the Workhouse may be noted the Cottage Homes and Schools at Marston Green (commenced in October, 1878) for the rearing and teaching of a portion of the poor children left in the care of the Guardians. These buildings consist of 3 schools, 14 cottage homes, workshops, infirmary, headmaster's residence, &c., each of the homes being for thirty children, in addition to an artisan and his wife, who act as heads of the family About twenty acres of land are at present thus occupied, the cost being at the rate of £140 per acre, while on the buildings upwards of £20,000 has been spent.
Public houses.—The early Closing Act came into operation here, November 11, 1864; and the eleven o'clock closing hour in 1872; the rule from 1864 having been to close at one and open at four a.m. Prior to that date the tipplers could be indulged from the earliest hour on Monday till the latest on Saturday night, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain and his friends thought so highly of the Gothenburg scheme that they persuaded the Town Council into passing a resolution (Jan. 2, 1877) that the Corporation ought to be allowed to buy up all the trade in Birmingham. There were forty-six who voted for the motion against ten; but, when the Right Hon. J. C.'s monopolising motion was introduced to the House of Commons (March 13, 1877), it was negatived by fifty-two votes.
Pudding Brook.—This was the sweetly pretty name given to one of the little streams that ran in connection with the moat round the old Manorhouse. Possibly it was originally Puddle Brook, but as it became little more than an open sewer or stinking mud ditch before it was ultimately done away with, the last given name may not have been inappropriate.
Quacks.—Though we cannot boast of a millionaire pill-maker like the late Professor Holloway, we have not often been without a local well-to-do "quack."
A medical man, named Richard Aston, about 1815-25, was universally called so, and if the making of money is proof of quackery, he deserved the title, as he left a fortune of £60,000. He also left an only daughter, but she and her husband were left to die in the Workhouse, as the quack did not approve of their union.
Quakers.—Peaceable and quiet as the members of the Society of Friends are known to be now, they do not appear to have always borne that character in this neighbourhood, but the punishments inflicted upon them in the time of the Commonwealth seem to have been brutish in the extreme. In a history of the diocese of Worcester it is stated that the Quakers not only refused to pay tithes or take off their hats in courts of justice, but persisted in carrying on their business on Sundays, and scarcely suffering a service to be conducted without interruption, forcing themselves into congregations and proclaiming that the clergymen were lying witnesses and false prophets, varying their proceeding? by occasionally runing naked through the streets of towns and villages, and otherwise misbehaving themselves, until they were regarded as public pests and treated accordingly. In the year 1661, fifty-four Quakers were in Worcester gaol, and about the same time seven or eight others were in the lockup at Evesham, where they were confined for fourteen weeks in a cell 22ft. square and 6ft, high, being fed on bread and water and not once let out during the whole time, so that people could not endure to pass the place; female Quakers were thrust with brutal indecency into the stocks and ​ there left in hard frost for a day and night, being afterwards driven from the town. And this went on during the whole of the time this country was blessed with Cromwell and a Republican Government.—See "Friends."