1784, though the sellers thereof had been taxed more or less for 250
years previously. The effect of the heavy duties then imposed was to
reduce the consumption of the national and wholesome beverage, which in
1782 averaged one barrel per head of the then population per annum, down
to half-a-barrel per head in 1830, its place being filled by an
increased consumption of ardent spirits, which from half-a-gallon per
head in 1782, rose by degrees to six-sevenths of a gallon per head by
1830. In this year, the statesmen of the day, who thought more of the
well-being of the working part of the population than raising money by
the taxation of their necessaries, took off the 10s. per barrel on beer,
in the belief that cheap and good malt liquors would be more likely to
make healthy strong men than an indulgence in the drinking of spirits.
Notwithstanding all the wild statements of the total abstainers to the
contrary, the latest Parliamentary statistics show that the consumption
of beer per head per annum averages _now_ only seven-eighths of a
barrel, though before even this moderate quantity reaches the consumers,
the Government takes [see Inland Revenue returns, 1879, before
alteration of malt-tax] no less a sum than £19,349 per year from the
good people of Birmingham alone. Of this sum the brewers paid £9,518,
the maltsters £425, beer dealers £2,245, and beer retailers £7,161.
~Bells.~--There was a bell foundry at Good Knave's End, in 1760, from
whence several neighbouring churches were supplied with bells to summon
the good knaves of the day to prayers, or to toll the bad knaves to
_their_ end. There was also one at Holloway Head, in 1780, but the
business must have been hollow enough, for it did not go ahead, and we
find no record of church bells being cast here until just a hundred
years back (1732), when Messrs. Blews & Son took up the trade.
Birmingham bells have, however, made some little noise in the world, and
may still be heard on sea or land, near and far, in the shape of door
bells, ship bells, call bells, hand bells, railway bells, sleigh bells,
sheep bells, fog bells, mounted on rockbound coasts to warn the weary
mariner, or silver bells, bound with coral from other coasts, to soothe
the toothless babbler. These, and scores of others, are ordered here
every year by thousands; but the strangest of all orders must have been
that one received by a local firm some fifteen years ago from a West
African prince, who desired them to send him 10,000 house bells (each
3/4 lb. weight), wherewith to adorn his iron "palace." And he had them!
Edgar Poe's bells are nowhere, in comparison with
Such a charm, such a chime,
Out of tune, out of time.
Oh, the jangling and the wrangling
Of ten thousand brazen throats.
Ten bells were put in St. Martin's, in 1786, the total weight being 7
tons, 6 cwt. 2 lbs.
The peal of ten bells in St. Philip's were first used August 7, 1751,
the weight being 9 tons 10 cwt. 22 lbs., the tenor weighs 30 cwt.
A new peal of eight bells were put up in Aston Church, in May, 1776, the
tenor weighing 21 cwt. The St. Martin's Society of Change Ringers
"opened" them, July 15, by ringing Holt's celebrated peal of 5040
grandsire triples, the performance occupying 3 hours 4 minutes.
Eight bells and a clock were mounted in the tower of Deritend Chapel, in
1776, the first peal being rung July 29.
The eight bells in Bishop Ryder's Church, which weigh 55 cwt., and cost
£600, were cast in 1868, by Blews and Sons, and may be reckoned as the
first full peal founded in Birmingham.
There are eight bells in Harborne Parish Church, four of them bearing
date 1697, two with only the makers' name on, and two put in February,
1877, on the 24th of which month the whole peal were inaugurated by the
ringing of a true peal of Stedman triples, composed by the late Thomas
Thurstans, and consisting of 5,040 changes, in 2 hours and 52 minutes.
The St. Martin's ringers officiated.
The six bells of Northfield Church were cast by Joseph Smith, of
Edgbaston, in 1730.
St. Chad's Cathedral has eight bells, five of which were presented in
1848 as a memorial to Dr. Moore; the other three, from the foundry of W.
Blews and Sons, were hung in March, 1877 the peculiar ceremony of
"blessing the bells" being performed by Bishop Ullathorne on the 22nd of
that month. The three cost £110. The bells at Erdington Catholic Church
were first used on February 2, 1878.
~Bellows to Mend.~--Our townspeople bellowed a little over their losses
after Prince Rupert's rueful visit, but there was one among them who
knew how to "raise the wind," for we find Onions, the bellows-maker,
hard at work in 1650; and his descendants keep at the same old game.
~Bennett's Hill.~--There was a walled-in garden (with an old brick
summer-house) running up from Waterloo-street to Colmore-row as late as
1838-9.
