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

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




_Workhouse_.--The first mention of a local institution thus named occurs
in the resolution passed at a public meeting held May 16, 1727, to the
effect that it was "highly necessary and convenient that a Public Work
House should be erected in or near the town to employ or set to work the
poor of Birmingham for their better maintenance as the law directs."
This resolution seems to have been carried out, as the Workhouse in
Lichfield Street (which was then a road leading out of the town) was
built in 1733 the first cost being L1,173, but several additions
afterwards made brought the building account to about L3,000. Originally
it was built to accommodate 600 poor persons, but in progress of time it
was found necessary to house a much larger number, and the Overseers and
Guardians were often hard put to for room; which perhaps accounts for
their occasionally discussing the advisability of letting some of their
poor people out on hire to certain would-be taskmasters as desired such
a class of employees. In the months of January, February, and March,
1783, much discussion took place as to building a new Workhouse, but
nothing definite was done in the matter until 1790, when it was proposed
to obtain an Act for the erection of a Poorhouse at Birmingham Heath, a
scheme which Hutton said was as airy as the spot chosen for the
building. Most likely the expense, which was reckoned at L15,000,
frightened the ratepayers, for the project was abandoned, and for fifty
years little more was heard on the subject. What they would have said to
the L150,000 spent on the present building can be better imagined than
described. The foundation-stone of the latter was laid Sept. 7, 1850,
and the first inmates were received March 29, 1852, in which year the
Lichfield Street establishment was finally closed, though it was not
taken down for several years after. The new Workhouse is one of the
largest in the country, the area within its walls being nearly twenty
acres, and it was built to accommodate 3,000 persons, but several
additions in the shape of new wards, enlarged schools, and extended
provision for the sick, epileptic and insane, have since been made. The
whole establishment is supplied with water from an artesian well, and is
such a distance from other buildings as to ensure the most healthy
conditions. The chapel, which has several stained windows, is capable of
seating 800 persons and in it, on May 9, 1883, the Bishop of Worcester
administered the rite of confirmation to 31 of the inmates, a novelty in
the history of Birmingham Workhouse, at all events. Full provision is
made for Catholics and Nonconformists desiring to attend the services of
their respective bodies. In connection with the Workhouse may be noted
the Cottage Homes and Schools at Marston Green (commenced in October,
1878) for the rearing and teaching of a portion of the poor children
left in the care of the Guardians. These buildings consist of 3 schools,
14 cottage homes, workshops, infirmary, headmaster's residence, &c.,
each of the homes being for thirty children, in addition to an artisan
and his wife, who act as heads of the family. About twenty acres of land
are at present thus occupied, the cost being at the rate of L140 per
acre, while on the buildings upwards of L20,000 has been spent.

~Public houses.~--The early Closing Act came into operation here,
November 11, 1864; and the eleven o'clock closing hour in 1872; the rule
from 1864 having been to close at one and open at four a.m. Prior to
that date the tipplers could be indulged from the earliest hour on
Monday till the latest on Saturday night. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain and his
friends thought so highly of the Gothenburg scheme that they persuaded
the Town Council into passing a resolution (Jan. 2, 1877) that the
Corporation ought to be allowed to buy up all the trade in Birmingham.
There were forty-six who voted for the motion against ten; but, when the
Right Hon. J.C.'s monopolising motion was introduced to the House of
Commons (March 13, 1877), it was negatived by fifty-two votes.

~Pudding Brook.~--This was the sweetly pretty name given to one of the
little streams that ran in connection with the moat round the old
Manorhouse. Possibly it was originally Puddle Brook, but as it became
little more than an open sewer or stinking mud ditch before it was
ultimately done away with, the last given name may not have been
inappropriate.

~Quacks.~--Though we cannot boast of a millionaire pill-maker like the
late Professor Holloway, we have not often been without a local
well-to-do "quack." A medical man, named Richard Aston, about 1815-25,
was universally called so, and if the making of money is proof of
quackery, he deserved the title, as he left a fortune of L60,000. He
also left an only daughter, but she and her husband were left to die in
the Workhouse, as the quack did not approve of their union.

