Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham Part 18

1870 687 1166 1853 337,982 .. ..

1871 683 1165 1848 343,690 .. ..

1872 684 1117 1801 349,398 .. 23 1873 684 1083 1767 355,106 4 53 1874 680 1081 1761 360,814 4 53 1875 676 1057 1733 366,522 7 73 1876 675 1059 1734 372,230 171 73 1877 673 1054 1727 377,938 223 74 1878 672 1046 1718 383,646 334 77 1879 671 1061 1732 389,354 433 61 1880 670 1060 1730 395,063 454 63 1881 669 1054 1723 400,774 454 55 1882 670 1054 1724 406,482 459 57

~Lifeboats.~--In 1864-65 a small committee, composed of Messrs. H.

Fulford, G. Groves, J. Pearce, D. Moran, G. Williams, R. Foreshaw, and G. Lempiere, aided by the Mayor and Dr. Miller, raised about 500 as a contribution from Birmingham to the Royal National Lifeboat Inst.i.tution.

Two boats were credited to us in the Society's books, one called "Birmingham" (launched at Soho Pool, November 26, 1864), and the other the "James Pearce." These boats, placed on the Lincolns.h.i.+re and Norfolk coasts, were instrumental in the saving of some hundreds of lives, but both have, long since, been worn out, and it is about time that Birmingham replaced them. Messrs. C. and W. Barwell, Pickford Street, act as local hon. secs. The "Charles Ingleby" lifeboat, at Hartlepool, was paid for, and the establishment for its maintenance endowed, out of the sum of 1,700, contributed by C.P. Wragge, Esq., in memory of the late Rev. Charles Ingleby.

~Lifford,~ in the parish of King's Norton, once boasted of a Monastic establishment, which was squelched by Bluff King Harry, the only remains now to be found consisting of a few more than half-buried foundations and watercourses.

~Lighting.~--Oil lamps for giving light in the streets were in limited use here in 1733, even before an Act was obtained to enforce payment of a rate therefor. Deritend and Bordesley obtained light by the Act pa.s.sed in 1791. The Street Commissioners, Nov. 8, 1816, advertised for tenders for lighting the streets with gas, but it was nearly ten years (April 29, 1826) before the lamps were thus supplied. The Lighting Act was adopted at Saltley April 1, 1875. Lighting the streets by electricity _may_ come some day, though, as the Gas Works belong to the town, it will, doubtless, be in the days of our grandchildren.

~Lighting by Electricity.~--After the very successful application of the electric light in the Town Hall on the occasion of the Festival in 1882, it is not surprising that an attempt should be made to give it a more extended trial. A scheme has been drawn out by the Crompton-Winfield Company for this purpose, and it has received the sanction of the Town Council, and been confirmed by the Board of Trade, shopkeepers in the centre of the town may soon have a choice of lights for the display of their wares. The area fixed by the scheme is described by the following boundaries:--Great Charles Street to Congreve Street; Congreve Street to Edmund Street; Edmund Street to Newhall Street; Newhall Street to Colmore Row; Colmore Row to Bull Street; Bull Street, High Street, New Street, Stephenson Place, Paradise Street, and Easy Row. The streets to be supplied with electric mains within two years are as follows:--Great Charles Street (to Congreve Street), Congreve Street, New Street, Stephenson Place, Easy Row, and Paradise Street. The Corporation are to have powers of purchasing the undertaking at the end of sixteen years-- that is, fourteen years after the expiration of the two-years' term allowed for the experimental lighting of the limited area. The order, while fully protecting the rights of the public and of the Corporation, justly recognises the experimental character of the project of electric-lighting from a common centre, and is much more favourable, in many ways, to the promoters than the legislation under which gas undertakings are conducted. Whether this will tend towards reducing the price of gas remains to be seen.

~Lightning Conductors~ were introduced here in 1765.

~Lindon.~--The Minerva, in Peck Lane, was, circa 1835, kept by "Joe Lindon," a host as popular then as our modern "Joe Hillman," up at "The Stores," in Paradise Street.

~Literary a.s.sociations.~--The Central Literary a.s.sociation first met Nov. 28, 1856. The Moseley and Balsall Heath, Oct. 11, 1877.

