SHOWELL'S
Dictionary of Birmingham.
Taxes.—Would life be worth living if
we had to pay such taxes as our fathers had to do? Here are a
few:—The hearth or chimney tax of 2s. for every fire-place or
stove in houses rated above 20s. per annum was imposed in the
fifteenth year of Charles II.'s reign, but repealed in the first
year of William and Mary, 1689; the owners of Edgbaston Hall paid for
22 chimneys before it was destroyed in 1668. In 1642, there was a duty
of £4 a pair on silk stockings. A window tax was enacted in 1695
"to pay for the re-coinage of the gold coin," and was not
entirely removed till July 24, 1851; from a return made to Parliament
by the Tax Office in 1781, it appeared that the occupiers of 2,291
houses paid the window tax in Birmingham; there was collected for
house and window tax in 1823, from the inhabitants of this town, the
sum of £27,459 12s. 1-3/4d., though in the following year it was
£9,000 less. Bachelors and widowers were rated by 6 and 7
William III., c. 6, "to enable the King to carry on the war
against France with rigour." Births, marriages, and deaths were
also made liable to duties by the same Act. The salt duties were first
levied in 1702, doubled in 1732, and raised again in 1782, ceasing to
be gathered in 1825. The price of salt at one period of the long
Peninsular war rose to £30 per ton, being retailed in Birmingham
at 4l. per lb. Carriages were taxed in 1747. Armorial bearings in
1798. Receipts for money and promisory notes were first taxed in 1782.
Hair powder tax, of 21s. per annum, was first levied in 1795. In 1827,
there was a 1s. 3d. duty on almanacks. The 3s. advertisement duty was
reduced to 1s. 6d. in 1833, and abolished August 4, 1853. The paper
duty, first put on in 1694, was repealed in 1861; that on bricks taken
off in 1850; on soap in 1853; on sugar in May, 1874, and on horses the
same year. Hats, gloves, and linen shirts were taxed in 1785; patent
medicines, compound waters, and codfish, in 1783; in fact every
article of food, drink, and clothing required by man from the moment
of his birth until his burial, the very shroud, the land he trod on,
the house he lived in, the materials for building, have all been
taxed. For coming into the world, for living in it, and for going out
of it, have Englishmen had to pay, even though they grumbled.
Now-a-days the country's taxes are few in number, and per head are
but small in amount, yet the grumbling and the growling is as heavy as
of old. Can it arise from the pressure of our local rates?
Where our fathers paid 20s. to the Government, we do not pay 5s.; but
where the old people gave 5s. in rates, we have to part with 25s.
Telegraphs.—The cable for the first Atlantic telegraph
was made here. Its length was 2,300 nautical miles, and it required
690,000 lbs. of copper in addition to the iron wire forming the
strand, of which latter there was about 16,000 miles' length. The
first time the "Queen's Speech" was transmitted to this
town by the electric telegraph was on Tuesday, November 30, 1847, the
time occupied being an hour and a half. The charge for sending a
message of 20 words from here to London, in 1848, was 6s. 6d. The
Sub-Marine Telegraph Co. laid their wires through Birmingham in June
and July, 1853.
Temperance.—There appears to have been a sort of a kind
of a temperance movement here in 1788, for the Magistrates, at their
sitting August 21, strongly protested against the increase of
dram-drinking; but they went on granting licenses, though. Father
Matthew's first visit was September 10, 1843; J.B. Gough's,
September 21, 1853; Mr. Booth's, in May, 1882. The first local
society for inculcating principles of temperance dates from September
1, 1830; U.K. Alliance organised a branch here in February, 1855; the
first Templars' Lodge was opened September 8, 1868; the Royal
Crusaders banded together in the summer of 1881; and the Blue Ribbons
were introduced in May, 1882. This novelty in dress ornamentation was
adopted (so they said) by over 40,000 inhabitants, but at the end of
twelve months the count was reduced to 8,000, including Sunday School
children, popular parsons, maidens looking for husbands, old maids who
had lost their chances, and the unco' guid people, who, having
lost their own tastes, would fain keep others from their cakes and
ale.
Temple Row.—A "parech meeting" in 1715 ordered
the purchase of land for a passage way out of Bull Street to St.
Philip's Church. It was not until 1842 when part of the Royal
Hotel stables were taken down, that it was made its present width. In
1837 the churchyard had some pleasant walks along the sides, bounded
by a low wooden fence, and skirted with trees.
Temple Street takes its name from the old summer arbour,
wittily called "the Temple," which once stood in a garden
where now Temple Row joins the street. An advertisement in
Gazette of December 5, 1743, announced a house for sale, in
Temple Street, having a garden twelve yards wide by fifty yards long,
adjoining the fields, and with a prospect of four miles distance.
Theatrical Jottings.—What
accommodation, if any, was provided here for "their
majesties' servants," the playactors, in the times of Queen
Anne and her successor, George I., is not known, but as Hutton tells
us that in 1730 the amusements of the stage rose in elegance so
far that threepenny performances were given "in a stable in
Castle Street," we may be sure the position held by members of
the profession was not very high in the estimation of our townsfolk
previous to that period. Indeed, it would almost seem as if the acting
of plays was quite an innovation at the time named, and one that met
with approval, for shortly after we read of there being theatres in
Smallbrook Street, in New Street, and "a new theatre" in
Moor Street. The first-named closed in 1749 or 1750; the second is
supposed to have been on the site of the present Theatre Royal,
but it could not have been a building of much importance as we find no
note of it after 1744; the third, built in 1739, was taken possession
of by the disciples of Wesley, and on March 21, 1764, was opened as a
chapel. Previous to the last event, however, another theatre had been
erected (in 1752) in King Street, leading out of New Street, near to
the Free School, which, being enlarged in 1774, is described by Hutton
as having few equals. In this year also (1774) the Theatre Royal was
erected (at a cost of nearly £5,700) though the latter half of
its title was not assumed until August, 1807, on the occasion of the
Royal assent being given to the house being "licensed." A
bill had been introduced into the House of Commons for this purpose on
the 26th of March, 1777, during the debate on which Burke called
Birmingham "the great toyshop of Europe," but it was thrown
out on the second reading. The King Street Theatre, like its
predecessor in Moor Street, after a time of struggle, was turned into
a place of worship in 1786, a fate which, at a later date, also befell
another place of public entertainment, the Circus, in Bradford Street,
and the theatrical history of the town, for a long term of years
centred round the Theatre Royal, though now and then spasmodic
attempts were made to localise amusements more or less of a similar
nature. One of these, and the earliest, was peculiarly unfortunate;
early in 1778 a wooden pavilion, known as the "Concert
Booth," was erected in the Moseley Road, dramatic performances
being given between the first and last parts of a vocal and
instrumental concert, but some mischievous or malicious incendiary set
fire to the building, which was burnt to the ground Aug. 13 of the
same year. Four years later, and nearly at the same date (Aug. 17) the
Theatre in New Street met with a like fate, the only portion of it
left being the stone front (added in 1780) which is still the same,
fortunately coming almost as safely through the next conflagration.
The proprietors cleared away the ruins, and erected a more commodious
structure, which, under the management of Mr. William Macready, was
opened June 22, 1795. In the meantime, the King Street Theatre having
been chapelised, the town appears to have been without any recognised
place for dramatic entertainments other than those provided in the
large rooms of the hotels, or the occasional use of a granary
transmogrified for the nonce into a Thespian arena. On the night of
the 6th of January, 1820, after the performance of
"Pizarro," the Theatre Royal was again burnt out, but,
possibly from having their property insured up to £7,000, the
proprietors were not so long in having it rebuilt, the doors of the
new house being opened on following Aug. 14. This is, practically, the
same building as the present, which has scats for about 3,500, the
gallery holding 1,000. Many of the first artists of the profession
have trod the boards of the Old Theatre since the last-named date, and
Birmingham has cause to be proud of more than one of her children,
who, starting thence, have found name and fame elsewhere. The scope of
the present work will not allow of anything move than a few brief
notes, and those entirely of local bearing, but a history of the
Birmingham stage would not be uninteresting reading.
A wooden building in Moor Street, formerly a circus, was licensed
March, 19, 1861; closed in 1863, and cleared off the ground in 1865.
Theatrical performances were licensed in Bingley Hall in 1854.
The Prince of Wales Theatre, previously Broad Street Music Hall, was
opened in 1862. It was reconstructed in 1876, and has accommodation
for an audience of 3,200.
The Holte Theatre was opened May 12, 1879, the license to the Lower
Grounds Co. being granted November 29, 1878.
The last new Theatre, the Grand, in Corporation Street, must rank as
one of the handsomest edifices in the town. It faces what was once the
Old Square, and has a frontage of 120ft., the height to the cornice of
the roof being 52ft., the whole being capped with a dome, supporting a
winged figure of Auroro, which, drawn in a car by prancing horses, is
15ft. high. The interior is laid out in the most improved modern
style, ornately decorated throughout, and provides accommodation for
over 3,000 persons. The cost is put at £30,000, of which
£17,000 went to the builders alone, and the theatre is the
property of Mr. A. Melville. The opening day was Nov. 14th, 1883.
The "Interlude of Deritend Wake, with the representation of a
Bull-baiting" was part of the performance announced at the King
street Theatre, May 31, 1783.
Mrs. Sarah Siddons, whose début in London the previous
season had been anything but successful, came to Birmingham for the
summer season of 1776. Henderson, one of her colleagues here,
notwithstanding the Drury Lane veto, declared that she was "an
actress who never had an equal nor would ever have a
superior"—an opinion quickly verified.
One of Kean's benefits was a total failure. In the last scene of
the play "A New Way to Pay Old Debts," wherein allusion is
made to the marriage of a lady, "Take her," said Kean,
"and the Birmingham audience into the bargain."
Garrick was visiting Lord Lytton at Hagley on one occasion when news
was brought that a company of players were going to perform at
Birmingham. His lordship suggested that Garrick should write an
address to the audience for the players. "Suppose, then,"
said he, "I begin thus:
"Ye sons of iron, copper, brass and steel, Who have not heads
to think, nor hearts to feel."
"Oh," cried his lordship, "if you begin like that, they
will hiss the players off the stage, and pull the house down."
"My lord," replied Garrick, "what is the use of an
address if it does not come home to the business and bosoms of the
audience?"
A "Birmingham Garrick," was the name given to an actor named
Henderson (1782), whose friends did not think him quite so great a
tragedian as he fancied himself.
Kemble made his last appearance on the Birmingham stage July 9, 1788.
Robinson Crusoe, or Harlequin Friday, was the pantomime in 1790.
Madame Catalini first appeared at Royal in 1807.
Incledon, the famous tenor, sang here first time in same year.
William Charles Macready made his debût on the stage of
the Royal as Romeo, June 7, 1810. He took his farewell benefit
Aug. 13, 1871.
Alfred Bunn had the Theatre in 1823, during which year there appeared
here Mr. and Mrs. C. Kemble, W.C. Macready, Joey Grimaldi, Miss Ellen
Tree (afterwards Mrs. Charles Kean), W. Farrer, Braham, Elliston,
Dowton, Rignold and Power.
Barry Sullivan was born here in 1824.
In 1824 the whole town was up in arms taking part in the "Battle
of the Preachers and the Players," which was commenced by the
Rev. J. Augell James delivering a series of sermons bitterly
inveighing against the theatre, as a place of amusement, and pouring
forth the most awful denunciations against the frequenters thereof.
Alfred Bunn, the manager, was not slow to retort. He put "The
Hypocrite" on the boards, Shuter, the clever comedian and mimic,
personating Mr. James in the part of Mawworm so cleverly that
the piece had an immense run. The battle ended in a victory for both
sides, chapel and theatre alike being crammed. If it pleased the godly
it was a god-send for Bunn whose exchequer it filled to repletion.
Signer Costa was at the Festival in 1829, and he afterwards appeared
on the stage at the Royal.
Paganini first fiddled at the Royal, January 22, 1832.
Sheridan Knowles, Macready, Paganini, Matthews, and Miss Ellen Tree
were among the Stars at the Royal in 1833.
