CHAPTER I.

HANDBOOK

OF

BIRMINGHAM.

[Illustration]

PREPARED FOR THE

MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

1886.

BIRMINGHAM:

HALL AND ENGLISH, PRINTERS, &C., HIGH STREET.

1886.

[_Entered at Stationers’ Hall._]

CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION, by G. J. JOHNSON ix.

PART I.

OLD BIRMINGHAM, by SAM: TIMMINS 1

PART II.

MODERN BIRMINGHAM, edited by SAM: TIMMINS:

Chap. I. Local Governing Bodies, by J. T. BUNCE 13

Chap. II. Education, by OSMUND AIRY, M.A. 26

Chap. III. Libraries: Past and Present, by J. D. MULLINS 65

Chap. IV. Literary, Scientific, and Artistic Societies,

by SAM: TIMMINS 75

Chap. V. Charitable Institutions, by C. E. MATHEWS 81

Chap. VI. Ecclesiastical, by G. J. JOHNSON, with

folded Table. 95

Chap. VII. ART--

(_a_) Architecture, by J. A. COSSINS 118

(_b_) Painting, by E. R. TAYLOR 127

(_c_) Sculpture, by WHITWORTH WALLIS 135

(_d_) Music, by W. BAYLEY MARSHALL 141

Chap. VIII. Manufacturing Industries, by C. J. WOODWARD,

B.Sc. 150

[See also Appendix, p. 346.]

PART III.

GEOLOGY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY, edited by Prof. C. LAPWORTH, LL.D., F.G.S.--

Physiography 213

Geology, illustrated by a Geological Map of the Birmingham

District (in pocket at end of vol.) 216

Palæozoic Rocks, by Prof. C. LAPWORTH:

(_a_) Introduction 216

(_b_) Fundamental Rocks 221

(_c_) Cambrian Rocks 224

(_d_) Silurian Rocks 227

(_e_) Carboniferous Rocks 230

(_f_) Permian Rocks 235

Triassic Rocks, by W. J. HARRISON, F.G.S. 237

Liassic and Rhætic, by Rev. P. B. BRODIE, M.A. 244

Glacial and Post-Tertiary Deposits, by H. W. CROSSKEY,

LL.D., F.G.S. 248

Petrography, by S. ALLPORT, F.G.S. 254

Mining Statistics of the South Staffordshire Coalfield,

by Prof. W. E. BENTON, A.R.S.M., F.G.S. 260

Minerals of Birmingham District, by C. J. WOODWARD, B.Sc.

(see Appendix) 353

PART IV.

ZOOLOGY, edited by W. R. HUGHES, F.L.S.:

Introduction, by W. R. HUGHES, F.L.S. 266

Chap. I. Mammals and Reptiles by E. DE HAMEL 269

Chap. II. Birds, by R. W. CHASE 275

Chap. III. Fishes and Mollusca, by G. SHERRIFF TYE 285

Chap. IV. Insects, by W. G. BLATCH 293

Chap. V. Microscopic Fauna, by T. BOLTON, F.R.M.S. 305

PART V.

BOTANY, edited by WM. MATHEWS, M.A.:

Introductory Remarks, by WM. MATHEWS, M.A. 311

Chap. I. The Flowering Plants, Ferns, &c., by J. E.

BAGNALL, A.L.S. 316

Chap. II. The Mosses, Hepatics, and Lichens, by J. E.

BAGNALL, A.L.S. 331

Chap. III. The Algæ, by A. W. WILLS 335

Chap. IV. The Fungi, by W. B. GROVE, B.A. 339

APPENDIX.

Chains, Cables, and Anchors, by B. HINGLEY, M.P. 346

Die Sinking, by G. SHERRIFF TYE 348

Saddlery Trade, by THOS. MIDDLEMORE 348

Botanical Gardens, by SAM: TIMMINS 357

Guinea Gardens, by SAM: TIMMINS 358

Sunday Lecture Society, by THOS. ROSE 358

Newspapers, by SAM: TIMMINS 361

Theatres, by SAM: TIMMINS 362

Coventry Industries, by W. G. FRETTON, F.S.A. 366

CONTRIBUTORS.

(The figures show the pages of this work where the articles appear.)

PAGE.

Airy, O. 26

Allport, S. 222, 254, 263

Bagnall, J. E. 316

Baker, T. J. 208

Bayliss, T. R. 174

Benson, E. W. 201

Benton, W. E. 260

Blatch, W. G. 293

Bolton, T. 305

Bragg, John 187

Bragge, R. L. 210

Brodie, P. B. 243, 244, 264

Brierley, L. 178

Bunce, J. T. 13

Callaway, C. 222, 223, 227, 259, 263

Chance, Henry 202

Chase, R. W. 275

Cossins, J. A. 118

Crosskey, H. W. 248

Elkington and Co. 203

Fretton, W. G. 366

Gausby, J. B. 179, 211

Grove, W. B. 339, 345

Goodman, J. D. 194

Hamel, E. de 269

Harrison, G. K. 206

Harrison, W. J. 237, 264

Heaton, Ralph 182

Hingley, Benjamin 346

Hiorns, W. A. H. 169

Hodson, E. H. 202

Holland, Wm. 210

Hollyer, J. H. 206

Hopkins, A. N. 206

Hughes, W. R. 266

Johnson, G. J. ix., 94

Johnstone, A. S. 201

Kenward, J. 191

Kenrick, W. 181

Lapworth, C. 213, 214, 264

Lea, Henry 183

Lean, Ch. 212

Marshall, W. B. 141

Martineau, F. E. 187

Martineau, R. F. 199

Mathews, C. E. 81

Mathews, Wm. 311

Middlemore, Thos. 348

Mole, F. M. 206

Mullins, J. D. 65

Osler, A. C. 186

Perks, W. 202

Pollack, Maurice 205

Puplett, S. 204

Rabone, J. 193

Stanton, H. H. 193

Sutherland, W. S. 179

Tangye Bros. 187

Taylor, E. R. 127

Tildesley, J. C. 193

Timmins, Sam: 1, 75, 357, 361

Turner, J. P. 181

Tye, G. S. 285, 348

Wallis, W. 135

Westwood, H. 177

Wills, A. W. 208, 335, 338

Woodward, C. J. 150, 352, 353

Woodward, J. M. 200

Wright, J. T. 204

CORRECTIONS.

PAGE LINE FOR READ

8 23 Warren Hector

79 14 1731 1733

133 8 Sinton Linton

” 19 Holt Holl

” 26 Watt’s Watts’s

195 1 Wesley Westley

215 19 St. Philip’s St. Philip

216 31 Paleozoic Palæozoic

217 33 ” ”

” 34 _Triassic_ _Trias_

219 4 Coldfield Coalfield

220 23 Rhœtic Rhætic

221 1 _Spirorks_ _Spirorbis_

” 6 Colebrookdale Coalbrookdale

222 4, 16, 28 Archean Archæan

226 1 Parley Purley

” 5 Shales shales

228 8 Landovery Llandovery

” 16 _Attrypa_ _Atrypa_

231 last line its material the material

235 16 in turns in turn

240 32 _omit_ various lamellibranchs

” 37 _add_ SILURIAN

252 11 _astarte_ _Astarte_

” 21 erractic erratic

INTRODUCTION.

BY G.J. JOHNSON.

This Handbook, being prepared for the use of the members of the British

Association, at their meeting in Birmingham, in 1886, it is deemed

desirable to preface it by a very brief sketch of the progress of the

town since the first meeting here of the Association in 1839, a period

only three years short of half a century.

=The Corporation.[1]=--When the Association met in Birmingham, on the

26th of August, 1839, the Borough had recently been incorporated--the

first meeting of the Town Council having been held on the 27th of the

previous December; but when the Council attempted to exercise the

power of making a Borough Rate, the Overseers refused to levy it in

consequence of objections which had been raised to the validity of the

Charter. In addition to these pecuniary difficulties, the town was just

recovering from the effects of the Chartist riots, in the Bull Ring,

seven weeks before. The Corporation had not the control of a single

policeman or constable, and the town was in charge of a body of London

police.

The same day on which the Association met, the Royal assent was given

to an Act (2 and 3 Vic., c. 88), hurriedly passed, to appoint a

Commissioner of Police in the Borough for two years, and to authorise

an advance of £10,000, for the purpose of organizing and paying a

police force.

The validity of the charter of incorporation was ultimately settled

by a statutory confirmation (5 and 6 Vic., c. III), which received

the royal assent on the 12th of August, 1842. As a consequence, the

control of the police was transferred to the Watch Committee of the

Corporation. At the time of the transfer the strength of the force was

300 men, and the population of the borough 183,000. The population is

now about 427,000, and the police force is 550 in number, and is both

efficient and adequate.

The great cost of conveying prisoners and lunatics to the County Gaol

and Asylum at Warwick, and the inadequacy of both to the increasing

population, rendered the building of a Borough Gaol and Lunatic Asylum

at Winson Green a necessity, and as soon as the Corporation obtained

the control of the police the gaol was proceeded with and opened in

1849. In the following year the Lunatic Asylum was opened, to which was

added, in 1882, another Asylum at Rubery Hill, near Bromsgrove.