~Livery Street.~--So called from the Livery stables once there, opposite Brittle street, which is now covered by the Great Western Railway Station.

~Livingstone.~--Dr. Livingstone, the African traveller, delivered an address in the Town Hall, October 23, 1857.

~Loans.~--According to the Registrar-General's late report, there were 380 loan societies in the kingdom, who had among them a capital of 122,160, the members of the said societies numbering 33,520, giving an average lending capital of 3 12s. 10-1/2d. each. That is certainly not a very large sum to invest in the money market, and it is to be hoped that the score or two of local societies can show better funds. What the profits of this business are frequently appear in the reports taken at Police Courts and County Courts, where Mr. Cent.-per-Cent. now and then bashfully acknowledges that he is sometimes satisfied with a profit of 200 per cent. There _are_ respectable offices in Birmingham where loans can be obtained at a fair and reasonable rate, but _Punch's_ advice to those about to marry may well be given in the generality of cases, to anyone thinking of visiting a loan office. Young men starting in business may, under certain conditions, obtain help for that purpose from the "Dudley Trust."--See "_Philanthropical Trusts_."

~Loans, Public.~--England, with its National Debt of 776,000,000, is about the richest country in the world, and if the amount of indebtedness is the sign of prosperity, Birmingham must be tolerably well off. Up to the end of 1882 our little loan account stood thus:--

Borrowd Repaid Owing.

Baths .. .. .. .. 62,425 27,743 34,682 Cemetery .. .. .. 46,500 19,316 27,184 Closed Burial Gr'nds 10,000 41 9,959 Council House .. .. 135,762 10,208 125,554 Fire Brigade Station 6,000 53 5,947 Free Libraries.. .. 56,050 7,534 48,516 Gaol .. .. .. .. 92,350 79,425 12,925 Industrial School .. 13,710 2,310 11,400 Asylum, Winson Gn... 100,000 97,020 2,980 " Rubery Hill.. 100,012 5,887 94,125 Markt Hall & Markts 186,942 73,463 113,479 Mortuaries.. .. .. 700 103 597 Parks .. .. .. .. 63,210 12,347 50,863 Paving roads .. .. 158,100 30,088 128,012 Paving footways .. 79,950 8,113 71,837 Police Stations .. 25,231 9,839 15,392 Public Office .. .. 23,400 14,285 9,115 Sewers & Sewerage .. 366,235 81,338 284,897 Tramways .. .. .. 65,450 17,125 48,325 Town Hall .. .. .. 69,521 37,885 31,636 Town Improvements .. 348,680 134,156 214,524 ------------------------------ 2,010,227 668,278 1,341,949 Improvem't scheme .. 1,534,731 31,987 1,502,744 Gasworks .. .. .. 2,184,186 142,359 2,041,827 Waterworks.. .. .. 1,814,792 5,086 1,809,706 ----------------------------- Totals.. .. .. .. 7,543,936 847,710 6,696,226

The above large total, however, does not show all that was owing. The United Drainage Board have borrowed 386,806, and as Birmingham pays 24,722 out of the year's expenditure of 33,277 of that Board, rather more than seven-tenths of that debt must be added to the Borough account, say 270,000. The Board of Guardians have, between June, 1869, and January, 1883, borrowed on loan 130,093, and during same period have repaid 14,808, leaving 115,285 due by them, which must also be added to the list of the town's debts.

~Local Acts.~--There have been a sufficient number of specially-local Acts of Parliament pa.s.sed in connection with this town to fill a law library of considerable size. Statutes, clauses, sections, and orders have followed in rapid succession for the last generation or two. Our forefathers were satisfied and gratified if they got a regal of parliamentary notice of this kind once in a century, but no sooner did the inhabitants find themselves under a "properly-const.i.tuted" body of "head men," than the lawyers' game began. First a law must be got to make a street, another to light it, a third to pave it, and then one to keep it clean. It is a narrow street, and an Act must be obtained to widen it; when widened some wiseacre thinks a market should be held in it, and a law is got for that, and for gathering tolls; after a bit, another is required to remove the market, and then the street must be "improved," and somebody receives more pounds per yard than he gave pence for the bit of ground wanted to round off the corners; and so the Birmingham world wagged on until the town became a big town, and could afford to have a big Town Hall when other big towns couldn't, and a covered Market Hall and a Smithfield of good size, while other places dwelt under bare skies. The Act by which the authority of the Street Commissioners and Highway Surveyors was transferred to the Corporation was pa.s.sed in 1851; the expenses of obtaining it reaching nearly 9,000.