Mercer H. Simpson took the management of the Royal in 1838. His
farewell benefit was on December 16, 1864, and he died March 2, 1877,
aged 76.
Sims Reeves' first visit to this town was in May, 1843; his last
appearance at the Festivals was in 1873; at the Royal in May, 1875,
and at the Town Hall, March 25, 1884.
Jenny Lind first sang here Aug. 29, 1847; she sang for the Queen's
Hospital at Town Hall, Dec. 28, 1848; her last concerts were Jan.
22-23, 1862.
Madle. Rachael first played here Aug. 19, 1847.
Charles Dickens and his amateur friends gave their special
performances in aid of the Shakespeare House Fund, at the Royal, June
6 and 27, 1848, the receipts amounting to £589.
Variety was not wanting at our New Street Theatre in 1852. Among the
artistes advertised to appear were: A strong Man who had 5 cwt. of
stone broken (by a sledge hammer) on his chest nightly; performing
Dogs and Horses; Madame Grisi, Signor Mario, Haymarket Company,
Benjamin Webster, and Madame Celeste, etc., etc.
Miss Menken, the female Mazeppa, appeared at Prince of
Wales', May 15 1865, and at the Royal in Nov. 1807.
Miss Neilson's first appearance here was in Nov. 1868, in an
adaptation, by Mr. C. Williams, a local dramatist, of Miss
Braddon's "Captain of the Vulture."
Mr. Irving first appeared as Hamlet in this town at Prince of
Wales', Dec., 1877.
Sarah Bernhardt was at Prince of Wales', July 4-6, 1881.
Kyrle Beilew last appeared here at Prince of Wales', Sept, 17,
1881.
Mrs. Langtry was at Prince of Wales', May 29, 1882.
Edwin Booth's first appearance here was at the Royal, as
Richelieu, Dec. 11, 1882.
Bobby Atkins, whose real name was Edward, was the most popular
comedian of the Royal, with which he had been connected for more than
twenty-five years. He died in 1882, in his 64th year. His bosom
friend, John Barton, made his exit from the world's stage April
16, 1875.
Sir. George Rignold's mother is stated by Mr. Thomas Swinbourne
(himself a native) to have been a leading actress of the Theatre Royal
and very popular, as indeed she would necessarily be, her role
of parts including Hamlet and Virginius. The father was,
says Mr. S., "an admirable terpsichorean artiste, and George
inherits the talents of both parents, with a dash of music besides,
for, like William, in 'Black-eyed Susan,' he 'plays
on the fiddle like on angel.'"
Two or three of our places of amusement have been turned into chapels
permanently, and therefore it was hardly a novelty to hold
"Gospel services" in the Prince of Wales's Theatre,
October 3, 1875, but it was to their credit that "the gods"
behaved themselves.
Time.—When it is exactly twelve at noon here in
Birmingham, it is 7min. 33secs. past at Greenwich, 12min. 50secs. past
at Dover, and 16min. 54secs. past at Paris; while it wants 1-1/2mins.
to the hour at Manchester, 9-1/2min. at Glasgow, 17min. 50secs. at
Dublin, and 26-1/2mins. at Cork. At Calcutta, the corresponding time
would be 6.1-1/2 p.m., Canton 7.40 p.m., Japan 9.15 p.m., Mexico 5.34
a.m., New Orleans 8.5 a.m., New York 7.11 a.m., New Zealand 11.45
p.m., Nova Scotia 7.55 a.m., San Francisco 4.5 a.m., St., Petersburg
2.10 p.m., Sydney 10.12 p.m., and at Washington just seven o'clock
in the morning.
Tithes.—One hundred and fifty years ago (if not,
considerably later) the Rector of St. Martin's was paid tithes in
cash based on the value of the crops, &c., one acre of good wheat
being tithed at 7s. 6d.; an acre of good barley at 4s. 4-1/2d.; an
acre of flax and hemp, if pulled, at 5s.; an acre of good oats, peas,
or potatoes, and all kinds of garden stuff at 3s. 9d.; for meadow land
4d. an acre, and 2d. for leasow (or leasland); 3d. being claimed for
cow and her calf. 1-1/2d. for each lamb, &c. In course of time
these payments were changed into a fixed tithe rent, but before
matters were comfortably settled, the Rector found it necessary to
give notice (April, 1814) that he should enforce the ancient custom of
being paid "in kind." The gun trade was brisk at that time,
but whether the reverend gentleman took his tenths of the guns, what
he did with them, or how the parties came to terms is not
recorded.—The tithes formerly due in kind to the Vicar of
Edgbaston were commuted by Act passed June 8, 1821, into art annual
"corn rent," payable by the occupiers or all kinds in the
parish.
Tower.—Originally, all guns made here for Government, had
to be put together in London, but when the French Revolution broke
out, it was seen that a quicker mode of procedure was necessary, and
an establishment in Bagot Street was erected in 1798, where all guns
for Government were viewed and stamped with the "Tower"
mark. Hence the name.
Town Criers were first appointed in 1526. Jacob Wilson entered
into office May 4, 1853, and was pensioned off with 15s. a week in
August, 1879, after a family tenure of the office, according to Jacob,
of about 350 years. Surely it was a crying shame to stop the children
of that family from crying in the future. The last of the criers did
not last long after deposition from office, Jacob's last words
being uttered in 1881.
Town Improvements.—Some fifty and odd
years ago Dobbs, a local comedian, used to sing,
"Brumagem has altered so,
There's scarce a place in it I know;
Round the town you now must go
To find old Brumagem."
Had he lived till these days he might well have sung so, for
improvements are being carried out so rapidly now that in another
generation it is likely old Birmingham will have been improved
off the face of the earth altogether. Prior to the days of steam, our
forefathers went about their work more leisurely, for it was not until
1765 that the Act was obtained for the "enlightening" of the
streets, and four years later when the first Act was passed (April 21,
1769) for street improvements. The Street Commissioners appointed by
this Act, and who held their first meeting May 22, 1769, for many
years did little more than regulate the traffic of the streets, keep
them cleanish, and look after the watchmen. In course of time
the operations of the said Commissioners were extended a little, and
it is to them that we owe the existence of the central open space so
long known as the Bull Ring, for they gave £1,730, in 1801, for
the removal of nine tenements there and then blocking the way. Money
must have been of more value then than now, for if such a purchase was
necessary at the present date one or two more figures would require
being added to the amount. This town improvement was completed in
1806, when the Commissioners purchased the remaining houses and shops
round St. Martin's, but property owners had evidently learned
something during the five years, for whereas the Commissioners at
first estimated the further cost at £10,957, they reluctantly
had to provide no less than £22,266, the additional sum required
being swallowed up by "incidental expenses." The poet
already quoted had apparently been absent during these alterations,
for he wailingly bemoaned—
"Poor old Spiceal Street half gone,
The poor old Church stands all alone,
And poor old I can only groan,
That I can't find Brumagem."
Though an Improvement Act for Duddeston and Nechells was obtained in
1829, the town improvements for the next forty years consisted
principally of road making, street paving, market arranging, &c.,
the opening-up ideas not getting well-rooted in the minds of our
governors until some time after the Town Council began to rule the
roast. That a great deal of work was being done, however, is
shown by reference to the Borough accounts for 1840, in which year
£17,366 was expended in lighting, watching, and otherwise
improving the thoroughfares, in addition to £13,794 actually
spent on the highways. 1852 saw the removal of the turnpikes, at a
cost of over £3,200; in the same year £5,800 was expended
in widening the entrance to Temple Row from Bull Street, and
£1,800 for rounding off the corner of Steelhouse Lane and Snow
Hill. In October, 1853, it was decided to obtain for £33,000 the
11,540 square yards of land at the corner of Ann Street and Congreve
Street, where the Municipal Buildings, Art Gallery, and new Gas Office
now stand. Almost every year since has seen the purchase of properties
more or less required for substantial improvements, though some of
them may not even yet have been utilised. A few fancy prices might be
named which have had to be paid for odd bits of property here and
there, but about the dearest of all was £53 10s. per yard, which
the Council paid (in 1864) for the land required to round off the
corner of New Street and Worcester Street, a further £1,300
going, in 1873, to extinguish certain leasehold rights. This is by no
means the highest figure given for land in the centre of the town, as
Mr. John Feeney, in 1882, paid at the rate of £66 per yard for
the site at corner of Cannon Street and New Street, the portion
retained for his own use costing him even more than that, as he
generously allowed the Corporation to take 30-1/2 yards for
£1,000. The introduction of the railways, and consequent
obliteration of scores of old streets, courts, alleys, and passages,
has been of vast service towards the general improvement of the town,
as well in the matter of health and sanitation, as leading to the
construction of many new buildings and the formation of adequate
approaches to the several railway stations, the erection of such
establishments as the Queen's Hotel, the Great Western Hotel,
&c. Nor have private property owners and speculators been at all
backward, as evidenced by our magnificent modern banking
establishments, the huge piles of commercial buildings in Colmore Row,
New Street, and Corporation Street, the handsome shops in New Street,
High Street, and Bull Street, with many other edifices that our
grandfathers never dreamed of, such as the Midland, the Grand, and the
Stork Hotels, the palatial Club Houses, the Colonnade and Arcades, New
Theatres, Inns of Court, &c., &c. Many of these improvements
have resulted from the falling-in of long leases on the Colmore, the
Grammar School, and other estates, while others have been the outcome
of a far-seeing policy on the part of such moneyed men as the late Sir
Josiah Mason, Isaac Horton, and others of somewhat similar calibre.
Going away from the immediate centre of the town architectural
improvements will be noted on all hands, Snow Hill, for one place,
being evidently in the regenerative throes of a new birth, with its
Gothic Arcade opposite the railway station, and the new circus at the
foot of the hill, where for so many long years there has been nothing
but a wreck and a ruin. In close neighbourhood, Constitution Hill,
Hampton Street, and at the junction of Summer Lane, a number of
handsome houses and shops have lately been erected by Mr. Cornelius
Ede, in the early Gothic style, from designs by Mr. J.S. Davis, the
architect of the Snow Hill Arcade, the whole unquestionably forming a
very great advance on many former street improvements. The formation
in 1880 of John Bright Street as an extension of the Bristol Road
(cost £30,000) has led to the erection of many fine buildings in
that direction; the opening-out of Meetinghouse Yard and the
alterations in Floodgate Street (in 1879, at a cost of £13,500),
has done much for that neighbourhood; the widening of Worcester Street
and the formation of Station Street, &c., thanks to the
enlargement of the Central Station, and the remodelling of all the
thoroughfares in the vicinity of Navition Street and Worcester Wharf,
also arising therefrom, are important schemes now in progress in the
same direction; and in fact there is hardly any district within the
borough boundaries in which improvements of more or less consequence
are not being made, or have been planned, the gloomy old burial
grounds having been turned into pleasant gardens at a cost of over
£10,000, and even the dirty water-courses known as the river Rea
and Hockley brook have had £12,000 worth of cleaning out
bestowed upon them. It is not too much to say that millions have been
spent in improving Birmingham during the past fifty years, not
reckoning the cost of the last and greatest improvement of
all—the making of Corporation Street, and the consequent
alterations on our local maps resulting therefrom. The adoption of the
Artizans' Dwelling Act, under the provisions of which the
Birmingham Improvement Scheme has been carried out, was approved by
the Town Council, on the 16th of October, 1875. Then, on the 15th of
March, 1876, followed the Local Government Board enquiry; and on the
17th of June, 1876, the provisional order of the Board, approving the
scheme, was issued. The Confirming Act received the Royal assent on
the 15th of August, 1876. On the 6th of September, 1880, a modifying
order was obtained, with respect to the inclusion of certain
properties and the exclusion of others. The operations under the
scheme began in August, 1878, when the houses in New Street were
pulled down. In April, 1879, by the removal of the Union Hotel, the
street was continued into Cherry Street: and further extensions have
been made in the following order:— Cherry Street to Bull Street,
August 1881; the Priory to John Street, June 1881; Bull Street to the
Priory, January, 1882; John Street to Aston Street, February, 1882.
