Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham by Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

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_Salvation Army_.--The invasion of Birmingham by the soldiers of the
Salvation Army was accomplished in the autumn of 1882, the General (Mr.
Booth) putting in an appearance March 18, 1883. They have several
rendezvous in the town, one of the principal being in Farm Street, from
whence the "soldiers" frequently sally out, with drums beating and
colours flying, much to their own glorification and other people's
annoyance.

_Unitarians_.--The building known for generations as the Old Meeting, is
believed to have been the first Dissenting place of worship erected in
Birmingham; and, as its first register dates from 1689, the chapel most
likely was built in the previous year. It was doubtless but a small
building, as in about ten years (1699) a "Lower Meeting House" was
founded in Meeting House Yard, nearly opposite Rea Street. The premises
occupied here were gutted in the riots of 1715, and the owner promised
the mob that it should no more be used as a chapel, but when calmer he
repented and services were held until the New Meeting House in Moor
Street was opened. The rioters in 1715 partly destroyed the old Meeting
and those of 1791 did so completely, as well as the New Meeting, which
(began in 1730) was opened in 1732. For a time the congregations united
and met at the Amphitheatre in Livery Street, the members of Old Meeting
taking possession of their re-erected chapel, October 4, 1795. New
Meeting being re-opened April 22, 1802. The last-named building remained
in the possession of the Unitarians until 1861, when it was sold to the
Roman Catholics. The last services in Old Meeting took place March 19,
1882, the chapel and graveyard, comprising an area of 2,760 square
yards, being sold to the L. & N. W. R. Co., for the purpose of enlarging
the Central Station. The price paid by the Railway Company was L32,250,
of which L2,000 was for the minister and L250 towards the expense of
removing to private vaults the remains of a few persons whose friends
wished that course. A portion of Witton Cemetery was laid out for the
reception of the remainder, where graves and vaults have been made in
relative positions to those in the old graveyard, the tombstones being
similarly placed. A new church has been erected in Bristol Street for
the congregation, with Sunday Schools, &c., L7,000 being the sum given
for the site.--In 1839, Hurst Street Chapel was built for the Unitarian
Domestic Mission. May 1, same year, the first stone was laid of the
Newhall Hill Chapel, which was opened July 10, 1840.--The Church of the
Messiah, Broad Street, was commenced Aug. 12, 1860, and opened Jan. 1,
1862. This church, which cost L10,000 and will seat nearly 1,000 is
built over a canal, one of the strangest sites ever chosen for a place
of worship. In connection with this church, there is a chapel in
Lawrence Street.

_Welsh Chapels_.--The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists meet in the little
chapel, bottom of Hockley Hill, and also in Granville Street, near Bath
Row.--The Welsh Congregationalists (Independents) assemble at Wheeler
Street Chapel, opened May 1, 1839.

_Wesleyans_.--The first Wesleyan Chapel in Birmingham was opened by John
Wesley, March 21, 1764, the building having been previously a theatre.
Cherry Street Chapel, opened July 7, 1782, was rebuilt in 1823.--
Bradford Street Chapel was opened in 1786, Belmont Row in 1789, and Bath
Street in 1839.--In 1825, a chapel was built in Martin Street, which was
converted into a school on the opening (Nov. 10, 1864) of the present
edifice, which cost L6,200.--Newtown Row Chapel was built in 1837 and
Great Hampton Street and Unett Street Chapels in 1838, the latter being
enlarged in 1844.--Branston Street Chapel was opened April 18, and
Moseley Road, May 1, 1853.--The Bristol Road Chapel was opened January
18, 1854, and that in King Edward's Road, January 18, 1859.--The first
stones were laid for the chapels in Villa Street April 21, 1864,
Handsworth Oct. 21, 1872, Selley Oak Oct. 2, 1876, Peel Street, August
30, 1877, Cuckoo Road, June 10, 1878, Nechells Park Road Oct. 25, 1880,
Mansfield Road Feb. 19, 1883. Besides the above there are chapels in
Coventry Road, Inge Street, Knutsford Street, Lichfield Road, Lord
Street, New John Street, Monument Road, and Warwick Road, as well as
mission rooms in several parts of the town and suburbs. Acock's Green,
Erdington. Harborne, King's Heath, Northfield, Quinton, &c. have also
Wesleyan Chapels.--_The Wesleyan Reformers_ meet in Floodgate Street,
and in Upper Trinity Street.