The year 1851 is memorable in our municipal history for the vesting

in the Corporation, for the first time, of complete control over the

entire borough by the transfer to it of the conflicting powers and

jurisdictions of the other governing bodies (see pp. 18 and 19.) Up

to that date the formation and maintenance of the streets, roads, and

footways of the town, the lighting and drainage, and all the other

important work now undertaken by the Public Works Committee of the

Corporation could not be dealt with in any uniform system, because

six other governing bodies or officials had statutory powers over the

portions of the Borough which were outside the _parish_ of Birmingham.

With the year 1852 a new and uniform system commenced, and not an hour

too soon, having regard to the rapid increase of the population and

the consequent multiplication of new streets and roads. The aspect

of the town has been completely changed in the paving of the roads

and footways, the lighting of the streets, the widening of many of

the principal thoroughfares, and the carrying into operation of a

complete and uniform system of drainage and sewerage. To the Public

Works Committee belongs also the control of the numerous tramways which

lead from the centre of the town to the suburbs in every direction,

except the upper part of Edgbaston, the approach to which is rendered

difficult by the narrowness of Broad Street. The improved system of

drainage and sewerage brought to an issue the serious question of

how the sewage of the town was to be dealt with. From the year 1858

this had become a serious and increasing difficulty, involving the

Corporation in constant and costly litigation with the neighbouring

landowners, resulting in injunctions from the Court of Chancery. In

1871 a special Committee called “The Sewage Enquiry Committee” was

instituted, who recommended the course ultimately adopted, viz.:

the formation of a board representing the whole drainage area, and

the establishment of a large sewage farm at Saltley. The latter was

first undertaken and found to be a solution of the difficulty, and

in the year 1877 the other object was attained by the constitution

of the “Birmingham Tame and Rea District Drainage Board,” composed

of twenty-two representatives from the different governing bodies in

the drainage area, of whom twelve are elected by the Town Council of

Birmingham. To this body the sewage farm has been transferred, and is

now carried on with the most beneficial result.

Immediately after the passing of the Public Health Act, 1872, the

Borough was constituted an Urban Sanitary District and the Council as

the Urban Sanitary Authority, set itself vigorously to the work of

improving the public health. A Borough Hospital for the treatment of

small pox and scarlet fever was established in 1874. The Public Health

Act, 1875, indirectly removed for sanitary purposes the limit on rating

powers to which the Council were obliged to submit in their Act of

1851. By the zealous labours of the Health Committee, and the liberal

application of the pecuniary resources placed at its command by the Act

of 1875, the death rate has been reduced from 24.8 per 1,000 in 1874 to

19.1 in 1885, although the mean density of the population has increased

in the same period 20 per cent.

In 1851 the first of the four sets of public baths was opened in Kent

Street, followed by other sets in Woodcock Street (1860), Northwood

Street (1862), and Monument Road (1883). Under the management of the

same Committee of the Council are placed the ten public parks and

recreation grounds of the Borough, of which five have been given to the

Corporation and five have been acquired by purchase. The list is as

follows:--

----------------------+------------+---------+--------------------------

NAME. | Date of | AREA. | GIFT OR PURCHASE.

|Acquisition.| A. R. P.|

----------------------+------------+---------+--------------------------

Adderley Park | 1856 | 10 0 22|Gift of Mr. C. B. Adderley

| | |(now Lord Norton).

| | |

Calthorpe Park | 1857 | 21 1 13|Lease by Lord Calthorpe

| | |at a nominal rent.

| | |

Aston Park and Hall | 1864 | 43 0 0|Purchased for £26,000, of

| | |which £7,000 was raised

| | |by subscriptions.

| | |

Aston Park and Hall | 1873 | 6 2 8|Purchased for £4,750.

| | |

Cannon Hill Park | 1873 | 57 1 9|Gift by Miss Ryland.

| | |

Highgate Park | 1876 | 8 0 28|Land purchased for £8,000

| | |and £7,000 expended in

| | |laying out.

| | |

Summerfield Park | 1876 | 12 0 20|Land purchased for £8,000

| | |£3,857 expended in

| | |laying out.

| | |

Burbury St. Recreation| | |

Ground | 1877 | 4 1 3|Gift by Mr. William

| | |Middlemore.

| | |

Small Heath Park | 1879 | 41 3 34|Gift by Miss Ryland.

| | |

Park St. Gardens | 1880 | 4 1 35|}Disused burial grounds

| | |}laid out at cost of

St. Mary’s Gardens | 1882 | 2 2 0|}£12,099.

| +---------+

| |221 3 12|

----------------------+------------+---------+------------------------

In 1860 the Free Libraries Act was adopted, and the first branch

library was opened in Constitution Hill, on the 3rd of April, 1861. The

first Central Lending Library and Art Gallery were opened on the 6th

Sept., 1865, on the occasion of the meeting of the British Association.

(See for the subsequent history of the Free Libraries p. 69 _et seq._)

In 1863 the Borough Cemetery at Witton was completed. (See p. 117.)

In 1874, a Fire Brigade was established, which now consists of thirty

well-trained men, with six engines, and all suitable apparatus.

From the year 1851 to 1873 was a period of steady progress in our

municipal affairs; but the mayoralty of the Right Hon. (then Mr.)

Joseph Chamberlain, 1873-6, was signalised by the building of the

Council House; the acquisition of the undertakings of the two Gas

Companies of the Borough, as well as that of the Waterworks Company,

and the authorisation of a great scheme of street improvement of

which the formation of Corporation Street is the principal feature.

Curiously enough, the acquisition of the gas supply of the Borough

had a consequence, apparently as far removed as Tenterden steeple

from the Goodwin Sands, viz., the provision of the present commodious

Art Gallery (p. 123.) The explanation is, that under the Free

Libraries Act, the Town Council had the power to appropriate the site

for the purpose of an Art Gallery, but no power to raise money to

erect the building otherwise than by the penny rate, which was then

hardly sufficient for the annual cost of the Free Libraries. The Gas

department of the Corporation requiring to build larger offices, the

Council, at the request of the Free Libraries Committee, granted the

land to the Gas Committee, on condition that they should build over

their offices the new Art Gallery, which they have done at an estimated

cost of £40,000. By this means a difficulty which seemed insuperable

was overcome. In addition to this benefit to the town, the Gas

Committee have earned for the Corporation a profit of more than £25,000

a year.

Thirty years of municipal activity, such as has been described,

commencing with the Act of 1851, of course involved repeated

applications to Parliament, and in 1882 the mass of legislation was

found to be enormous, and a consolidation of twenty separate Acts was

effected by the Birmingham (Corporation) Consolidation Act, 1883,

which removed the limit of the Free Library rate, and enabled the

Corporation to establish the Municipal School of Art (see p. xviii.),

and to provide adequate funds for the maintenance of the Corporation

Art Gallery.

Thus the same Corporation which, in 1839, had no revenue, nor means

of obtaining any, and required to be assisted by the Government with

a loan of £10,000 for police purposes, in the year 1885, levied rates

for municipal purposes (exclusive of poor’s rate and the School Board

rate) to the amount of £318,882, being 4s. 5d. in the pound on the

annual value of the rateable property of the borough, and now borrows

money readily at three-and-a-quarter per cent. Its revenue, and the

income received from some of the Committees, sufficed to keep the

operations of the Corporation in working order, and to pay the interest

on £7,606,269--the aggregate amount of the liabilities on capital

account on 31st December, 1885. With reference to this large amount

of indebtedness it should be noted that £2,720,061 is the capitalized

value at twenty-five years’ purchase of the annuities granted as the

purchase moneys of the Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas Company, and

the Water Works Company, and that £450,000 was paid in cash for the

purchase of The Birmingham Gas Company, and also that £1,520,567 has

been expended on the Improvement Scheme. This reduces the sum still due

for the debts of the former governing bodies and all the public works

executed by the Corporation since 1839, to £2,915,630, and there can be

no doubt that the whole of the indebtedness is more than balanced by

the value of the property belonging to the Corporation.

It remains to be noticed that the Corporation is the largest landowner

in the Borough, owning more than 2,000 acres of land (including its

share of the sewage farm) and is the largest employer of labour,

employing upwards of 4,000 persons. Also that in July, 1884, Birmingham

was made an assize town; whereupon the Town Council took into immediate

consideration the necessity of building Courts for Assizes, Quarter

Sessions and Petty Sessions, and in July, 1886, approved of plans for

the purpose. The “New Law Courts” as they are termed, will be erected

in Corporation Street.

=Population.=--In the year 1839 the population of the Borough was

estimated at 180,000. The following is the result of each subsequent

census, namely:--

------+---------+------------+-------------------

YEAR.| HOUSES.| POPULATION.| INCREASE PER CENT.

------+---------+------------+-------------------

1841 | 40,000 | 182,894 | 28·57

1851 | 48,894 | 232,841 | 27·30

1861 | 59,200 | 296,076 | 27·11

1871 | 74,416 | 343,787 | 16·10

1881 | 78,301 | 408,004 | 18·67

-------------------------------------------------

The population in 1886 is estimated to be about 427,000.