~Quakers.~--Peaceable and quiet as the members of the Society of Friends
are known to be now, they do not appear to have always borne that
character in this neighbourhood, but the punishments inflicted upon them
in the time of the Commonwealth seem to have been brutish in the
extreme. In a history of the diocese of Worcester it is stated that the
Quakers not only refused to pay tithes or take off their hats in courts
of justice, but persisted in carrying on their business on Sundays, and
scarcely suffering a service to be conducted without interruption,
forcing themselves into congregations and proclaiming that the clergymen
were lying witnesses and false prophets, varying their proceedings by
occasionally running naked through the streets of towns and villages,
and otherwise misbehaving themselves, until they were regarded as public
pests and treated accordingly. In the year 1661, fifty-four Quakers were
in Worcester gaol, and about the same time seven or eight others were in
the lockup at Evesham, where they were confined for fourteen weeks in a
cell 22 ft. square and 6 ft. high, being fed on bread and water and not
once let out during the whole time, so that people could not endure to
past the place; female Quakers were thrust with brutal indecency into
the stocks and there left in hard frost for a day and night, being
afterwards driven from the town. And this went on during the whole of
the time this country was blessed with Cromwell and a Republican
Government.--See "_Friends_."

~Quaint Customs.~--The practice of "heaving" or "lifting" on Easter
Monday and Tuesday was still kept up in some of the back streets of the
town a few years back, and though it may have died out now with us those
who enjoy such amusements will find the old custom observed in villages
not far away.--At Handsworth, "clipping the church" was the curious
"fad" at Easter-time, the children from the National Schools, with
ladies and gentlemen too, joining hands till they had surrounded the old
church with a leaping, laughing, linked, living ring of humanity, great
fun being caused when some of the link loosed hands and let their
companions fall over the graves.--On St. John's Days, when the ancient
feast or "wake" of Deritend Chapel was kept, it, was the custom to carry
bulrushes to the church, and old inhabitants decorated their fireplaces
with them.--In the prosperous days of the Holte family, when Aston Hall
was the abode of fine old English gentlemen, instead of being the
lumber-room of those Birmingham rogues the baronets abominated,
Christmas Eve was celebrated with all the hospitalities usual in
baronial halls, but the opening of the evening's performances was of so
whimsical a character that it attracted attention even a hundred years
ago, when queer and quaint customs were anything but strange. An old
chronicler thus describes it:--"On this day, as soon as supper is over,
a table is set in the hall; on it is set a brown loaf, with twenty
silver threepences stuck on the top of it, a tankard of ale, with pipes
and tobacco; and the two oldest servants have chairs behind it, to sit
in as judges, if they please. The steward brings the servants, both men
and women, by one at a time, covered with a winnow-sheet, and lays their
right hand on the loaf, exposing no other part of the body. The oldest
of the two judges guesses at the person, by naming a name; then the
younger judge, and, lastly, the oldest again. If they hit upon the right
name, the steward leads the person back again; but if they do not he
takes off the winnow-sheet, and the person receives a threepence, makes
low obeisance to the judges, but speaks not a word. When the second
servant was brought the younger judge guessed first and third; and this
they did alternately till all the money was given away. Whatever servant
had not slept in the house the previous night forfeited his right to the
money. No account is given of the origin of this strange custom, but it
has been practised ever since the family lived there. When the money is
gone the servants have full liberty to drink, dance, sing, and go to bed
when they please."