~Benefit and Benevolent Societies.~--See "_Friendly Societies_."
~Bellbarn Road~, or the road to Mr. Bell's barn.
~Bermingham.~--The Irish family of this name descended from Robert, son
of Peter de Bermingham, who left here and settled in Connaught about the
year 1169.
~Bibles and Testaments.~--In 1272 the price of a Bible, well written
out, was £30 sterling, and there were few readers of it in Birmingham.
The good book can now be bought for 6d., and it is to be hoped there is
one in every house. The Rev. Angell James once appealed to his
congregation for subscriptions towards sending a million New Testaments
to China, and the Carrslaneites responded promptly with £410 8s., enough
to pay for 24,624 copies--the publisher's price being 4d. each. They can
be bought for a penny now.--A local Auxiliary Bible Society was
commenced here May 9, 1806.
~Bingley Hall~--Takes its name from Bingley House, on the site of which
it is built. It was erected in 1850 by Messrs. Branson and Gwyther, at a
cost of about £6,000, the proprietary shares being £100 each. In form it
is nearly a square, the admeasurements being 224 ft. by 212 ft., giving
an area of nearly one acre and a half. There are ten entrance doors,
five in King Edward's Place, and five in King Alfred's Place, and the
building may be easily divided into five separate compartments. The Hall
will hold from 20,000 to 25,000 people, and is principally used for
Exhibitions and Cattle Shows; with occasionally "monster meetings," when
it is considered necessary for the welfare of the nation to save sinners
or convert Conservatives.
~Bird's-eye View~ of the town can be best obtained from the dome of the
Council House, to which access may be obtained on application to the
Curator. Some good views may be also obtained from some parts of Moseley
Road, Cannon Hill Park, and from Bearwood Road.
~Birmingham.~--A horse of this name won the Doncaster St. Leger in 1830
against 27 competitors. The owner, John Beardsworth, cleared £40,000. He
gave Connolly, the jockey, £2,000.
~Birmingham Abroad.~--Our brethren who have emigrated do not like to
forget even the name of their old town, and a glance over the American
and Colonial census sheet shows us that there are at least a score of
other Birminghams in the world. In New Zealand there are three, and in
Australia five townships so christened. Two can be found in Canada, and
ten or twelve in the United States, the chief of which is Birmingham in
Alabama. In 1870 this district contained only a few inhabitants, but in
the following year, with a population of 700, it was incorporated, and
at once took rank as a thriving city, now proudly called "The Iron
City," from its numerous ironworks, furnaces, and mills. Last year the
citizens numbered over 12,000, the annual output of pig-iron being about
60,000 tons, and the coal mines in the neighbourhood turning out 2,000
tons per day. The city is 240 miles from Nashville, 143 miles from
Chattanooga, and 96 miles from Montgomery, all thriving places, and is a
central junction of six railways. The climate is good, work plentiful,
wages fair, provisions cheap, house rent not dear, churches and schools
abundant, and if any of our townsmen are thinking of emigrating they may
do a deal worse than go from hence to that other Birmingham, which its
own "daily" says is a "City of marvellous wonder and magic growth," &c.,
&c.
~Birmingham Begging.~--Liberal to others as a rule when in distress, it
is on record that once at least the inhabitants of this town were the
recipients of like favours at the hands of their fellow-countrymen. In
the churchwardens' books of Redenall, Norfolk, under date September 20,
1644, is an entry of 6s. paid "to Richard Herbert, of Birmingham, where
was an hundred fifty and five dwelling house burnt by Pr. Rupert."
~Birmingham Borough,~ which is in the hundred of Hemlingford, and wholly
in the county of Warwick, includes the parish of Birmingham, part of the
parish of Edgbaston, and the hamlets of Deritend-and-Bordesley, and
Duddeston-cum-Nechells, in the parish of Aston. The extreme length is
six miles one furlong, the average breadth three miles, the
circumference twenty-one miles, and the total area 8,420 acres, viz.,
Birmingham, 2,955; in Edgbaston, 2,512; and in Aston, 2,853. Divided
into sixteen wards by an Order in Council, approved by Her Majesty,
October 15, 1872. The mean level of Birmingham is reckoned as 443 feet
above sea level.
~Birmingham Heath.~--Once an unenclosed common, and part of it may now
be said to be common property, nearly 100 acres of it being covered with
public buildings for the use of such as need a common home. There is
not, however, anything commonplace in the style of these erections for
sheltering our common infirmities, as the Workhouse, Gaol, and Asylum
combined have cost "the Commons" something like £350,000. The Volunteers
in 1798 made use of part of the Heath as a practice and parade ground.
