this country by the Flemings whom Edward IV. brought over in 1471, but
(though doubtless occasional specimens were made by our townsmen before
then) the manufacture of small arms at Birmingham does not date further
back than 1689, when inquiries were made through Sir Richard Newdigate
as to the possibility of getting them made here as good as those coming
from abroad. A trial order given by Government in March, 1692, led to
the first contract (Jan. 5, 1693) made between the "Officers of
Ordnance" and five local manufacturers, for the supply of 200 "snaphance
musquets" every month for one year at 17/-each, an additional 3/-per
cwt. being allowed for carriage to London. The history of the trade
since then would form a volume of itself, but a few facts of special
note and interest will be given in its place among "_Trades_."
~Gutta Percha~ was not known in Europe prior to 1844, and the first
specimens were brought here in the following year. Speaking tubes made
of gutta percha were introduced early in 1849.
~Gymnasium.~--At a meeting held Dec. 18, 1865, under the presidency of
the Mayor, it was resolved to establish a public gymnasium on a large
scale, but an present it is non-existent, the only gymnasium open being
that of the Athletic Club at Bingley Hall.
~Hackney Coaches~ were introduced here in 1775. Hutton says the drivers
of the first few earned 30s. per day; those of the present day say they
do not get half the sum now. Hansom Cabs, the invention, in 1836, of the
architect and designer of our Town Hall, were first put on the stands in
1842.
~Half-Holiday.~--Ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, used to be
the stint for workpeople here and elsewhere. A Saturday Half-holiday
movement was begun in 1851, the first employers to adopt the system
being Mr. John Frearson, of Gas Street (late of the Waverley Hotel,
Crescent), and Mr. Richard Tangye. Wingfields, Brown, Marshall & Co.,
and many other large firms began with the year 1853, when it maybe said
the plan became general.
~Handsworth.~--Till within the last thirty or forty years, Handsworth
was little more than a pleasant country village, though now a
well-populated suburb of Birmingham. The name is to be found in the
"Domesday Book," but the ancient history of the parish is meagre indeed,
and confined almost solely to the families of the lords of the manor,
the Wyrleys, Stanfords, &c., their marriages and intermarriages, their
fancies and feuds, and all those petty trifles chroniclers of old were
so fond of recording. After the erection of the once world-known, but
now vanished Soho Works, by Matthew Boulton, a gradual change came o'er
the scene; cultivated enclosures taking the place of the commons,
enclosed in 1793; Boulton's park laid out, good roads made,
water-courses cleared, and houses and mansions springing up on all
sides, and so continuing on until now, when the parish (which includes
Birchfield and Perry Barr, an area of 7,680 acres in all) is nearly half
covered with streets and houses, churches and chapels, alms-houses and
stations, shops, offices, schools, and all the other necessary adjuncts
to a populous and thriving community. The Local Board Offices and Free
Library, situate in Soho Road, were built in 1878 (first stone laid
October 30th, 1877), at a cost of £20,662, and it is a handsome pile of
buildings. The library contains about 7,000 volumes. There is talk of
erecting public swimming and other baths, and a faint whisper that
recreation grounds are not far from view. The 1st Volunteer Battalion of
the South Staffordshire Regiment have their head-quarters here. Old
Handsworth Church, which contained several carved effigies and tombs of
the old lords, monuments of Matthew Boulton and James Watt, with bust of
William Murdoch, &c., has been rebuilt and enlarged, the first stone of
the new building being laid in Aug, 1876. Five of the bells in the tower
were cast in 1701, by Joseph Smith, of Edgbaston, and were the first
peal sent out of his foundry; the tenor is much older. The very
appropriate inscription on the fourth bell is, "God preserve the Church
of England as by law established."
