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[Picture: Vauxhall Station, Grand Junction Railway, Vauxhall, Birmingham]
DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO THE CHAIRMAN AND DIRECTORS OF THE
GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY COMPANY.
* * * * *
DRAKE'S
ROAD BOOK
OF THE
GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY
FROM
BIRMINGHAM TO LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER,
ILLUSTRATED BY AN
ACCURATE MAP, AND NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS:
To which is appended
THE VISITER'S GUIDE
TO
BIRMINGHAM, LIVERPOOL, AND MANCHESTER.
* * * * *
TO THE
CHAIRMAN AND DIRECTORS
OF THE
GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY COMPANY,
THIS
Second Edition
OF
THE ROAD BOOK,
IS,
BY PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
BY THE
AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE
SECOND EDITION.
THE courteous reception given to the First Edition of the Grand Junction
Road Book, and the substantial proofs of approbation which a rapid sale
has afforded, render it a duty as proper as it is pleasant, for the
Author and Publisher to return their joint thanks for the liberal
patronage already bestowed on their work; and to engage a continuance of
the same, by their assurances that in the present edition every possible
improvement has been carefully effected in its various departments.
Spirited wood and steel engravings {v} of the most important spots on the
line have been introduced, and much new and interesting matter supplied.
The whole of the information concerning fares, regulations, stations, and
accommodation in towns on the route, has been recast, corrected, and
enlarged; and a brief but comprehensive directory added, under the head
of "VISITER'S GUIDE," page 97, containing lists of public buildings;
institutions of all kinds; places of worship of all denominations, with
names of the officiating ministers; principal show rooms and
manufactories; times of arrival and departure of mails at the post
office; hackney coach fares; bankers, inns, boarding houses, omnibus
offices, newspapers, canal conveyances, waggon warehouses, packets, &c.,
&c., for Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool. The exceeding utility of
this new division of the volume will be obvious to every one. The Map
has also been revised, and greatly improved; and the "GRAND JUNCTION ROAD
BOOK" again makes its bow to the public, in full expectation that its old
fame and new merits will be rightly appreciated.
* * * * *
_Birmingham_, _September_ 1, 1838.
SONNET
BY WORDSWORTH,
ON
STEAM BOATS, VIADUCTS, AND RAILWAYS.
MOTIONS and means, on land and sea at war
With old poetic feeling; not for this,
Shall ye, by Poets even, be judged amiss!
Nor shall your presence, howsoe'er it mar
The loveliness of nature, prove a bar
To the mind's gaining that prophetic sense
Of future change that point of vision, whence
May be discover'd what in soul ye are.
In spite of all that beauty may disown
In your harsh features, Nature doth embrace
Her lawful offspring in Man's art; and Time,
Pleased with your triumphs o'er his brother Space,
Accepts from your bold hands the proffer'd crown
Of hope, and smiles on you with cheer sublime.
[Picture: Map of the route of the Grand Junction Railway]
CHAPTER I.
BIRMINGHAM.
NAME--HISTORY--MANUFACTURES--PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS, &c., &c.
OUR native town of BIRMINGHAM, of whose celebrity and importance we are
justly proud, demands our first attention in this our Itinerary; although
the numerous publications which give more circumstantial particulars
respecting it than the brief limits of the present work will admit,
render it an unnecessary task here to occupy many pages with our notice.
* * * * *
In our after topography and history of towns on the "Grand Junction"
line, we shall have occasion to allude to their several claims to the
honours of "hoar antiquity;" but none it would appear can boast of more
remote fame than our own brave old town of Birmingham, or, as it has been
variously written, _Bromycham_, _Bremecham_, _Bermyngham_, and
_Bromnsycham_, the etymology of which terms have served to puzzle the
learned in such lore for years gone by, and will do for years to come.
