Government can manage to get them through now a-days, 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 so 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 pickpockets, 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 uniform 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educational institutions which have been replaced by our Midland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 books, 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 Highgite Lane he must find the relieving officer at King's
Heith; 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 1796 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:--
Rate Amount Paid to Cost of In and Other Parochial
Year in £ collected Corporation Out Relief Expenditure
s.d. £ £ £ £
1851 4 0 78,796 39,573 17,824 21,399
1861 3 8 85,986 36,443 34,685 14,878
1871 3 2 116,268 44,293 37,104 34,871
1881 4 8 193,458 107,520 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:--
Highest Lowest
Year. No. daily 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 7,598
1881 11,064 7,188
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 10 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 1085 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 80 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.
Year. Inhabitants. Houses.
1741 24,660 4,114
1773 30,804 7,369
1778 48,252 8,042
1781 50,295 8,382
1791 73,653 12,681
1801 78,760 16,659
1811 85,755 19,096
1821 106,721 21,345
1831 142,251 29,397
1841 182,922 36,238
1851 232,841 48,894
1861 296,076 62,708
1871 343,787 77,409
1881 400,774 84,263
The inhabitants are thus divided as to sexes:
Year. Males. Females. Totals.
1861 143,996 152,080 296,076
1871 167,636 176,151 343,787
1881 194,540 206,234 400,774
The increase during the ten years in the several parts of the borough
shows:
Part of
Birmingham Edgbaston Aston in
parish. parish. borough. Totals.
1881 246,352 22,778 131,644 400,774
1871 231,015 17,442 95,330 343,787
------- ------ ------- -------
Increase 15,337 5,336 36,314 56,987
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 to all intents and purposes
Birmingham 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.
Places. Inhabitants.
Aston Parish 139,998
Aston Manor 33,948
Balsall Heath 13,615
Handsworth 16,042
Harborne Parish 22,263
Harborne Township 5,105
King's Norton Parish 21,845
Yardley Parish 5,360
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.
Place 1871 1881
Acock's Green 1,492 2,796
Aston Manor 33,948 53,844
Aston Parish 139,998 201,287
Aston Union 146,808 209,869
Balsall Heath 13,615 22,734
Birchfield 2,544 3,792
Castle Bromwich 689 723
Erdington 4,883 7,153
Handsworth 16,042 22,903
Harborne 5,105 6,433
King's Heath 1,982 2,984
King's Norton 21,845 34,178
King's Norton
Union ------ 96,143
Knowle 1,371 1,514
Moseley 2,374 4,224
Northfield 4,609 7,190
Olton ----- 906
Perry Barr 1,683 2,314
Quinton 2,010 2,145
Saltley ----- 6,419
Selly Oak 2,854 5,089
Smethwick 17,158 25,076
Solihull 3,739 5,301
Ward End ----- 866
Water Orton ----- 396
Witton 182 265
Yardley 5,360 9,741
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
Males. Females. Totals.
Foreigners 1,288 859 2,147
Irish 3,488 3,584 7,072
Scotch 912 755 1,667
Welsh 1,575 1,742 3,317
Colonial 428 477 905
Born at sea 29 21 50
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:--
Occupations of Persons.
Males. Females. Total.
Persons engaged in general
or local government 1,145 79 1,224
Army and navy 307 -- 307
Clerical profession and
their subordinates 287 98 335
Legal ditto 445 -- 445
Medical ditto 336 496 832
Teachers 512 1,395 1,907
Literary and scientific 70 4 74
Engineers and surveyors 111 --- 111
Artists, art-workers
musicians, &c. 729 398 1,127
Engaged in exhibitions,
shows, games, &c. 102 17 119
Domestic service 1,444 13,875 15,319
Other service 176 4,058 4,234
Commercial occupations 6,172 422 6,594
Engaged in conveyance
of men, goods, and
messages 2,442 1,839 11,281
Engaged in agriculture 881 25 906
Engaged about animals 771 5 776
Workers and Dealers in
Books, prints and maps 1,888 428 2,316
Machines and implements 11,189 3,385 14,574
Houses, furniture, and
decorations 12,781 1,209 13,990
Carriages and harness 2,748 466 3,214
Ships and boats 67 --- 67
Chemicals and their
compounds 507 250 757
Tobacco and pipes 200 851 551
Food and lodging 8,126 2,124 10,247
Textile fabrics 1,229 920 2,149
Dress 6,894 12,946 19,840
Various animal substances 1,481 744 2,175
Ditto vegetable
substances 2,277 2,237 4,514
Ditto mineral substances 36,933 9,582 46,515
General or unspecified
commodities 10,542 2,631 18,173
Refuse matters 246 18 264
Without specific
occupations 45,691 116,892 162,583
Children under five
years 28,911 29,133 58,044
------ ------- -------
Total 194,540 206,234 400,774
The comparative population of this and other large towns in England is
thus given:--
Pop. Pop. Inc. Prcent
1881. 1871. of inc.
London 3,707,130 3,254,260 452,870 13.89
Liverpool 549,834 493,305 56,429 11.35
Birmingham 400,774 343,787 56,893 16.52
Manchester 364,445 351,189 13,256 3.70
Salford 194,077 124,801 69,276 55.64
Leeds 326,158 259,212 66,946 25.81
Sheffield 312,943 239,946 72,997 30.38
Bristol 217,185 182,552 24,633 13.47
Bradford 203,544 145,830 57,614 39.50
Nottingham 177,934 86,621 91,343 105.81
Hull 152,980 121,892 31,088 25.62
Newcastle 151,822 128,443 23,379 17.96
Portsmouth 136,671 113,569 23,102 20.35
Leicester 134,350 95,220 39,130 41.05
Oldham 119,658 82,629 37,029 45.11
Sunderland 118,927 98,242 20,685 90.40
Brighton 109,062 90,011 19,051 21.11
Norwich 86,437 80,386 6,051 7.50
W'lvrhmptn 76,850 68,291 8,569 12.46
Plymouth 75,700 68,758 4,942 7.10
~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, _viâ_ 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 rickyard, 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
10th, 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 soirée 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 infinitude of productions added 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 (0ct. 1,1878); 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 year.--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 4-1/2d. in 1852; at
7-1/2d. in 1845; at 9-1/2d. in June, 1857, and June, 1872; at l0d. in
December, 1855, June, 1868, and December, 1872; at l0-1/2d. in February,
1854, December, 1855, December, 1867, and March, 1868, at 11d. in
December, 1854, June, 1855, and June 1856; at ll-1/2d. in November,
1846, May and November, 1847, and May, 1848; at 1s. and onwards to 1s.
5-1/2d. in August, 1812, and again in July, 1816; and may God preserve
the poor from such times again.--See "_Hard Times_."