~Harborne~ is another of our near neighbours which a thousand years or
so ago had a name if nothing else, but that name has come down to
present time with less change than is usual, and, possibly through the
Calthorpe estate blocking the way, the parish itself has changed but
very slowly, considering its close proximity to busy, bustling
Birmingham. This apparent stagnation, however, has endeared it to us
Brums not a little, on account of the many pleasant glades and sunny
spots in and around it. Harborne gardeners have long been famous for
growing gooseberries, the annual dinner of the Gooseberry Growers'
Society having been held at the Green Man ever since 1815. But Harborne
has plucked up heart latterly, and will not much longer be "out of the
running." With its little area of 1,412 acres, and only a population of
6,600, it has built itself an Institute (a miniature model of the
Midland), with class rooms and reading rooms, with library and with
lecture halls, to seat a thousand, at a cost of £6,500, and got Henry
Irving to lay the foundation-stone, in 1879. A Masonic Hall followed in
1880, and a Fire Brigade Station soon after. It has also a local railway
as well as a newspaper. In the parish church, which was nearly all
rebuilt in 1867, there are several monuments of olden date, one being in
remembrance of a member of the Hinckley family, from whose name that of
our Inkleys is deducible; there is also a stained window to the memory
of David Cox. The practice of giving a Christmas treat, comprising a
good dinner, some small presents, and an enjoyable entertainment to the
aged poor, was begun in 1865, and is still kept up.
~Hard Times.~--Food was so dear and trade so bad in 1757 that Lord
Dartmouth for a long time relieved 500 a week out of his own pocket. In
1782 bread was sold to the poor at one-third under its market value. On
the 1st of July, 1795, the lessee of the Theatre Royal, Mr. McCready,
gave the proceeds of the night's performance (£161 8s.) for the benefit
of the poor. The money was expended in wheat, which was sold free of
carriage. Meat was also very scarce on the tables of the poor, and a
public subscription was opened by the High Bailiff to enable meat to be
sold at 1d. per lb. under the market price, which then ruled at 3d. to
6d. per lb. In November, 1799, wheat was 15s. per bushel. In May, 1800,
the distressed poor were supplied with wheat at the "reduced price" of
15s. per bushel, and potatoes at 8s. per peck. Soup kitchens for the
poor were opened November 30, 1816, when 3,000 quarts were sold the
first day. The poor-rates, levied in 1817, amounted to £61,928, and it
was computed that out of a population of 84,000 at least 27,000 were in
receipt of parish relief. In 1819 £5,500 was collected to relieve the
distressed poor. The button makers were numbered at 17,000 in 1813,
two-thirds of them being out of work. 1825 and 1836 were terrible years
of poverty and privation in this town and neighbourhood. In 1838,
380,000 doles were made to poor people from a fund raised by public
subscription. In the summer of 1840, local trade was so bad that we have
been told as many as 10,000 persons applied at one office alone for free
passages to Australia, and all unsuccessfully. Empty houses could be
counted by the hundred. There was great distress in the winter of
1853-4, considerable amounts being subscribed for charitable relief. In
the first three months of 1855, there were distributed among the poor
11,745 loaves of bread, 175,500 pints of soup, and £725 in cash. The sum
of £10,328 was subscribed for and expended in the relief of the
unemployed in the winter of 1878-79--the number of families receiving
the same being calculated at 195,165, with a total of 494,731 persons.
~Harmonies.~--See "_Musical Societies_."
~Hats and Hatters.~--In 1820 there was but one hatter in the town, Harry
Evans, and his price for best "beavers" was a guinea and a half,
"silks," which first appeared in 1812, not being popular and "felts"
unknown. Strangers have noted one peculiarity of the native Brums, and
that is their innate dislike to "top hats," few of which are worn here
(in comparison to population) except on Sunday, when respectable
mechanics churchward-bound mount the chimney pot. In the revolutionary
days of 1848, &c., when local political feeling ran high in favour of
Pole and Hungarian, soft broad-brimmed felt hats, with flowing black
feathers were _en regle_, and most of the advanced leaders of the day
thus adorned themselves. Now, the ladies monopolise the feathers and the
glories thereof. According to the scale measure used by hatters, the
average size of hats worn is that called 6-7/8, representing one-half of
the length and breadth of a man's head, but it has been noted by
"S.D.R." that several local worthies have had much larger craniums,
George Dawson requiring a 7-1/2 sized hat, Mr. Charles Geach a 7-3/4,
and Sir Josiah Mason a little over an 8. An old Soho man once told the
writer that Matthew Boulton's head-gear had to be specially made for
him, and, to judge from a bust of M.B., now in his possession, the hat
required must have been extra size indeed.
