Part 44

_Workhouse_.--The first mention of a local institution thus named occurs in the resolution passed at a public meeting held May 16, 1727, to the effect that it was "highly necessary and convenient that a Public Work House should be erected in or near the town to employ or set to work the poor of Birmingham for their better maintenance as the law directs." This resolution seems to have been carried out, as the Workhouse in Lichfield Street (which was then a road leading out of the town) was built in 1733 the first cost being £1,173, but several additions afterwards made brought the building account to about £3,000. Originally it was built to accommodate 600 poor persons, but in progress of time it was found necessary to house a much larger number, and the Overseers and Guardians were often hard put to for room; which perhaps accounts for their occasionally discussing the advisability of letting some of their poor people out on hire to certain would-be taskmasters as desired such a class of employees. In the months of January, February, and March, 1783, much discussion took place as to building a new Workhouse, but nothing definite was done in the matter until 1790, when it was proposed to obtain an Act for the erection of a Poorhouse at Birmingham Heath, a scheme which Hutton said was as airy as the spot chosen for the building. Most likely the expense, which was reckoned at £15,000, frightened the ratepayers, for the project was abandoned, and for fifty years little more was heard on the subject. What they would have said to the £150,000 spent on the present building can be better imagined than described. The foundation-stone of the latter was laid Sept. 7, 1850, and the first inmates were received March 29, 1852, in which year the Lichfield Street establishment was finally closed, though it was not taken down for several years after. The new Workhouse is one of the largest in the country, the area within its walls being nearly twenty acres, and it was built to accommodate 3,000 persons, but several additions in the shape of new wards, enlarged schools, and extended provision for the sick, epileptic and insane, have since been made. The whole establishment is supplied with water from an artesian well, and is such a distance from other buildings as to ensure the most healthy conditions. The chapel, which has several stained windows, is capable of seating 800 persons and in it, on May 9, 1883, the Bishop of Worcester administered the rite of confirmation to 31 of the inmates, a novelty in the history of Birmingham Workhouse, at all events. Full provision is made for Catholics and Nonconformists desiring to attend the services of their respective bodies. In connection with the Workhouse may be noted the Cottage Homes and Schools at Marston Green (commenced in October, 1878) for the rearing and teaching of a portion of the poor children left in the care of the Guardians. These buildings consist of 3 schools, 14 cottage homes, workshops, infirmary, headmaster's residence, &c., each of the homes being for thirty children, in addition to an artisan and his wife, who act as heads of the family. About twenty acres of land are at present thus occupied, the cost being at the rate of £140 per acre, while on the buildings upwards of £20,000 has been spent.

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

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

~Quacks.~--Though we cannot boast of a millionaire pill-maker like the late Professor Holloway, we have not often been without a local well-to-do "quack." A medical man, named Richard Aston, about 1815-25, was universally called so, and if the making of money is proof of quackery, he deserved the title, as he left a fortune of £60,000. He also left an only daughter, but she and her husband were left to die in the Workhouse, as the quack did not approve of their union.

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

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

~Railways:~ _London and North Western_.--The first proposal for converting Birmingham with the outer world by means of a railway seems to have originated in 1824, as we read of the share-book for a Birmingham and London line being opened here on December 14 of that year. There was a great rush for shares, 2,500 being taken up in two hours, and a £7 premium offered for more, but as the scheme was soon abandoned it is probable the scrip was quickly at a discount. Early in 1830 two separate companies were formed for a line to the Metropolis, but they amalgamated on September 11, and surveys were taken in the following year. Broad Street being chosen as the site for a station. The Bill was introduced into the House of Commons February 20, 1832, but the Lords rejected it in June. Another Bill, with variations in the plans, was brought in in the session of 1833, and it passed on May 6, the work being commenced at the London end in July, and at Birmingham in June of the following year. The line was to be 112-1/2 miles long and estimated to cost £2,500,000, but the real cost amounted to £4,592,700, of which £72,868 18s. 10d. was spent in obtaining the Act alone. The line was opened in sections as completed, the first train running from Euston to Boxmoor, 24-1/2 miles, on July 20, 1837. The average daily number of persons using the line during the first month was 1,428, the receipts being at the rate of £153 per day. On April 9, 1838, the trains reached Rugby, and on Aug. 14, the line was completed to Daddeston Row, the directors taking a trial trip on the 20th. There were only seventeen stations on the whole line, over which the first passenger train ran on Sept. 17.--The prospectus of the Grand Junction Railway (for Liverpool and Manchester) was issued May 7, 1830, and the line from Vauxhall Station to Newton (where it joined the Manchester and Liverpool line) was opened July 4, 1837. The importance of this line of communication was shown by the number of passengers using it during the first nine weeks, 18,666 persons travelling to or from Liverpool, and 7,374 to or from Manchester, the receipts for that period being £41,943.--The Birmingham branch of the South Staffordshire Railway was opened Nov. 1, 1847; the Birmingham and Shrewsbury line, Nov. 12, 1849; and between Dudley and Walsall May 1, 1850. The Stour Valley line was partially brought into use (from Monument Lane) Aug. 19, 1851, the first train running clear through to Wolverhampton July 1, 1852. The line to Sutton Coldfield was opened June 2, 1862, and the Harborne line (for which the Act was obtained in 1866) was opened Aug. 10, 1874. The Act for the construction of the Birmingham and Lichfield line, being a continuation of the Sutton Coldfield Railway, passed June 23, 1874; it was commenced late in October, 1881, and it will shortly be in use. The Bill for the Dudley and Oldbury Junction line passed July 15, 1881. A new route from Leamington to Birmingham was opened in Sept. 1884, shortening the journey to London.