~Railways:~ _London and North Western_.--The first proposal for
converting Birmingham with the outer world by means of a railway seems
to have originated in 1824, as we read of the share-book for a
Birmingham and London line being opened here on December 14 of that
year. There was a great rush for shares, 2,500 being taken up in two
hours, and a L7 premium offered for more, but as the scheme was soon
abandoned it is probable the scrip was quickly at a discount. Early in
1830 two separate companies were formed for a line to the Metropolis,
but they amalgamated on September 11, and surveys were taken in the
following year. Broad Street being chosen as the site for a station. The
Bill was introduced into the House of Commons February 20, 1832, but the
Lords rejected it in June. Another Bill, with variations in the plans,
was brought in in the session of 1833, and it passed on May 6, the work
being commenced at the London end in July, and at Birmingham in June of
the following year. The line was to be 112-1/2 miles long and estimated
to cost L2,500,000, but the real cost amounted to L4,592,700, of which
L72,868 18s. 10d. was spent in obtaining the Act alone. The line was
opened in sections as completed, the first train running from Euston to
Boxmoor, 24-1/2 miles, on July 20, 1837. The average daily number of
persons using the line during the first month was 1,428, the receipts
being at the rate of L153 per day. On April 9, 1838, the trains reached
Rugby, and on Aug. 14, the line was completed to Daddeston Row, the
directors taking a trial trip on the 20th. There were only seventeen
stations on the whole line, over which the first passenger train ran on
Sept. 17.--The prospectus of the Grand Junction Railway (for Liverpool
and Manchester) was issued May 7, 1830, and the line from Vauxhall
Station to Newton (where it joined the Manchester and Liverpool line)
was opened July 4, 1837. The importance of this line of communication
was shown by the number of passengers using it during the first nine
weeks, 18,666 persons travelling to or from Liverpool, and 7,374 to or
from Manchester, the receipts for that period being L41,943.--The
Birmingham branch of the South Staffordshire Railway was opened Nov. 1,
1847; the Birmingham and Shrewsbury line, Nov. 12, 1849; and between
Dudley and Walsall May 1, 1850. The Stour Valley line was partially
brought into use (from Monument Lane) Aug. 19, 1851, the first train
running clear through to Wolverhampton July 1, 1852. The line to Sutton
Coldfield was opened June 2, 1862, and the Harborne line (for which the
Act was obtained in 1866) was opened Aug. 10, 1874. The Act for the
construction of the Birmingham and Lichfield line, being a continuation
of the Sutton Coldfield Railway, passed June 23, 1874; it was commenced
late in October, 1881, and it will shortly be in use. The Bill for the
Dudley and Oldbury Junction line passed July 15, 1881. A new route from
Leamington to Birmingham was opened in Sept. 1884, shortening the
journey to London.

_Midland_.--The Derby and Birmingham Junction line was opened through
from Lawley Street Aug. 12th, 1839. The first portion of the Birmingham
and Gloucester line, between Barnt Green and Cheltenham, was opened July
1, 1840, coaches running from here to Barnt Green to meet the trains
until Dec. 15, 1840, when the line was finished to Camp Hill, the
Midland route being completed and opened Feb. 10, 1842. The first sod
was cut for the West Suburban line Jan. 14, 1873, and it was opened from
Granville Street to King's Norton April 3, 1876. This line is now being
doubled and extended from Granville Street to New Street, at an
estimated cost of L280,400, so that the Midland will have a direct run
through the town.

_Great Western_.--The first portion of the Oxford and Birmingham Railway
(between here and Banbury) was opened Sept. 30, 1852, the tunnel from
Moor Street to Monmouth Street being finished on June 6th previous. The
original estimated cost of this line was but L900,000, which was swelled
to nearly L3,000,000 by the bitter fight known as the "Battle of the
Gauges." The line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton was opened Nov. 14,
1854. The first train to Stratford-on-Avon was run on Oct. 9, 1860. The
Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line was opened in May, 1852. The
broad gauge was altered in 1874.

~Railway Jottings.~--The London and Birmingham line cost at the rate of
L23,000 per mile, taking nearly five years to make, about 20,000 men
being employed, who displaced over 400,000,000 cubic feet of earth. The
Grand Junction averaged L16,000 per mile, and at one time there were
11,000 men at work upon it. Slate slabs were originally tried for
sleepers on the Birmingham and London line.

The first railway carriages were built very like to coaches, with an
outside seat at each end for the guard, though passengers often sat
there for the sake of seeing the country.

The fares first charged between Birmingham and London were 30s. by first
class, and 20s. second class (open carriages) by day trains; 32s. 6d.
first class and 25s. second class, by night. In 1841 the fares were 30s.
first, 25s. second, and 20s. 3d. third class; they are now 17s. 4d.,
13s. 6d., and 9s. 5d.

"Booking" was a perfectly correct term when the lines were first used,
as when passengers went for their tickets they had to give their names
and addresses, to be written on the tickets and in the book containing
the counterfoils of the tickets.