~Hearth Duty.~--In 1663, an Act was passed for the better ordering and
collecting the revenue derived from "Hearth Money," and we gather a few
figures from a return then made, as showing the comparative number of
the larger mansions whose owners were liable to the tax. The return for
Birmingham gives a total of 414 hearths and stoves, the account
including as well those which are liable to pay as of those which are
not liable. Of this number 360 were charged with duty, the house of the
celebrated Humphrey Jennens being credited with 25. From Aston the
return was but 47, but of these 40 were counted in the Hall and 7 in the
Parsonage, Edgbaston showed 37, of which 22 were in the Hall. Erdington
was booked for 27, and Sutton Coldfield for 67, of which 23 were in two
houses belonging to the Willoughby family. Coleshill would appear to
have been a rather warmer place of abode, as there are 125 hearths
charged for duty, 30 being in the house of Dame Mary Digby.
~Heathfield.~--Prior to 1790 the whole of this neighbourhood was open
common-land, the celebrated engineer and inventor, James Watt, after the
passing of the Enclosure Act being the first to erect a residence
thereon, in 1791. By 1794 he had acquired rather more than 40 acres,
which, he then planted and laid out as a park. Heathfield House may be
called the cradle of many scores of inventions, which, though novel when
first introduced, are now but as household words in our everyday life.
Watt's workshop was in the garret of the south-east corner of the
building, and may be said to be even now in exactly the same state as
when his master-hand last touched the tools, but as the estate was
lotted out for building purposes in May, 1874, and houses and streets
have been built and formed all round it, it is most likely that the
"House" itself will soon lose all its historic interest, and the
contents of the workshop be distributed among the curiosity mongers, or
hidden away on the shelves of some museum. To a local chronicler such a
room is as sacred as that in which Shakespeare was born, and in the
words of Mr. Sam Timmins, "to open the door and look upon the strange
relics there is to stand in the very presence of the mighty dead.
Everything in the room remains just as it was left by the fast failing
hands of the octogenarian engineer. His well-worn, humble apron hangs
dusty on the wall, the last work before him is fixed unfinished in the
lathe, the elaborate machines over which his latest thoughts were spent
are still and silent, as if waiting only for their master's hand again
to waken them into life and work. Upon the shelves are crowds of books,
whose pages open no more to those clear, thoughtful eyes, and scattered
in the drawers and boxes are the notes and memoranda, and pocket-books,
and diaries never to be continued now. All these relics of the great
engineer, the skilful mechanic, the student of science, relate to his
intellectual and public life; but there is a sadder relic still. An old
hair-trunk, carefully kept close by the old man's stool, contains the
childish sketches, the early copy-books and grammars, the dictionaries,
the school-books, and some of the toys of his dearly-beloved and
brilliant son Gregory Watt."
~Heraldry.~--In the days of the mail-clad knights, who bore on their
shields some quaint device, by which friend or foe could tell at sight
whom they slew or met in fight, doubtless the "Kings-At-Arms," the
"Heralds," and the "Pursuivants" of the College of Arms founded by
Richard III. were functionaries of great utility, but their duties
nowadays are but few, and consist almost solely of tracing pedigrees for
that portion of the community whom our American cousins designate as
"shoddy," but who, having "made their pile," would fain be thought of
aristocratic descent. In such a Radical town as Birmingham, the study of
_or_ and _gules, azure_ and _vert_, or any of the other significant
terms used in the antique science of heraldry, was not, of course, to be
expected, unless at the hands of the antiquary or the practical heraldic
engraver, both scarce birds in our smoky town, but the least to be
looked for would be that the borough authorities should carefully see
that the borough coat of arms was rightly blazoned. It has been proved
that the town's-name has, at times, been spelt in over a gross of
different ways, and if any reader will take the trouble to look at the
public buildings, banks, and other places where the blue, red, and gold
of the Birmingham Arms shines forth, he will soon be able to count three
to four dozen different styles; every carver, painter, and printer
apparently pleasing himself how he does it. It has been said that when
the question of adopting a coat of arms was on the _tapis_, the grave
and reverend seniors appointed to make inquiries thereanent, calmly took
copies of the shields of the De Berminghams and the De Edgbastous, and
fitted the "bend lozengy" and the "parti per pale" together, under the
impression that the one noble family's cognisance was a gridiron, and
the other a currycomb, both of which articles they considered to be
exceedingly appropriate for such a manufacturing town as Birmingham.
