Part 41
_St. Anne's_, Alcester Street.--In 1851, some buildings and premises originally used as a distillery were here taken on a lease by the Superior of the Oratory, and opened in the following year as a Mission-Church in connection with the Congregation of the Fathers in Hagley Road. In course of time the property was purchased, along with some adjacent land, for the sum of £4,500, and a new church has been erected, at a cost of £6,000. The foundation-stone was laid Sept. 10th, 1883, and the opening ceremony took place in July, 1884, the old chapel and buildings being turned into schools for about 1,500 children.
_St. Catherine of Sienna_, Horse Fair.--The first stone was laid Aug. 23, 1869, and the church was opened in July following.
_St. Joseph's_, Nechells, was built in 1850, in connection with the Roman Catholic Cemetery.
_St. Mary's_, Hunter's Lane, was opened July 28, 1847.
_St. Mary's Retreat_, Harborne, was founded by the Passionist Fathers, and opened Feb. 6, 1877.
_St. Michael's_, Moor Street, was formerly the Unitarian New Meeting, being purchased, remodelled, and consecrated in 1861.
_St. Patrick's,_ Dudley Road, was erected in 1862.
_St. Peter's_, Broad Street, built in 1786, and enlarged in 1798, was the first Catholic place of worship erected here after the sack and demolition of the church and convent in Masshouse Lane. With a lively recollection of the treatment dealt out to their brethren in 1688, the founders of St. Peter's trusted as little as possible to the tender mercies of their fellow-townsmen, but protected themselves by so arranging their church that nothing but blank walls should face the streets, and with the exception of a doorway the walls remained unpierced for nearly seventy years. The church has lately been much enlarged, and the long-standing rebuke no more exists.
In addition to the above, there are the Convents of "The Sisters of the Holy Child," in Hagley Road; "Sisters of Notre Dame," in the Crescent; "Little Sisters of the Poor," at Harborne; "Our Lady of Mercy," at Handsworth; and others connected with St. Anne's and St. Chad's, besides churches at Erdington, &c.
~Police.~--Though the Court Leet provided for the appointment of constables, no regular body of police or watchmen appear to have existed even a hundred years ago. In February, 1786, the magistrates employed men to nightly patrol the streets, but it could not have been a permanent arrangement, as we read that the patrol was "resumed" in _October, 1793_, and later on, in March, 1801, the magistrates "solicited" the inhabitants' consent to a re-appointment of the night-watch. After a time the Commissioners of the Streets kept regular watchmen in their employ--the "Charleys" occasionally read of as finding sport for the "young bloods" of the time--but when serious work was required the Justices appear to have depended on their powers of swearing-in special constables. The introduction of a police force proper dates from the riotous time of 1839 [See "_Chartism_"], for immediately after those troublous days Lord John Russell introduced a Bill to the House of Commons granting special powers for enforcing a rate to maintain a police force here, under the command of a Commissioner to be appointed by the Government. The force thus sought to be raised, though paid for by the people of Birmingham, were to be available for the whole of the counties of Warwick, Worcester and Stafford.
Coercive measures were passed at that period even quicker than Government can manage to get them through now a-days, and notwithstanding Mr. Thos. Attwood's telling Little Lord John that he was "throwing a lighted torch into a magazine of gunpowder" and that if he passed that Bill he would never be allowed to pass another, the Act was pushed through on the 13th of August, there being a majority of thirteen in favour of his Lordship's policy of policeing the Brums into politeness. The dreaded police force was soon organised under Mr. Commissioner Burges (who was paid the small salary of £900 a year), and became not only tolerated but valued. It was not till some years after, and then in the teeth of much opposition, that the Corporation succeeded in getting into their own hands the power of providing our local guardians of the peace. Mr. Inspector Stephens was the first Chief Superintendent, and in March, 1860, his place was filled by the promotion of Mr. George Glossop. In April, 1876, the latter retired on an allowance of £400 a year, and Major Bond was chosen (June 2nd). The Major's term of office was short as he resigned in Dec. 1881. Mr. Farndale being appointed in his stead. In May, 1852, the force consisted of 327, men and officers included. Additions have been made from time to time, notably 50 in August, 1875, and so early in 1883, the total rank and file now being 550, equal to one officer for every 700 of population. February 8, 1876, the unpopular Public-house Inspectors were appointed, but two years' experience showed they were not wanted, and they were relegated to their more useful duties of looking after thieves and pickpockets, instead of poking their noses into private business. In 1868, £200 was expended in the purchase of guns, pistols, and swords for the police and officers at the Gaol. The Watch Committee, in May, 1877, improved the uniform by supplying the men with "spiked" helmets, doubtless to please the Major, who liked to see his men look smart, though the military appearance of the force has been greatly improved since by the said spikes being silvered and burnished.