_Miscellaneous_.--Lady Huntingdon's followers opened a chapel in King
Street in 1785, and another in Peck Lane in 1842 (both sites being
cleared in 1851), and a third in Gooch Street, Oct. 26th, 1851.--The
believers in Joannah Southcote also had chosen spots wherein to pray for
their leader, while the imposture lasted.--The celebrated Edward Irving
opened Mount Zion Chapel, March 24th, 1824. "God's Free Church," in Hope
Street, was "established" June 4th. 1854.--Zoar Chapel was the name
given to a meeting-room in Cambridge Street, where a few
undenominational Christians met between 1830 and 1840. It was afterwards
used as a schoolroom in connection with Winfield's factory.--Wrottesley
Street Chapel was originally built as a Jewish Synagogue, at a cost of
about 2,000. After they left it was used for a variety of purposes,
until acquired by William Murphy, the Anti-Catholic lecturer. It was
sold by his executors, Aug. 2nd, 1877, and realised L645, less than the
cost of the bricks and mortar, though the lease had 73 years to run.

~Places of Worship.~--_Roman Catholics_.--From the days of Queen Mary,
down to the last years of James II.'s reign, there does not appear to
have been any regular meeting-place for the Catholic Inhabitants of
Birmingham. In 1687, a church (dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen and St.
Francis) was built somewhere near the site of the present St.
Bartholomew's but it was destroyed in the following year, and the very
foundation-stones torn up and appropriated by Protestant plunderers.
[See "_Masshouse Lane_."]

It was a hundred years before the next church, St. Peter's, near Broad
Street, was erected, and the Catholic community has increased but slowly
until the last thirty years or so. In 1848 there were only seven priests
in Birmingham, and but seventy in the whole diocese. There are now
twenty-nine in this town, and about 200 in the district, the number of
churches having increased, in the same period, from 70 to 123, with 150
schools and 17,000 scholars. The following are local places of
worship:--

_Cathedral of St. Chad_,--A chapel dedicated to St. Chad (who was about
the only saint the kingdom of Mercia could boast of), was opened in Bath
Street, Dec. 17, 1809. When His Holiness the Pope blessed his Catholic
children hereabouts with a Bishop the insignificant chapel gave place to
a Cathedral, which, built after the designs of Pugin, cost no less than
L60,000. The consecration was performed (July 14, 1838) by the Right
Rev. Doctor (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman, the district bishop, in the
presence of a large number of English noblemen and foreign
ecclesiastical dignitaries, and with all the imposing ceremonies
customary to Catholic celebrations of this nature. The adjoining houses
detract much from the outside appearance of this reproduction of
medieval architecture, but the magnificence of the interior decorations,
the elaborate carvings, and the costly accessories appertaining to the
services of the Romish Church more than compensate therefor. Pugin's
plans have not even yet been fully carried out, the second spire, that
on the north tower (150ft. high), being added in 1856, the largest he
designed still waiting completion. Five of a peal of eight bells were
hung in 1848, and the remainder in 1877, the peculiar and locally-rare
ceremony of "blessing the bells" being performed by Bishop Ullathorne,
March 22nd, 1877.

_Oratory_, Hagley Road--Founded by the Fathers of the Order of St.
Philip Neri, otherwise called Oratorians. The Father Superior is the
Rev. Dr.J. H. Newman (born in 1801), once a clergyman of the Church of
England, the author of the celebrated "Tract XC.," now His Eminence
Cardinal Newman.

_St. Anne's_, Alcester Street.--In 1851, some buildings and premises
originally used as a distillery were here taken on a lease by the
Superior of the Oratory, and opened in the following year as a
Mission-Church in connection with the Congregation of the Fathers in
Hagley Road. In course of time the property was purchased, along with
some adjacent land, for the sum of L4,500, and a new church has been
erected, at a cost of L6,000. The foundation-stone was laid Sept. 10th,
1883, and the opening ceremony took place in July, 1884, the old chapel
and buildings being turned into schools for about 1,500 children.

_St. Catherine of Sienna_, Horse Fair.--The first stone was laid Aug.
23, 1869, and the church was opened in July following.

_St. Joseph's_, Nechells, was built in 1850, in connection with the
Roman Catholic Cemetery.

_St. Mary's_, Hunter's Lane, was opened July 28, 1847.

_St. Mary's Retreat_, Harborne, was founded by the Passionist Fathers,
and opened Feb. 6, 1877.

_St. Michael's_, Moor Street, was formerly the Unitarian New Meeting,
being purchased, remodelled, and consecrated in 1861.

_St. Patrick's,_ Dudley Road, was erected in 1862.