A still more striking example of the progress of the town is afforded

by the following statement kindly prepared by Mr. S. Walliker, the

energetic and courteous Postmaster of the town.

STATEMENT SHEWING THE GROWTH OF THE BIRMINGHAM POST OFFICE DURING THE

PAST 20 YEARS.

------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+---------

| Total |Proportion | | | |

|number of |of Letters,| | | |

| Letters, |&c., to | No. of | No. of | No. of | No. of

| &c., |population,|Telegraph|Money-Order| Boxes |Officers

|delivered |or number | Offices.| Offices. | for |employed.

| during |of letters | | |Letters.|

| the | to each | | | |

| year. |individual.| | | |

------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+---------

1866 |13,023,200| 39·46 | 9 | 9 | 60 | 162

------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+---------

1885-6|30,983,625| 72·05 | 33 | 78 | 233 | 868

------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+---------

In 1871 (the year after the Telegraphs were transferred to the Post

Office), the number of Telegraph Messages dealt with was 1,081,825, and

in 1885-6, 3,111,662. The number of Parcels dealt with in 1885-6 was

2,492,689.

=Gifts for public purposes.=--“More than princely, _civic_ munificence”

was a happy phrase of Professor Max Müller on the occasion of the

opening of the Mason Science College, and it is certain that in

proportion as the feeling of citizenship in any community becomes

strong it will manifest itself in the establishment or assistance of

institutions for public purposes. Birmingham has never been without

examples of this kind. The earliest of the existing charities of the

town is--

=Lench’s Trust=, originated by a feoffment, 11th March, 1525, by

William Lench, of lands in and near Birmingham to trustees. With

this trust many other smaller gifts have been incorporated, and the

income of the whole is now applied to the maintenance of four sets

of almshouses for aged women, in Conybere Street, Hospital Street,

Ladywood Road, and Ravenhurst Street. The total number of inmates is

178, and each of them has a house and four shillings a week. The income

of this charity has grown with the growth of the town like that of the

Grammar School (see p. 26.) In 1839 it was £758, in 1886 it is £3,085.

The next endowment in order of time was that of the Free Grammar School

(see p. 26) to which has since been added one half of the endowment of

Milward’s Charity (A.D. 1684). Then came--

=Fentham’s Charity= (A.D. 1712), part of the revenue of which is

appropriated to the maintenance of certain boys in the Blue Coat

School, distinguished by a dark green dress.

With the exception of a number of smaller charities for apprenticing

boys, relieving poor widows, giving doles of bread, no important

public benefactions were bestowed for nearly a century. Almshouses in

imitation of Lench’s Trust, twenty in number, were built by Joseph

Dowell, in Warner Street, in 1820, and another set by Mrs. Glover, in

Steelhouse Lane, for thirty-six aged women, in 1832.

The last twenty years have been fruitful in gifts by our wealthier

citizens beginning with--

=Evans’ Cottage Homes=, Founded in 1867, by Alfred Smith Evans (of

the then well-known firm of Evans and Askin), are six cottages at

Selly Oak, of a superior kind to the ordinary almshouse, for ladies of

reduced means. Each inmate is required to possess an income of £25 a

year, and receives £20 a year from the trust. Vacancies in the trustees

are supplied by magistrates of the borough, appointed by the Town

Council.

=The Orphanage= and =Almshouses= at Erdington, completed in 1868, at

a cost of £60,000, by the late Sir Josiah (then Josiah) Mason, and

endowed with an annual income from landed property, which in 1885

produced £6,400. The Orphanage contains upwards of 300 children, in

the proportion of two girls to one boy. The Almshouses contain 30 poor

women. Seven of the fourteen trustees are appointed by the Town Council.

=Crowley’s Orphanage.=--Thomas Crowley, a timber merchant, of

Birmingham, who died 28th February, 1869, by deed dated 15th February,

1869, settled £10,000 upon trusts to educate poor orphan girls. No

orphanage has yet been built, but temporary homes have been opened in

Ladywood Road.

=The James’ Trust.=--The Misses Elizabeth and Emma James, by deed dated

1st November, 1869, conveyed a freehold estate in Paradise Street, as

an endowment for “The James’ Almhouses” they had built at Nechells for

aged women, to provide five annuities of £20 each for poor and decayed

gentlewomen, and a scholarship of £50 a year from the Free Grammar

School at Birmingham to the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge. The

net income is about £750 per annum, the surplus beyond £450 per annum

is to be accumulated, and applied in building additional almshouses.

=The Public Picture Gallery Fund= originated in a gift in the year

1871, by Mr. T. Clarkson Osler (of the well-known firm of glass

manufacturers) of a sum of £3,000 for the purchase of pictures for the

Corporation Art Gallery. This sum is augmented by other donations and

amounts subscribed, and has been the means of adorning the Art Gallery

with many valuable pictures.

=Dudley Trust.=--Mr. William Dudley, a Jeweller of Birmingham, by deed

dated 8th May, 1875, settled £100,000 in the hands of Trustees to be

used in (1) Loans to young tradesmen at low rates of interest; (2)

Annuities to aged tradesmen, and (3) Surplus to be applied in aid of

the charitable institutions of the Borough. Four of the Trustees are to

be appointed by the Town Council.

=Free Libraries.=--In order of time reference should be made to the

fund of nearly £15,000 raised in 1879 to refurnish the Reference

Library after the fire, and to the valuable gifts of books detailed at

p. 72 _et seq._

=The Art Gallery Purchase Fund= originated in an offer of Messrs.

Tangye, on 3rd July, 1880, to contribute £5,000 to a fund for the

purchase of examples of art for the New Art Gallery, since built by the

Gas Committee as previously stated (p. xiii.), and a further £5,000

on condition that an equal sum was raised by public subscription. The

sum of £7,000 additional was raised and placed at the disposal of a

Special Committee of the Town Council, called the “Art Gallery Purchase

Committee.”

=The Mason Science College.=--For a full account of which (see p.

45), was opened 1st October, 1880. Its cost was £60,000, and it is

endowed with landed property producing £3,600 per annum. Of the eleven

Trustees, five are appointed by the Town Council.

=The Wilkes Bequest.=--Mr. Alfred Salt Wilkes, a Manufacturer in

Birmingham, who died on the 29th July, 1881, left a sum of money

expected to realise £98,000 for division, after two life interests,

between the Birmingham and Midland Institute and the General Hospital.

=Municipal School of Art.=--On the 9th of November, 1881, the retiring

Mayor, Mr. Richard Chamberlain, announced to the Council that Miss

Ryland had offered £10,000, Messrs. Richard and George Tangye, another

£10,000 (afterwards increased to £10,937), and Mr. Cregoe Colmore a

piece of land worth £14,000 for the building of the present School of

Art. The foundation stone was laid 31st March, 1884, by Mr. Richard

Tangye, and the building (see p. 125) finished and opened on 14th

September, 1885. The former School of Art, a voluntary association

supported by public subscription (and to which Miss Ryland had been a

generous donor) being transferred to the Corporation.

=The Princess Alice Orphanage=, at Chester Road, was established, 1882,

partly by a donation of £10,000 by Mr. Solomon Jevons, of Birmingham.

=The Lloyds’ Almshouses=, in Belgrave Road, were founded by the widow

of Mr. James Lloyd, a banker, of Birmingham.

=The Jaffray Suburban Hospital=, at Erdington, for the treatment of

chronic and non-contagious cases in connection with the Birmingham

General Hospital, is the latest, but not the least of the gifts to the

town. It was built and furnished at the sole cost of Mr. John Jaffray,

and opened on the 27th November, 1885.

An enumeration of these gifts would not be complete without reference

to the five gifts of public parks particularised in the list at page

xii.

In addition to these benefactions, mention ought to be made of the

numerous gifts of pictures, sculptures and bronzes, given to the Art

Gallery by our leading citizens, which will be found detailed in the

Art Gallery Catalogue. Five of these gifts are deserving of special

mention, namely, (1) the collection of arms given 17th August, 1876,

by the Guardians of the Birmingham Proof House, and now arranged in

the south gallery; (2) the collection of pictures of David Cox given

by the late J. H. Nettlefold; (3) Müller’s well known “Prayers in the

Desert,” and others given by the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain; (4) a

collection of Wedgwood ware given by Messrs. Richard and George Tangye;

and (5) the clock in the tower of the Art Gallery given by Mr. Follett

Osler, F.R.S. Now that so admirable a gallery has been provided for

the reception of such gifts, it may be confidently hoped that others

equally valuable will be constantly added by the public spirit and

liberality of the citizens of Birmingham.

It is computed that the value of these and other smaller gifts for

public purposes for the last twenty years approaches, if it does not

exceed, one million sterling.

=Hospital Sunday and Saturday Collections.=--The suggestion of a

collection in the churches and chapels of the town on the last Sunday

in October, for the medical charities was made by the Midland Counties’

Herald Newspaper, October, 1859. It was warmly taken up by the then

Rector of Birmingham, Dr. Miller, and has been continued annually since

27th October, 1859. The total sum contributed up to and including the

collection in October, 1885, is £124,433, the average for twenty-seven

years being £4,608.