~Political Union.~--See "_Reform Leagues_."
~Polling Districts.~--The sixteen wards of the borough are divided into 131 polling districts.
~Polytechnic.~--This was one of the many local literary, scientific, and educational institutions which have been replaced by our Midland Institute, Free Libraries, &c. It was founded in April, and opened in October, 1843, and at the close of its first year there were the names of very nearly 500 members on the books, the rates of subscription being 6s. per quarter for participation in all the benefits of the institution, including the lectures, library, classes, baths, &c. With the "People's Instruction Society," the "Athenic Institute," the "Carr's Lane Brotherly Society" (said to have been the first Mechanics' Institution in Britain), the Polytechnic, in its day, did good work.
~Poor Law and Poor Rates.~--Local history does not throw much light upon the system adopted by our early progenitors in their dealings with the poor, but if the merciless laws were strictly carried out, the wandering beggars, at all events must have had hard lives of it. By an act passed in the reign of Henry VIII., it was ordered that vagrants should be taken to a market town, or other convenient place and there to be tied to the tail of a cart, naked, and beaten with whips until the body should be bloody by reason of the punishment. Queen Elizabeth so far mitigated the punishment that the unfortunates were only to be stripped from the waist upwards to receive their whipping, men and women, maids and mothers, suffering alike in the open street or market-place, the practice being, after so using them, to conduct them to the boundary of the parish and pass them on to the next place for another dose, and it was not until 1791 that flogging of women was forbidden. The resident or native poor were possibly treated a little better, though they were made to work for their bread in every possible case. By the new Poor Act of 1783, which authorised the erection of a Workhouse, it was also provided that the "Guardians of the Poor" should form a Board consisting of 106 members, and the election of the first Board (July 15th, 1783), seems to have been almost as exciting as a modern election. In one sense of the word they were guardians indeed, for they seem to have tried their inventive faculties in all ways to find work for the inmates of the House, even to hiring them out, or setting them to make worsted and thread. The Guardians would also seem to have long had great freedom allowed them in the spending of the rates, as we read it was not an uncommon thing for one of them if he met a poor person badly off for clothes to give an order on the Workhouse for a fresh "rig out." In 1873 the Board was reduced to sixty in number (the first election taking place on the 4th of April), with the usual local result that a proper political balance was struck of 40 Liberals to 20 Conservatives. The Workhouse, Parish Offices, Children's Homes, &c., will be noted elsewhere. Poor law management in the borough is greatly complicated from the fact of its comprising two different parishes, and part of a third. The Parish of Birmingham works under a special local Act, while Edgbaston forms part of King's Norton Union, and the Aston portion of the town belongs to the Aston Union, necessitating three different rates and three sets of collectors, &c. If a poor man in Moseley Road needs assistance he must see the relieving officer at the Parish Offices in the centre of the town if he lives on one side of Highgite Lane he must find the relieving officer at King's Heith; but if he happens to be on the other side he will have to go to Gravelly Hill or Erdington. Not long ago to obtain a visit from the medical officer for his sick wife, a man had to go backwards and forwards more than twenty miles. The earliest record we have found of the cost of relieving the poor of the parish is of the date of 1673 in which year the sum of £309 was thus expended. In 1773 the amount was £6,378, but the pressure on the rates varied considerably about then, as in 1786 it required £11,132, while in 1796 the figures rose to £24,050. According to Hutton, out of about 8,000 houses only 3,000 were assessed to the poor rates in 1780, the inhabitants of the remaining number being too poor to pay them. Another note shows up the peculiar incidence of taxation of the time, as it is said that in 1790 there were nearly 2000 houses under £5 rental and 8,000 others under £10, none of them being assessed, such small tenancies being first rated in 1792. The rates then appear to have been levied at the uniform figure of 6d. in the £ on all houses above £6 yearly value, the ratepayers being called upon as the money was required--in and about 1798, the collector making his appearance sixteen or eighteen times in the course of the year. The Guardians were not so chary in the matter of out-relief as they are at present, for in 1795 there were at one period 2,427 families (representing over 6,000 persons, old and young) receiving out-relief. What this system (and bad trade) led to at the close of the long war is shown in the returns for 1816-17, when 36 poor rates were levied in the twelvemonth. By various Acts of Parliament, the Overseers have now to collect other rates, but the proportion required for the poor is thus shown:--
Rate Amount Paid to Cost of In and Other Parochial Year in £ collected Corporation Out Relief Expenditure s.d. £ £ £ £ 1851 4 0 78,796 39,573 17,824 21,399 1861 3 8 85,986 36,443 34,685 14,878 1871 3 2 116,268 44,293 37,104 34,871 1881 4 8 193,458 107,520 42,880 48,058
The amounts paid over to the Corporation include the borough rate and the sums required by the School Board, the Free Libraries, and the District Drainage Board. In future years the poor-rate (so-called) will include, in addition to these, all other rates levyable by the Corporation. The poor-rates are levied half-yearly, and in 1848,1862, and 1868 they amounted to 5s. per year, the lowest during the last forty years being 3s. in 1860; 1870, 1871, and 1872 being the next lowest, 3s. 2d. per year. The number of persons receiving relief may be gathered from the following figures:--
Highest Lowest Year. No. daily No. daily 1876 7,687 7,058 1877 8,240 7,377 1878 8,877 7,242 1879 14,651 8,829 1880 13,195 7,598 1881 11,064 7,188 1882 9,658 7,462 1883 8,347 7,630
Not long ago it was said that among the inmates of the Workhouse were several women of 10 to 45 who had spent all their lives there, not even knowing their way into the town.
~Population.~--Hutton "calculated" that about the year 750 there would be 3,000 inhabitants residing in and close to Birmingham. Unless a very rapid thinning process was going on after that date he must have been a long way out of his reckoning, for the Domesday Book gives but 63 residents in 1085 for Birmingham, Aston, and Edgbaston. In 1555 we find that 37 baptisms, 15 weddings, and 27 deaths were registered at St. Martin's, the houses not being more than 700, nor the occupiers over 3,500 in number. In 1650, it is said, there were 15 streets, about 900 houses, and 5,472 inhabitants. If the writer who made that calculation was correct, the next 80 years must have been "days of progress" indeed, for in 1700 the town is said to have included 28 streets, about 100 courts and alleys, 2,504 houses, one church, one chapel, and two meeting-houses, with 15,032 inhabitants. In 1731 there were 55 streets, about 150 courts and alleys, 3,719 houses, two churches, one chapel, four Dissenting meeting-houses, and 23,286 inhabitants. The remaining figures, being taken from census returns and other reliable authorities, are more satisfactory.
Year. Inhabitants. Houses. 1741 24,660 4,114 1773 30,804 7,369 1778 48,252 8,042 1781 50,295 8,382 1791 73,653 12,681 1801 78,760 16,659 1811 85,755 19,096 1821 106,721 21,345 1831 142,251 29,397 1841 182,922 36,238 1851 232,841 48,894 1861 296,076 62,708 1871 343,787 77,409 1881 400,774 84,263
The inhabitants are thus divided as to sexes:
Year. Males. Females. Totals. 1861 143,996 152,080 296,076 1871 167,636 176,151 343,787 1881 194,540 206,234 400,774
The increase during the ten years in the several parts of the borough shows:
Part of Birmingham Edgbaston Aston in parish. parish. borough. Totals.