What never can be positively settled, always proves a most fascinating
subject for argument. Mr. Hutton, the antiquary, imagines the derivation
to be this: _wich_, or _wick_, being used to signify a town or village,
and _brom_, from the _broom_ growing in the vicinity. But we must leave
the subject for more voluminous writers. The late Mr. Hamper, our
especial antiquary, traced the orthography through no less than _one
hundred and forty_ variations. In proof of Birmingham being a place of
no very recent creation, the prodigious accumulation of scoria produced
by the smelting of iron, at Aston furnace, may be referred to; as also
the great number of exhausted coal mines, on a large common within a few
miles, called Wednesbury Old Field. Both these must have been the work
of many centuries, as is proved by the fact, that in the former, the mass
of scoria has not perceptibly increased within the memory of that
remarkable individual, "the oldest inhabitant," though constantly
receiving additions. It appears that the Britons were acquainted with
the use and manufacture of iron previously to the Roman conquest, as they
are described with chariots armed with scythes. It requires no very
great stretch of imagination to suppose Birmingham (the _Bremenium_ of
the Romans) to have been a chief station for the fabrication of such
weapons. In Doomsday Book, "_Bermengeham_" is noticed; and the manor and
lordship were held by the De Birmingham family and their ancestors,
during the reigns from Henry I. to Henry VIII., when John Dudley,
afterwards Duke of Northumberland, being in possession of Dudley, and
desirous of adding to it the manor of Birmingham, contrived, by a series
of villanous artifices and perjury, to wrest it from Edward de
Birmingham, and add it to his own possessions. On the attainder and
execution of the duke, in the reign of Mary, the manor escheated to the
crown; and in 1643 a descendant of the family, through the female line,
was raised to the peerage, by the title of Baron Ward, of Birmingham,
changed afterwards to Viscount Dudley and Ward, and Earl of Dudley. The
remains of the ancient manor house have long been removed to make way for
improvements; its former name, "The Moat," (now called Smithfield,) and
two neglected effigies in St. Martin's church, of a crusader and an
ecclesiastic of the De Birmingham family, are all that remain to tell of
their former greatness. Few historical events seem to have disturbed the
good people of Birmingham except the civil war of the seventeenth
century, when they proved themselves staunch adherents to the
parliamentarians, and did good service to their partizans, against Prince
Rupert and his troops, at which time some earth works thrown up at
Bordesley, conferred the name of Camp Hill on a part of it. The prince
afterwards set fire to the town, but obligingly desisted from further
demonstration of such warm regard, on being handsomely bribed to that
effect. The riots of 1791 are so frequently brought to the minds of our
town's people by present allusions, that it needs not to dwell here on
the disgraceful theme. Turning to a pleasanter topic, we will briefly
glance at the manufactures which made an anonymous poet formerly
exclaim,--
"Europe's grand toy-shop, art's exhaustless mine--
These, and more titles, Birmingham, are thine."
It is amusing to look back to the condition of Birmingham in Leland's
time, (Henry VIII.,) who describes it as inhabited only "by smithes that
use to make knives and all manner of cutting tools, and lorimers that
make bittes, and a great many nailors." Camden, in the reign of
Elizabeth, speaks of it as "swarming with inhabitants, and echoing with
the noise of anvils; but the upper part rising with abundance of handsome
buildings;" and his continuator, Bishop Gibson, in the reign of Anne,
mentions "its artificers in iron and steel, whose performances in that
way are greatly admired both at home and abroad." Prior to the
restoration of Charles II. the town only consisted of one long street,
extending from the hamlet of Deritend to the present Bull-street, and
contained barely 5,000 inhabitants. _Now_, the probably correct amount
would stand thus: streets, 340; houses, 22,000; population, 200,000.
Birmingham was created a borough by the Reform Bill, and sends two
members to parliament. The honours of a mayor and corporation are now
added to its civil dignities.
* * * * *
Among the almost innumerable branches of trade and manufacture at present
carried on, are light and heavy steel goods, (here called toys,) brass
and iron foundery, sadlery, military accoutrements, fire-arms, swords and
cutlery of various kinds; jewellery, gold, silver, and plated goods;
buttons, medals, japannery; gilt, silver, ivory, bone, and other toys;
glass, wood-turnery, metal-rolling, tools and implements of all kinds;
mill machinery of all sorts, and steam engines on every known principle.
Casting, modelling, die-sinking, engraving, and other processes connected
with the various manufactures have been brought to the greatest
perfection; also the cutting of glass, of which there are many brilliant
specimens in the show-rooms of the town, especially those of Messrs.
Rollason, Price, Henderson, Mrs. Bedford's, &c. The great establishment
at the Soho, near Birmingham, is intimately connected with its
manufacturing interests, as under the superintendence of Messrs. Boulton
and Watt, great improvements were effected in all kinds of machinery, and
the power of steam applied to every mechanical purpose. From their
ingenious coining mill, the greater part of the copper money of George
III. was issued. Mr. Boulton died in 1809, aged eighty-one, and Mr. Watt
in 1819, aged eighty-three. They were both interred in Handsworth
church, where a marble bust commemorates the former, and a statue, by
Chantrey, the latter.