Wiser in their practicability than the gentlemen who designed the
present shield, they left the currycomb quarters in their proper _sable_
and _argent_ (black and white), and the gridiron _or_ and _gules_ (a
golden grid on a red-hot fire.) For proper emblazonment, as by
Birmingham law established, see the cover.
~Heathmill Lane.~--In 1532 there was a "water mill to grynde corne,"
called "Heth mill," which in that year was let, with certain lands,
called the "Couyngry," by the Lord of the Manor, on a ninety-nine years'
lease, at a rent of £6 13s. 4d. per year.
~Here we are again~!--The London _Chronicle_ of August 14, 1788, quoting
from a "gentleman" who had visited this town, says that "the people are
all diminutive in size, sickly in appearance, and spend their Sundays in
low debauchery," the manufacturers being noted for "a great deal of
trick and low cunning as well as profligacy!"
~Highland Gathering.~--The Birmingham Celtic Society held their first
"gathering" at Lower Grounds, August 2, 1879, when the ancient sports of
putting stones, throwing hammers, etc., was combined with a little
modern bicycling, and steeple-chasing, to the music of the bagpipes.
~Hill (Sir Rowland).~--See "_Noteworthy Men_."
~Hills.~--Like unto Rome this town may be said to be built on seven
hills, for are there not Camp Hill and Constitution Hill, Summer Hill
and Snow Hill, Ludgate Hill, Hockley Hill, and Holloway Hill (or head).
Turner's Hill, near Lye Cross, Rawley Regis is over 100ft. higher than
Sedgley Beacon, which is 486ft. above sea level. The Lickey Hills are
about 800ft. above same level, but the highest hill within 50 miles of
Birmingham is the Worcestershire Beacon, 1395ft. above sea level. The
highest mountain in England, Scawfell Pike, has an elevation of 3229ft.
~Hailstorms.~--In 1760 a fierce hailstorm stripped the leaves and fruit
from nearly every tree in the apple orchards in Worcestershire, the hail
lying on the ground six to eight inches deep, many of the stones and
lumps of ice being three and four inches round. In 1798, many windows at
Aston Hall were broken by the hail. A very heavy hailstorm did damage at
the Botanical gardens and other places, May 9, 1833. There have been a
few storms of later years, but none like unto these.
~Hector.~--The formation of Corporation Street, and the many handsome
buildings erected and planned in its line, have improved off the face of
the earth, more than one classic spot, noted in our local history,
foremost among which we must place the house of Mr. Hector, the old
friend and schoolfellow of Dr. Samuel Johnson. The great lexicographer
spent many happy hours in the abode of his friend, and as at one time
there was a slight doubt on the matter, it is as well to place on record
here that the house in which Hector, the surgeon, resided, was No. 1, in
the Old Square, at the corner of the Minories, afterwards occupied by
Mr. William Scholefield, Messrs. Jevons and Mellor's handsome pile now
covering the spot. The old rate books prove this beyond a doubt. Hector
died there on the 2nd of September, 1794, after having practised as a
surgeon, in Birmingham, for the long period of sixty-two years. He was
buried in a vault at Saint Philip's Church, Birmingham, where, in the
middle aisle, in the front of the north gallery, an elegant inscription
to his memory was placed. Hector never married, and Mrs. Careless, a
clergyman's widow, Hector's own sister, and Johnson's "first love,"
resided with him, and appears by the burial register of St. Philip's to
have died in October, 1788, and to have been buried there, probably in
the vault in which her brother was afterwards interred. In the month of
November, 1784, just a month before his own decease, Johnson passed a
few days with his friend, Hector, at his residence in the Old Square,
who, in a letter to Boswell, thus speaks of the visit:--"He" (Johnson)
"was very solicitous with me, to recollect some of our most early
transactions, and to transmit them to him, for I perceived nothing gave
him greater pleasure than calling to mind those days of our innocence. I
complied with his request, and he only received them a few days before
his death." Johnson arrived in London from Birmingham on the 16th of
November, and on the following day wrote a most affectionate letter to
Mr. Hector, which concludes as follows:--
"Let us think seriously on our duty. I send my kindest respects to
dear Mrs. Careless. Let me have the prayers of both. We have all lived
long, and must soon part. God have mercy upon us, for the sake of our
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!"
