SHOWELL'S
Dictionary of Birmingham.
Icknield Street.—Britain was formerly traversed by four
great roads, usually called Roman roads, though there are some grounds
for believing that the Ancient Britons themselves were the pioneers in
making these trackways, their conquerors only improving the roads as
was their wont, and erecting military stations along the line. These
roads were severally called "Watling Stræte," which
ran from the coast of Kent, through London, to the Welsh coast in
county Cardigan; the "Fosse," leading from Cornwall to
Lincoln; "Erminge Stræte," running from St.
David's to Southampton; and "Hikenilde Stræte,"
leading through the centre of England, from St. David's to
Tynemouth. Part of the latter road, known as Icknield Street, is now
our Monument Lane, and in 1865 a portion of ancient road was uncovered
near Chad Valley House, which is believed to have been also part
thereof. Proceeding in almost a direct line to the bottom of Hockley
Hill, the Icknield Street ran across Handsworth Parish, by way of the
present Hunter's Lane, but little further trace can be found now
until it touches Sutton Coldfield Park, through which it passes for
nearly a mile-and-a-half at an almost uniform width of about 60 feet.
It is left for our future local antiquarians to institute a search
along the track in the Park, but as in scores of other spots Roman and
British remains have been found, it seems probable than an effort of
the kind suggested would meet its reward, and perhaps lead to the
discovery of some valuable relics of our long-gone predecessors.
Illuminations.—When the news of Admiral Rodney's
victory was received here, May 20, 1792, it was welcomed by a general
illumination, as were almost all the great victories during the long
war. The Peace of Amiens in 1802 was also celebrated in this way, and
the event has become historical from the fact that for the first time
in the world's history the inflammable gas obtained from coal (now
one of the commonest necessities of our advanced civilisation) was
used for the purpose of a public illumination at Soho Works. (See
"Gas.") In
1813 the town went into shining ecstacies four or five times, and
ditto in the following year, the chief events giving rise thereto
being the entry of the Allies into Paris, and the declaration of
peace, the latter being celebrated (in addition to two nights'
lighting up of the principal buildings, &c.), by an extra grand
show of thousands of lamps at Soho, with the accompaniment of
fireworks and fire-balloons, the roasting of sheep and oxen, &c.
Waterloo was the next occasion, but local chroniclers of the news of
the day gave but scant note thereof. From time to time there have been
illuminations for several more peaceable matters of rejoicing, but the
grandest display that Birmingham has ever witnessed was that to
celebrate the marriage of the Prince of Wales, March 10th, 1863, when
St. Philip's Church was illuminated on a scale so colossal as to
exceed anything of the kind that had previously been attempted in the
illumination by gas of public buildings upon their architectural
lines. Situated in the centre, and upon the most elevated ground in
Birmingham, St. Philip's measures upwards of 170-ft. from the base
to the summit of the cross. The design for the
illumination—furnished by Mr. Peter Hollins—consisted of
gas-tubing, running parallel to the principal lines of architecture
from the base to the summit, pierced at distances of 3 in. or 5 in.,
and fitted with batswing burners. About 10,000 of these burners were
used in the illumination. The service-pipes employed varied in
diameter from three inches to three-quarters of an inch, and measured,
in a straight line, about three-quarters of a mile, being united by
more than two thousand sockets. Separate mains conducted the gas to
the western elevation, the tower, the dome, the cupola, and cross; the
latter standing 8 ft. above the ordinary cross of the church, and
being inclosed in a frame of ruby-coloured glass. These mains were
connected with a ten-inch main from a heavily-weighed gasometer at the
Windsor Street works of the Birmingham Gas Company, which was reserved
for the sole use of the illumination. It took forty men three days to
put up the scaffolding, but the whole work was finished and the
scaffolding removed in a week. It was estimated that the consumption
of gas during the period of illumination reached very nearly
three-quarters of a million of cubic feet; and the entire expense of
the illumination, including the gas-fittings, was somewhat over six
hundred pounds. The illumination was seen for miles round in every
direction. From the top of Barr Beacon, about eight miles distant, a
singular effect was produced by means of a fog cloud which hung over
the town, and concealed the dome and tower from view—a blood-red
cross appearing to shine in the heavens and rest upon Birmingham. As
the traveller approached the town on that side the opacity of the fog
gradually diminished until, when about three miles away, the broad
lines of light which spanned the dome appeared in sight, and,
magnified by the thin vapour through which they were refracted, gave
the idea of some gigantic monster clawing the heavens with his fiery
paws. All the avenues to the church and the surrounding streets were
crowded with masses of human heads, in the midst of which stood a
glittering fairy palace. The effect was heightened by coloured fires,
which, under the superintendence of Mr. C.L. Hanmer, were introduced
at intervals in burning censers, wreathing their clouds of incense
among the urns upon the parapet in the gallery of the tower, and
shedding upon the windows of the church the rich tints of a peaceful
southern sky at sunset. The several gateways were wreathed in
evergreens, amongst which nestled festoons of variegated lamps. So
great was the sensation produced throughout the town and surrounding
districts, and such the disappointment of those who had not seen it,
that the committee, at a great expense, consented to reillumine for
one night more, which was done on the 13th. The last general
illumination was on the occasion of the visit of Prince and Princess
of Wales, Nov. 3, 1874.