In the magnificent show-rooms of Mr. G. R. Collis in Church-street,
(formerly Sir E. Thomason's,) splendid specimens of the chief native
manufactures are collected, and their mode of manufacture shown to
all respectable visitors. Mr. Phipson's pin manufactory, which in
this seemingly small article employs so great a number as one
thousand persons, is another large establishment; and the articles of
oriental gorgeousness and diversity, displayed by Messrs. Jennens and
Betteridge, at their japanned ware and papier mache manufactory, in
Constitution-hill, are full of brilliant designs and adornment. The
show-rooms of Messrs. Mapplebeck and Lowe, Osborne, and others,
contain a great variety of hardware and cutlery.
Of ponderous machinery, none perhaps is more interesting than that of the
metal rolling mills; there is positive grandeur in the great power
employed, and the accuracy with which it is adjusted to the end required.
The button manufacture is a principal source of wealth to the town, and
many of its chief families may trace back their origin (their
_honourable_ origin--far more truly honourable than the anxiety
occasionally shown by present full-blown importance to disguise it) to a
humble fabricator of these small and indispensable articles. They are
made of all kinds and descriptions, to suit all markets; as were buckles
likewise, some years since; but fashion, that mighty revolutionist, has
driven them from their once prominent station in the toilet of the
exquisite of former days; and knees and shoes, and dainty spangled and
high heeled slippers, fit for feminine feet, have all laid by the buckles
which used to glitter in cut steel and silver delicately worked, or set
with brilliants; and of so comely dimensions, as well nigh to cover the
pretty insteps of our grandmothers. As a source of great wealth to our
native town, we must regret the abolition of ornamental buckles. Steel
tools, and lighter, tasteful articles, form another great branch. The
first steel-house, or factory, gave the name "Steelhouse-lane" to the
street. Guns were first made in the reign of William III., and in times
of war have constituted an important part of our trade. Silver, brass,
and iron are all wrought to a great extent, in every known variety of
manufacture. To enumerate _all_ the productions of Birmingham were
nearly an impossible task, had we space; as it is, we must rest here, and
proceed to notice a few of the chief buildings and institutions which
would attract the observation of a stranger.
[Picture: Birmingham Town Hall]
First, of the first class, ranks our noble and magnificent Town Hall, in
Paradise-street, a Grecian temple of the Corinthian order, standing on a
rustic basement, and built of marble from Anglesea. It is of recent
erection; from the design, and under the direction of Mr. J. Hansom, of
Hinckley, and contains a splendid hall, 140 feet long, by 65 feet wide,
and 65 feet high, adapted for great public meetings, and for the
performances of music at the Triennial Festivals; {7} it also contains
spacious saloons, committee rooms, etc. Its organ is the finest in the
kingdom. The new Free Grammar School, in New-street, is a large and
handsome building, in the Gothic style, from a design by Mr. Barry, of
London. The exhibition rooms of the Birmingham Society of Arts,
New-street, form a handsome building, admirably adapted for the purpose;
and the annual exhibition, of ancient and modern masters, is inferior to
no provincial one. Another spacious suite of rooms was erected a few
years since, by a dissentient party of the artists; but, having returned
to the parent institution, their gallery since has been occupied by the
highly interesting, valuable, and well-arranged Museum of Natural
History, collected by Mr. Weaver, in the various branches of geology,
ornithology, entomology, mineralogy, conchology, &c. The Royal School of
Medicine and Surgery, in Paradise-street, have now purchased this
splendid collection, which, joined to the one they already possess, will
form one of the finest Museums in the provinces. It is liberally
supported and patronised by the neighbouring nobility and county
families. The General Hospital, Blue Coat School, Dispensary, and
Asylums, are worthy of all praise for their essential utility as
charities. The former is mainly supported by the proceeds of the
Triennial Festivals; the others by liberal subscriptions, with which the
inhabitants of Birmingham appear ever ready to increase the usefulness of
charities having for their end the alleviation of misery, in whatever
form it exists. The new Market Hall, extending from the Bull-ring to
Worcester-street, is a spacious and commodious building, though the
internal arrangement might be greatly improved, by a little more
attention to order and neatness on the part of the various trades-people
who have stalls there. The market having formerly been held in the open
street, may, in some degree, account for this. Nearly opposite the hall
stands a statue of Lord Nelson, by Westmacott, with a miniature
man-of-war beside him, on a pedestal surrounded by an iron rail and
lamps.