_St. Peter's_, Broad Street, built in 1786, and enlarged in 1798, was
the first Catholic place of worship erected here after the sack and
demolition of the church and convent in Masshouse Lane. With a lively
recollection of the treatment dealt out to their brethren in 1688, the
founders of St. Peter's trusted as little as possible to the tender
mercies of their fellow-townsmen, but protected themselves by so
arranging their church that nothing but blank walls should face the
streets, and with the exception of a doorway the walls remained
unpierced for nearly seventy years. The church has lately been much
enlarged, and the long-standing rebuke no more exists.

In addition to the above, there are the Convents of "The Sisters of the
Holy Child," in Hagley Road; "Sisters of Notre Dame," in the Crescent;
"Little Sisters of the Poor," at Harborne; "Our Lady of Mercy," at
Handsworth; and others connected with St. Anne's and St. Chad's, besides
churches at Erdington, &c.

~Police.~--Though the Court Leet provided for the appointment of
constables, no regular body of police or watchmen appear to have existed
even a hundred years ago. In February, 1786, the magistrates employed
men to nightly patrol the streets, but it could not have been a
permanent arrangement, as we read that the patrol was "resumed" in
_October, 1793_, and later on, in March, 1801, the magistrates
"solicited" the inhabitants' consent to a re-appointment of the
night-watch. After a time the Commissioners of the Streets kept regular
watchmen in their employ--the "Charleys" occasionally read of as finding
sport for the "young bloods" of the time--but when serious work was
required the Justices appear to have depended on their powers of
swearing-in special constables. The introduction of a police force
proper dates from the riotous time of 1839 [See "_Chartism_"], for
immediately after those troublous days Lord John Russell introduced a
Bill to the House of Commons granting special powers for enforcing a
rate to maintain a police force here, under the command of a
Commissioner to be appointed by the Government. The force thus sought to
be raised, though paid for by the people of Birmingham, were to be
available for the whole of the counties of Warwick, Worcester and
Stafford.

Coercive measures were passed at that period even quicker than
Government can manage to get them through now a-days, and
notwithstanding Mr. Thos. Attwood's telling Little Lord John that he was
"throwing a lighted torch into a magazine of gunpowder" and that if he
passed that Bill he would never be allowed to pass another, the Act was
pushed through on the 13th of August, there being a majority of thirteen
in favour of his Lordship's policy of policeing the Brums into
politeness. The dreaded police force was soon organised under Mr.
Commissioner Burges (who was paid the small salary of L900 a year), and
became not only tolerated but valued. It was not till some years after,
and then in the teeth of much opposition, that the Corporation succeeded
in getting into their own hands the power of providing our local
guardians of the peace. Mr. Inspector Stephens was the first Chief
Superintendent, and in March, 1860, his place was filled by the
promotion of Mr. George Glossop. In April, 1876, the latter retired on
an allowance of L400 a year, and Major Bond was chosen (June 2nd). The
Major's term of office was short as he resigned in Dec. 1881. Mr.
Farndale being appointed in his stead. In May, 1852, the force consisted
of 327, men and officers included. Additions have been made from time to
time, notably 50 in August, 1875, and so early in 1883, the total rank
and file now being 550, equal to one officer for every 700 of
population. February 8, 1876, the unpopular Public-house Inspectors were
appointed, but two years' experience showed they were not wanted, and
they were relegated to their more useful duties of looking after thieves
and pickpockets, instead of poking their noses into private business. In
1868, L200 was expended in the purchase of guns, pistols, and swords for
the police and officers at the Gaol. The Watch Committee, in May, 1877,
improved the uniform by supplying the men with "spiked" helmets,
doubtless to please the Major, who liked to see his men look smart,
though the military appearance of the force has been greatly improved
since by the said spikes being silvered and burnished.

~Political Union.~--See "_Reform Leagues_."

~Polling Districts.~--The sixteen wards of the borough are divided into
131 polling districts.

~Polytechnic.~--This was one of the many local literary, scientific, and
educational institutions which have been replaced by our Midland
Institute, Free Libraries, &c. It was founded in April, and opened in
October, 1843, and at the close of its first year there were the names
of very nearly 500 members on the books, the rates of subscription being
6s. per quarter for participation in all the benefits of the
institution, including the lectures, library, classes, baths, &c. With
the "People's Instruction Society," the "Athenic Institute," the "Carr's
Lane Brotherly Society" (said to have been the first Mechanics'
Institution in Britain), the Polytechnic, in its day, did good work.