Little Cannon Street was formed in August 1881; and Cowper Street in
January, 1881. The first lease of land in the area of the
scheme—to the Women's Hospital—was agreed upon in
January, 1876; and the first lease in Corporation Street—to Mr.
J.W. Danieli— was arranged in May, 1878. In July, 1879, a lease
was agreed upon for the new County Court. The arbitrations in the
purchase of properties under the scheme were begun in June, 1879, and
in June, 1880, Sir Henry Hunt, the arbitrator nominated by the Local
Government Board, made his first award, amounting to £270,405,
the remainder of the properties having been bought by agreement. The
loans borrowed on account of the scheme amount to £1,600,000,
the yearly charge on the rates being over £20,000 per annum, but
as the largest proportion of the property is let upon 75-year leases,
this charge will, in time, not only be reduced yearly by the increase
of ground-rents, as the main and branch streets are filled up, but
ultimately be altogether extinguished, the town coming in for a
magnificent income derived from its own property. The length of
Corporation Street from New Street to Lancaster Street is 851 yards,
and if ultimately completed (as at first intended) from Lancaster
Street to Aston Road, the total length will be 1,484 yards or
five-sixths of a mile. The total area of land purchased for the
carrying-out of the scheme is put at 215,317 square yds. (about 44a.
1r. 38p.), of which quantity 39,280 square yards has been laid out in
new streets, or the widening of old ones. Of the branch or connecting
streets intended there is one (from Corporation Street to the corner
of High Street and Bull Street, opposite Dale End), that cannot be
made for several years, some valuable leases not expiring until 1890
and 1893, but, judging by the present rate of building, Corporation
Street itself will be completed long before then. More than a score of
the unhealthiest streets and lanes in the town have been cleared away,
and from a sanitary point of view the improvement in health and saving
of life in the district by the letting in of light and air, has been
of the most satisfactory character, but though the scheme was
originated under the Artisans' Dwelling Act, intended to provide
good and healthy residences in lieu of the pestiferous slums and back
courts, it cannot in one sense be considered much of a success. The
number of artisans' dwellings required was 1,335, about 550 of
which were removed altogether, the rest being improved and relet, or
converted into shops, warehouses, &c. A piece of land between
Newtown Row and Summer Lane, containing an area of 14,250 square yards
was purchased for the purpose of leasing for the erection of
artisans' dwellings, and a 50ft. wide street was laid out and
nicely planted with trees, but, owing either to the badness of trade,
or the over-building of small houses in other parts previously, less
than a sixth of the site has been taken, and but a score of houses
built, a most wonderful contrast to the rapid filling of Corporation
Street with its many magnificent edifices present and prospective,
that promise to make it one of the finest streets in the provinces.
There cannot, however, be such necessity for the erection of small
houses as was imagined when the Act was adopted here, for according to
a return lately obtained, and not reckoning the thousands of little
domiciles on the outskirts, there are in the borough 4,445 houses
usually let at weekly rentals up to 2s. 6d. per week, 24,692 the
rentals of which are between 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d., and 36,832 others
between 3s. 6d. and 7s. per week, a total of 65,969 working men's
houses, but of which 5,273 (taking one week with another) are always
void.
Toyshop of Europe.—It was during the debate in the House
of Commons (March 26, 1777) on the first reading of a Bill to license
the Theatre in Birmingham, that Mr. Burke, who spoke in its favour,
described this town as "the great toyshop of Europe." At
that time, and for long afterwards, hundreds of articles of utility
manufactured here were roughly classed as "light steel
toys," and "heavy steel toys;" though we should hardly
now be likely to consider tinder boxes, steelyards, pokers,
fire-shovels and tongs as playthings.
Trade Notes of the Past.—Foreigners were not allowed to
carry on any retail trade here before 1663. The Brums never liked
them. An official document of 1695, states that, the trade of the town
was "chiefly in steel, iron, and other ponderous
commodities." In 1702 it was enacted that if brass, copper,
latten, bell-metal gun-metal, or shruff-metal be carried beyond sea,
clean or mixed, double the value thereof to be forfeited, tin and lead
only excepted. An Act was passed March 20, 1716, prohibiting trade
with Sweden, much to the inconvenience of our local manufacturers, who
imported Swedish iron for conversion into steel in large quantities.
The Act 1 Geo. I., c. 27 (1720), forbidding the exportation of
artizans to foreign countries was not repealed till 1825 (5 Geo. IV.,
c. 97). In April, 1729, our manufacturers petitioned that the
colonists in America should be encouraged to send pig iron over here;
ten years previously they bitterly opposed the idea; ten years later
they repented, for their American cousins filled our warehouses with
their manufactured goods. In 1752 it was stated that above 20,000
hands were employed here in "useful manufactures." In 1785 a
reward of fifty guineas was offered here for the conviction of any
person "enticing workmen to go to foreign countries;" the
penalty for such "enticing" being a fine of £100 and
three months' imprisonment.
Trade Societies and Trades' Unions are
of modern growth, unless we count the old-style combinations of the
masters to prevent their workmen emigrating, or the still more ancient
Guilds and Fraternities existing in mediæval times. There are in
all, 177 different Trades' Unions in the country (coming under the
notice of the Registrar-General), and most of them have branches in
this town and neighbourhood. The majority have sick and benefit funds
connected with them, and so far should be classed among Friendly,
Benevolent, or Philanthropic Societies, but some few are plainly and
simply trade associations to keep up prices, to prevent interference
with their presumed rights, to repress attacks by the avoidance of
superabundant labour, and to generally protect members when wrongfully
treated, cheated or choused. Prior to 1834, when some 20,000 persons
assembled on Newhall Hill, March 31 to protest against the conviction
of Dorset labourers for trades' unionism, few of these societies
were locally in existence; but the advent of Free Trade seems to have
shown all classes of workers the necessity of protecting their
individual interests by means of a system of Protection very similar,
though on smaller scale, to that abolished by Sir Robert Peel and his
friends. That there was a necessity for such trade societies was
clearly shown by the harsh manner in which they were denounced by John
Bright at a Town Hall banquet, held April 28, 1875, that gentleman
evidently demurring to the anomally of working men being
Protectionists of any kind. Foremost among the local unions is the
National Society of Amalgamated Brassworkers, originated April 18,
1872 with over 5,000 members now on its books, having in its first
eight years subscribed and paid to members out of employ no less than
£29,000.—The Builders' Labourers combined in 1861, and
pay out yearly over £200 for sick and funeral
benefits.—The National Association of Master Builders was
organised here on Dec, 18, 1877.—The Butcher's Trade and
Benevolent Association, organised in 1877, helps its members in case
of need, keeps a sharp look out when new Cattle Markets, &c., are
proposed, and provides a jury to help the magistrates in any doubtful
case of "scrag-mag," wherein horse-flesh, donkey meat, and
other niceties have been tendered to the public as human
food.—The "gentlemen" belonging to the fraternity of
accountants met on April 20, 1882, to form a local Institute of
Chartered Accountants, and their clients know the result by the extra
charges of the chartered ones.—The Clerks' Provident
Association provides a register for good clerks out of employ for the
use of employers who may want them, and, of course, there can be no
good clerks out of employ except those who belong to the Association.
It was commenced in 1883, from a philanthropic feeling, but must rank
among trade societies as much as many others.—The Coal Merchants
and Consumers' Association, for regulating the traffic charges,
and otherwise protecting the trade (especially the sellers) was
organised in 1869.—The Dairymen and Milksellers' Protection
Society came into existence April 2, 1884, and is intended to protect
the dealers against the encroachments of the Birmingham Dairy Company,
and all customers from the cows with wooden udders or iron
teats.—The dentists in May, 1883, held the first meeting of the
Midland Odentological Society, but it is not expected that the people
at large will be entirely protected from toothache earlier than the
first centenary of the Society.—The Institution of Mechanical
Engineers was formed early in 1847.—The Amalgamated Society of
Engineers dates half-a-century back, its 430 branches having
collectively about 50,000 members, with a reserve fund of
£178,000, though the expenditure in 1883 was £124,000 out
of an income of £134,000. Locally, there are three branches,
with 765 members, having balances in hand of £2,075; the
expenditure in 1883 being £680 to men out of work, £585 to
sick members, £390 to the superannuated, £171 for
funerals, and £70 in benevolent gifts.—The Birmingham and
Midland Counties Grocers' Protection and Benevolent Association,
started in 1871, has a long name and covers a considerable area. It
was designed to make provision for the wives and families of
unfortunate members of the trade when in distress; to defend actions
brought against them under the Adulteration Acts; and most especially
to protect themselves from the encroachments of the merchants,
importers, and manufacturers, who do not always deliver 112 lbs. to
the cwt, or keep to sample.—The Licensed Victuallers first
clubbed together for protection in 1824, and the Retail Brewers and
Dealers in Wine followed suit in 1845, both societies spending
considerable sums yearly in relief for decayed members of the trade,
the Licensed Victuallers having also a residential Asylum for a number
of their aged members or their widows in Bristol Road.—The
journeymen printers opened a branch of the Provincial Typographical
Association Oct. 12, 1861, though there was a society here
previously.— The first local union we find record of was among
the knights of the thimble, the tailors striking for an increase in
wages in 1833; a branch of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors has
lately been organised.—In 1866 a general Trades' Council was
formed, which utilises by combined action the powers of the whole in
aid of any single society which may stand in need of help.
Trades and Manufactures.—There are no
published returns of any kind that have ever been issued by which more
than a guess can be made at the real value of the trade of Birmingham,
which varies considerably at times. At the present moment (March,
1885) trade is in a very depressed state, and it would hardly
be correct to give the exact figures, were it even possible to obtain
them, and any statistics that may appear in the following lines must
be taken as showing an average based upon several years. Speaking at a
council meeting, February 19, 1878, Mr. Alderman Joseph Chamberlain
said the best way to ascertain the trade of the town was to take the
local bank returns and the railway traffic "in" and
"out," so far as the same could be ascertained. The deposits
in all the banks that published returns were, at the end of 1877,
£10,142,936, as against £10,564,255 in the previous
year—a falling off of £421,312, or 4 percent. With regard
to bills of exchange held by the banks, the amount was
£3,311,744, against £3,605,067 in the previous
year—a falling off of £293,323, or 8 per cent. The amount
of the advances, however, was £6,041,075, as against
£5,570,920 in the previous year—an increase of
£470,155, or 8-1/2 percent. With regard to the trade of the
town, by the courtesy of the managers of the respective companies, he
was able to give the numbers of tons of goods, of coals, and other
minerals, the loads of cattle, and the number of passengers. The tons
of goods were 973,611, as against 950,042 in 1876—an increase of
23,569 tons, or about 2-1/2 per cent. The tons of coal were 566,535,
against 575,904—a falling off of 9,372 tons, or 1-1/2 percent.