1881 246,352 22,778 131,644 400,774 1871 231,015 17,442 95,330 343,787 ------- ------ ------- ------- Increase 15,337 5,336 36,314 56,987
These figures, however, are not satisfactorily correct, as they simply give the totals for the borough, leaving out many persons who, though residing outside the boundaries are to all intents and purposes Birmingham people; and voluminous as census papers usually are, it is difficult from those of 1871 to arrive at the proper number, the districts not being subdivided sufficiently. Thus, in the following table Handsworth includes Soho and Perry Barr, Harborne parish includes Smethwick, Balsall Heath is simply the Local included district, while King's Norton Board is Moseley, Selly Oak, &c.
Places. Inhabitants. Aston Parish 139,998 Aston Manor 33,948 Balsall Heath 13,615 Handsworth 16,042 Harborne Parish 22,263 Harborne Township 5,105 King's Norton Parish 21,845 Yardley Parish 5,360
For the census of 1881, the papers were somewhat differently arranged, and we are enabled to get a nearer approximation, as well as a better notion of the increase that has taken place in the number of inhabitants in our neighbourhood.
Place 1871 1881 Acock's Green 1,492 2,796 Aston Manor 33,948 53,844 Aston Parish 139,998 201,287 Aston Union 146,808 209,869 Balsall Heath 13,615 22,734 Birchfield 2,544 3,792 Castle Bromwich 689 723 Erdington 4,883 7,153 Handsworth 16,042 22,903 Harborne 5,105 6,433 King's Heath 1,982 2,984 King's Norton 21,845 34,178 King's Norton Union ------ 96,143 Knowle 1,371 1,514 Moseley 2,374 4,224 Northfield 4,609 7,190 Olton ----- 906 Perry Barr 1,683 2,314 Quinton 2,010 2,145 Saltley ----- 6,419 Selly Oak 2,854 5,089 Smethwick 17,158 25,076 Solihull 3,739 5,301 Ward End ----- 866 Water Orton ----- 396 Witton 182 265 Yardley 5,360 9,741
The most remarkable increase of population in any of these districts is in the case of Aston Manor, where in fifty years the inhabitants have increased from less than one thousand to considerably more than fifty thousand. In 1831, there were 946: in 1841, the number was 2,847; in 1851 it was 6,429; in 1861 it reached 16,337; in 1871 it had doubled to 33,948; in 1881 there were 53,844. Included among the inhabitants of the borough in 1881 there were
Males. Females. Totals. Foreigners 1,288 859 2,147 Irish 3,488 3,584 7,072 Scotch 912 755 1,667 Welsh 1,575 1,742 3,317 Colonial 428 477 905 Born at sea 29 21 50
Of the English-born subjects of Her Majesty here 271,845 were Warwickshire lads and lasses, 26,625 came out of Staffordshire, 21,504 from Worcestershire, 10,158 from Gloucestershire, 7,941 from London, 5,622 from Shropshire, and 4,256 from Lancashire, all the other counties being more or less represented. The following analysis of the occupations of the inhabitants of the borough is copied from the _Daily Post_, and is arranged under the groups adopted by the Registrar-General:--
Occupations of Persons.
Males. Females. Total. Persons engaged in general or local government 1,145 79 1,224 Army and navy 307 -- 307 Clerical profession and their subordinates 287 98 335 Legal ditto 445 -- 445 Medical ditto 336 496 832 Teachers 512 1,395 1,907 Literary and scientific 70 4 74 Engineers and surveyors 111 --- 111 Artists, art-workers musicians, &c. 729 398 1,127 Engaged in exhibitions, shows, games, &c. 102 17 119 Domestic service 1,444 13,875 15,319 Other service 176 4,058 4,234 Commercial occupations 6,172 422 6,594 Engaged in conveyance of men, goods, and messages 2,442 1,839 11,281 Engaged in agriculture 881 25 906 Engaged about animals 771 5 776 Workers and Dealers in Books, prints and maps 1,888 428 2,316 Machines and implements 11,189 3,385 14,574 Houses, furniture, and decorations 12,781 1,209 13,990 Carriages and harness 2,748 466 3,214 Ships and boats 67 --- 67 Chemicals and their compounds 507 250 757 Tobacco and pipes 200 851 551 Food and lodging 8,126 2,124 10,247 Textile fabrics 1,229 920 2,149 Dress 6,894 12,946 19,840 Various animal substances 1,481 744 2,175 Ditto vegetable substances 2,277 2,237 4,514 Ditto mineral substances 36,933 9,582 46,515 General or unspecified commodities 10,542 2,631 18,173 Refuse matters 246 18 264 Without specific occupations 45,691 116,892 162,583 Children under five years 28,911 29,133 58,044 ------ ------- ------- Total 194,540 206,234 400,774