The day the Grand Junction line was opened was kept as a general holiday
between here and Wolverhampton, hundreds of tents and picnic parties
being seen along the line.

The directors of the Birmingham and Gloucester line ordered eleven
locomotives from Philadelphia at a cost of 85,000 dollars, and it was
these engines that brought their trains to Camp Hill at first. In
comparison with the engines now in use, these Americans were very small
ones. The trains were pulled up the incline at the Lickey by powerful
stationary engines.

On the completion of the London line, the engineers who had been
employed presented George Stephenson at a dinner held here with a silver
tureen and stand worth 130 guineas. This celebrated engineer made his
last public appearance at a meeting in this town of the Institute of
Mechanical Engineers, July 16, 1848, his death taking place on the 12th
of the following month.

The L. & N.W.R. Co. have 46,000 men in their employ.

The G.W.R. has the longest mileage of any railway in England, 2,276-1/2
miles; the L. and N.W.R., 1,774-1/2 miles; the Midland, 1,225 miles.

The returns of the L. and N.W., Midland and G.W.R. Companies for 1878
showed local traffic of 936,000 tons of goods, 693,000 tons of coal,
coke and other minerals, 20,200 loads of cattle, and 7,624,000
passengers.

The south tunnel in New Street was blocked April 18, 1877, by a
locomotive turning over. In October, 1854, an engine fell over into
Great Charles Street.

The unused viaduct between Bordesley and Banbury Street belongs to the
G.W.R. Co. and was intended to connect their lines with the other
Companies. It now stands as a huge monument of the "Railway Mania" days.

The extensive carrying trade of Crowley and Co. was transferred to the
L. & N.W.R. Co. May 17, 1873.

~Railway Stations.~--As noted on a previous page, the first railway
stations were those in Duddeston Row, Lawley Street, Vauxhall, the Camp
Hill, but the desirability of having a Central Station was too apparent
for the Companies to remain long at the outskirts, and the L. & N.W.R.
Co. undertook the erection in New Street, of what was then (and will
soon be again) the most extensive railway station in the kingdom, making
terms with the Midland for part use thereof. The work of clearance was
commenced in 1846, the estimated cost being put at L400,000, L39,000
being paid to the Governors of the Grammar School for land belonging to
them. Several streets were done away with, and the introduction of the
station may be called the date-point of the many town improvements that
have since been carried out. The station, and the tunnels leading
thereto, took seven years in completion, the opening ceremony taking
place June 1, 1853. The iron and glass roof was ihe largest roof in the
world, being 1,080 ft. long, with a single span of 212 ft. across at a
height of 75 ft. from the rails. This immense span has since been
surpassed, as the roof of the St. Pancras Station, London, is 243 ft.
from side to side. The roof of Lime Street Station, Liverpool, is also
much larger, being 410ft wide, but it is in two spans. The station has
been since greatly enlarged, extending as far as Hill Street, on which
side are the Midland Booking Offices. The tunnels have been partially
widened or thrown into open cuttings, additional platforms constructed,
and miles of new rails laid down, one whole street (Great Queen Street)
being taken bodily into the station for a carriage drive. The station
now covers nearly 12 acres, the length of platforms exceeding 1-1/2
miles. The cost of this enlargement was over half-a-million sterling.

As in the case of New Street Station, the introduction of the Great
Western Railway caused the removal of a very large number of old
buildings, but the monster wooden shed which did duty as the Snow Hill
Station for many years was as great a disgrace to the town as ever the
old tumbledown structures could have been that were removed to make way
for it. This, however, was remedied in 1871, by the erection of the
present building, which is extensive and convenient, the platforms
having a run of 720 feet, the span of the roof being 92 feet.