* * * * *
The Churches most remarkable for architectural beauty, are, St. Philip's,
in the Doric style, with a graceful tower and cupola: Trinity Church,
Bordesley, designed by Mr. F. Goodwin, much in the style of King's
College Chapel, Cambridge; it is a fine example of the Ecclesiastical
Gothic: St. George's, also Gothic, but of far inferior beauty; St.
Martin's, which _has_ been a fine old edifice, with a tapering spire, but
is now disfigured by a brick shell: St. Paul's, Christ Church, St.
Thomas's, St. Peter's, St. Bartholomew's, St. Mary's, All Saints', and
others are of less striking appearance. Many of the dissenting
congregations have handsome and spacious meeting-houses and chapels,
particularly the Catholic Chapels; Unitarian Meeting-houses; Independent
Meeting-house, Carr's-lane; Mount Zion Chapel; Scottish Kirk, &c.
Schools are connected with all, and with the numerous National,
Lancasterian, Infant, and other schools, combine in distributing
knowledge, in however a small degree as yet, among the useful and
industrious classes. The excellent school for the instruction of Deaf
and Dumb children is pleasantly situated at Edgbaston: there are also
various Asylums for the young, the helpless, and the immoral (repentant,
of course).
* * * * *
The Old Library, in Union-street, contains a valuable collection of
40,000 volumes, and commodious reading rooms. The New Library, in
Temple-row, is a more recent and smaller establishment. Divers
conglomerations of novels, called "Circulating Libraries," also exist for
the benefit of the sentimental. The Philosophical Institution has a
convenient Lecture-Theatre and Museum in Cannon-street, with a resident
Curator. Subscribers have the privilege of introducing strangers to the
lectures. The members of the Mechanics' Institution at present have
lectures in the same building, until the erection of one suitable for
them. Strangers are admitted to the Mechanics' lectures on payment of
one shilling. The Botanical and Horticultural Society have extensive
gardens and conservatories at Edgbaston, situated on rising ground, and
commanding a beautiful and richly-wooded expanse of scenery. The
exhibitions of plants, fruits, &c., when a brilliant company generally
assembles, are scenes of great gaiety.
The Conservatories and Greenhouses, are the erection of Mr. T. Clark,
of Lionel-street, Birmingham, whose manufactory for Metallic
Hothouses, &c., is very extensive.
A Cemetery has been recently laid out and planted on the north side of
the town, at Key Hill, where a large excavation in a hill of gravel
renders the spot striking and even picturesque: a neat Chapel is erected
for the performance of the funeral service.
* * * * *
In 1813 an Act of Parliament was obtained for the erection of a Proof
House for all fire-arms made in the town, which are subjected to a very
severe test. The hall and other premises are in Banbury-street, and have
quite a military and formidable appearance.
* * * * *
The News Room, on Bennett's-hill, and the different banking
establishments, are handsome buildings, many of them of considerable
architectural beauty. The Theatre is large, and inferior to few out of
the metropolis, though the indifferent encouragement given to the drama
in Birmingham, causes it to be comparatively but little used. It is
capable of accommodating 2,500 persons, and contains to the front, a
suite of Assembly Rooms, Billiard and Coffee Rooms, &c. There were
formerly two smaller theatres, and an amphitheatre for equestrian
performances, all three of which have been converted from their dissolute
ways, and become pious and holy conventicles for divine worship.
Temporary amphitheatres have frequently been erected since, and a
permanent one is in progress. For more circumstantial particulars and
descriptions of these and other edifices, we must refer our readers to
the "Picture of Birmingham," {11} or other more lengthy histories.
* * * * *
The environs of the town, especially Edgbaston and Harborne, contain many
tasteful residences, erected by the wealthier merchants and tradesmen;
whose pretty suburban villas have all gardens and pleasure grounds
attached. In the neighbourhood of Birmingham are many fine old houses,
or halls, as they are called, well deserving of a visit from the
antiquary or artist; and the far famed glories of Warwick, Kenilworth,
Shakespeare-sainted Stratford, Guy's Cliff, and other places of renown,
are within a short drive.
* * * * *
In this brief survey of the past and present condition of Birmingham, it
will be seen how rapidly its greatness and importance have been achieved
by the perseverance, spirit, and ingenuity of its inhabitants. We may
expect as rapid, and almost as great improvements from the additional
consequence and advantages it will receive from the great works now
nearly completed. The finished line of railway from London to Liverpool
through this place, may, with confidence, be looked to as another great
era in its history, from whence to date still increasing wealth, power,
and intelligence.