_Midland_.--The Derby and Birmingham Junction line was opened through from Lawley Street Aug. 12th, 1839. The first portion of the Birmingham and Gloucester line, between Barnt Green and Cheltenham, was opened July 1, 1840, coaches running from here to Barnt Green to meet the trains until Dec. 15, 1840, when the line was finished to Camp Hill, the Midland route being completed and opened Feb. 10, 1842. The first sod was cut for the West Suburban line Jan. 14, 1873, and it was opened from Granville Street to King's Norton April 3, 1876. This line is now being doubled and extended from Granville Street to New Street, at an estimated cost of £280,400, so that the Midland will have a direct run through the town.

_Great Western_.--The first portion of the Oxford and Birmingham Railway (between here and Banbury) was opened Sept. 30, 1852, the tunnel from Moor Street to Monmouth Street being finished on June 6th previous. The original estimated cost of this line was but £900,000, which was swelled to nearly £3,000,000 by the bitter fight known as the "Battle of the Gauges." The line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton was opened Nov. 14, 1854. The first train to Stratford-on-Avon was run on Oct. 9, 1860. The Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line was opened in May, 1852. The broad gauge was altered in 1874.

~Railway Jottings.~--The London and Birmingham line cost at the rate of £23,000 per mile, taking nearly five years to make, about 20,000 men being employed, who displaced over 400,000,000 cubic feet of earth. The Grand Junction averaged £16,000 per mile, and at one time there were 11,000 men at work upon it. Slate slabs were originally tried for sleepers on the Birmingham and London line.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~Railway Stations.~--As noted on a previous page, the first railway stations were those in Duddeston Row, Lawley Street, Vauxhall, the Camp Hill, but the desirability of having a Central Station was too apparent for the Companies to remain long at the outskirts, and the L. & N.W.R. Co. undertook the erection in New Street, of what was then (and will soon be again) the most extensive railway station in the kingdom, making terms with the Midland for part use thereof. The work of clearance was commenced in 1846, the estimated cost being put at £400,000, £39,000 being paid to the Governors of the Grammar School for land belonging to them. Several streets were done away with, and the introduction of the station may be called the date-point of the many town improvements that have since been carried out. The station, and the tunnels leading thereto, took seven years in completion, the opening ceremony taking place June 1, 1853. The iron and glass roof was ihe largest roof in the world, being 1,080 ft. long, with a single span of 212 ft. across at a height of 75 ft. from the rails. This immense span has since been surpassed, as the roof of the St. Pancras Station, London, is 243 ft. from side to side. The roof of Lime Street Station, Liverpool, is also much larger, being 410ft wide, but it is in two spans. The station has been since greatly enlarged, extending as far as Hill Street, on which side are the Midland Booking Offices. The tunnels have been partially widened or thrown into open cuttings, additional platforms constructed, and miles of new rails laid down, one whole street (Great Queen Street) being taken bodily into the station for a carriage drive. The station now covers nearly 12 acres, the length of platforms exceeding 1-1/2 miles. The cost of this enlargement was over half-a-million sterling.

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

~Rateable Values.~--In 1815 the annual rateable value of property in the borough was totaled at £311,954; in 1824 the amount stood at £389,273, an increase of £77,319 in the ten years; in 1834 the return was £483,774, the increase being £94,501; in 1814 it was £569,686, or an increase of £85,912; in 1854 the returns showed £655,631, the increase, £85,934, being little more than in the previous decennial period. The next ten years were those of the highest prosperity the building trade of this town has ever known, and the rateable values in 1864 went up to £982,384, an increase of £326,763. In 1870 a new assessment was made, which added over £112,000 to the rateable values, the returns for 1874 amounting to £1,254,911, an increase in the ten years of £272,527. In 1877 the returns gave a total of £1,352,554; in 1878 £1,411,060, an increase in the one year of £58,506; but since 1878 the increase has not been so rapid, the average for the next three years being £36,379; and, as will be seen by the following table, the yearly increase of values during the last three years is still less in each of the several parish divisions of the borough:--

1881 1882 1883

Birmingham parish £985,081 £991,445 £1,001,541 Yearly increase 18,483 6,364 10,096

Edgbaston parish £179,328 £180,327 £181,552 Yearly increase 8,474 999 1,225

Aston, part of parish £355,788 £362,337 £365,875 Yearly increase 9,419 6,549 3,538

Total rateable value of the Borough £1,520,179 £1,534,109 £1,548,968 Yearly increase 36,379 13,912 14,859

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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