=Hospital Saturday Collection.=--The first Hospital Saturday

Collection, designed to reach a class differing from the contributors

to the Hospital Sunday Collection, took place March 15th, 1873. It has

gradually grown in amount, and now produces a larger annual sum than

the Hospital Sunday Collection. The amount raised in fourteen years is

£63,250, or an average of £4,517. The last collection produced £6,521.

=Clubs.=--Small clubs, meeting at stated times for social purposes,

were always common in Birmingham. The Bean Club, which meets annually,

has existed since 1660. The “parlours” of the better class of public

houses were places where tradesmen used to assemble in the evenings and

were social clubs in the old sense. In 1840 the present Waterloo Rooms,

now occupied by the Midland Conservative Club, were built for a club

house, but the time was not ripe and they were let to the Government

for the Old Bankruptcy Court.

THE UNION CLUB (non-political) was the first club in the modern sense,

and was established in 1856, in rooms in Bennett’s Hill, and succeeded

so well that the present club-house, at the corner of Colmore Row and

Newhall Street, was built for it, and the club removed there in May,

1869.

THE MIDLAND CLUB, in New Street, was established in the year 1869, and

is a non-political club.

THE CONSERVATIVE CLUB was established in 1872. The present club house

is in Union Street, but a larger club house in Temple Row is being

built.

THE LIBERAL CLUB was established in the year 1877, in New Street, and

in November, 1885, was removed to the stately building at the corner of

Congreve Street and Edmund Street.

THE REFORM CLUB was established in the year 1879, under the title of

the Junior Liberal Club. It occupies rooms in New Street.

THE MIDLAND CONSERVATIVE CLUB, which now occupies the Waterloo Rooms,

in Waterloo Street, was established in the year 1882.

All the above clubs are open to members of the Association during the

meeting of 1886, on presentation of their cards of membership.

For an account of The Clef Club see page 148.

Other clubs of a political, social, or scientific character are very

numerous in Birmingham.

* * * * *

The matters touched upon in this Introduction must be regarded as

illustrative of the progress of the town in a few particulars which did

not fall within any of the divisions of Part II. of this Handbook (see

Table of Contents). Fully to realize the development in every direction

of our municipal, educational, ecclesiastical, literary, artistic,

and industrial life, the whole of that part should be consulted. The

remainder of the book will shew how assiduously various branches of

science are cultivated amongst us.

PART I. HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. 1086--1800.

BY SAM: TIMMINS.

=Origin of Name.=--Eight hundred years ago the name of Birmingham first

appeared in history, and almost exactly with the present name of the

town. In the famous Domesday Book (1083-1086), compiled for William

the Norman, the name is spelled “Bermingeha’,” but the varieties

of spelling, from the conquest, have been remarkable. Some curious

collector has summed up one hundred and forty variations, but most

of these may be resolved into two forms of pronunciation--either

Birmingham or Bromicham. It is curious that no other town or village

in England seems to have a similar name to that of Birmingham, and

hence its etymology is somewhat obscure. Hutton’s favourite origin was

Broom from the plant, Wych, a dwelling or a descent, and Ham a home,

so that Bromwycham was supposed to be the original name indicating

local details; but Hutton had forgotten to look at Domesday Book,

or to explain how Bromwycham had been turned into Birmingham. Still

more, he had neglected Dugdale’s remark that while “ham,” for home,

explained the final syllable, the other two syllables certainly denoted

some personal name. All later researches have tended to confirm this

suggestion, and modern philologists, including Prof. E. A. Freeman,

are almost unanimous in agreeing that “Berm,” or “Beorm,” or some

similar form represents the name of some Saxon tribe or people, and

that Bermingham would be a patronymic or family name, with the “ing” or

“iung” denoting some progeny or tribe, and giving the name to the “de

Berminghams,” who flourished in the place, as Dugdale fully shows.

=Early History.=--As to the ante-Norman holders, Dugdale says on

the authority of Domesday Book, that in “Edward the Confessor’s days

(Birmingham was) the freehold of one Ulvvine,” but the history begins

with the Domesday Book which gives the following details:--“Richard

holds of William (Fitz Ausculf) four hides in Bermingha’. The arable

employs six ploughs; one is in the demesne. There are five villeins

and four bordars with two ploughs. Wood half a mile long, and four

furlongs broad. It was, and is worth 20s.” These few facts compare

very favourably with the description of other places, and show that

Birmingham was then a place of some importance. No church is mentioned,

and no priest, but those omissions do not necessarily prove that the

place had neither, and probably it had both. The extent of the “hide”

is very uncertain and it seems to have varied from sixty to one hundred

acres. This entry obviously relates to Birmingham only, and Edgbaston,

Aston, and other places are similarly described. This extract is merely

given to show that some sort of town existed long before 1083-1086, and

that its name was nearly as we spell and sound it now.

After Domesday Book a long blank occurs, except as to certain

documentary evidence as to Fairs, (1166 and 1251), and the help given

to Simon de Montfort against Henry III., by William de Bermingham. But

a little light is thrown on the condition of Birmingham by further

examination of a curious and unique old map of England and Scotland

now in the Bodleian Library, but which was known to Gough and included

in his Topography, (Vol. I., p. 77,) with an engraving by Basire,

which, however, is very imperfect and inaccurate. A photo-zincograph of

this ancient map was produced by the Ordnance Office in 1875, with a

description by Mr. W. Basevi Saunders, who settles the date of the map

as _circa_ 1286-1300. In this map, which is remarkably interesting but

ludicrously wrong in many parts, especially as to Scotland, Birmingham

distinctly appears. Cathedral cities and large churches are generally

indicated, rivers are marked, and even miles on roads, while a large

number of single houses are marked to show towns, when no names are

given. In the portion marked “Ardene” one house, with “Brmynghā,”

clearly appears between Worcester and Lichfield, and is the only town

in Warwickshire which is described by name, not even Coventry or

Warwick being named. This seems to show that Birmingham was a place

of some importance even six hundred years ago, and that its name was

then spelled nearly as now, the abbreviations probably indicating

“Bermyngham.”

As Dugdale’s Warwickshire is generally limited to the territorial and

family history, which is difficult to condense, and rarely refers to

the existence or state of the buildings in his time, there is very

little material for the history of the town for several centuries. He

mentions, however, that Peter de Bermingham “had a Castle here which

stood nearre a Bow-shoot from the Church south-westwards” (12 Henry

II., 1166), doubtless on the site of Smithfield market, which had

buildings and moat till 1815. A market was granted by the same king,

and on Thursdays, and was probably largely frequented and helped the

progress of the town. From this de Bermingham family, Dugdale says,

“doubtless came the de Berminghams of Ireland, who settled there very

antiently: perhaps in Hen. II. days on the first conquest of that realm

by Ric. Strongbow:” but the family connection with Birmingham ended

with Edward and his tragic story in 1545.

=The Priory.=--The Hospital or Priory of St. Thomas the Apostle has

had its name and site preserved by the names “Upper and Lower Priory,”

“Minories,” &c., but the exact site of the buildings and the date of

the foundation are uncertain. The grounds occupied a large space along

Bull Street, Dale End, John Street, and Steelhouse Lane; but even in

the recent excavations for new streets scarcely a fragment has been

found. A century ago the pseudo-antiquarian William Hutton, who did his

best to write a History of Birmingham, records that in 1775 he removed

“twenty waggon loads of old stones, great numbers of which were highly

finished in the Gothic taste; parts of porticos, windows, arches,

ceilings--some fluted, some ciphered, yet complete as the day they left

the chisel,” and that after letting the builders destroy the greater

portion, he used some in making a fire-place in “an under-ground

kitchen.” There is little hope now of finding any of these relics or

of settling the site on which the Priory buildings stood. Even Dugdale

failed to find its origin, and simply records that the first mention

occurs in 13 Edwd. I. (1285), and that the Commissioners of Henry VIII.

(1545) valued it at £8. 8s. 10d., and that it was duly dissolved.

=St. Martin’s Church.=--The Mother Church, St. Martin’s, claims

great antiquity, but its exact date has not been found. During

the recent restoration some early wall-paintings were discovered,

with the still more valuable remains which formed part of a Norman

Church, very evidently on the same site, but all traces of whose

history have been lost. The existing Church has, however, some highly

interesting monuments of some of the de Berminghams of the thirteenth,

fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, one in alabaster, representing an

ecclesiastic, being well known as an almost unique example of fifteenth

century art. The present restored church has replaced an ugly brick

casing which covered the decaying portion of an earlier church supposed

to have been of the latter part of the thirteenth century with later

alterations. The Registers begin in 1555, and have been carefully

preserved, as well as various Church Books which have been used in the

History of St. Martin’s by Mr. J. Thackray Bunce.

=St. John’s Chapel.=--Another ecclesiastical relic, in name only, is

to be found in the ugly last century brick building, St. John’s Chapel,

Deritend, which has replaced the “propper chappel,” which Leland saw

in 1538, an early English building among the trees by the river side.