The other minerals were 119,583 tons, against 100,187—an
increase of 19,369, or 19 per cent. The loads of cattle were 22,462
last year, against 19,157 in the previous year—an increase of
3,305 loads, 17 per cent. These were the returns of the "in"
and "out" traffic. The number of passengers was 5,787,616 in
1877, against 5,606,331—an increase of 181,285, or about 3-1/4
per cent. So far as the traffic went, as they had been led to expect
from the Board of Trade returns, there had been an increase of
business, but a decrease of profits; and as to the decrease of profits
he had some figures which showed that the profits of trade for the
parish of Birmingham fur the year ending April 1, 1877, were
£3,989,000; and of the preceeding year £4,292,000—a
falling off of £323,000, or a trifle over 8 per cent. These
figures of Mr. Chamberlain's may be accepted as representing the
present state, the increase in numbers and consequent addition to the
traffic "in" being balanced by the lesser quantity of goods
sent out, though it is questionable whether the profits of trade now
reach £3,000,000 per year. Notwithstanding the adverse times the
failures have rather decreased than otherwise, there being 13
bankruptcies and 313 arrangements by composition in 1883 against 14
and 324 respectively in 1882. To get at the number of tradesmen,
&c., is almost as difficult as to find out the value of their
trade, but a comparison at dates fifty years apart will be interesting
as showing the increase that has taken place in that period. A
Directory of 1824 gave a list of 141 different trades and the names of
4,980 tradesmen; a similar work published in 1874 made 745 trades,
with 33,462 tradesmen. To furnish a list of all the branches of trade
now carried on and the numbers engaged therein would fill many pages,
but a summary will be found under "Population," and
for fuller particulars the reader must go to the Census Tables for
1881, which may be seen at the Reference Library. The variety of
articles made in this town is simply incalculable, for the old saying
that anything, from a needle to a ship's anchor, could be obtained
in Edgbaston Street is really not far from the truth, our
manufacturers including the makers of almost everything that human
beings require, be it artificial eyes and limbs, ammunition, or
armour; beads, buttons, bedsteads, or buckles; cocoa, candlesticks,
corkscrews, or coffee-pots; door bolts, dessert forks, dog collars, or
dish covers; edge tools, earrings, engines, or eyeglasses; fire irons,
fiddle-bows, frying pans, or fishhooks; gold chains, gas fittings,
glass toys, or gun barrels; hairpins, harness, handcuffs, or hurdles;
ironwork, isinglass, inkstands, or inculators; jewellery, javelins,
jews' harps, or baby jumpers; kettles, kitchen ranges, knife
boards, or knuckle dusters; lifting-jacks, leg irons, latches, or
lanterns; magnets, mangles, medals, or matches; nails, needles,
nickel, or nutcrackers; organ pipes, optics, oilcans, or ornaments;
pins, pens, pickle forks, pistols, or boarding-pikes; quart cups,
quoits, quadrats, or queerosities; rings, rasps, rifles, or railway
cars; spades, spectacles, saddlery, or sealing wax; thermometers,
thimbles, toothpicks, or treacle taps; umbrellas or upholstery;
ventilators, vices, varnish, or vinegar; watches, wheelbarrows,
weighing machines or water closets. A Londoner who took stock of our
manufactories a little while back, received information that led him
to say, a week's work in Birmingham comprises, among its various
results, the fabrication of 14,000,000 pens, 6,000 bedsteads, 7,000
guns, 300,000,000 cut nails, 100,000,000 buttons, 1,000 saddles,
5,000,000 copper or bronze coins, 20,000 pairs of spectacles, 6 tons
of papier-mache wares, over £20,000 worth of gold and silver
jewellery, nearly an equal value of gilt and cheap ornaments,
£12,000 worth of electro-plated wares, 4,000 miles of iron and
steel wire, 10 tons of pins, 5 tons of hairpins and hooks and eyes,
130,000 gross of wood screws, 500 tons of nuts and screw-bolts and
spikes, 50 tons of wrought iron hinges, 350 miles' length of wax
for vestas, 40 tons of refined metal, 40 tons of German silver, 1,000
dozen of fenders, 3,500 bellows, 800 tons of brass and copper wares.
Several of these items are rather over the mark, but the aggregate
only shows about one half a real week's work, as turned out when
trade is good.
Agricultural Implements, such as draining tools, digging and
manure forks, hay knives, scythes, shovels, spades, &c., as well
as mowing machines, garden and farm rollers, ploughs, harrows,
&c., are the specialities of some half-dozen firms, the
oldest-established being Messrs. Mapplebeck and Lowe, opposite
Smithfield Market.
American Traders.—It has been stated that there is not a
bona fide American trader residing amongst us, though at one
time they were almost as numerous as the Germans now are. Be that as
it may, the following statistics, giving the declared value of exports
from Birmingham to America during the ten years ending Sept. 30, 1882,
(taken from a report made by the American Consul-General in London),
show that a vast trade is still being carried on with our friends on
the other side of the Atlantic:—Year ending September 30 1873,
7,463,185 dols.; 1874, 5,778,957 dols.; 1875, 4,791,231 dols.; 1876,
3,135,234 dols.; 1877, 2,842,871 dols.; 1878 2,309,513 dols.; 1879,
2,435,271 dols.; 1880, 4,920,433 dols.; 1881, 4,376,611 dols.; 1882,
5,178,118 dols. Total, 43,231,429 dols.
Ammunition.—To manufacture ammunition for guns and
pistols so long made here by the scores of thousands would seem but
the natural sequence, but though percussion caps were yearly sent from
here in millions of grosses, the manufacture of the complete cartridge
is a business of later growth. For the invention of gunpowder the
world had to thank a monk, and it is no less curious that we owe
percussion caps to the scientific genius of another Churchman, the
first patent for their construction being taken out by the Rev. Mr.
Forsyth in 1807. They were very little thought of for long after
Waterloo, and not introduced into "the service" until 1839,
several foreign armies being supplied with them before the War Office
allowed them to be used by "Tommy Atkins" with his
"Brown Bess." A machine for making percussion caps was
patented by John Abraham in 1864. The manufacture of such articles at
all times involves several dangerous processes, and Birmingham has had
to mourn the loss of many of her children through accidents arising
therefrom. (See "Explosions.") The ammunition works of Messrs.
Kynoch and Co., at Witton, cover over twenty acres, and gives
employment to several hundred persons, the contrariness of human
nature being exemplified in the fact that the death-dealing articles
are mainly manufactured by females, the future mothers or wives
perchance of men to be laid low by the use of such things. The plant
is capable of turning out 500,000 cartridges per day, as was done
during the Turkish war, and it takes 50 tons of rolled brass, 100 tons
of lead, and 20 tons of gunpowder weekly to keep the factory fully
going, all kinds of ammunition for rifles and machine guns being made
on the premises. Other extensive works are those of the Birmingham
Small Arms and Metal Co., at Adderley Park Mills, and the National
Arms and Ammunition Co., at Small Heath, and Perry Barr.
Artificial Eyes and Limbs are necessary articles to some
members of the genus homo, but the demand, fortunately, is not
of such an extensive character as to require many manufacturers;
indeed, the only firm in Birmingham that devotes itself entirely to
supplying artificial limbs is that of Messrs. Best and Son, Summer
Lane, whose specialities in the way of arms and legs are famed in all
English and Continental medical circles as wonderful examples of the
peculiar mechanism requisite to successfully imitate the motions and
powers of natural limbs. There are half-a-dozen makers of
"eyes," human and otherwise, the chief being Messrs. Pache
and Son, Bristol Street, and Mr. Edward Hooper, Suffolk Street, who
hold the almost unique position of being the sole known makers of
artificial human eyes anywhere. Few people would imagine it, but it is
said that there are at least 1,500 persons in Birmingham who carry
glass eyes in their head; while the demand from foreign countries is
something enormous, the United States taking the lead as they fain
would do in everything. But there is no part of the civilised world,
from Spitzbergen to Timbuctoo, where Birmingham made eyes are not to
be seen, even the callous "heathen Chinee" buying them in
large quantities. Naturalists and taxidermists find here eyes to match
those of any creature that has lived and breathed, and
"doll's eyes" are made by the ton.
Bedsteads, Metallic.—The making of iron and brass
bedsteads, as a staple trade, dates only from the accession of Her
Majesty; but, unlike that august personage, they were a long time
before they were appreciated as they deserved to be, for, in 1850,
there were only four or five manufacturers in the town, and their
output did not reach 500 a week. Now, about 1,800 hands are employed
in the trade, and the annual value of the work sent out cannot be less
than £200,000.
Boilermaking.—The making of iron boilers, gasholders,
sugar-boilers, &c., may be dated as a special trade from about
1831, when 30 men and boys were employed thereat, turning out about
150 tons yearly; in 1860, about 200 hands turned out 1,000 tons; in
1880 the workers were roughly estimated at 750 to 800 and the output
at 4,500 tons.
Booksellers.—In 1750, there were but three, Aris, Warren,
and Wollaston: now the booksellers, publishers, and wholesale
stationers are over a hundred, while small shops may be counted to
treble the number.
Boots and Shoes are manufactured by about 40 wholesale houses,
several doing a great trade, and of retailers and little men there are
a dozen gross, not counting cobblers who come with the last.
American-made articles were first on sale here in March 1877. Rivetted
boots may be said to have originated (in 1840) through the mistake of
a local factor's traveller, who booked an order for copper sprigs
too extensive for his customer. Another of the firm's commercials
suggested the rivetting if iron lasts were used. A Leicester man, in a
small way, took up the notion, and made a fortune at it, the real
inventor only getting good orders. Ellis's patent boot studs to
save the sole, and the Euknemida, or concave-convex fastening springs,
are the latest novelties.
Brass.—The making of goods in brass was commenced here
about 1668, but the manufacturer of brass itself was not carried on
before 1740, when Mr. Turner built his works in Coleshill Street. The
Brass and Spelter Co. was started in February 1781, with a capital of
£20,000 in £100 shares. Brasshouse Passage, Broad Street,
tells of the site of another smelting place, the last chimney of which
was demolished on January 27. 1866. The Waterworks Co. bought the site
for offices. Stamped brass came in through Richard Ford in 1769, and
the process at first was confined to the manufacture of small basins
and pans, but in a very few years it was adapted to the production of
an infinitude of articles. Pressed brass rack pulleys for window
blinds were the invention of Thomas Horne, in 1823, who applied the
process of pressure to many other articles. Picture frames, nicely
moulded in brass, were made here in 1825, by a modeller named Maurice
Garvey. In 1865 it was estimated that the quantities of metal used
here in the manufacture of brass were 19,000 tons of copper, 8,000
tons of old metal, 11,000 tons of zinc or spelter, 200 tons of tin,
and 100 tons of lead, the total value being £2,371,658. Nearly
double this quantity is now used every year. The number of hands
employed in the brass trade is about 18,000.
Buckles were first worn as shoe fastenings in the reign of
Charles II. When in fashion they were made of all sizes and all
prices, from the tiny half-inch on the hatband to the huge shoebuckle
for the foot, and varying from a few pence in price to many guineas
the pair. The extent of the manufactures at one time may be guessed
from the fact of there being over 20,000 buckle makers out of employ
in 1791-2, when vain petitions were made to the royal princes to stem
the change then taking place in the "fashions." Sir Edward
Thomason said his father in 1780 made 1,000 pair par day, mostly of
white metal, but some few plated; by one pattern, known as the
"silver penny," he cleared a profit of £1,000. The
introduction of shoestrings, and naturally so, was much ridiculed in
our local papers, and on one occasion was made the pretext for a
disgraceful riot, the pickpockets mobbing the gentlemen going to and
from one of the Musical Festivals, the wearers of shoestrings being
hustled about and robbed of their purses and watches.
Buttons.—The earliest record of button-making we have is
dated 1689, but Mr. Baddeley (inventor of the oval chuck), who retired
from business about 1739, is the earliest local manufacturer we read
of as doing largely in the trade, though sixty or seventy years ago
there were four or five times as many in the business as at present,
blue coats and gilt buttons being in fashion. By an Act passed in the
4th of William and Mary foreign buttons made of hair were forbidden to
be imported. By another Act, in the 8th of Queen Anne it was decreed
that "any taylor or other person convicted of making, covering,
selling, using, or setting on to a garment any buttons covered with
cloth, or other stuff of which garments are made, shall forfeit five
pounds for every dozen of such buttons, or in proportion for any
lesser quantity;" by an Act of the seventh of George the First,
"any wearer of such unlawful buttons is liable to the penalty of
forty shillings per dozen, and in proportion for any lesser
quantity." Several cases are on record in which tradesmen have
been heavily fined under these; strange laws, and before they were
repealed it is related by Dr. Doran (in 1855) that one individual not
only got out of paying for a suit of clothes because of the illegality
of the tailor in using covered buttons, but actually sued the
unfortunate "snip" for the informer's share of the
penalties, the funniest part of the tale being that the judge who
decided the case, the barrister who pleaded the statute, and the
client who gained the clothes he ought to have paid for, were all of
them buttoned contrary to law. These Acts were originally enforced to
protect the many thousands who at the time were employed in making
buttons of silk, thread, &c., by hand, and not, as is
generally supposed, in favour of the metal button manufacturers,
though on April 4, 1791, Thomas Gem, the solicitor to the committee
for the protection of the button trade, advertised a reward for any
information against the wearers of the unlawful covered buttons. The
"gilt button days" of Birmingham was a time of rare
prosperity, and dire was the distress when, like the old buckles, the
fashion of wearing the gilt on the blue went out. Deputations to
royalty had no effect in staying the change, and thousands were thrown
on the parish. It was sought to revive the old style in 1850, when a
deputation of button makers solicited Prince Albert to patronise the
metallic buttons for gentlemen's coats, but Fashion's fiat was
not to be gainsayed. John Taylor, High Sheriff of Warwickshire in
1756, is said to have sent out about £800 worth of buttons per
week. Papier maché buttons came in with Henry Clay's patent
in 1778. He also made buttons of slate. Boulton, of Soho, was the
first to bring out steel buttons with facets, and it is said that for
some of superior design he received as much as 140 guineas per gross.