~Rateable Values.~--In 1815 the annual rateable value of property in the
borough was totaled at L311,954; in 1824 the amount stood at L389,273,
an increase of L77,319 in the ten years; in 1834 the return was
L483,774, the increase being L94,501; in 1814 it was L569,686, or an
increase of L85,912; in 1854 the returns showed L655,631, the increase,
L85,934, being little more than in the previous decennial period. The
next ten years were those of the highest prosperity the building trade
of this town has ever known, and the rateable values in 1864 went up to
L982,384, an increase of L326,763. In 1870 a new assessment was made,
which added over L112,000 to the rateable values, the returns for 1874
amounting to L1,254,911, an increase in the ten years of L272,527. In
1877 the returns gave a total of L1,352,554; in 1878 L1,411,060, an
increase in the one year of L58,506; but since 1878 the increase has not
been so rapid, the average for the next three years being L36,379; and,
as will be seen by the following table, the yearly increase of values
during the last three years is still less in each of the several parish
divisions of the borough:--


1881 1882 1883

Birmingham parish L985,081 L991,445 L1,001,541
Yearly increase 18,483 6,364 10,096

Edgbaston parish L179,328 L180,327 L181,552
Yearly increase 8,474 999 1,225

Aston, part of parish L355,788 L362,337 L365,875
Yearly increase 9,419 6,549 3,538

Total rateable value of
the Borough L1,520,179 L1,534,109 L1,548,968
Yearly increase 36,379 13,912 14,859

~Rainfall.~--The mean annual rainfall in the eleven years ending with
1871, in this neighbourhood, was 29.51 inches, in the following eleven
years 36.01 inches, the two heaviest years being 1872 with 47.69 inches,
and 1882 with 43.06 inches. The depth of rain registered in the last
three months of 1882 (14.93 inches), was the largest for any three
consecutive months ever recorded by our painstaking meteorologist, the
late Mr. T.L. Plant, of Moseley.


~Ravenhurst.~--The old house at Camp Hill, which gave names to Hurst
Street and Ravenhurst Street, leading in the direction of the mansion,
where in 1810 there were found a number of coins and tokens of the
period of Queen Elizabeth and Charles I., as well as sundry Scotch
"bawbees."

~Rea.~--This little river takes its rise among the Lickey Hills, and
from certain geological discoveries made in 1883, there is every reason
to believe that, in Saxon days, it was a stream of considerable force.
The name Rea, or Rhea, is of Gaelic derivation, and, with slight
alteration, it is the name of some other watercourses in the kingdom.
From time to time, alterations have been made in the course of the Rea,
and prior to the introduction of steam its waters were used extensively
for mill-power, dams, fleams, and shoots interfering with the free
running in all directions. Long little better than an open sewer, there
is a prospect that, within a few years, it may be cleansed and become
once more a limpid stream, if the sanitary authorities will but find
some more convenient site as burial-place for unfortunate canines and
felines.

~Rebellion of 1745.~--The first news of the Rebellion and of the landing
of the Young Pretender reached here Aug. 19, 1745. The Scotch did not
come so far as Birmingham, but [though thousands of swords were made
here for "Bonnie Prince Charlie"] some little preparation was made to
receive them. At a meeting held October 5, 1745, it was proposed to form
a regiment of volunteers against them, and Sir Lister Holte found 250
horses to pursue the unfortunate "Pretender," whose great-grandfather
had been the guest of Sir Lister's ancestor.

~Rebus.~--Poking fun at our town is no new game, as may be seen by the
following local rebus (by "Dardanus") copied from the _Gentlemen's
Magazine_ of 1752:--


"Take three-fourths of a creature which many admire,
That's often confined in a castle of wire;
Three-fourths of a herb that the garden doth yield,
And a term used by husbandmen ploughing the field;
With that part of a swine which is now much in fashion,
And a town you'll discover in this brave English nation."


The answer was _Bir_d, _Min_t, _G_, and _Ham_--Birmingham, the scribe
who poetically replied, [**]inding-up by saying that it was


"A town that in trading excels half the nation,
Because, Jove be thanked, there is no Corporation!"


~Recorders.~--The first Recorder appointed for the borough was Mr.
Matthew Davenport Hill, whose name is so intimately connected with the
history of Reformatory and Industrial Schools. Mr. Arthur Robarts Adams,
Q.C., who succeeded Mr. M.D. Hill on his resignation in January, 1866,
was a native of the county, and had acted as Deputy-Recorder for some
years. He died in an apoplectic fit, while out shooting (Dec. 19, 1877),
in Bagley Wood, near Oxford, in his 65th year. The present Recorder is
Mr. John Stratford Dugdale, of Blythe Hall, Coleshill.