Improvement Schemes.—See "Town Improvements."
Income Tax.—This impost was first levied in 1798, when
those who had four children were allowed an abatement of 10 per cent.;
eight children, 15 per cent.; ten or more 20 per cent. At the close of
the Peninsular campaign this tax was done away with, it being looked
upon, even in those heavily betaxed times, as about the most
oppressive duty ever imposed by an arbitrary Government on loyal and
willing citizens. When the tax was revived, in 1842, there was a
considerable outcry, though if fairly levied it would seem to be about
the most just and equitable mode of raising revenue that can be
devised, notwithstanding its somewhat inquisitorial accompaniments.
The Act was only for three years but it was triennially renewed until
1851, since when it has become "a yearly tenant," though at
varying rates, the tax being as high as 1s. 4d. in the pound in 1855,
and only 2d. in 1874. A Parliamentary return issued in 1866 gave the
assessment of Birmingham to the Income Tax at £1,394,161; in
1874 it was estimated at £1,792,700. The present assessment is
considerably over the two millions, but the peculiar reticence
generally connected with all Governmental offices prevents us giving
the exact figures.
Indian Famine.—The total amount subscribed here towards
the fund for the relief of sufferers by famine in India in 1877 was
£7,922 13s. 2d.
India-rubber, in 1770, was sold at 3s. per cubic half-inch, and
was only used to remove pencil marks from paper. Its present uses are
manifold, and varied in the extreme, from the toy balloon of the
infant to railway buffers and unsinkable lifeboats.
Infirmaries.—See "Hospitals," &c.
Inge.—The family name of one of the large property owners
of this town, after whom Inge Street is so called. The last
representative of the family lived to the ripe old age of 81, dying in
August, 1881. Though very little known in the town from whence a large
portion of his income was drawn, the Rev. George Inge, rector of
Thorpe (Staffordshire), was in his way a man of mark, a mighty Nimrod,
who followed the hounds from the early age of five, when he was
carried on a pony in front of a groom, until a few weeks prior to his
death, having hunted with the Atherstone pack duriug the management of
sixteen successive masters thereof.
Insane Asylums.—See "Lunacy."
Insurance.—In 1782 a duty of 1s. 6d. per cent, was levied
on all fire insurances, which was raised to 2s. in 1797, to 2s. 6d. in
1804. and to 3s. in 1815, remaining at that until 1865, when it was
lowered to 1s. 6d., being removed altogether in 1869. Farming stock
was exempted in 1833, and workmen's tools in 1860.
Insurance Companies.—Their name is legion, their agents
are a multitude, and a list of their officers would fill a book. You
can insure your own life, or your wife's, or your children's
or anybody else's, in whose existence you may have a beneficial
interest, and there are a hundred officers ready to receive the
premiums. If you are journeying, the Railway Passengers' Accident
Co. will be glad to guarantee your family a solatium in case you and
your train come to grief, and though it is not more than one in
half-a-million that meets with an accident on the line, the penny for
a ticket, when at the booking office, will be well expended. Do you
employ clerks, there are several Guarantee Societies who will secure
you against loss by defalcation. Shopkeepers and others will do well
to insure their glass against breakage, and all and everyone should
pay into a "General Accident" Association, for broken limbs,
like broken glass, cannot be foreseen or prevented. It is not likely
that any of [**] will be "drawn" for a militiaman in these
piping times of peace, but that the system of insurance was applied
here in the last century against the chances of being drawn in the
ballot, is evidenced by the following carefully-preserved and curious
receipt:—
"Received of Matthew Boulton, tagmaker, Snow Hill, three
shillings and sixpence, for which sum I solemnly engage, if he
should be chosen by lot to serve in the militia for this parish, at
the first meeting for that purpose, to procure a substitute that
shall be approved of.
"HENRY BROOKES, Sergt.
"Birmingham, Jan. 11, 1762."