This “chapel” was founded in 1375, by some of the inhabitants of

Deritend and Bordesley, who found the floods often preventing access

to their Parish Church at Aston. Thirteen of the inhabitants of the

hamlets contributed the funds, and acquired the right of “appointing

one Chaplain” for the services, and such Chaplain is appointed to this

day by the parishioners’ votes. Tradition records that John Rogers,

one of the early translators of the Bible, and the first Martyr of the

reign of Mary, was born in Deritend near this Chapel, and a marble slab

records his fame, but the tradition is doubtful, and has not been fully

confirmed.

=The Guild of the Holy Cross=, whose Hall was on the site of the

present King Edward’s School, was founded in 6 Rich. II. (1382), for

the maintenance of two priests to celebrate service daily in the

Church of St. Martin, but ten years later was formed into a “Guild or

Fraternitie, consisting of men and women of Birmingham,” in the names

of the “Bailiffs and Communaltie of Birmingham and other adjacent

places, for a Chantrie of priests and services in the Church, for the

souls of the Founders and all the Fraternitie,” but in 37 Hen. VIII.

(1545) the lands were valued at £31. 2s. 10d., and appropriated by the

Crown, and afterwards, 5 Edw. VI. (1550), were used for the foundation

of the “Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for the Education

and Instruction of Children in Grammar for ever,”--the basis of the

present noble foundation, not only in New Street, but in several

important Branch Schools.

=Leland’s Description, 1538.=--Nearly half of the sixteenth century

had passed before Birmingham was visited and described by any stranger,

and the visit of John Leland is a memorable landmark in the history

of the town. His few words are familiar but worth quoting again, not

merely as a record, but as a contrast with the changed conditions of

over three hundred years. In the reign of Henry VIII., he made his

famous journey through England, and in 1538 he visited Birmingham and

rode through the town, which he describes in picturesque words:--“I

came through a pretty street or ever I entred into Bermingham towne.

This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey [Deriten]. In it dwell

smithes and cutlers, and there is a brooke [Rea] that divideth this

street from Bermingham, and is an hamlett or member belonginge to the

Parish therebye. There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappell and

mansion house of tymber, hard on the rype [bank] as the brooke runneth

downe: and as I went through the ford by the [foot] bridge, the water

ranne downe on the right hand, and a fewe miles below goeth into Tame,

_ripâ dextrâ_. * * * * The beauty of Bermigham, a good markett towne

in the extreame parts of Warwike-shire, is one street going up alonge,

almost from the left ripe of the brooke up a meane hill by the length

of a quarter of a mile. I saw but one Paroch Church in the towne. There

be many smiths in the towne that use to make knives and all mannour of

cuttinge tooles, and many loriners that make bittes, and a great many

naylors. Soe that a great part of the towne is maintained by smithes

whoe have their iron and sea-cole out of Stafford-shire.”

This description of the town is minute and careful. The “mansion house

of tymber” still remains as the Old Crown House in Deritend; and nearly

opposite other half-timbered houses of the same period survive. The

“propper chappell” has greatly changed its form, and the descriptions

of trade are no longer strictly accurate, as some of the handicrafts

are now better known at Sheffield, Walsall, and Halesowen. Some other

old houses of the sixteenth century still remain, one notably in

Digbeth, which has been carefully preserved; and one early sixteenth

century house in Bull Street, near Dale End, has just been removed

(1886). One remarkable change has occurred since Leland’s days; for the

streams which crossed the roads have disappeared beneath, and the pumps

and wells and water courses are long since gone.

=Camden’s Description, 1584.=--The visit of William Camden confirms

Leland’s account, and shows considerable progress, as the town was

“swarming with inhabitants and echoing with the noise of anvils,” and

the general prosperity evidently continued through the century, and

far into the next century too, for it is clear that the manufacture

of swords, if not of guns and pistols, had begun and was destined to

extend the fame and improve the industrial condition of the town.

=Prince Rupert.=--The busy occupants of the line of road traversed by

Leland and Camden had serious trouble a century later. Charles I. on

his way, in 1642, to Edge Hill had stopped at Aston Hall, which had

been built early in the seventeenth century, and was believed to be

from a design by Inigo Jones. Sir Thomas Holte had been true to the

King, but had become unpopular with the Birmingham people, who were on

the Parliamentary side. Aston Hall was attacked and besieged for three

days, and the traces of the cannonading still remain. In the April of

the next year, 1643, the fiery Rupert advanced to Birmingham from Camp

Hill, and was stopped in Deritend by the barricades and valour of the

people, but he forced his way, plundered and fired eighty houses, and

left the town on the other side after heavy losses of life and limb.

Clarendon has described Birmingham “as of great fame for hearty wilful

affected disloyalty to the King as any town in England,” and the town

had supplied the Parliamentary army with 15,000 swords, but “Prince

Rupert’s Burning Cruelty to Birmingham” only intensified the opposition

to the King and his cause.

=A City of Refuge.=--The latter part of the seventeenth century saw

many marked advances in the prosperity of the town. The extravagances

of the restoration period greatly increased the demand for many of the

products of Birmingham ingenuity and skill. The demand for fire-arms

also encouraged and extended one of the trades which was afterwards

to become one of the great industries of the town; not only so, but

Birmingham had become a sort of City of Refuge for reformers of all

sorts, and a sort of Free Port for many sorts of manufactures which,

owing to the customs of corporate towns, were restricted elsewhere.

The “five mile,” and other acts, drove out many useful and able people

and sent them to reside in a place where there was more elbow room and

more free air, and thus not only the population but the energy and

usefulness of the inhabitants rapidly increased. The visits of George

Fox had stimulated many people, like those of Wesley a century later,

and every influence, industrial, political, religious, social, seemed

to continue and develop and intensify the life and progress of the town.

=Early Printers and Booksellers=--The eighteenth century added but

little to the antiquities, but much to the history of Birmingham.

The industrial developments which Leland and Camden noted made far

more rapid progress towards the end of the seventeenth century, when

Birmingham became as famous for fire-arms as it had been for pikes

and swords half a century before. Even that progress was, however, to

be far exceeded before the eighteenth century ended, and the almost

infinite variety of manufactures had become established. Birmingham

was, in fact, in those times, what London has since become, the centre

towards which the foremost men of the day tended for many years. In the

early years of the century, Dr. Johnson’s father came to Birmingham

weekly with a small stock of books--the only supply the town seems

to have had--but a few years later Thomas Warren had begun to print,

newspapers were started, and books of considerable importance were

published. Dr. Johnson’s first literary work, his translation of

Lobo’s Abyssinia, was dictated to Warren, but probably not printed in

Birmingham, although as early as 1712, and possibly ten years sooner,

books were printed in the town. So early as 1652 a master of the

Grammar School had published a Latin Grammar--the earliest Birmingham

book--and in 1717 the first book printed in Birmingham appeared from

Matthew Unwin’s press.

=Early Maps and Engravings=--Thomas Warren’s first known book is

dated 1728, and many important works afterwards came from his press.

Engraving, as well as printing, soon became common, and many excellent

examples soon came forth. In 1731, William Westley published the

first map or Plan of Birmingham, followed by others of great value,

as Bradford’s, in 1751, and Hanson’s, in 1779; and Bradford also

issued a “View of Birmingham,” of a size and quality unsurpassed in

line-engraving, of which only two copies have survived. Many folio and

quarto volumes appeared in the middle of the century from Thomas Aris,

C. Earl, and others, and were remarkably fine productions for a midland

town a century and a half ago.

=John Baskerville=--All these, however, were surpassed by the far-famed

productions of John Baskerville’s press, for his experience as a

grave-stone cutter in Moor Street, and his fine taste and restless

energy enabled him to produce type and paper, and to print in so

excellent a style, that his productions soon won European fame.

At Easy Hill--the house, in ruins, still remains--he made his own

presses, type, and probably paper to some extent, and spent hundreds

of pounds before he had formed letters to please his fastidious eyes

and excellent taste. Birmingham has few greater claims to honour in the

industries and arts than those which have so universally been given to

the Baskerville Press.

=Directories=--The later half of the century was even more

distinguished in many other ways. The modern Directories were not

popular or common till late in the last century. Even the rare London

Directory of 1677 does not seem to have had many imitators, but

about 1750 the increasing number of trades stimulated the demand.

In Newcastle-on-Tyne, and in Sheffield and other towns, Directories

appeared, and Birmingham was among the first, and one of great interest

and value appeared in 1770, and probably earlier, followed by others,

ever increasing as the population increased, but very curiously

contrasting with the huge volumes of later days.

=Cotton Spinning=--One of the most remarkable, perhaps, of the

industrial schemes in Birmingham, was the establishment of a cotton

mill, which still remains as a building and shows its origin, although

now a rolling mill. It was the natural result of the genius of John

Wyatt and of Lewis Paul, for in a room in the Upper Priory--now covered

by the schools of the Society of Friends--the first cotton spinning

machine was erected and worked, and the old distaff and spindle, and

spinning machine doomed. Thomas Warren, Edward Cave, Dr. James, and

others, took up the speculation of Lewis Paul, and mills were built

at Birmingham and Northampton, but before the century closed they had

failed to pay.