Horn buttons, though more correctly speaking they should have been
called "hoof" buttons, were a great trade at one time,
selling in 1801 as low as 5-1/2d. per gross. "Maltese
buttons" (glass beads mounted in metal) were, in 1812, made here
in large quantities, as were also the "Bath metal drilled shank
button" of which 20,000 gross per week were sent out, and a fancy
cut white metal button, in making which 40 to 50 firms were engaged,
each employing 20 to 40 hands, but the whole trade in these
specialities was lost in consequence of a few men being enticed to or
imprisoned in France, and there establishing a rival manufacture.
Flexible shanks were patented in 1825 by B. Sanders. Fancy silk
buttons, with worked figured tops, were patented by Wm. Elliott, in
1837. Porcelain buttons, though not made here, were designed and
patented by a Birmingham man, R. Prosser, in 1841. The three-fold
linen button was the invention of Humphrey Jeffries, in 1841, and
patented by John Aston. In 1864 so great was the demand for these
articles that one firm is said to have used up 63,000 yards of cloth
and 34 tons of metal in making them. Cadbury and Green's
"very" button is an improvement on these. Vegetable ivory,
the product of a tree growing in Central America and known as the
Corozo palm, was brought into the button trade about 1857. The shells
used in the manufacture of pearl buttons are brought from many parts
of the world, the principal places being the East Indies, the Red Sea,
the Persian Gulf, the islands of the Pacific Ocean, Panama, and the
coasts of Central America, Australia, New Zealand, &c. The prices
of "shell" vary very much, some not being worth more than
£20 per ton, while as high as £160 to £170 has been
paid for some few choice samples brought from Macassar, a seaport in
India. The average import of shell is about 1,000 tons per year, and
the value about £30,000.—There are 265 button
manufacturers in Birmingham, of whom 152 make pearl buttons, 26 glass,
8 horn and bone, 14 ivory, 12 gilt metal, 3 wood, and 5 linen, the
other 45 being of a mixed or general character, silver, brass, steel,
wood, and papier maché, being all, more or less, used. Nearly
6,000 hands are employed in the trade, of whom about 1,700 are in the
pearl line, though that branch is not so prosperous as it was a few
years back.
Chemical Manufactures.—About 50,000 tons of soda, soup,
bleaching powder, oil of vitriol, muriatic acid, sulphuric acid,
&c., are manufactured in or near Birmingham, every year, more than
20,000 tons of salt, 20,000 tons of pyrites, and 60,000 tons of coal
being used in the process.
China, in the shape of knobs, &c., was introduced into the
brass founding trade by Harcourt Bros, in 1844. China bowls or wheels
for castors were first used in 1849 by J.B. Geithner.
Chlorine.—James Watt was one of the first to introduce
the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent.
Citric Acid.—Messrs. Sturge have over sixty years been
manufacturing this pleasant and useful commodity at their works in
Wheeley's Lane. The acid is extracted from the juice of the
citron, the lime, and the lemon, fruits grown in Sicily and the West
Indies. The Mountserrat Lime-Juice Cordial, lately brought into the
market, is also made from these fruits. About 350 tons of the acid,
which is used in some dying processes, &c., is sent out annually.
Coins, Tokens, and Medals.—Let other towns and cities
claim preeminence for what they may, few will deny Birmingham's
right to stand high in the list of money-making places. At what date
it acquired its evil renown for the manufacture of base coin it would
be hard to tell, but it must have been long prior to the Revolution of
1688, as in some verses printed in 1682, respecting the Shaftesbury
medal, it is thus sneeringly alluded to:
"The wretch that stamped got immortal fame,
'Twas coined by stealth, like groats in Birminghame."
Smiles, in his lives of Boulton and Watt, referring to the middle of
the last century, says, "One of the grimmest sights of those days
were the skeletons of convicted coiners dangling from gibbets on
Handsworth Heath." Coining was a capital offence for hundreds of
years, but more poor wretches paid the penalty of their crimes in
London in a single year than here in a century, wicked as the bad boys
of Brummagem were. An immense trade was certainly done in the way of
manufacturing "tokens," but comparatively few counterfeits
of the legal currency were issued, except in cases where "a royal
patent" had been granted for the purpose, as in the instance of
the historical "Wood's half-pence," £100,000 worth
(nominal) of which, it is said, were issued for circulation in
Ireland. These were called in, as being too bad, even for Paddy's
land, and probably it was some of these that the hawker, arrested here
Oct. 31, 1733, offered to take in payment for his goods. He was
released on consenting to the £7 worth he had received being cut
by a brazier and sold as metal, and his advertisements (hand bills)
burnt. These bad half pence weighed about 60 to the lb., 2s. 6d. worth
(nominal) being somewhat less than 10d. in value. In the ten years
prior to 1797 it has been estimated that 700 tons of copper were
manufactured here into tokens, and the issue of the celebrated Soho
pence, providing the nation with a sufficiency of legitimate copper
coin, did not stay the work, the number of tokens in circulation in
the early part of the present century being something wonderful, as
many as 4,000 different varieties having been described by collectors,
including all denominations, from the Bank of England's silver
dollar to a country huckster's brass farthing. More than
nine-tenths of these were made in Birmingham, and, of course, our
tradesmen were not backward with their own specimens. The Overseers
issued the well-known "Workhouse Penny," a copper threepenny
piece, silver shillings and sixpences, paper notes for 2s. 6d., and
leather bonds for 5s. With the exception of the penny these are all
scarce now, particularly the 5s., 2s. 6d., and 6d., a specimen of the
latter lately being sold at auction for 47s. In 1812 Sir Edward
Thomason struck, for a Reading banker (Mr. J.B. Monk), 800 gold tokens
of the nominal value of 40s. each; but this was just a step too far,
and the Government forbade their use. In the same year he also
manufactured two million penny tokens for our soldiers in Spain, which
were not forbidden. The permitted manufacture of token money
came to an end with the year 1817, an Act coming into force Jan. 1,
1818, forbidding further issue from that date, or the circulation of
them after the end of the year, except in the case of the Overseers of
Birmingham, who were granted grace till Lady-day, 1820, to call in
what they had issued. In 1786 Boulton struck over 100 tons of copper
for the East India Co., and, adding to his presses yearly, soon had
plenty of orders, including copper for the American Colonies, silver
for Sierra Leone, and a beautiful set for the French Republic. To
enumerate all the various coins, medals, and tokens issued from Soho
would take too much space, but we may say that he brought the art of
coining to a perfection very little surpassed even in the present day.
In 1789 he made for the Privy Council a model penny, halfpenny, and
farthing, but red-tapeism delayed the order until 1797, when he began
coining for the Government twopennies (only for one year), pennies,
halfpennies and farthings, continuing to do so until 1806, by which
time he had sent out not less than 4,200 tons weight. In this coinage
of 1797 the penny was made of the exact weight of 1 oz., the other
coins being in proportion. In 1799, eighteen pennies were struck out
of the pound of metal, but the people thought they were counterfeit,
and would not take them until a proclamation ordering their
circulation, was issued December 9th. They became used to a
deprecation of currency after that, and there was but very little
grumbling in 1805, when Boulton was ordered to divide the pound of
copper into 24 pennies. The machinery of Boulton's mint, with the
collection of dies, pattern coins, tokens, and medals, were sold by
auction in 1850. The collection should have numbered 119 different
pieces, but there was not a complete set for sale. The mint, however,
could not be called extinct, as Messrs. Watt and Co. (successors to
Bolton and Watt), who had removed to Smethwick in 1848, struck over
3,300 tons of copper and bronze coin between 1860 and 1866, mostly for
Foreign countries. The first English copper penny (1797) was struck in
Birmingham, and so was the last. Messrs. Ralph Heaton and Son (the
mint, Warstone Line) receiving the contract in April, 1853. for 500
tons of copper coin, comprising pence, half-pence, farthings,
half-farthings, and quarter-farthings. The present bronze coinage came
into use December 1st, 1860, and Messrs. Heaton have had several
contracts therefor since then. This firm has acquired a reputation
quite equal to the Soho Mint, and hive supplied the
coins—silver, copper, and bronze—for Belgium, Canada,
China, Chili, Denmark, Germany, Hayti, India, Republic of Columbia,
Sarawak, Sweden, Tunis, Turkey, Tuscany, Venezuela, and other
Principalities and States, including hundreds of tons of silver blanks
for our own Government and others, sending workmen and machinery to
the countries where it was preferred to have the coins struck at home.
Boulton, in his day, supplied the presses and machinery for the Mint
on Tower Hill (and they are still in use), as well as for the Danish,
Spanish, and Russian authorities. Mexico, Calcutta, Bombay, &c.
Messrs. Heaton, and the modern Soho firm, also dealing in such
articles. Foremost among modern local medallists, is Mr. Joseph Moore,
of Pitsford Street, whose cabinet of specimens is most extensive. An
effort is being made to gather for the new Museum and Art Gallery a
collection of all coins, medals, and tokens struck in Birmingham, and
if it can be perfected it will necessarily be a very valuable one.
Coal.—Over half-a-million tons of coal are used in
Birmingham annually.
Cocoa.—The manufacture of cocoa cannot be classed among
the staple trades of the town, but one of the largest establishments
of the kind in the kingdom, if not in the world, is that of Messrs.
Cadbury, at Bournville, where nearly 400 persons are employed. The
annual consumption of cocoa in this country is estimated at 13,000,000
lbs., and the proportion manufactured by Messrs. Cadbury, who have
houses in Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Montreal, &e., may be guessed
at from the fact that their works cover nearly four acres, and
packing-boxes are required at the rate of 12,000 per week.
Copying Presses were invented by James Watt in, and patented
in, May, 1780. His partner, Boulton, had a lot ready for the market,
and sold 150 by the end of the year.