This was probably nearly the last letter Johnson wrote, for on the 13th
of the following month, just twenty-seven days after his arrival in
London from Birmingham, oppressed with disease, he was numbered with the
dead.
~Hinkleys.~--Otherwise, and for very many years, known as "The Inkleys,"
the generally-accepted derivation of the name being taken from the fact
that one Hinks at one time was a tenant or occupier, under the Smalbroke
family, of the fields or "leys" in that locality, the two first narrow
roads across the said farm being respectively named the Upper and the
Nether Inkleys, afterwards changed to the Old and New Inkleys. Possibly,
however, the source may be found in the family name of Hinckley, as seen
in the register of Harborne. A third writer suggests that the character
of its denizens being about as black as could be painted, the place was
naturally called Ink Leys. Be that as it may, from the earliest days of
their existence, these places seem to have been the abode and habitation
of the queerest of the queer people, the most aristocratic resident in
our local records having been "Beau Green," the dandy--[see
"_Eccentrics_"]--who, for some years, occupied the chief building in the
Inkleys, nicknamed "Rag Castle," otherwise Hinkley Hall. The beautiful
and salubrious neighbourhood, known as "Green's Village," an offshoot of
the Inkleys, was called so in honour of the "Beau."
~Hiring a Husband.~--In 1815, a Birmingham carpenter, after ill-treating
his wife, leased himself to another woman by a document which an
unscrupulous attorney had the hardihood to draw up, and for which he
charged thirty-five shillings. This precious document bound the man and
the woman to live together permanently, and to support and succour each
other to the utmost of their power. The poor wife was, of course, no
consenting party to this. She appealed to the law; the appeal brought
the "lease" before the eyes of the judiciary; the man was brought to his
senses (though probably remaining a bad husband), and the attorney
received a severe rebuke.
~Historical.~--A local Historical Society was inaugurated with an
address from Dr. Freeman, Nov. 18, 1880, and, doubtless, in a few years
the reports and proceedings will be of very great value and interest.
The fact that down to 1752 the historical year in England commenced on
January 1, while the civil, ecclesiastical, and legal year began on the
25th of March, led to much confusion in dates, as the legislature, the
church, and civilians referred every event which took place between
January 1 and March 25 to a different year from the historians.
Remarkable examples of such confusion are afforded by two well-known
events in English history: Charles I. is said by most authorities to
have been beheaded January 30, 1648, while others, with equal
correctness, say it was January 30, 1649; and so the revolution which
drove James II. from the throne is said by some to have taken place in
February, 1688, and by others in February, 1689. Now, these
discrepancies arise from some using the civil and legal, and others the
historical year, though both would have assigned any event occurring
_after_ the 25th of March to the same years--viz., 1649 and 1689. To
avoid as far as possible mistakes from these two modes of reckoning, it
was usual, as often seen in old books or manuscripts, to add the
historical to the legal date, when speaking of any day between January 1
and March 25, thus:
8(_i.e._ 1648, the civil and legal year.
Jan.30. 164- (
9(_i.e._ 1649 the historical year.
or thus, January 30, 1648-9.
This practice, common as it was for many years, is, nevertheless, often
misunderstood, and even intelligent persons are sometimes perplexed by
dates so written. The explanation, however, is very simple, for the
lower or last figure always indicates the year according to our present
calculation.