It took effect on New Year's Day following, and the Commissioners were no longer "one of the powers that be," but some of the Commissioners'

bonds are effective still. Since that date there have been twenty local statutes and orders relating to the borough of Birmingham, from the Birmingham Improvement Act, 1851, to the Provisional Order Confirmation Act, pa.s.sed in 1882, the twenty containing a thousand or more sections.

All this, however, has recently been altered, the powers that are now having (through the Town Clerk, Mr. Orford Smith) rolled all the old Acts into one, eliminating useless and obsolete clauses, and inserting others necessitated by our high state of advanced civilisation. The new Act, which is known as the Birmingham Corporation Consolidation Act, came into force January 1, 1884, and all who desire to master our local governing laws easily and completely had better procure a copy of the book containing it, with notes of all the included statutes, compiled by the Town Clerk, and published by Messrs. Cornish, New Street.

~Local Epitaphs.~--Baskerville, when young, was a stone cutter, and it was known that there was a gravestone in Handsworth churchyard and another in Edgbaston churchyard which were cut by him. The latter was accidentally broken many years back, but was moved and kept as a curiosity until it mysteriously vanished while some repairs were being done at the church. It is believed that Baskerville wrote as well as carved the inscription which commemorated the death of Edward Richards who was an idiot, and died Sept. 21st, 1728, and that it ran thus:--

"If innocents are the fav'rites of heaven, And G.o.d but little asks where little's given, My great Creator has for me in store Eternal joys--What wise man can ask more?"

The gravestone at Handsworth was "under the chancel window," sixty years ago, overgrown with moss and weeds, but inscription and stone have long since gone. Baskerville's own epitaph, on the Mausoleum in his grounds at Easy Hill, has often been quoted:--

'Stranger, Beneath this cone, in unconsecrated ground, A friend to the liberties of mankind directed his body to be inurned.

May the example contribute to emanc.i.p.ate thy mind From the idle fears of Superst.i.tion, And the wicked Act of Priesthood!

Almost as historical as the above, is the inscription on the tombstone erected over Mary Ashford, at Sutton Coldfield:--

As a Warning to Female Virtue, And a humble Monument of Female Chast.i.ty, This Stone marks the Grave of MARY ASHFORD, Who, in the 20th year of her age, Having incautiously repaired To a scene of amus.e.m.e.nt Without proper protection, Was brutally violated and murdered, On the 27th May, 1817.

Lovely and chaste as is the primrose pale, Rifled of virgin sweetness by the gale, Mary! The wretch who thee remorseless slew, Will surely G.o.d's avenging wrath pursue.

For, though the deed of blood be veiled in night, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Fair, blighted flower! The muse, that weeps thy doom, Rears o'er thy sleeping dust this warning tomb!

The following quaint inscription appears on the tombstone erected in memory of John Dowler, the blacksmith, in Aston churchyard:--

Sacred to the Memory of JOHN DOWLER, Late of Castle Bromwich, who Departed this life December 6th, 1787, Aged 42, Also two of his Sons, JAMES and CHARLES, Who died infants.

My sledge and hammer lie reclined, My bellows, too, have lost their wind My fire's extinct, my forge decayed, And in the dust my vice is laid; My coal is spent, my iron gone, My nails are drove, my work is done.

The latter part of the above, like the next four, has appeared in many parts of the country, as well as in the local burial grounds, from which they have been copied:--

From St. Bartholomew's:

"The bitter cup that death gave me Is pa.s.sing round to come to thee."

From General Cemetery:

"Life is a city full of crooked streets, Death is the market-place where all men meets; If life were merchandise which men could buy, The rich would only live, the poor would die."

From Witton Cemetery:

"O earth, O earth! observe this well-- That earth to earth shall come to dwell; Then earth in earth shall close remain, Till earth from earth shall rise again."

From St. Philip's:

"Oh, cruel death, how could you be so unkind To take him before, and leave me behind?

You should have taken both of us, if either, Which would have been more pleasing to the survivor."