Compressed Air Power.—A hundred years ago every little
brook and streamlet was utilised for producing the power required by
our local mill-owners, gun-barrel rollers, &c. Then came the
world's revolutioniser, steam, and no place in the universe has
profited more by its introduction than this town. Gas engines are now
popular, and even water engines are not unknown, while the motive
power derivable from electricity is the next and greatest boon
promised to us. Meanwhile, the introduction of compressed air as a
means of transmitting power for long distances marks a new and
important era, not only in engineering science, but in furthering the
extension of hundreds of those small industries, which have made
Birmingham so famous a workshop. In the Birmingham Compressed Air
Power Company's Bill (passed March 12, 1884), the principle
involved is the economic utility of centralising the production of
power, and many engineers are of opinion that no other means can
possibly be found so convenient as the use of compressed air in
transmitting motive power, or at so low a cost, the saving being quite
20 per cent, compared with the use of steam for small engines. The
Birmingham Bill provides for the supply of compressed air within the
wards of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, Deritend, and Bordesley, which
have been selected by the promoters as affording the most promising
area. In the three wards named there were rated in March of 1883, as
many as 164 engines, of which the nominal horse-power varied from 1/2
to 10, fifty-nine from 11 to 20 fifteen from 21 to 30, six from 32 to
50, ten from 52 to 100, and four from 102 to 289. Assuming that of
these the engines up to 30-horse power would alone be likely to use
compressed air, the promoters count upon a demand in the three wards
for 1,946 nominal, and perhaps 3,000 indicated horse-power. To this
must be added an allowance for the probability that the existence of
so cheap and convenient a power "laid on" in the streets
will attract other manufacturers to the area within which it is to be
available. It is proposed, therefore, to provide machinery and plant
capable of delivering 5,000 indicated horse-power in compressed air,
and to acquire for the works sufficient land to permit of their
dimensions being doubled when extension shall become necessary. The
site which has been chosen is a piece of ground belonging to the
Birmingham and Warwick Canal Company, and situated by the canal, and
bounded on both sides by Sampson Road North and Henley Street. Here
the promoters are putting down four air-compressing engines, driven by
compound and condensing steam engines and which are to be heated by
six sets (four in each set) of elephant boilers. From the delivery
branches of the air-compressors a main 30in. in diameter will be laid
along Henley Street, and, bifurcating, will be taken through Sampson
Road North and Stratford Street at a diameter of 24in. The mains will
then divide, to as to pass down Sandy Lane, Fazeley Street, Floodgate
Street, Bradford Street, Bromsgrove Street, and other thoroughfares,
giving off smaller branches at frequent intervals, and so forming an
elaborate network. The whole cost of buildings, plant, and
construction is estimated at £140,500, but upon this large
outlay it is hoped to realise a net annual profit of £9,164, or
6-1/2 per cent, on capital. The engineers, reckoning the annual cost
of producing small steam power in Birmingham at £10 per
indicated horse-power, which will probably be regarded as well within
the mark, propose to furnish compressed air at £8 per annum, and
if they succeed in carrying out the scheme as planned, it will without
doubt be one of the greatest blessings ever conferred on the smaller
class of our town's manufacturers.
Fenders and Fireirons.—The making of these finds work for
800 or 900 hands, and stove grates (a trade introduced from Sheffield
about 20 years back) almost as many.
Files and Rasps are manufactured by 60 firms, whose total
product, though perhaps not equal to the Sheffield output, is far from
inconsiderable. Machines for cutting files and rasps were patented by
Mr. Shilton, Dartmouth Street, in 1833.
Fox, Henderson and Co.—In March, 1853, this arm employed
more than 3,000 hands, the average weekly consumption of iron being
over 1,000 tons. Among the orders then in hand were the ironwork for
our Central Railway Station, and for the terminus at Paddington, in
addition to gasometers, &c., for Lima, rails, wagons and wheels
for a 55-mile line in Denmark, and the removal and
re-election[Transcriber's note: this is probably a typographical
error for "re-erection".] of the Crystal Palace at
Sydenham.-See "Exhibitions," "Noteworthy men."
Galvanised Buckets and other articles are freely made, but the
galvanisers can hardly be pleasant neighbours, as at the works of one
firm 40 to 50 carboys of muriatic acid and several of sulphuric acid
are used every day, while at another place the weekly consumption of
chemicals runs to two tons of oil of vitriol and seven tons of
muriatic acid.
German Silver.—To imitate closely as possible the
precious metals, by a mixture of baser ones, is not exactly a
Birmingham invention, as proved by the occasional discovery of
counterfeit coin of very ancient date, but to get the best possible
alloy sufficiently malleable for general use has always been a local
desideratum. Alloys of copper with tin, spelter or zinc were used here
in 1795, and the term "German" was applied to the best of
these mixtures as a Jacobinical sneer at the pretentious appellation
of silver given it by its maker. After the introduction of nickel from
the mines in Saxony, the words "German silver" became
truthfully appropriate as applied to that metal, but so habituated
have the trade and the public become to brassy mixtures that German
silver must always be understood as of that class only.
Glass—The art of painting, &c. on glass was brought
to great perfection by Francis Eginton, of the Soho Works, in 1784. He
supplied windows for St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Salisbury and
Lichfield Cathedrals, and many country churches. The east window of
St. Paul's, Birmingham, and the east window of the south aisle in
Aston Church, are by Eginton. One of the commissions he obtained was
from the celebrated William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London, for
windows at Fonthill, to the value of £12,000. He was not,
however, the first local artist of the kind, for a Birmingham man is
said to have painted a window in Haglev Church, in 1756-57, for Lord
Lyttelton, though his name is not now known. William Raphael Eginton
(son of Francis) appeared in the Directory of 1818, as a glass-painter
to the Princess Charlotte, but we can find no trace of his work.
Robert Henderson started in the same line about 1820, and specimens of
his work may be seen in Trinity Chapel; he died in 1848. John Hardman
began in Paradise Street about 1837, afterwards removing to Great
Charles Street, and thence to Newhall Hill, from which place much
valuable work has been issued, as the world-known name well testifies.
Engraving on glass is almost as old as the introduction of glass
itself. There is a beautiful specimen in the Art Gallery. Glass
flowers, fruit, &c., as ornamental adjuncts to brassfoundry, must
be accredited to W. C. Aitken, who first used them in 1846. American
writers claim that the first pressed glass tumbler was made about 40
years back in that country, by a carpenter. We have good authority for
stating that the first pressed tumbler was made in this country by
Rice Harris, Birmingham, as far back as 1834. But some years earlier
than this dishes had been pressed by Thomas Hawkes and Co., of Dudley,
and by Bacchus and Green, of Birmingham. No doubt the earliest
pressing was the old square feet to goblets, ales, jellies, &c.
Primitive it was, but like Watt's first engine, it was the
starting point, and Birmingham is entitled to the credit of it. It is
very remarkable that none of the samples of Venetian glass show any
pressing, although moulding was brought by them to great perfection.
It would not be fair to omit the name of the first mould-maker who
made the tumbler-mould in question. It was Mr. James Stevens, then of
Camden Street, Birmingham, and it is to him, and his sons, James and
William, that the world is greatly indebted for the pressing of glass.
The older Stevens has been dead some years, and the sons have left the
trade. Previous to this mould being made for tumblers, Mr. James
Stevens made some pressed salt-moulds to order for an American
gentleman visiting Birmingham. Some of the most beautiful works in
glass fountains, candelabra, &c., that the world has ever seen
have been made at Messrs. Oslers, Broad Street, whose show rooms are
always open to visitors.
Guns.—The imitative, if not inventive, powers of our
forefathers have been shown in so many instances, that it is not
surprising we have no absolute record of the first gun-maker, when he
lived, or where he worked, but we may be confident that firearms were
not long in use before they were manufactured here. The men who made
15,000 swords for the Commonwealth were not likely to go far for the
"musquets" with which they opposed Prince Rupert. The honour
of procuring the first Government contract for guns rests with Sir
Richard Newdigate, one of the members for the county in William
III.'s reign, a trial order being given in 1692, followed by a
contract for 2,400 in 1693, at 17/-each. For the next hundred years
the trade progressed until the Government, in 1798, found it necessary
to erect "view-rooms" (now "the Tower", Bagot
Street) in Birmingham. From 1804 to 1817 the number of muskets,
rifles, carbines, and pistols made here for the Government, amounted
to 1,827,889, in addition to 3,037,644 barrels and 2,879,203 locks
sent to be "set up" in London, and more than 1,000,000
supplied to the East India Co. In the ten years ending 1864 (including
the Crimean War) over 4,000,000 military barrels were proved in this
town, and it has been estimated that during the American civil war our
quarreling cousins were supplied with 800,000 weapons from our
workshops. Gunstocks are chiefly made from beech and walnut, the
latter for military and best work, the other being used principally
for the African trade, wherein the prices have ranged as low as 6s.
6d. per gun. Walnut wood is nearly all imported, Germany and Italy
being the principal markets;—during the Crimean war one of our
manufacturers set up sawmills at Turin, and it is stated that before
he closed them he had used up nearly 10,000 trees, averaging not more
than thirty gunstocks from each. To give anything like a history of
the expansion of, and changes in, the gun trade during the last
fifteen years, would require a volume devoted solely to the subject,
but it may not be uninteresting to enumerate the manifold branches
into which the trade has been divided—till late years most of
them being carried on under different roofs:—The first portion,
or "makers", include—stock-makers, barrel welders,
borers, grinders, filers, and breechers; rib makers, breech forgers
and stampers; lock forgers, machiners, and filers; furniture forgers,
casters, and filers; rod forgers, grinders, polishers, and finishers;
bayonet forgers, socket and ring stampers, grinders, polishers,
machiners, hardeners, and filers; band forgers, stampers, machiners,
filers, and pin makers; sight stampers, machiners, jointers, and
filers; trigger boxes, oddwork makers, &c. The "setters
up" include machines, jiggers (lump filers and break-off
fitters), stockers, percussioners, screwers, strippers, barrel borers
and riflers, sighters and sight-adjusters, smoothers, finishers
makers-off, polishers, engravers, browners, lock freers, &c.,
&c. The Proof-house in Banbury Street, "established for
public safety" as the inscription over the entrance says, was
erected in 1813, and with the exception of one in London is the only
building of the kind in England. It is under the management of an
independent corporation elected by and from members of the gun trade,
more than half-a-million of barrels being proved within its walls
yearly, the report for the year 1883 showing 383,735 provisional
proofs, and 297,704 definitive proofs. Of the barrels subjected to
provisional proof, 29,794 were best birding single, 150,176 best
birding double, and 160,441 African. Of those proved definitively,
63,197 were best double birding barrels, 110,369 breech-loading
birding, 37,171 breech-loading choke bore, and 54,297 saddle-pistol
barrels. As an instance of the changes going on in the trades of the
country, and as a contrast to the above figures, Birmingham formerly
supplying nearly every firearm sold in England or exported from it,
trade returns show that in 1882 Belgium imported 252,850 guns and
pistols, France 48,496, the United States 15,785, Holland 84,126,
Italy 155,985, making (with 3,411 from other countries) 560,653
firearms, valued at £124,813, rather a serious loss to the gun
trade of Birmingham.
Handcuffs and Leg Irons.—It is likely enough true that
prior to the abolition of slavery shackles and chains were made here
for use in the horrible traffic; but it was then a legal trade, and
possibly the articles were classed as "heavy steel toys,"
like the handcuffs and leg irons made by several firms now. A very
heavy Australian order for these last named was executed here in 1853,
and there is always a small demand for them.
Hinges.—Cast-iron hinges, secret joint, were patented in
1775 by Messrs. Izon and Whitehurst, who afterwards removed to West
Bromwich. The patent wrought iron hinge dates from 1840, since which
year many improvements have been made in the manufacture of iron,
brass, wire, cast, wrought, pressed, and welded hinges, the makers
numbering over three score.
Hollow-ware.—The invention of tinning iron pots and other
hollow-ware was patented in 1779 by Jonathan Taylor, the process being
first carried out by Messrs. Izon and Whitehurst at their foundry in
Duke Street. The enamelling of hollow-ware was Mr. Hickling's
patent (1799), but his method was not very satisfactory, the present
mode of enamelling dating from another patent taken out in 1839.
Messrs. Griffiths and Browett, Bradford Street, have the lion's
share of the local trade, which is carried on to a much greater extent
at Wolverhampton than here.
Hydraulic Machinery is the specialite almost solely of Messrs.
Tangye Bros., who established their Cornwall Works in 1855.
Jewellery.—A deputation from Birmingham waited upon
Prince Albert, May 28, 1845, at Buckingham Palace, for the purpose of
appealing to Her Majesty, through His Royal Highness, to take into
gracious consideration the then depressed condition of the operative
jewellers of Birmingham, and entreating the Queen and Prince to set
the example of wearing British jewellery on such occasions and to such
an extent as might meet the royal approval. The deputation took with
them as presents for the Queen, an armlet, a brooch, a pair of
ear-rings, and a buckle for the waist; for the Prince Consort a
watch-chain, seal, and key, the value of the whole being over 400
guineas. The armlet (described by good judges as the most splendid
thing ever produced in the town) brooch, ear-rings, chain and key were
made by Mr. Thomas Aston, Regent's Place; the buckle and seal
(designed from the Warwick vase) by Mr. Baleny, St. Paul's Square.