~Poor Law and Poor Rates.~--Local history does not throw much light
upon the system adopted by our early progenitors in their dealings with
the poor, but if the merciless laws were strictly carried out, the
wandering beggars, at all events must have had hard lives of it. By an
act passed in the reign of Henry VIII., it was ordered that vagrants
should be taken to a market town, or other convenient place and there to
be tied to the tail of a cart, naked, and beaten with whips until the
body should be bloody by reason of the punishment. Queen Elizabeth so
far mitigated the punishment that the unfortunates were only to be
stripped from the waist upwards to receive their whipping, men and
women, maids and mothers, suffering alike in the open street or
market-place, the practice being, after so using them, to conduct them
to the boundary of the parish and pass them on to the next place for
another dose, and it was not until 1791 that flogging of women was
forbidden. The resident or native poor were possibly treated a little
better, though they were made to work for their bread in every possible
case. By the new Poor Act of 1783, which authorised the erection of a
Workhouse, it was also provided that the "Guardians of the Poor" should
form a Board consisting of 106 members, and the election of the first
Board (July 15th, 1783), seems to have been almost as exciting as a
modern election. In one sense of the word they were guardians indeed,
for they seem to have tried their inventive faculties in all ways to
find work for the inmates of the House, even to hiring them out, or
setting them to make worsted and thread. The Guardians would also seem
to have long had great freedom allowed them in the spending of the
rates, as we read it was not an uncommon thing for one of them if he met
a poor person badly off for clothes to give an order on the Workhouse
for a fresh "rig out." In 1873 the Board was reduced to sixty in number
(the first election taking place on the 4th of April), with the usual
local result that a proper political balance was struck of 40 Liberals
to 20 Conservatives. The Workhouse, Parish Offices, Children's Homes,
&c., will be noted elsewhere. Poor law management in the borough is
greatly complicated from the fact of its comprising two different
parishes, and part of a third. The Parish of Birmingham works under a
special local Act, while Edgbaston forms part of King's Norton Union,
and the Aston portion of the town belongs to the Aston Union,
necessitating three different rates and three sets of collectors, &c. If
a poor man in Moseley Road needs assistance he must see the relieving
officer at the Parish Offices in the centre of the town if he lives on
one side of Highgite Lane he must find the relieving officer at King's
Heith; but if he happens to be on the other side he will have to go to
Gravelly Hill or Erdington. Not long ago to obtain a visit from the
medical officer for his sick wife, a man had to go backwards and
forwards more than twenty miles. The earliest record we have found of
the cost of relieving the poor of the parish is of the date of 1673 in
which year the sum of L309 was thus expended. In 1773 the amount was
L6,378, but the pressure on the rates varied considerably about then, as
in 1786 it required L11,132, while in 1796 the figures rose to L24,050.
According to Hutton, out of about 8,000 houses only 3,000 were assessed
to the poor rates in 1780, the inhabitants of the remaining number being
too poor to pay them. Another note shows up the peculiar incidence of
taxation of the time, as it is said that in 1790 there were nearly 2000
houses under L5 rental and 8,000 others under L10, none of them being
assessed, such small tenancies being first rated in 1792. The rates then
appear to have been levied at the uniform figure of 6d. in the L on all
houses above L6 yearly value, the ratepayers being called upon as the
money was required--in and about 1798, the collector making his
appearance sixteen or eighteen times in the course of the year. The
Guardians were not so chary in the matter of out-relief as they are at
present, for in 1795 there were at one period 2,427 families
(representing over 6,000 persons, old and young) receiving out-relief.
What this system (and bad trade) led to at the close of the long war is
shown in the returns for 1816-17, when 36 poor rates were levied in the
twelvemonth. By various Acts of Parliament, the Overseers have now to
collect other rates, but the proportion required for the poor is thus
shown:--

Rate Amount Paid to Cost of In and Other Parochial
Year in L collected Corporation Out Relief Expenditure
s.d. L L L L
1851 4 0 78,796 39,573 17,824 21,399
1861 3 8 85,986 36,443 34,685 14,878
1871 3 2 116,268 44,293 37,104 34,871
1881 4 8 193,458 107,520 42,880 48,058

The amounts paid over to the Corporation include the borough rate and
the sums required by the School Board, the Free Libraries, and the
District Drainage Board. In future years the poor-rate (so-called) will
include, in addition to these, all other rates levyable by the
Corporation. The poor-rates are levied half-yearly, and in 1848,1862,
and 1868 they amounted to 5s. per year, the lowest during the last forty
years being 3s. in 1860; 1870, 1871, and 1872 being the next lowest, 3s.
2d. per year. The number of persons receiving relief may be gathered
from the following figures:--

Highest Lowest
Year. No. daily No. daily
1876 7,687 7,058
1877 8,240 7,377
1878 8,877 7,242
1879 14,651 8,829
1880 13,195 7,598
1881 11,064 7,188
1882 9,658 7,462
1883 8,347 7,630

Not long ago it was said that among the inmates of the Workhouse were
several women of 10 to 45 who had spent all their lives there, not even
knowing their way into the town.