The local manufacture of Insurance Societies has not been on a large
scale, almost the only ones being the "Birmingham Workman's
Mutual," the "British Workman," and the "Wesleyan
and General." The late Act of Parliament, by which in certain
cases, employers are pecuniarily liable for accidents to their
workpeople, has brought into existence several new Associations,
prominent among which is the comprehensive "Employers'
Liability and Workpeople's Provident and Accident Insurance
Society, Limited," whose offices are at 33, Newhall Street.
Interesting Odds and Ends. A fair was held here on Good Friday,
1793.
A fight of lion with dogs took place at Warwick, September 4, 1824.
The Orsim bombs used in Paris, January 15, 1858, were made here.
In 1771 meetings of the inhabitants, were called by the tolling of a
bell.
A large assembly of Radicals visited Christ Church, November 21, 1819,
but not for prayer.
A "flying railway" (the Centrifugal) was exhibited at the
Circus in Bradford Street, October 31, 1842.
The doors of Moor Street prison were thrown open, September 3, 1842,
there, not being then one person in confinement.
March 2, 1877, a bull got loose in New Street Station, and ran through
the tunnel to Banbury Street, where he leaped over the parapet and was
made into beef.
William Godfrey, who died in Ruston-street, October 27, 1863, was a
native of this town, who, enlisting at eighteen, was sent out to
China, where he accumulated a fortune of more than £1,000,000.
So said the Birmingham Journal, November 7, 1863.
The De Berminghams had no blankets before the fourteenth century, when
they were brought from Bristol. None but the very rich wore stockings
prior to the year 1589, and many of them had their legs covered with
bands of cloth.
A petition was presented to the Prince of Wales (June 26, 1791) asking
his patronage and support for the starving buckle-makers of
Birmingham. He ordered his suite to wear buckles on their shoes, but
the laces soon whipped them out of market.
One Friday evening in July, 1750, a woman who had laid informations
against 150 persons she had caught retailing spirituous liquors
without licenses, was seized by a mob, who doused, ducked and daubed
her, and then shoved her in the Dungeon.
At a parish meeting, May 17, 1726, it was decided to put up an organ
in St. Martin's at a cost of £300 "and upwards."
At a general meeting of the inhabitants, April 3, 1727, it was ordered
that, a bell be cast for St. Philip's, "to be done with all
expedition."
In 1789 it was proposed that the inmates of the workhouse should be
employed at making worsted and thread. Our fathers often tried their
inventive faculties in the way of finding work for the inmates. A few
years later it was proposed (August 26) to lighten the rates by
erecting a steam mill for grinding corn.
On the retirement of Mr. William Lucy, in 1850, from the Mayoralty,
the usual vote of thanks was passed, but with one dissentient.
Mr. Henry Hawkes was chosen coroner July 6, 1875, by forty votes to
one. The great improvement scheme was adopted by the Town
Council (November 10, 1875), with but one dissentient.
A certificate, dated March 23, 1683, and signed by the minister and
church-wardens, was granted to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Ann
Dickens, "in order to obtain his majesty's touch for the
Evil." The "royal touch" was administered to 200
persons from this neighbourhood, March 17, 1714; Samuel Johnson (the
Dr.) being one of those whose ailments, it was believed, could be thus
easily removed. Professor Holloway did not live in those days.
Sir Thomas Holte (the first baronet) is traditionally reported to have
slain his cook. He brought an action for libel against one William
Ascrick, for saying "that he did strike his cook with a cleaver,
so that one moiety of the head fell on one shoulder, and the other on
the other shoulder." The defendant was ordered to pay £30
damages, but appealed, and successfully; the worthy lawyers of that
day deciding that though Sir Thomas might have clove the cook's
head, the defendant did not say he had killed the man, and
hence had not libelled the baronet.
Interpreters.—In commercial circles it sometimes happens
that the foreign corresponding clerk may be out of the way when an
important business letter arrives, and we, therefore, give the
addresses of a few gentlemen linguists, viz.:—Mr. H.R. Forrest,
46, Peel Buildings, Lower Temple Street; Mr. L. Hewson, 30, Paradise
Street; Mr. F. Julien, 189, Monument Road; Mr. Wm. Krisch, 3, Newhall
Street; Mr. L. Notelle, 42, George Road, Edgbaston; and Mr. A.
Vincent, 49, Islington Row.
Invasion.—They said the French were coming in February,
1758, so the patriotic Brums put their hands into their pockets and
contributed to a fund "to repel invasion."