~Birmingham Bishops.~--The Rev. John Milner, a Catholic divine and
eminent ecclesiastical antiquary, who was educated at Edgbaston, was
appointed Bishop Apostolic in the Midland district, with the title of
"Bishop of Castaballa." He died in 1826, in his 74th year.--Dr.
Ullathorne was enthroned at St. Chad's, August 30th, 1848, as Bishop of
the present Catholic diocese.--The Rev. P. Lee, Head Master of Free
Grammar School in 1839, was chosen as the first Bishop of Manchester.--
The Rev. S. Thornton, St. George's, was consecrated Bishop of Ballarat,
May 1, 1875.--The Rev. Edward White Benson, D.D., a native of this town,
was nominated first Bishop of Truro, in December, 1876, and is now
Archbishop of Canterbury.--The Rev. Thomas Huband Gregg resigned the
vicarage of East Harborne in March, 1877, and on June 20 was consecrated
at New York a Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church.
~Birmingham~ (~Little~).--In a record of the early date of 1313 there is
mention of a place called Little Birmingham (parvam Birmingham), as
being in the hundreds of North and South Erpyngham, Norfolk.
~Birmingham in the Future.~--It has been proposed that the Borough
should be extended so as to include the Local Board districts of
Harborne and Handsworth, Balsall Heath, Moseley, King's Heath, part of
King's Norton parish, the whole of Yardley and Acock's Green, part of
Northfield parish, all Aston Manor, Saltley, Witton, Little Bromwich,
and Erdington, covering an area of about 32,000 acres, with a present
population of over half a million.
~Blind Asylum.~--See "_Philanthropic Institutions_."
~Blondin~ made his first appearance at Aston Park, June 8, 1861; at the
Birmingham Concert Hall, December, 1869, and March, 1870; at the
Reservoir September, 1873, and September, 1878. Mrs. Powell, who was
known as the "Female Blondin," was killed at a fête in Aston Park, July
20, 1868, by falling from the high rope.
~Bloomsbury Institute.~--Opened in 1860. The memorial stones of the
lecture-hall in Bloomsbury Street were laid August 6, 1877, the £750
cost being given by Mr. David Smith. Seats 500.
~Blue Coat School.~--See "_Schools_."
~Blues.~--The United Society of True Blues was founded in 1805 by a
number of old Blue Coat boys (formerly known as "The Grateful Society")
who joined in raising an annual subscription for the School.
~Board Schools.~--See "_School Board_."
~Boatmen's Hall,~ erected on Worcester Wharf, by Miss Ryland, was opened
March 17, 1879.
~Bonded Warehouses.~--Our Chamber of Commerce memoralised the Lords of
the Treasury for the extension of the bonded warehouse system to this
town, in December, 1858, but it was several years before permission was
obtained.
~Books.~--The oldest known Birmingham book is a "Latin Grammar, composed
in the English tongue," printed in London in 1652, for Thomas Underhill,
its author having been one of the masters of our Free School.
~Book Club (The).~--Commenced some few years previous to 1775, at which
time its meetings were held in Poet Freeth's, Leicester Arms,
Bell-street. As its name implies, the club was formed for the purchase
and circulation among the members of new or choice books, which were
sold at the annual dinner, hence the poet's hint in one of his
invitations to these meetings:--
"Due regard let the hammer be paid,
Ply the glass gloomy care to dispel;
If mellow our hearts are all made,
The books much better may sell."
In these days of cheap literature, free libraries, and halfpenny papers,
such a club is not wanted.
~Books on Birmingham.~--Notes of Birmingham were now and then given
before the days of that dear old antiquary Hutton, but _his_ "History"
must always take rank as the first. Morfitt's was amusing as far as it
went; Bissett's was ditto and pictorial; but it remained till the
present period for really reliable sketches to be given. The best are
Langford's "Century of Birmingham Life," Harman's "Book of Dates,"
Dent's "Old and New Birmingham," Bunce's "Municipal History," and the
last is "Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham."
~Botanical Gardens.~--See "_Horticultural Societies_."
~Borough Members.~--See "_Parliamentary Elections_."
~Boulton (Mathew).~--The son of a hardware manufacturer of the same
name, was born here on September 3, 1728 (old style) and received his
education principally at the academy of the Rev. Mr. Anstey, Deritend.