=The Soho Works=--The most famous of all the classes of industrial

enterprises in Birmingham was the famous “Soho.” From the manufacture

of “toys”--steel toys, buckles, buttons, sword-hilts, &c.--in Snow

Hill, Matthew Boulton had removed to Soho in 1763. There he erected

machinery for water power, but by happy accident, James Watt visited

the place, and Boulton was so struck with his improvements in the steam

engine, which Soho only seemed able to produce, that a connection began

which has immortalised the names of Boulton and Watt, and shed undying

glory on the industrial history of Birmingham. The story has been too

often told to require repetition, but even now it has scarcely been

fully told. Soho itself has perished, scarcely a relic remains, but

James Watt’s house at Heathfield still exists with relics which will

ever be an honour to his genius, and will keep his memory green. All

admirers of the genius of Watt will hope and desire that these remains

of an industrial hero, a genius of the useful arts, may become a public

trust, to show posterity how so illustrious a man of science was valued

in his life, and is honoured by those who rejoice in the fruits of his

genius and skill.

=Famous Men: the Soho Circle=--One of the most remarkable chapters in

the history of Birmingham would be a full record of the men of the

latter half, or even the last quarter, of the last century who gave

lustre to the town, and who materially helped its constant progress.

“Soho” had not only supplied what the world had long wanted, “power,”

but it had set up a standard of excellence, and had trained a class of

workmen who were to go forth to conquer, at home and abroad, in all

industrial work. The spirit of Soho is still abroad in the land, and

Birmingham may claim to have been one of the foremost in the mechanical

progress of the past hundred years.

The galaxy of great men, as it has been called, who met in Birmingham

a century ago is certainly remarkable. Boulton was a native of the

town, but many “strangers came within the gates.” James Watt--almost

all-accomplished--was soon followed by Joseph Priestley, who lived here

for eleven years. His fame had preceded him, his great discoveries had

been made. A storm of popular and ignorant bigotry drove him from the

town, wrecked his home, ruined his laboratory, and burned his library;

but the sons have “blushed to find their fathers were his foes;” and

a statue honoured his memory and his great discovery of oxygen on

the centenary of that day. Dr. Darwin, of Lichfield and Derby, the

father of a noble line, and himself a man of genius and power, was

a constant visitor. William Murdock, one of the ablest of the Soho

group, the first maker of a locomotive, and the practical inventor

of gas-lighting, was long a resident in the town, and is buried near

Boulton and Watt. John Baskerville, the printer; Josiah Wedgwood, the

famous art-potter; James Keir, the great chemist; Richard Edgeworth and

Thomas Day, authors; Joseph Berington, the learned Roman Catholic; Dr.

Withering, the botanist; Dr. Parr, the famous Greek scholar; Samuel

Galton, the Quaker; John Proud, the Swedenborgian; John Wyatt, the

inventor; Edmund Hector, Johnson’s friend; and many others, formed

such a “happy family” of genius and worth as few towns of the period

could surpass or equal; and that “golden age” of Birmingham, the men

and names, and works and progress of the last century, must ever be

remembered and honoured, even in these days of quicker progress and

greater victories in scientific and industrial pursuits.

* * * * *

[Many very interesting details of the History of Birmingham are

necessarily omitted in this brief summary and may be found in the

following works:--

Aston Hall, (A. E. Everitt) 1846

” ” and the Holte Family (Davidson) 1854

” ” Monograph of (Niven) 1880

Birmingham, History of (W. Hutton) 1781 &c.

” ” Presbyterian Nonconformity in (J. R. Wreford) 1832

” ” and its Vicinity (W. Hawkes Smith) 1838

” ” General Hospital & Musical Festivals

(J. T. Bunce) 1858

” ” Free Schools, Colleges, &c. (G. Griffith) 1861

” ” Memorials of Old,--“Old Crown House,” and “Men

and Names” (Toulmin Smith) 1864

” ” and Midland Hardware District (S. Timmins) 1866

” ” Buildings of, Two Series (“Este”) 1866

” ” Life, A Century of, 1741 to 1841 (J. A. Langford) 1868

” ” Queen’s College, Annals of (W. S. Cox) 1873

” ” Modern, 1841 to 1871 (J. A. Langford) 1873 &c.

” ” Old St. Martin’s Church (J. T. Bunce) 1875

” ” Men (E. Edwards) 1877

” ” Corporation, History of (J. T. Bunce) 2 vols. 1878 &c.

” ” Old and New (R. K. Dent) 1880

” ” Inventors & Inventions (R. B. Prosser) 1881

” ” Old Meeting House and Burial Ground (C. H. Beale) 1882

” ” Dictionary of (T. T. Harman) 1884

Boulton and Watt (S. Smiles) 1865

Keir, Jas., Life of (J. K. Moilliett) 1868

Watt, Jas., Life of (J. P. Muirhead) 1858

” Mechanical Inventions (J. P. Muirhead) 1854

” Mechanical Inventions (E. A. Cowper),

Transactions of Mechanical Engineers, November 1883

The Reference Library contains all the works named, and many

others,--every known book or pamphlet, map or directory, relating

to the History of Birmingham; and the detailed catalogue (pp. 93)

classifies the collection under numerous headings, including all the

Acts of Parliament relating to Birmingham and its neighbourhood.]

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

LOCAL GOVERNING BODIES.

BY J. THACKRAY BUNCE.

The Local Government of Birmingham is administered by five sets of

authorities:--

1. Justices of the Peace.

2. Town Council.

3. Drainage Board.

4. Boards of Guardians.

5. School Board.

=Justices of the Peace.=--The first of these bodies was constituted

by Royal Grant in 1838, when the town was incorporated as a municipal

borough. A Court of Quarter Sessions was then next established, for

the trial of prisoners, and a Recorder was appointed. The Court of

Petty Sessions for the borough was instituted at the same time, under

special commission of the peace. The duties of the justices are to

maintain peace and order in the borough, to administer justice at petty

sessions, to appoint visitors to the prison, and to grant licences for

public houses, theatres, and concert halls, and licences for music and

dancing in houses kept for the sale of liquor. They are invested with

powers of control over the police on occasions of actual or threatened

disturbance of public order; and any two of them, sitting in petty

sessions, are empowered to suspend or dismiss any police constable for

sufficient cause.

=The Town Council= has charge of the general administration of the

affairs of the borough; watching; lighting; making, draining, and

repairing streets and roads; the care of the public health, by the

prevention and removal of nuisances, the enforcement of a system of

house inspection, the collection and disposal of night soil and house

refuse, and the maintenance of a Borough Hospital; the control of the

Borough Cemetery, (for which it acts as a Burial Board;) the provision

and management of Baths and Parks; of Free Libraries, Museums, and

Schools of Art; and it also has control of the manufacture and sale

of Gas, and the provision of Water. The powers of the Corporation,

originally and to a limited extent conferred by Royal Charter in

1838, were by degrees enlarged by twenty special local Acts or Orders

sanctioned by Parliament, for various purposes. The whole of these

were, in 1883, consolidated in the Birmingham Corporation Consolidation

Act, which, together with the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act of

1882, and the Public Health Act of 1875, constitute the Municipal Law

under which the affairs of the Borough are administered.

=The Drainage Board= is a body composed in part of representatives

elected by the Town Council, and in part of representatives elected

by the Local Boards of districts adjoining the Borough. There are

twenty-two members of this Board, two of them, the Mayor of Birmingham,

and the Chairman of the Aston Manor Local Board being ex-officio, and

the others being elected in the following proportions: Birmingham

Town Council eleven; one each from the Local Boards of Aston Manor,

Balsall Heath, Handsworth, Harborne, Saltley, and Smethwick; and one

each (elected by the respective Boards of Guardians) for Aston Rural

District and Sutton Coldfield, King’s Norton and Northfield, and Perry

Barr. The Board has charge of the sewage from the districts above

named, extending over an area of 45,000 acres. The whole of the sewers

are made to converge to a common outlet at Saltley, where the sewage is

received into tanks, and is then purified, first by precipitation, and

next by passing it through the land of the sewage farm, the effluent

water, thus rendered clear and harmless, being poured into the rivers

Cole and Tame. The sludge remaining in the sewage tanks is dug into

the land. For the purposes of sewage treatment the Drainage Board

has acquired about 1,200 acres of land in the Tame Valley. The Board

has borrowing powers, exercised to the extent of £400,000 for the

acquisition of land and the execution of works; and it has also rating

powers for the payment of interest and repayment of capital, and for

current expenditure. These powers are exercised by serving precepts

upon the several local authorities included in the Drainage area, in

proportion to the number of their rated tenements.