It was stated by the deputation that 5,000 families were dependent on
the jewellery trades in Birmingham. The "custom of trade" in
connection with jewellers and the public was formerly of the most
arbitrary character, so much so indeed that at the Great Exhibition of
1851, the Birmingham jewellers did not exhibit, except through the
London houses they were in the habit of supplying, and the specimens
shewn by these middlemen were of a very unsatisfactory character as
regards design. It is almost impossible to describe them without
appearing to exaggerate. Construction in relation to use went for
nothing. A group of Louis Quatorze scrolls put together to form
something like a brooch with a pin at the back to fasten it to the
dress, which it rather disfigured than adorned; heavy chain-like
bracelet, pins, studs, &c., of the most hideous conceits
imaginable, characterised the jewellery designs of Birmingham until
about 1854-55, when a little more intelligence and enterprise was
introduced, and our manufacturers learned that work well designed sold
even better than the old-styled ugliness. A great advance has taken
place during the past thirty years, and Birmingham jewellers now stand
foremost in all matters of taste and design, the workmen of to-day
ranking as artists indeed, even the commonest gilt jewellery turned
out by them now being of high-class design and frequently of most
elaborate workmanship. At the present time (March 1885) the trade is
in a very depressed condition, thousands of hands being out of employ
or on short time, partly arising, no doubt, from one of those
"changes of fashion" which at several periods of our local
history have brought disaster to many of our industrial branches. It
has been estimated that not more than one-half of the silver jewellery
manufactured in Birmingham in 1883, passed through the Assay Office,
but the total received there in the twelve months ending June 24th,
1883, amounted to no less than 856,180 ounces, or 31 tons 17 cwt. 4
lbs. 4 oz., the gold wares received during same period weighing 92,195
ounces, or 3 tons 7 cwt. 12 lbs. 3 oz., the total number of articles
sent in for assaying being 2,649,379. The directory of 1780 gave the
names of twenty-six jewellers; that of 1880 gives nearly 700,
including cognate trades. The fashion of wearing long silver
guard-chains came in in about 1806, the long gold ones dating a score
years later, heavy fob chains then going out. The yearly make of
wedding rings in Birmingham is put at 5,000 dozen. Precious stones are
not to be included in the list of locally manufactured articles, nor
yet "Paris pastes," though very many thousands of pounds
worth are used up every year, and those anxious to become possessed of
such glittering trifles will find dealers here who can supply them
with pearls from 6d., garnets from 2d., opals from 1s., diamonds,
rubies, emeralds, amethysts, &c., from half-a-crown, the prices of
all running up according to size, &c., to hundreds of pounds per
stone.
Latten, the term given to thin sheets of brass, was formerly
applied to sheets of tinned iron.
Lockmakers are not so numerous here as they once were, though
several well known patentees still have their works in the borough.
The general trade centres round Willenhall, Walsall, and
Wolverhampton.
Looking-glasses.—Messrs. Hawkes's, Sromsgrove Street,
is the largest looking-glass manufactory in the world, more than 300
hands being employed on the premises. A fire which took place Jan. 8,
1879, destroyed nearly £12,000 worth of stock, the turnout of
the establishment comprising all classes of mirrors, from those at 2.
a dozen to £40 or £50 each.
Mediæval Metalwork.—Mr. John Hardman, who had Pugin
for his friend, was the first to introduce the manufacture of
mediæval and ecclesiastical metal work in this town, opening his
first factory in Great Charles Street in 1845. The exhibits at the old
Bingley Hall in 1849 attracted great attention and each national
Exhibition since has added to the triumphs of the firm. Messrs. Jones
and Willis also take high rank.
Metronome, an instrument for marking time, was invented by Mr.
W. Heaton, a local musician, about 1817.
Mineral Waters.—The oldest local establishment for the
manufacture of aërated artificial and mineral waters is that of
Messrs. James Goffe and Son, of Duke Street, the present proprietors
of the artesian well in Allison Street. This well was formed some
years ago by Mr. Clark, a London engineer, who had undertaken a
Corporation contract connected with the sewers. Finding himself
embarassed with the flow of water from the many springs about Park
Street and Digbeth, he leased a small plot of land and formed a
bore-hole, or artesian well, to check the percolation into his
sewerage works. After boring about 400 feet he reached a main spring
in the red sandstone formation which gives a constant flow of the
purest water, winter and summer, of over 70,000 gals. per day, at the
uniform temperature of 50 deg. The bore is only 4in. diameter, and is
doubly tubed the whole depth, the water rising into a 12ft. brick
well, from which a 4,000 gallon tank is daily filled, the remainder
passing through a fountain and down to the sewers as waste. Dr.
Bostock Hill, the eminent analyst, reports most favourably upon the
freedom of the water from all organic or other impurities, and as
eminently fitted for all kinds of aërated waters, soda, potass,
seltzer, lithia, &c. The old-fashioned water-carriers who used to
supply householders with Digbeth water from "the Old Cock
pump" by St. Martin's have long since departed, but Messrs.
Goff's smart-looking barrel-carts may be seen daily on their
rounds supplying the real aqua pura to counters and bars
frequented by those who like their "cold without," and like
it good.—Messrs. Barrett & Co. and Messrs. Kilby are also
extensive manufacturers of these refreshing beverages.
Nails.—No definite date can possibly be given as to the
introduction of nailmaking here as a separate trade, most smiths,
doubtless, doing more or less at it when every nail had to be beaten
out on the anvil. That the town was dependent on outsiders for its
main supplies 150 years back, is evidenced by the Worcestershire
nailors marching from Cradley and the Lye, in 1737 to force the
ironmongers to raise the prices. Machinery for cutting nails was tried
as early as 1811, but it was a long while after that (1856) before a
machine was introduced successfully. Now there are but a few special
sorts made otherwise, as the poor people of Cradley and the Lye Waste
know to their cost, hand-made nails now being seldom seen.
Nettlefold's (Limited).—This, one of the most
gigantic of our local companies, was registered in March, 1880, the
capital being £750,000 in shares of £10 each, with power
to issue debentures to the vendors of the works purchased to the
extent of £420,000. The various firms incorporated are those of
Messrs. Nettlefold's, at Heath Street, and Princip-street,
Birmingham, at King's Norton, at Smethwick, &c., for the
manufacture of screws, wire, &c., the Castle Ironworks at Hadley,
Shropshire, and the Collieries at Ketley, in the same county; the
Birmingham Screw Co., at Smethwick; the Manchester Steel Screw Co., at
Bradford, Manchester; Mr. John Cornforth, at Berkeley Street Wire and
Wire Nail Works; and Messrs. Lloyd and Harrison, at Stourport Screw
Works. The purchase money for the various works amounted to
£1,024.000, Messrs. Nettlefold's share thereof being
£786,000, the Birmingham Screw Co.'s £143,000, the
Manchester Co.'s £50,000, Messrs. Cornforth, Lloyd and
Harrison taking the remainder. The firm's works in Heath Street
are the most extensive of the kind in existence, the turnout being
more than 200,000 gross of screws per week, nearly 250 tons of wire
being used up in the same period.—See "Screws."
Nickel owes its introduction here to Mr. Askin, who, in 1832,
succeeded in refining the crude ore by precipitation, previously it
having been very difficult to bring it into use. Electro-plating has
caused a great demand for it.
Nuts and Bolts.—In addition to a score or two of private
firms engaged in the modern industry of nut and bolt making, there are
several limited liability Co.'s, the chief being the Patent Nut
and Bolt Co. (London Works, Smethwick), which started in 1863 with a
capital of £400,000 in shares of £20 each. The last
dividend (on £14 paid up) was at the rate of 10 per cent., the
reserve fund standing at £120,000. Messrs. Watkins and Keen, and
Weston and Grice incorporated with the Patent in 1865. Other Co.'s
are the Midland Bolt and Nut Co. (Fawdry Street, Smethwick), the
Phoenix Bolt and Nut Co. (Handsworth), the Patent Rivet Co. (Rolfe
Street, Smethwick), the Birmingham Bolt and Nut Co., &c.
Optical and Mathematical Instruments of all kinds were
manufactured here in large numbers eighty years ago, and many, such as
the solar microscope, the kaleidoscope, &c. may be said to have
had their origin in the workshops of Mr. Philip Carpenter and other
makers in the first decade of the present century. The manufacture of
these articles as a trade here is almost extinct.
Papier Maché.—This manufacture was introduced here
by Henry Clay in 1772, and being politic enough to present Queen
Caroline with a Sedan chair made of this material, he was patronised
by the wealthy and titled of the day, the demand for his ware being so
extensive that at one time he employed over 300 hands, his profit
being something like £3 out of every £5. It has been
stated that many articles of furniture, &c., made by him are still
in use. Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge commenced in 1816, and
improvements in the manufacture have been many and continuous. George
Souter introduced pearl inlaying in 1825; electro-deposit was applied
in 1844; "gem inlaying" in 1847, by Benj. Giles; aluminium
and its bronze in 1864; the transfer process in 1856 by Tearne and
Richmond. Paper pulp has been treated in a variety of ways for making
button blanks, tray blanks, imitiation jet, &c., the very dust
caused by cutting it up being again utilised by mixture with certain
cements to form brooches, &c.
Paraffin.—The manufacture of lamps for the burning of
this material dates only from 1861.
Pins.—What becomes of all the pins? Forty years ago it
was stated that 20,000,000 pins were made every day, either for home
or export use, but the total is now put at 50,000,000, notwithstanding
which one can hardly be in the company of man, woman, or child, for a
day without being asked "Have you such a thing as a pin about
you?" Pins were first manufactured here in quantities about 1750,
the Ryland family having the honour of introducing the trade. It
formerly took fourteen different persons to manufacture a single pin,
cutters, headers, pointers, polishers, &c., but now the whole
process is performed by machinery. The proportion of pins made in
Birmingham is put at 37,000,000 per day, the weight of brass wire
annually required being 1,850,000 lbs., value £84,791; iron wire
to the value of £5,016 is used for mourning and hair pins. The
census reports say there are but 729 persons employed (of whom 495 are
females) in the manufacture of the 11,500,000,000 pins sent from our
factories every year.
Planes.—Carpenters' planes were supplied to our
factors in 1760 by William Moss, and his descendants were in the
business as late as 1844. Messrs. Atkins and Sons have long been
celebrated makers, their hundreds of patterns including all kinds that
could possibly he desired by the workman. Woodwork is so cut, carved,
and moulded by machinery now, that these articles are not so much in
demand, and the local firms who make them number only a dozen.
Plated Wares.—Soho was celebrated for its plated wares as
early as 1766; Mr. Thomason (afterwards Sir Edward) commenced the
plating in 1796; and Messrs. Waterhouse and Ryland, another well-known
firm in the same line, about 1808, the material used being silver
rolled on copper, the mountings silver, in good work, often solid
silver. The directory of 1780 enumerates 46 platers, that of 1799 96
ditto; their names might now be counted on one's finger ends, the
modern electro-plating having revolutionised the business, vastly to
the prosperity of the town.
Puzzles.—The Yankee puzzle game of "Fifteen,"
took so well when introduced into this country (summer of 1880), that
one of our local manufacturers received an order to supply 10,000
gross, and he was clever enough to construct a machine that made 20
sets per minute.
Railway Waggon Works.—With the exception of the carriage
building works belonging to the several great railway companies,
Saltley may be said to be the headquarters of this modern branch of
industry, in which thousands of hands are employed. The Midland
Railway Carriage and Waggon Co. was formed in 1853, and has works of a
smaller scale at Shrewsbury. The Metropolitan Railway Carriage and
Waggon Co. was originated in London, in 1845, but removed to Saltley
in 1862, which year also saw the formation of the Union Rolling Stock
Co. The capital invested in the several companies is very large, and
the yearly value sent out is in proportion, more rolling stock being
manufactured here than in all the other towns in the kingdom put
together, not including the works of the railway companies themselves.
Many magnificent palaces on wheels have been made here for foreign
potentates, Emperors, Kings, and Queens, Sultans, and Kaisers, from
every clime that the iron horse has travelled in, as well as all sorts
of passenger cars, from the little narrow-gauge vehicles of the
Festiniog line, on which the travellers must sit back to back, to the
60ft. long sleeping-cars used on the Pacific and Buenos Ayers Railway,
in each compartment of which eight individuals can find sleeping
accommodation equal to that provided at many of the best hotels, or
the curious-looking cars used on Indian railways, wherein the natives
squat in tiers, or, as the sailor would say, with an upper and lower
deck.