The comparative population of this and other large towns in England is thus given:--
Pop. Pop. Inc. Prcent 1881. 1871. of inc. London 3,707,130 3,254,260 452,870 13.89 Liverpool 549,834 493,305 56,429 11.35 Birmingham 400,774 343,787 56,893 16.52 Manchester 364,445 351,189 13,256 3.70 Salford 194,077 124,801 69,276 55.64 Leeds 326,158 259,212 66,946 25.81 Sheffield 312,943 239,946 72,997 30.38 Bristol 217,185 182,552 24,633 13.47 Bradford 203,544 145,830 57,614 39.50 Nottingham 177,934 86,621 91,343 105.81 Hull 152,980 121,892 31,088 25.62 Newcastle 151,822 128,443 23,379 17.96 Portsmouth 136,671 113,569 23,102 20.35 Leicester 134,350 95,220 39,130 41.05 Oldham 119,658 82,629 37,029 45.11 Sunderland 118,927 98,242 20,685 90.40 Brighton 109,062 90,011 19,051 21.11 Norwich 86,437 80,386 6,051 7.50 W'lvrhmptn 76,850 68,291 8,569 12.46 Plymouth 75,700 68,758 4,942 7.10
~Portugal House.~--See "_The Royal_."
~Post Offices.~--Charles I. must be credited with founding the present Post Office system, as in 1635 he commanded that a running post or two should be settled "to run night and day between London and Edinburgh, to go thither and come back again in six days, and to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any post town in or near that road." Other "running posts" were arranged to Exeter and Plymouth, and to Chester and Holyhead, &c., and gradually all the principal places in the country were linked on to the main routes by direct and cross posts. It has often been quoted as a token of the insignificance of Birmingham that letters used to be addressed "Birmingham, near Walsall;" but possibly the necessity of some writer having to send here by a cross-country route, _viâ_ Walsall, will explain the matter. That our town was not one of the last to be provided with mails is proved by Robert Girdler, a resident of Edgbaston Street in 1652, being appointed the Government postmaster. Where the earlier post offices were situated is uncertain, but one was opened in New Street Oct. 11, 1783, and it is generally believed to have been the same that existed for so many years at the corner of Bennett's Hill. As late as 1820 there was no Bennett's Hill, for at that time the site opposite the Theatre was occupied (on the side nearest to Temple Street) by a rickyard, with accommodation for the mailcoaches and stabling for horses. Next to this yard was the residence of Mr. Gottwaltz, the postmaster, the entrance doorway being at first the only accommodation allowed to the public, and if more than four persons attended at one time the others had to stand in the street. When Bennett's Hill was laid out, the post office was slightly altered, so as to give a covered approach on that side to the letterbox and window, the mailcoaches being provided and horsed by the hotelkeepers to whom the conveyance of the mails was entrusted, the mail guards, or mail-postmen, remaining Government officials. The next office was opened Oct. 10, 1842, on premises very nearly opposite, and which at one period formed part of the new Royal Hotel. The site is now covered by the Colonnade, the present convenient, but not beautiful, Central Post Office, in Paradise Street, being opened Sep. 28, 1873. There are 65 town receiving offices (52 of which are Money Order Offices and Savings' Banks and 13 Telegraph Stations), and 103 pillar and wall letter-boxes. Of sub-offices in the surrounding districts there are 64, of which more than half are Money Order Offices or Telegraph Offices. For the conduct of the Central Office, Mr. S. Walliker, the postmaster, has a staff numbering nearly 300, of whom about 250 are letter carriers and sorters. The Central Postal Telegraph Office, in Cannon Street, is open day and night, and the Central Post Office, in Paradise Street, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. On Sunday the latter office is open only from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., but letters are dispatched by the night mails as on other days. The Head Parcels Post Office is in Hill Street, on the basement floor of the Central Post Office, from which there are four collections and deliveries daily.