=The Boards of Guardians= have charge of the poor law administration

of the Borough. There are three parishes in the Borough, namely,

Birmingham, Edgbaston, and part of Aston. The parish of Birmingham is

separately administered by a Board of Guardians, originally constituted

under a Local Act of 23 Geo. III. (1782) modified by a local Act of 1

and 2 Wm. IV. (1831) and further modified by “orders” of the Poor Law

Board, and the Local Government Board; the last of these was issued

in 1882. The number of Guardians for the parish is 60, and the twelve

overseers (the rating authority for poor law purposes) also have seats

on the Board.

The parish of Edgbaston is wholly in the Borough, but it forms part

of the King’s Norton Union, and as to the poor law is governed by the

Guardians of that Union. The parish of Aston is only partially within

the Borough; it is administered by the Guardians of Aston Union.

Edgbaston and Aston parochial affairs are governed under the general

poor law Acts, there being no local Act for either parish.

=The School Board=, which consists of fifteen members, was first

elected in November, 1870, under the Elementary Education Act passed in

that year. It has charge of the Board Schools throughout the Borough.

The above described bodies are all of them representative, but are

elected on different franchises, and by different methods.

The Town Council is elected by the votes of all occupiers in the

sixteen wards in which the Borough is divided, women householders

being entitled to vote; three Councillors being chosen for each ward,

and one of the three retiring each year; and the votes being given by

ballot. The Drainage Board is elected by the governing authorities.

The Guardians of the Poor are chosen, in Birmingham; by ratepayers of

£12 annual value, the whole Board being elected at one time, by voting

papers delivered at the place of election; and in the other parishes

by all occupying householders, by voting papers collected from the

electors. The School Board is elected by the votes of all householders,

the whole Board retiring at the end of three years, and the votes being

taken on the cumulative plan, each elector giving the whole of his

votes to one candidate, or dividing them in any other proportion, at

pleasure.

Each of the bodies is invested with borrowing and rating powers,

limited by local or general acts. The Town Council levies rates on

the whole Borough--a Municipal or Borough Rate for general municipal

purposes, under the Municipal Corporations Acts, and an Improvement

Rate, for purposes specified in the Local Improvement Act. The Drainage

Board and the School Board serve precepts upon the Town Council for

the amounts they respectively require, and these amounts are included

in the Borough Rate. The Guardians of the Poor make rates for their

respective parishes for poor law purposes; and they collect, on behalf

of the Town Council, the rates levied for municipal expenditure,

including the money required by the Drainage Board and the School

Board. There is one assessment for local rates, made (under a recent

agreement with the Town Council) by the parish overseers.

The preceding statement shortly describes the existing arrangement

of local government in Birmingham; but, in order to explain the

growth of the system now in operation, it is necessary briefly to

sketch the history of local administration. Birmingham has always

been what is called a free town, that is, until after the passing of

the Municipal Corporations Act in 1835, it had no Corporation, with a

restricted burgess roll, and consequently the community was open to

all who cared to settle in the town for the purposes of residence or

trade, a circumstance which largely contributed to the rapid growth

of Birmingham in population, industry, and wealth. Down to the year

1769, the government of the place was controlled by the three sets

of authorities existing in all non-chartered communities.--1, the

justices, to keep the peace, and to punish crime. 2, the court leet

(with its elected jury, its high and low bailiffs, its ale tasters,

flesh connors, and leather sealers) meeting at irregular intervals,

under the direction of the Lord of the Manor, and invested with the

care of markets, nuisances, and other matters pertaining to, or

interfering with, the rights of the lord. 3, the Churchwardens, who

transacted the church and parish business, and held vestry meetings for

general town purposes, and for the choice of surveyors of the highways.

In 1769, an Act of Parliament was obtained, constituting a body of

Commissioners for the purposes of maintaining, improving, and lighting

the town, and invested with general powers affecting the health and

safety of the inhabitants, and the common welfare. By subsequent

Acts--five in number, the last of these being passed in 1828--the

powers of the Street Commissioners were extended, and they were

authorised by the last named Act to build a Town Hall. Their authority

was confined to what was then known as “the town of Birmingham,” the

boundaries of which were co-extensive with the parish of Birmingham.

The first Commissioners were named in the Act constituting them, and

vacancies were thereafter filled up by the Commissioners themselves,

without reference to the inhabitants. The system of local government

thus instituted continued unchanged until the year 1838. In 1832,

Birmingham was, for the first time, under the provisions of the Reform

Act, constituted a Parliamentary borough, with the right of returning

two members to the House of Commons. The boundaries of the Borough

were so arranged as to include the parish of Birmingham, the parish of

Edgbaston, and the hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley, and Duddeston

and Nechells, in the parish of Aston, the area thus formed being 8,240

acres. The Parliamentary Reform Act was followed by the passing of the

Municipal Corporations Act, in 1835. For a considerable time there

had been a strong feeling in favour of some completer form of local

government than that afforded by the Commissioners Acts, and especially

for government founded upon the representative principle. In 1837,

steps were taken to obtain a charter of incorporation for the town,

under the authority of the Municipal Corporations Act; and in October,

1838, after much opposition, both locally and in Parliament, a charter

was granted, and the Corporation of Birmingham came into existence.

The boundaries of the new Municipal Borough were fixed so as to

correspond with those of the Parliamentary Borough, above described.

The area was divided into thirteen wards (extended in 1873 to

sixteen wards), and the Council was constituted of 16 aldermen and

48 councillors. The first elections of councillors took place on the

26th of December, 1838, and on the day following the Council met, and

elected the aldermen, the governing body being then fully constituted.

Mr. William Scholefield was elected the first Mayor.

Although Birmingham had now obtained a system of representative

government, the state of affairs was by no means satisfactory. In the

parish of Birmingham the self-elected Commissioners of the Street Act

retained their full authority, and in the district of Deritend and

Bordesley local government was for certain purposes still exercised by

a body of Commissioners constituted by an Act passed in 1791, while

Duddeston and Nechells were governed by Commissioners appointed under

an Act of 1829. There were consequently four governing bodies within

the borough, and the powers of the new Corporation were consequently

seriously limited and its action impeded. Other difficulties of a

peculiarly embarrassing character speedily developed themselves. The

validity of the Charter was contested both in the Law Courts and in

Parliament; disputes arose between the Borough Magistracy and the

County Bench; hindrances were put in the way of the Court of Quarter

Sessions granted for the Borough. In addition to these causes of

disquiet the occurrence of the Chartist riots of 1839 furnished a

pretext for withdrawing from the Corporation the right of establishing

a constabulary or police force for the town, and a special Police Act

was passed by which, while paid for by the ratepayers, the police force

was placed under the absolute control of a Government Commissioner. In

1842 this perplexing condition of affairs was, however, brought to an

end, by the passing of an Act of Parliament confirming the Charters of

Birmingham and Manchester, and an Act was also passed transferring to

the Corporation of Birmingham the control of the local police force.

The powers of the Town Council, however, were still very limited, owing

to the conflicting local authorities existing in the Borough, and it

became evident in the course of time that, in the public interests, the

representative body must finally be made supreme. The minor bodies did

not yield without a contest, but in the end the pressure of opinion

overcame their resistance, and in 1851 the passing of the Birmingham

Improvement Act put an end to all the bodies of Commissioners, and

transferred their powers, with others provided by the Act, to the Town

Council, as the representative of the ratepayers of the borough, and

the Town Council became thenceforward the sole governing authority

for all municipal purposes. The Act mentioned further authorised

the borrowing of loans for purposes of town improvements and for a

system of sewerage, and empowered the Council to levy a special rate

for such purposes, in addition to the ordinary municipal rate levied

under the Municipal Corporations Act. Ten years later, in 1861, a

second Improvement Act invested the Corporation with further powers

of administration and of borrowing; and numerous other Acts were

subsequently obtained for specific purposes. Among these were the Parks

Act, 1854; an order (1873) extending to sixteen the number of Wards in

the Borough;--an Act giving the Council power to acquire closed burial

grounds and to lay them out as places of public recreation, passed

in 1878; Acts for the purchase of the Gas and Water undertakings in

1875; an Act for a Sanitary Improvement Scheme under the provisions of

the Artisans’ Dwellings Act, 1876; for the constitution of a Drainage

Board, in 1878; and for the issue of Corporation Stock in 1880. The

powers of most of these enactments, with additional powers, were

embodied in the Birmingham Corporation Consolidation Act of 1883,

which, amongst other provisions, abolished the restriction to one penny

in the pound previously imposed upon the Free Libraries Rate (under

the General Libraries Act) and authorised the Council to conduct a

Municipal School of Art.

The Consolidation Act, therefore, now constitutes the authority under

which (in addition to the powers conferred by general municipal law)

the government of the borough is now administered. The following

statement, extracted from the “History of the Corporation of

Birmingham,” explains the scope and working of the system:--

“The municipal government, under the Charter of Incorporation and the

Acts of Parliament relating to municipal corporations, is conducted by

a council, consisting of forty-eight councillors and sixteen aldermen.