~Population.~--Hutton "calculated" that about the year 750 there would
be 3,000 inhabitants residing in and close to Birmingham. Unless a very
rapid thinning process was going on after that date he must have been a
long way out of his reckoning, for the Domesday Book gives but 63
residents in 1085 for Birmingham, Aston, and Edgbaston. In 1555 we find
that 37 baptisms, 15 weddings, and 27 deaths were registered at St.
Martin's, the houses not being more than 700, nor the occupiers over
3,500 in number. In 1650, it is said, there were 15 streets, about 900
houses, and 5,472 inhabitants. If the writer who made that calculation
was correct, the next 80 years must have been "days of progress" indeed,
for in 1700 the town is said to have included 28 streets, about 100
courts and alleys, 2,504 houses, one church, one chapel, and two
meeting-houses, with 15,032 inhabitants. In 1731 there were 55 streets,
about 150 courts and alleys, 3,719 houses, two churches, one chapel,
four Dissenting meeting-houses, and 23,286 inhabitants. The remaining
figures, being taken from census returns and other reliable authorities,
are more satisfactory.

Year. Inhabitants. Houses.
1741 24,660 4,114
1773 30,804 7,369
1778 48,252 8,042
1781 50,295 8,382
1791 73,653 12,681
1801 78,760 16,659
1811 85,755 19,096
1821 106,721 21,345
1831 142,251 29,397
1841 182,922 36,238
1851 232,841 48,894
1861 296,076 62,708
1871 343,787 77,409
1881 400,774 84,263

The inhabitants are thus divided as to sexes:

Year. Males. Females. Totals.
1861 143,996 152,080 296,076
1871 167,636 176,151 343,787
1881 194,540 206,234 400,774

The increase during the ten years in the several parts of the borough
shows:

Part of
Birmingham Edgbaston Aston in
parish. parish. borough. Totals.

1881 246,352 22,778 131,644 400,774
1871 231,015 17,442 95,330 343,787
------- ------ ------- -------
Increase 15,337 5,336 36,314 56,987

These figures, however, are not satisfactorily correct, as they simply
give the totals for the borough, leaving out many persons who, though
residing outside the boundaries are to all intents and purposes
Birmingham people; and voluminous as census papers usually are, it is
difficult from those of 1871 to arrive at the proper number, the
districts not being subdivided sufficiently. Thus, in the following
table Handsworth includes Soho and Perry Barr, Harborne parish includes
Smethwick, Balsall Heath is simply the Local included district, while
King's Norton Board is Moseley, Selly Oak, &c.

Places. Inhabitants.
Aston Parish 139,998
Aston Manor 33,948
Balsall Heath 13,615
Handsworth 16,042
Harborne Parish 22,263
Harborne Township 5,105
King's Norton Parish 21,845
Yardley Parish 5,360

For the census of 1881, the papers were somewhat differently arranged,
and we are enabled to get a nearer approximation, as well as a better
notion of the increase that has taken place in the number of inhabitants
in our neighbourhood.

Place 1871 1881
Acock's Green 1,492 2,796
Aston Manor 33,948 53,844
Aston Parish 139,998 201,287
Aston Union 146,808 209,869
Balsall Heath 13,615 22,734
Birchfield 2,544 3,792
Castle Bromwich 689 723
Erdington 4,883 7,153
Handsworth 16,042 22,903
Harborne 5,105 6,433
King's Heath 1,982 2,984
King's Norton 21,845 34,178
King's Norton
Union ------ 96,143
Knowle 1,371 1,514
Moseley 2,374 4,224
Northfield 4,609 7,190
Olton ----- 906
Perry Barr 1,683 2,314
Quinton 2,010 2,145
Saltley ----- 6,419
Selly Oak 2,854 5,089
Smethwick 17,158 25,076
Solihull 3,739 5,301
Ward End ----- 866
Water Orton ----- 396
Witton 182 265
Yardley 5,360 9,741