~Recreation Grounds.~--Early in 1854 Joseph Sturge set apart a field in
Wheeley's Lane as a public playground for children, and this must rank
as the first recreation ground. The last is the disused burial ground of
St. Mary's Church, which, after an expenditure of about L1,500 was
thrown open to the public as "St. Mary's Garden," October 16, 1882.--see
"_Parks_."

~Red Book.~--Quite a local institution is the yearly publication known
as "The Birmingham Red Book," which was first issued in 1865.

~Reformatories.~--See "_Industrial Schools_."

~Reform Leagues.~--The first local affair of this kind that we have note
of (though likely enough there had been "reform clubs" before that date)
seems to have originated at a meeting of some dozen or so gentlemen at
the Royal Hotel, Dec 14, 1829. On the 25th of Jan., 1830, a public
meeting to organise a kind of local political body was held at
Beardsworth's Repository, and it is chronicled that about 15,000 persons
were present. The result was the formation of the celebrated Birmingham
Political Union, though the full name was "The General Political Union
between the Lower and Middle Classes of the People." The Union's
"Petition of Rights" was issued Dec. 13, and the "Declaration of
Council" Dec. 20, 1830. This is not the place to enter upon a history of
the doings of the Political Union, which was dissolved by mutual consent
of the leaders May 10, 1834, but there can be no doubt that it did have
considerable influence on the political changes of the period. In 1848
an attempt was made to resuscitate the Old Union, though the promoters
of the new organisation called it the "Political Council," and in 1865
another League or Union was started, which has a world-wide fame as "The
Caucus." Indeed, it may be safely said the town has never, during the
past sixty years or so, been without some such body, the last appointed
being the "Reform League," started Sept. 2, 1880, by the Rev. Arthur
O'Neill and his friends, to agitate for a change in the Constitution of
the House of Lords.

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Stephen King fan publishes Shining's Jack Torrance's novel
Three Women was first heard as a radio drama and then published as a poem. Robert Shaw explains his desire to stage the piece as it was intended

Video: Costa prize winners

A Stephen King fan has published an 80-page version of the book which novelist Jack Torrance obsessively writes during King's The Shining, where his descent into madness is revealed when his wife discovers that his work consists of just one phrase, endlessly repeated.

Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in terrifying form in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, is a frustrated writer who goes with his wife and son to spend the winter in the isolated Overlook Hotel in an attempt to get the novel he has always wanted to write started. But the hotel's grisly past and unquiet ghosts have their way with him, and his wife Wendy eventually finds that the manuscript he has been working on actually only contains the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", typed over and over again.

Now New York artist Phil Buehler, who describes himself as "a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King", has self-published a book credited to Torrance, repeating the phrase throughout but formatting each page differently, using the words to create different shapes from zigzags to spirals.

"The idea has probably been marinating for years, because I loved the movie and the Stephen King book," said Buehler. "I'd just finished my own obsessive art project [and] it was an idea I had over the Christmas holidays."

He said he decided to stick to type and formatting that could have been created on a typewriter, with the first ten pages duplicating shots of Torrance's work from the film. "I thought 'if he continues to get crazier, what would those pages look like?'" he said. "I hit writer's block about 60 pages in, and I had to get to 80 - that went on for about a week." His fiancée, who had neither read the book nor seen the film, became a little concerned about his actions. "I finally showed her the movie, and she realised I wasn't really losing it," said Buehler.

He's included a spoof review from the blog OverThinkingIt.com on the book's back jacket, which compares it to "the best of Beckett" in its "lack of forward momentum", and considers the struggles of the author, "heroically pitting himself against the Sisyphusean sentence". "It's that metatextual struggle of Man vs. Typewriter that gives this book its spellbinding power," the review says. "Some will dismiss it as simplistic; that's like dismissing a Pollack canvas as mere splatters of paint."

So far, Buehler says that around 1,000 people have viewed the book, for sale on Blurb.com for $8.95 in paperback, or $22.95 in hardback, and he's sold "a few" copies, with sales now starting to pick up steam. "A few people have asked me to sign it - they're looking it as a piece of art rather than a funny thing to give to a Kubrick fan," he said. "If you're not a Kubrick or King fan, you might not even get it."

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