Ropemaking is a trade carried on in many places, but there are
few establishments that can equal the Universe Works in Garrison Lane,
where, in addition to hundreds of tons of twine and cord, there are
manufactured all sorts of wire and hemp ropes for colliery and other
purposes, ocean telegraph cables included. Messrs. Wright introduced
strain machinery early in 1853, and in the following year they
patented a rope made of best hemp and galvanised wire spun together by
machinery. On a test one of these novelties, 4-1/4in. circumference,
attached to two engines, drew a train of 300 tons weight. To supply
the demand for galvanised signalling and fencing cords, the machines
must turn out 15,000 yards of strand per day.
Rulemaking, though formerly carried on in several places, is
now almost confined to this town and the metropolis, and as with
jewellery so with rules, very much of what is called "London
work" is, in reality, the produce of Birmingham. Messrs. Rabone
Brothers are the principal makers, and the boxwood used is mostly
obtained from Turkey and the Levant, but the firm does not confine
itself solely to the manufacture of wood rules, their steel tapes,
made up to 200ft in one length, without join of any sort, being a
specialty highly appreciated by surveyors and others.
Saddlery.—One of the oldest local trades, as Lelaud, in
1538, speaks of "lorimers" as being numerous then. That
there was an important leather market is certain (Hutton thought it
had existed for 700 years), and we read of "leather sealers"
among the local officers as well as of a "Leather Hall," at
the east end of New Street. The trade has more than quadrupled during
the last 25 years, about 3,000 hands being now engaged therein, in
addition to hundreds of machines.
Screws.—In olden days the threads of
a screw had to be filed out by hand, and the head struck up on the
anvil. The next step was to turn them in a lathe, but in 1849 a Gerimn
clockmaker invented a machine by which females could make them five
times as fast as the most skilful workman, and, as usual, the supply
created a demand; the trade for a few years received many additions,
and the "screw girders," as the hard-working lasses were
called, were to be met with in many parts of the town. 1852, 1,500
hands were employed, the output being from 20 to 25 tons per week, or
2,000,000 gross per year. Gradually, however, by the introduction and
patenting of many improvements in the machinery, the girls were, in a
great measure, dispensed with, and their employers as well, Messrs.
Nettlefold and Chamberlain having, in 1865, nearly the whole trade in
their hands, and sending out 150,000 gross of screws per week. Nearly
2,000 people are employed at Nettlefold's, including women and
girls, who feed and attend the screw and nail-making machines.
Notwithstanding the really complicated workings of the machines, the
making of a screw seems to a casual visitor but a simple thing. From a
coil of wire a piece is cut of the right length by one machine, which
roughly forms a head and passes it on to another, in which the blank
has its head nicely shaped, shaved, and "nicked" by a
revolving saw. It than passes by an automatic feeder into the next
machine where it is pointed and "wormed," and sent to be
shook clear of the "swaff" of shaving cut out for the worm.
Washing and polishing in revolving barrels precedes the examination of
every single screw, a machine placing them one by one so that none can
be missed sight of. Most of the 2,000 machines in use are of American
invention, but improved and extended, all machinery and tools of every
description being made by the firm's own workpeople.
Sewing Machines.—The various improvements in these
machines patented by Birmingham makers may be counted by the gross,
and the machines sent out every year by the thousands. The button-hole
machine was the invention of Mr. Clements.
Sheathing Metal.—In a newspaper called The World,
dated April 16, 1791, was an advertisement beginning
thus—"By the King's patent, tinned copper sheets
and pipes manufactured and sold by Charles Wyatt, Birmingham, and at
19, Abchurch lane, London." It was particularly recommended for
sheathing of ships, as the tin coating would prevent the corrosion of
the copper and operate as "a preservative of the iron placed
contiguous to it." Though an exceedingly clever man, and the son
of one of Birmingham's famed worthies, Mr. Charles Wyatt was not
fortunate in many of his inventions, and his tinned copper brought him
in neither silver nor gold. What is now known as sheathing or
"yellow" metal is a mixture of copper, zinc, and iron in
certain defined proportions, according as it is "Muntz's
metal," or "Green's patent," &c. Several
patents were taken out in 1779, 1800, and at later dates, and, as is
usual with "good things," there has been sufficient
squabbling over sheathing to provide a number of legal big-wigs with
considerable quantities of the yellow, metal they prefer.
George Frederick Muntz, M.P., if not the direct inventor, had the
lion's share of profit in the manufacture, as the good-will of his
business was sold for £40,000 in 1863, at which time it was
estimated that 11,000 tons of Muntz's mixture was annually made
into sheathing, ships' bolts, &c., to the value of over
£800,000. The business was taken to by a limited liability
company, whose capital in March, 1884, was £180,000, on which a
10 per cent, dividend was realised. Elliott's Patent Sheathing and
Metal Co. was formed in.1862.
Snuff-boxes.—A hundred years ago, when snuff-taking was
the mode, the manufacture of japanned, gilt, and other
snuff-boxes gave employment to large numbers here. Of one of these
workmen it is recorded that he earned £3 10s. per week painting
snuff-boxes at 1/4d. each. The first mention of their being made here
is in 1693.
Soap.—In more ways than one there is a vast deal of
"soft soap" used in Birmingham, but its inhabitants ought to
be cleanly people, for the two or three manufactories of hard yellow
and mottled in and near the town turn out an annual supply of over
3,000 tons.
Spectacles.—Sixty and seventy years ago spectacles were
sent out by the gross to all part of the country, but they were of a
kind now known as "goggles," the frames being large and
clumsy, and made of silver, white metal, or tortoise-shell, the fine
steel wire frames now used not being introduced until about 1840.
Stereoscopes, the invention of Sir David Brewster, were first
made in this town, Mr. Robert Field producing them.
Steel Pens.—Though contrary to the general belief,
metallic pens are of very ancient origin. Dr. Martin Lister, in his
book of Travels, published in 1699, described a "very curious and
antique writing instrument made of thick and strong silver wire, wound
up like a hollow bottom or screw, with both the ends pointing one way,
and at a distance, so that a man might easily put his forefinger
between the two points, and the screw fills the ball of his hand. One
of the points was the point of a bodkin, which was to write on waxed
tables; the other point was made very artificially, like the head and
upper beak of a cock and the point divided in two, just like our steel
pens, from whence undoubtedly the moderns had their patterns; which
are now made also of fine silver or gold, or Prince's metal, all
of which yet want a spring and are therefore not so useful as of steel
or a quill: but the quill soon spoils. Steel is undoubtedly the best,
and if you use China ink, the most lasting of all inks, it never rusts
the pen, but rather preserves it with a kind of varnish, which dries
upon it, though you take no care in wiping it."—Though
Messrs. Gillott and Sons' Victoria Works, Graham Street, stands
first among the pen-making establishments open to the visit of
strangers, it is by no means the only manufactory whereat the useful
little steel pen is made in large quantities, there being, besides,
Mr. John Mitchell (Newhall Street), Mr. William Mitchell (Cumberland
Street), Hinks, Wells and Co. (Buckingham Street), Brandauer and Co.
(New John Street, West), Baker and Finnemore (James Street), G. W.
Hughes (St. Paul's Square), Leonardt and Co. (Charlotte Street),
Myers and Son (Charlotte Street), Perry and Co. (Lancaster Street),
Ryland and Co. (St. Paul's Square). Sansum and Co. (Tenby Street),
&c., the gross aggregate output of the trade at large being
estimated at 20 tons per week.
Stirrups.—According to the Directory, there are but four
stirrup makers here, though it is said there are 4,000 different
patterns of the article.
Swords.—Some writers aver that Birmingham was the centre
of the metal works of the ancient Britons, where the swords and the
scythe blades were made to meet Julius Cæsar. During the
Commonwealth, over 15,000 swords were said to have been made in
Birmingham for the Parliamentary soldiers, but if they thus helped to
overthrow the Stuarts at that period, the Brummagem boys in 1745 were
willing to make out for it by supplying Prince Charlie with as many as
ever he could pay for, and the basket-hilts were at a premium.
Disloyalty did not always prosper though, for on one occasion over
2,000 Cutlasses intended for the Prince, were seized en route
and found their way into the hands of his enemies. Not many swords are
made in Birmingham at the present time, unless matchets and case
knives used in the plantations can be included under that head.
Thimbles, or thumbells, from being originally worn on the
thumb, are said by the Dutch to have been the invention of Mynheer van
Banschoten for the protection of his lady-love's fingers when
employed at the embroidery-frame; but though the good people of
Amsterdam last year (1884) celebrated the bicentenary of their gallant
thimble-making goldsmith, it is more than probable that he filched the
idea from a Birmingham man, for Shakespeare had been dead sixty-eight
years prior to 1684, and he made mention of thimbles as quite a common
possession of all ladies in his time:
"For your own ladies, and pale-visag'd maids,
Like Amazons, come tripping after drums,
Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change;
Their neelds to lances."
King John, Act
v. sc. 3.
"Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble."
"And that I'll prove upon thee, though thy
little finger be armed in a thimble,"
Taming of the
Shrew, Act iv., sc. 3.
The earliest note we really have of thimbles being manufactured in
Birmingham dates as 1695. A very large trade is now done in steel,
brass, gold, and silver.
Thread.—Strange are the mutations of trade. The first
thread of cotton spun by rollers, long before Arkwright's time,
was made near this town in the year 1700, and a little factory was at
work in the Upper Priory (the motive power being two donkeys), in
1740, under the ingenious John Wyatt, with whom were other two
well-remembered local worthies—Lewis Paul and Thomas Warren.
Many improvements were made in the simple machinery, but fate did not
intend Birmingham to rival Bradford, and the thread making came to an
end in 1792.
Tinderboxes, with the accompanying "fire steels," are
still made here for certain foreign markets, where lucifers are not
procurable.
Tinning.—Iron pots were first tinned in 1779, under
Jonathan Taylor's patent. Tinning wire is one of the branches of
trade rapidly going out, partly through the introduction of the
galvanising process, but latterly in consequence of the invention of
"screw," "ball," and other bottle stoppers. There
were but five or six firms engaged in it ten years back, but the then
demand for bottling-wire may be gathered from the fact that one
individual, with the aid of two helpers, covered with the
lighter-coloured metal about 2cwt. of slender iron wire per day. This
would give a total length of about 6,500 miles per annum, enough to
tie up 25,718,784 bottles of pop, &c.
Tools—The making of tools for the workers in our almost
countless trades has given employ to many thousands, but in addition
thereto is the separate manufacture of "heavy edge tools."
Light edge tools, such as table and pocket knives, scissors, gravers,
&c., are not made here, though "heavy" tools comprising
axes, hatchets, cleavers, hoes, spades, mattocks, forks, chisels,
plane irons, machine knives, scythes, &c., in endless variety and
of hundreds of patterns, suited to the various parts of the world for
which they are required. Over 4,000 hands are employed in this
manufacture.
Tubes.—Immense quantities (estimated at over 15,000 tons)
of copper, brass, iron, and other metal tubing are annually sent out
of our workshops. In olden days the manufacture of brass and copper
tubes was by the tedious process of rolling up a strip of metal and
soldering the edges together. In 1803 Sir Edward Thomason introduced
the "patent tube"—iron body with brass coating, but it
was not until 1838 that Mr. Charles Green took out his patent for
"seamless" tubes, which was much improved upon in 1852 by G.
F. Muntz, junr., as well as by Mr. Thos. Attwood in 1850, with respect
to the drawing of copper tubes. The Peyton and Peyton Tube Co., London
Works, was registered June 25, 1878, capital £50,000 in £5
shares. Messrs. Peyton received 1,000 paid-up shares for their patent
for machinery for manufacturing welded and other tubes, £3,500
for plant and tools, the stock going at valuation.
Tutania Metal took its name from Tutin, the inventor. It was
much used a hundred years ago, in the manufacture of buckles.