Inventors and Inventions.—Birmingham, for a hundred
years, led the van in inventions of all kinds, and though to many
persons patent specifications may be the driest of all dry reading,
there is an infinitude of interesting matter to be found in those
documents. Much of the trade history of the town is closely connected
with the inventions of the patentees of last century, including such
men as Lewis Paul, who first introduced spinning by rollers, and a
machine for the carding of wool and cotton; Baskerville, the japanner;
Wyatt, partner with Paul; Boulton, of Soho, and his coadjutors, Watt,
Murdoch, Small, Keir, Alston, and others. Nothing has been too
ponderous and naught too trivial for the exercise of the inventive
faculties of our skilled workmen. All the world knows that hundreds of
patents have been taken out for improvements, and discoveries in
connection with steam machinery, but few would credit that quite an
equal number relate to such trifling articles as buckles and buttons,
pins and pens, hooks and eyes, &c.; and fortunes have been made
even more readily by the manufacture of the small items than the
larger ones. The history of Birmingham inventors has yet to be
written; a few notes of some of their doings will be found under
"Patents" and "Trades."
Iron.—In 1354 it was forbidden to export iron from
England. In 1567 it was brought here from Sweden and Russia. A patent
for smelting iron with pit coal was granted in 1620 to Dud Dudley, who
also patented the tinning of iron in 1661. The total make of iron in
England in 1740 was but 17,000 tons, from 59 furnaces, only two of
which were in Staffordshire, turning out about 1,000 tons per year. In
1788 there were nine blast furnaces in the same county; in 1796,
fourteen; in 1806, forty-two; in 1827, ninety-five, with an output of
216,000 tons, the kingdom's make being 690,000 tons from 284
furnaces. This quantity in 1842 was turned out of the 130
Staffordshire furnaces alone, though the hot-air blast was not used
prior to 1835. Some figures have lately been published showing that
the present product of iron in the world is close upon 19-1/2 million
tons per year, and as iron and its working-up has a little to do with
the prosperity of Birmingham, we preserve them. Statistics for the
more important countries are obtainable as late as 1881. For the
others it is assumed that the yield has not fallen off since the
latest figures reported. Under "other countries," in the
table below, are included Canada, Switzerland, and Mexico, each
producing about 7,500 tons a year, and Norway, with 4,000 tons a
year:—
|
|
Year.
|
Gross Tons.
|
|
Great Britain
|
1881
|
8,377,364
|
|
United States
|
1881
|
4,144,254
|
|
Germany
|
1881
|
2,863,400
|
|
France
|
1881
|
1,866,438
|
|
Belgium
|
1881
|
622,288
|
|
Austro-Hungary
|
1880
|
448,685
|
|
Sweden
|
1880
|
399,628
|
|
Luxembourg
|
1881
|
289,212
|
|
Russia
|
1881
|
231,341
|
|
Italy
|
1876
|
76,000
|
|
Spain
|
1873
|
73,000
|
|
Turkey
|
--
|
40,000
|
|
Japan
|
1877
|
10,000
|
|
All other countries
|
--
|
46,000
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
19,487,610
|
The first four countries produce 88.4 per cent, of the world's
iron supply; the first two, 64.3 per cent.; the first, 43 per cent.
The chief consumer is the United States, 29 per cent.; next Great
Britain, 23 '4 per cent.; these two using more than half of all.
Cast iron wares do not appear to have been made here in any quantity
before 1755; malleable iron castings being introduced about 1811. The
first iron canal boat made its appearance here July 24, 1787. Iron
pots were first tinned in 1779 by Jonathan Taylor's patented
process, but we have no date when vessels of iron were first
enamelled, though a French method of coating them with glass was
introduced in 1850 by Messrs. T.G. Griffiths and Co. In 1809, Mr.
Benjamin Cook, a well-known local inventor, proposed to use iron for
building purposes, more particularly in the shape of joists, rafters,
and beams, so as to make fire-proof rooms, walls, and flooring, as
well as iron staircases. This suggestion was a long time before it was
adopted, for in many things Cook was far in advance of his age.
Corrugated iron for roofing, &c., came into use in 1832, but it
was not till the period of the Australian gold
fever—1852-4—that there was any great call for iron
houses. The first iron church (made at Smethwick) as well as iron
barracks for the mounted police, were sent out there, the price at
Melbourne for iron houses being from £70 each.—See
"Trades."
Iron Bedsteads are said to have been invented by Dr. Church.
Metallic bedsteads of many different kinds have been made since then,
from the simple iron stretcher to the elaborately guilded couches made
for princes and potentates, but the latest novelty in this line is a
bedstead of solid silver, lately ordered for one of the Indian Rajahs.
Iron Rods.—Among the immense number of semi-religious
tracts published during the Civil War, one appeared (in 1642) entitled
"An Iron Rod for the Naylours and Tradesmen near
Birmingham," by a self-styled prophet, who exhorted his
neighbours to amend their lives and give better prices "twopence
in the shilling at the least to poor workmen." We fancy the poor
nailers of the present time would also be glad of an extra twopence.