He is accredited with having at the early age of seventeen invented the
inlaying of steel buckles, buttons and trinkets, which for many years
were in great request. These articles at first were exported to France
in large quantities, being afterwards brought from thence and sold in
London as the latest Parisian fashion. In 1762 (his father having left
him a considerable property) Mr. Boulton leased a quantity of the land
then forming part of Birmingham Heath, where at a cost of over £10,000
he erected the famous Soho Works, and later on (in 1794) he purchased
the freehold of that and a considerable tract of the adjoining land. In
1767 steam was first brought into use to supplement the power derived
from the water wheels, and in 1769 he became acquainted with James Watt,
with whom he afterwards went into partnership to make steam engines of
all kinds, sinking £47,000 before he had any return for his money. Mr.
Boulton lived to the patriarchal age of fourscore and one, leaving this
life on August 7, 1809. He was buried at Handsworth, 600 workmen,
besides numberless friends, following his remains; all of whom were
presented with hatbands and gloves and a silver medal, and regaled with
a dinner, the funeral costing altogether about £2,000.--See "_Coinage_,"
&c.
~Bourne College,~ erected by the Primitive Methodists and their friends,
at Quinton, at a cost of nearly £10,00, was formally opened on October
240 [Transcriber's note: as original] 1882. When completed there will be
accommodation for 120 students.
~Bowling Greens.~--These seem to have been favourite places of resort
with our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. The completion of one at
the Union Tavern, Cherry Street, was announced March 26, 1792, but we
read of another as attached to the Hen and Chickens, in High Street, as
early as 1741. There is a very fine bowling-green at Aston Hall, and
lovers of the old-fashioned game can be also accommodated at Cannon Hill
Park, and at several suburban hotels.
~Boys' Refuge~ is at corner of Bradford Street and Alcester Street, and
the Secretary will be glad of help.
~Boyton.~--Captain Boyton showed his life-preserving dress, at the
Reservoir, April 24, 1875.
~Bracebridge.~--A very ancient family, long connected with this
neighbourhood, for we read of Peter de Bracebrigg who married a
grand-daughter of the Earl of Warwick in A.D. 1100, and through her
inherited Kingsbury, an ancient residence of the Kings of Mercia. In
later days the Bracebridges became more intimately connected with this
town by the marriage in 1775 of Abraham Bracebridge, Esq., of
Atherstone, with Mary Elizabeth, the only child and heiress of Sir
Charles Holte, to whom the Aston estates ultimately reverted. Many
articles connected with the Holte family have been presented to
Birmingham by the descendants of this marriage.
~Bradford Street~ takes its name from Henry Bradford, who, in 1767,
advertised that he would give a freehold site to any man who would build
the first house therein.
~Breweries.~--In the days of old nearly every publican and innkeeper was
his own brewer, the fame of his house depending almost solely on the
quality of the "stingo" he could pour out to his customers. The first
local brewery on a large scale appears to have been that erected in
Moseley Street in 1782, which even down to late years retained its
cognomen of the Birmingham Old Brewery. In 1817 another company opened a
similar extensive establishment at St. Peter's Place, in Broad Street,
and since then a number of enterprising individuals have at times
started in the same track, but most have come grief, even in the case of
those whose capital was not classed under the modern term "limited." The
principal local breweries now in existence are those of Messrs. Holder,
Mitchell, and Bates, in addition to the well-known Crosswells Brewery of
Messrs Walter Showell and Sons, noted in next paragraph. The principal
Vinegar Brewery in Birmingham is that of Messrs. Fardon and Co.
(Limited), in Glover Street, which was formed in 1860, and is well
worthy of the stranger's visit. The annual output is about 850,000
gallons, there being storage for nearly a million gallons, and 36,000
casks to send the vinegar out in.
~Brewery at Crosswells.~--Though by far the most extensive brewery
supplying Birmingham, the Crosswells cannot claim to be more than in the
infancy of its establishment at present, as only twelve years ago the
many acres of ground now covered by its buildings formed but part of an
unenclosed piece of waste land. Nevertheless, the spot was well-known
and often visited in ancient times, on account of the wonderful and
miraculous cures said to have been effected by the free use of the water
gushing up from the depths of the springs to be found there, and which
the monks of old had christened "The Wells of the Cross." Be its
medicinal qualities what they might in the days before Harry the Eighth
was king, the Cross Wells water retained its name and fame for centuries
after the monks were banished and the burly king who drove them out had
himself turned to dust. It has always been acknowledged as one of the
purest waters to be found in the kingdom; but its peculiar and special
adaptability to the brewing of "good old English cheer" was left to be
discovered by the founder of the firm of Messrs. Walter Showell and
Sons, who, as stated before, some twelve years back, erected the nucleus
of the present extensive brewery. Starting with the sale of only a few
hundred barrels per week, the call for their ales soon forced the
proprietors to extend their premises in order that supply should meet
demand. At first doubled, then quadrupled, the brewery is now at least
ten times its original size; and a slight notion of the business carried
on may be gathered from the fact that the firm's stock of barrels tots
up to nearly 60,000 and is being continually increased, extensive
cooperages, blacksmiths' shops, &c., being attached to the brewery, as
well as malthouses, offices, and storehouses of all kinds. The head
offices of the firm, which are connected by telephone with the brewery,
as well as with the stores at Kingston Buildings, Crescent Wharf, are
situated in Great Charles Street, and thus the Crosswells Brewery
(though really at Langley Green, some half-dozen miles away as the crow
flies) becomes entitled to rank as a Birmingham establishment, and
certainly not one of the least, inasmuch as the weekly sale of
Crosswells ales for this town alone is more than 80,000 gallons per
week.
