shelter for a time to as many as 240 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 monthly 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 "Cabmen'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 Educational Chambers; 90, New Street.
_Young Men's Christian Association_.--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.M.C.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 or 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
days.
_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 was 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 2-1/2 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 instalments 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 o
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, finds about
£40 per annum, which is distributed among eighty recipients selected by
the Town Council, the majority being poor old women, who go for their
doles Dec. 12th.--In addition to the above there have been a number of
minor charities left to the churchwardens for providing food and
clothing which have either been lost sight of, or mixed up with others,
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
the 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.
_Kylcuppe's Charity_.--Sept. 19, 1611. Richard Kylcuppe 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 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 1585, for relieving the poor and repairing streets;
Redhill's and Shilton's (about 1520), for like purposes; Kylcuppe'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 184 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.
_Milward's Charity_.--John Milward in 1654 left property then worth £26
per annum and the Red Lion public-house (worth another £26, but which
could never be traced out), to be devided between the governors of the
Free Grammar Schools of Birmingham and Haverfordwest 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 here 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, the 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_ provides for the distribution of bread and coals 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 divided 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 Shelton'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.
_Ridduck'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 divided, £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 St.
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 per 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
Commissioner 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 1858 Admiral Duff left a sum of money, which
brings in about £45 per year, for the maintenance of a Scripture Reader
for the town of Birmingham. The trustee of this land 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 St. 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 1840 to 1875, will give an approximate idea of the
large sums thus invested, the whole of which was raised solely by
voluntary contributions.
Acock's Green ... ... £6,405
Aston Brook ... ... 5,000
Balsall Heath ... ... 8,500
Bishop Ryder's ... ... 886
Christ Church ... ... 1,000
Christ Church, Sparkbrook 9,163
Edgbaston ... ... ... 2,200
Hay Mills ... ... ... 6,500
Immanuel ... ... ... 4,600
King's Heath ... ... 3,900
King's Norton ... ... 5,092
Moseley ... ... ... 2,491
Saltley ... ... ... 7,139
St. Alban's ... ... 2,800
St. Andrew's ... ... 4,500
St. Anne's ... ... ... 2,700
St. Anne's, Moseley ... 7,500
St. Asaph's... ... ... 7,700
St. Augustine's ... ... 7,800
St. Barnabas' ... ... 3,500
St. Bartholomew's... ... 1,260
St. Clement's ... ... 3,925
St. Cuthbert's ... ... 5,000
St. David's... ... ... 6,185
St. Gabriel's ... ... 4,307
St. George's Edgbaston ... 1,583
St. James's Edgbaston ... 6,000
St. John's, Ladywood ... 7,200
St. Lawrence's ... ... 4,380
St. Luke's ... ... ... 6,286
St. Martin's ... ... 30,134
St. Matthew's ... ... 4,850
St. Matthias's ... ... 5,361
St. Mary's ... ... ... 4,503
St. Mary's, Selly Oak ... 5,400
St. Nicholas' ... ... 4,288
St. Paul's ... ... ... 1,400
St. Philip's ... ... 9,987
St. Saviour's ... ... 5,273
St. Silas's... ... ... 4,677
St. Stephen's ... ... 3,200
St. Stephen's, Selly Oak 3,771
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 for 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 April
27th, 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 Moseley 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.