“Three councillors are allotted to and elected by each of the sixteen

wards into which the borough is divided, and each councillor is elected

for three years, the elections being so arranged that one-third of the

councillors (one in each ward) retire every year, and elections for

the choice of their successors are held on the first of November. The

aldermen are chosen by the members of the Council, and are elected

for six years; they may be chosen from amongst the members of the

Council, or from fit persons not members of the Council, but who are

qualified for election to it. The Mayor is chosen by the Council, on

the ninth of November, for a term of one year. Under the Municipal

Corporations Act of 1835, it was obligatory that, at the time of being

elected, he should be a member of the Council; but by the Municipal

Corporations Act of 1882 it is provided (sec. 15) that ‘the Mayor shall

be a fit person elected by the Council from among the aldermen or

councillors, or persons qualified to be such.’ There is now no property

qualification required for any members of the Council.

“The Council, as a whole, is the rating and controlling authority

for the Borough. In all matters subjected to its authority it acts

upon communications from the Mayor, upon motions made upon its own

initiative (regulated by its standing orders for the conduct of

business) and upon reports and proposals from the Committees it

appoints, and to which it delegates specified branches of municipal

work, under such regulations and with such limitations as it may direct.

“These Committees have varied from time to time; at present they

are sixteen in number, and are named, constituted, and empowered as

follows, taking them in the order in which they are stated in the

‘Borough of Birmingham Municipal Diary,’ issued by the Town Clerk,

under the direction of the Council:--

1.--Baths and Parks Committee.--“To have charge of the public baths,

parks, gardens, and recreation grounds, and the buildings thereon

(excepting the recreation ground in St. Clement’s Road, in charge of

the Gas Committee, and the buildings in Adderley Park, in charge of the

Free Libraries Committee); to have charge of the trees planted in the

streets; to lay out disused burial grounds acquired by the Council; and

to arrange for supplies of coal and coke to the several departments of

the Corporation, excepting the Lunatic Asylum, Public Works, Gas and

Water Committees.

2.--Estates Committee.--“To take charge of all estates and buildings

belonging to the Corporation, not in charge of other Committees

(including the Council House); to make rules for granting the use of

the Town Hall; to sell, let or exchange lands or buildings not required

for public purposes, as the Council may resolve; to superintend the

arrangements of the Borough Cemetery, and perform the functions of

the Burial Board; and to arrange for the acquisition of closed burial

grounds.

3.--Finance Committee.--“Generally to have charge of the accounts

and financial departments of the Borough, reporting thereon to the

Council--and thus to present estimates of income and expenditure for

the year; to recommend rates, and to see to the collection of rates;

to cause the valuations of rateable property to be maintained, and to

hear and decide appeals against assessments; to negotiate loans, and

to conduct and manage the Birmingham Corporation Stock, ‘with all the

powers conferred upon the Council by the Birmingham Corporation Stock

Orders;’ to effect fire insurances, insurances on property belonging to

the Corporation (excepting that in charge of the Water and Improvement

Committees); to print and issue the Council Minutes; and to make orders

upon the Borough Treasurer for payments of interest on loans and

annuities, and for accounts for moneys which the several Committees of

the Council are authorised to expend.

4.--General Purposes Committee.--“To attend to all business and matters

referred to it by the Council, of a general character, not entrusted to

the various other Committees, and to suggest to the Council, from time

to time, any new business, which, in its opinion, is important to the

public interest.

5.--Markets and Fairs Committee.--“To transact all matters relating to

the regulation, control, and management of the Markets and Fairs holden

in the Borough; to administer the Weights and Measures Act, the Dairies

Act (so far as it relates to cow-sheds), and the Contagious Diseases

(Animals) Act; to regulate slaughterhouses; to inspect meat, game,

fish, poultry, and other similar articles of food offered for sale.

6.--Health Committee.--“To exercise the powers conferred by

legislation for the regulation of lodging-houses, smoke nuisances,

nuisances generally, offensive trades, and infectious diseases; to

enforce the powers of the Council with reference to drains, closets,

ashpits, &c., to carry out the Acts for preventing adulteration of food

and drugs; to have charge of the Small-pox and other Borough Hospitals;

to have charge of the collection, removal, and disposal of the night

soil of the Borough; to ‘proceed with the work of the interception

of the contents of privies and ashpits, so far as the powers of

the Council will enable them;’ to enforce the Canal Boats Act, the

Factories Act (1883), and the Dairies and Milkshops Orders, so far as

relates to dairies and milkshops.

7.--Public Works Committee.--“To have charge of all works connected

with draining, paving, maintaining, cleansing, and lighting the

streets and roads within the Borough; to submit to the Council (and

under its authority to execute) all necessary street alterations and

improvements, and to act in all other matters arising out of the Acts

and Bye-laws relating to streets and buildings, to fix cab-stands; to

take charge of public monuments and statues (excepting the Chamberlain

Memorial Fountain in charge of the Water Committee); and to construct

and maintain the lines of tramways authorised to be laid within the

Borough.

8.--Watch Committee.--“To execute the powers relating to the police

force given by law; to take charge of the fire brigade; to execute

bye-laws regulating cabs and omnibuses, and to license drivers of

such vehicles and of tramway cars; to administer the Steam Whistles

Act, the Explosives Act, the Petroleum Acts; to control the public

mortuaries; to license marine store dealers; to enforce the provisions

of the Consolidation Act (1883) relating to the employment of children,

and the means of ingress and egress to and from public buildings;

and to enforce the bye-laws for the suppression of shouting in the

public streets. [By general Acts of Parliament the Watch Committee is

authorised to appoint, dismiss, control, and fix the rate of payment of

the police constables.]

9.--Lunatic Asylums Committee.--“To have the management and control

of the Lunatic Asylums at Winson Green and Rubery Hill, ‘with all

the powers, and subject to all the provisions of the several Acts of

Parliament now in force with regard to such lunatic asylums.’

10.--Free Libraries Committee.--“To carry into effect the provisions

of the Free Libraries and Museums Act, as amended by the Corporation

Consolidation Act (1883); reporting to the Council from time to time

for approval.

11.--Industrial School Committee.--“To carry into effect the Industrial

Schools Act, and to have charge of the Borough Industrial School (at

Shustoke), and the land and buildings connected therewith.

12.--Gas Committee.--“To conduct and manage the Corporation Gas

Department, with all the powers conferred upon the Council; reporting

from time to time thereon.

13.--Water Committee.--“To conduct and manage the Corporation Water

Department, with all the powers conferred upon the Council, reporting

from time to time; to have charge of all public fountains; to institute

and prosecute proceedings for ‘restraining and preventing the pollution

of the river Tame, and of any of the tributaries thereof, of the

streams at Witton, Plant’s Brook, and Whitacre, and of all other rivers

and streams from which the water supply of the borough is obtained.’

14.--Improvement Committee.--“To receive representations from the

Medical Officer of Health with regard to unhealthy areas within the

borough, and to submit schemes thereon. To conduct the business arising

out of the orders granted under the Artisans’ Dwellings Act, with all

the powers thereby vested in the Council, excepting that agreements

for sales of land, and for the grant of leases for terms longer than

fourteen years, shall be provisional only, until confirmed by the

Council, and that no new street shall be laid out, or any existing

street widened, until approved by the Council.

15.--Art Gallery Purchase Committee.--“To have the expenditure of

£10,000, given by Messrs. Tangye, and of the amounts subscribed in

addition thereto, in the purchase of objects of art for the Art Gallery

of the Borough.

16.--Museum and School of Art Committee.--“To carry out the powers

of the Consolidation Act with reference to the erection of a School

of Art, and to superintend the arrangements and completion of the Art

Gallery.” This Committee has the charge of the School of Art, and is

also empowered to manage the Corporation Art Gallery and Museums.

With the exceptions undermentioned, these committees consist of eight

members each. The exceptions are--the Lunatic Asylums Committee (eleven

members), the Free Libraries Committee (ten members of the Council

and six members elected by the Council outside its own body), the Art

Gallery Purchase Committee (consisting of the Free Libraries Committee

and nine other members); the Museum and School of Art Committee, which

consists of eight members appointed for life by the Society of Arts

and School of Art; and the General Purposes Committee, which consists

of one member (usually the chairman) elected by each of the committees

of the Council. The mayor, by virtue of his office, is a member of all

committees.

The Town Council is also invested with a share of the management of

the chief educational institutions of the town, with the exception of

the School Board. It appoints eight Governors (holding office for six

years) on the Board of King Edward the Sixth’s Grammar School; five

members (holding office for life) on the Trust of Sir Josiah Mason’s

College; and four Governors (appointed annually) on the Council of

the Midland Institute, the Mayor for the time being being also a

Governor of the Institute, by virtue of his office. It also appoints

representative Governors on the governing bodies of Lench’s Trust, and

several other charities, and further appoints representative Guardians

of the Birmingham Proof House, for the proving of fire-arms.

The progress of Birmingham since the establishment of local

representative government is exhibited in the following table:--

1838. 1884.

Population 170,000 421,000

Parliamentary Elections 7,300 63,718

Burgesses 5,023 74,167

Rateable Value £407,000 £1,563,000

Rated Tenements 39,000 98,787

Death Rate, 1842 to 1851 yearly average, 24.96

” 1872 ” 1881 ” 23.25

” 1882 ” 1884 ” 21.6