~Brickkiln Lane,~ now called the Horse Fair, gives its own derivation.
~Bright.~--The Right Hon. John Bright, though not a Birmingham man, nor
connected with the town by any ties of personal interest or business,
has for the last quarter-century been the leading member returned to
Parliament as representing the borough, and must always rank foremost
among our men of note. Mr. Bright is the son of the late Jacob Bright,
of Greenbank, near Rochdale, and was born November 16, 1811. He and his
brother, Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P. for Manchester, began business as
partners in the affiliated firms of John Bright and Brothers, cotton
spinners and manufacturers, Rochdale, and Bright and Co., carpet
manufacturers, Rochdale and Manchester. At an early age Mr. Bright
showed a keen interest in politics, and took part in the Reform
agitation of 1831-32. In those days every householder was compelled by
law to pay the Church-rates levied in his parish, whatever his religious
creed might be, and it is said that Mr. Bright's first flights of
oratory were delivered from a tombstone in Rochdale church-yard in
indignant denunciation of a tax which to him, as a member of the Society
of Friends, appeared especially odious. It was not, however, till 1839,
when he joined the Anti-Corn Law League, that Mr. Bright's reputation
spread beyond his own immediate neighbourhood; and there can be no doubt
but that his fervid addresses, coupled with the calmer and more logical
speeches of Mr. Cobden, contributed in an appreciable degree to the
success of the movement. In July, 1843, he was returned as M.P. for the
city of Durham, which he represented until the general election of 1847,
when he was the chosen of Manchester. For ten years he was Manchester's
man in everything, but the side he took in regard to the Russian war was
so much at variance with the popular opinions of his constituents that
they at last turned on him, burnt his effigy in the streets, and threw
him out at the general election in March, 1857. At the death of Mr. G.F.
Muntz, in July following, Mr. Bright was almost unanimously selected to
fill his place as M.P. for this town, and for 25 years he has continued
to honour Birmingham by permitting us to call him _our_ member. (See
"_Parliamentary Elections_.") Mr. Bright has been twice married, but is
now a widower, and he has twice held office in the Cabinet, first as
President of the Board Of Trade, and more lately as Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster.
~Bristol Road.~--Trees were first planted in this road in the spring of
1853.
~Britannia Metal.~--A mixed metal formed of 90 parts of tin, 2 copper,
and 8 antimony, brought into use about 1790, and long a favourite with
manufacturers and public alike. The introduction of electroplating did
much towards its extended make at first, but latterly it has been in
great measure, replaced by German silver and other alloys.
~British Association~ for the Advancement, of Science first met in this
town Aug. 26, 1839. They were here again Oct. 12, 1857, and Sep. 6,
1865.
~Brittle Street~ formerly ran from Livery Street to Snow Hill, about the
spot where now the entrance gates to the Station are.
~Broad Street.~--150 years ago part of what is now known as Dale End was
called Broad Street, the present thoroughfare of that name then being
only a pathway through the fields.
~Brunswick Buildings.~--Erected in New Street, by Mr. Samuel Haines in
1854. A funny tale has been told about the original lease, which
included a covenant that at the expiration of the term of 100 years for
which it was granted, the land was to be delivered up to the Grammar
School "well cropped with potatoes." In 1760 New Street _was_ a new
street indeed, for there were but a few cottages with gardens there
then, and the potatoe proviso was no doubt thought a capital provision;
but fancy growing that choice edibie there in 1860!
~Buck.~--Henry Buck, P.G.M., and Sec. of the Birmingham district of the
Manchester Order of Oddfellows for twenty-five years, died Jan. 22,
1876, aged 63. A granite obelisk to his memory in St. Philip's
churchyard was unveiled Sep. 17, 1877.