Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men
E >> E. Edwards >> Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham MenPERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
OF
BIRMINGHAM
AND
BIRMINGHAM MEN.
REPRINTED FROM THE "BIRMINGHAM DAILY MAIL,"
WITH REVISIONS, CORRECTIONS, AND ADDITIONS.
By E. EDWARDS.
BIRMINGHAM:
MIDLAND EDUCATIONAL TRADING COMPANY LIMITED.
1877.
[_All Rights Reserved_]
These sketches, with the signature "_S.D.R._," were originally
published in the _Birmingham Daily Mail_ newspaper. The earliest were
written, as their title indicated, entirely from memory. Afterwards,
when the title was no longer strictly accurate, it was retained
for the purpose of showing the connection of the series. It must be
understood, however, that for many of the facts and dates in the later
sketches the writer is indebted to others.
The whole series has been very carefully revised, and some errors have
been rectified. The writer would have preferred to remain _incognito_,
but he is advised that, as the authorship is now generally known, it
would be mere affectation to withhold his name. He hopes shortly to
commence the publication of another series.
_December_, 1877.
CONTENTS.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BIRMINGHAM 1
THE BULL RING RIOTS, 1839 19
GOSSIP ABOUT ROYALTY 37
BIRMINGHAM BANKS, OLD AND NEW 45
JOHN WALSH WALSH AND THE ASTON FETES 69
G.F. MUNTZ, M.P. 79
JOSEPH GILLOTT 89
HENRY VAN WART, J.P. 101
CHARLES SHAW, J.P. 108
ROBERT WALTER WINFIELD, J.P. 116
CHARLES GEACH, M.P. 125
WILLIAM SANDS COX, F.R.S. 132
GEORGE EDMONDS 140
CHARLES VINCE 155
JOHN SMITH, SOLICITOR 164
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BIRMINGHAM.
It is a fine autumnal morning in the year 1837. I am sitting on the box
seat of a stage coach, in the yard of the Bull-and-Mouth, St.
Martin's-le-Grand, in the City of London. The splendid gray horses seem
anxious to be off, but their heads are held by careful grooms. The metal
fittings of the harness glitter in the early sunlight. Jew pedlar-boys
offer me razors and penknives at prices unheard of in the shops. Porters
bring carpet-bags and strange-looking packages of all sizes, and, to my
great inconvenience, keep lifting up the foot-board, to deposit them in
the "front boot." A solemn-looking man, whose nose is preternaturally
red, holds carefully a silver-mounted whip. Passengers arrive, and climb
to the roof of the coach, before and behind, until we are "full
outside." Then the guard comes with a list, carefully checks off all our
names, and retires to the booking office, from which a minute later he
returns. He is this time accompanied by the coachman, who is a handsome,
roguish-looking man. He wears a white hat, his boots are brilliantly
polished, his drab great-coat is faultlessly clean, and the dark blue
neckerchief is daintily tied. His whiskers are carefully brushed forward
and curled, the flower in the button-hole is as fresh as if that
instant plucked, and he has a look as if he were well fed, and in all
other respects well cared for.
Looking admiringly over the horses, and taking the whip from his
satellite, who touches his hat as he gives it up, Jehu takes the reins
in hand; mounts rapidly to his seat; adjusts the "apron;" glances
backward; gets the signal from the guard, who has just jumped up--bugle
in hand--behind; arranges the "ribbons" in his well-gloved hand;
produces a sound, somehow, with his tongue, that would puzzle the most
skilful printer in the world to print phonetically, but which a Pole or
a Russian would possibly understand if printed "tzchk;" gently shakes
the reins, and we are off.
As we pass toward the gateway, the guard strikes up with the bugle, and
makes the place resound with the well-known air, "Off, off, said the
stranger." Emerging upon the street, we see, issuing from an opposite
gateway, a dozen omnibuses, driven by scarlet-coated coachmen, and laden
entirely with scarlet-coated passengers. Each of these men is a "general
postman," and he is on his way to his "beat." As the vehicle arrives at
the most convenient point, he will alight and commence the "morning"
delivery. The process will be repeated in the evening; and these two
deliveries suffice, then, for all the "country" correspondence sent to
London.
Leaving them, our coach passes on through busy Aldersgate Street, where
we are interrupted frequently by droves of sheep and numerous oxen on
their way from Smithfield to the slaughter-houses of their purchasers.
On through Goswell Street, alive with cries of "milk" and "water
creeses." On through Goswell Road; past Sadler's Wells; over the New
River, then an open stream; and in a few minutes we pull up at "The
Angel." Here we take in some internal cargo. A lady of middle age, and
of far beyond middle size, has "booked inside," and is very desirous
that a ban-box (without the "d") should go inside, too. This the guard
declines to allow, and this matter being otherwise arranged, on we go
again. Through "Merrie Islington" to Highgate, where we pass under the
great archway, then newly built; on to Barnet, where we stop to change
horses, and where I stand up to have a look at my fellow outside
passengers. There is not a lady amongst us. Coachman, guard, and
passengers, we are fourteen. We all wear "top" hats, of which five are
white; each hat, white or black, has its band of black crape. King
William IV. was lately dead, and every decently dressed man in the
country then wore some badge of mourning.
During the whole of that long day we rattled on. Through sleepy towns
and pleasant villages; past the barracks at Weedon, near which we cross
a newly-built bridge, on the summit of which the coachman pulls up, and
we see a deep cutting through the fields on our right, and a long and
high embankment on the left. Scores of men, and horses drawing
strange-looking vehicles, are hard at work, and we are told that this is
to be the "London and Birmingham Railway," which the coachman adds "is
going to drive _us_ off the road." On we go again, through the noble
avenue of trees near Dunchurch; through quaint and picturesque Coventry;
past Meriden, where we see the words, "Meriden School," built curiously,
with vari-coloured bricks, into a boundary wall. On still; until at
length the coachman, as the sun declines to the west, points out, amid a
gloomy cloud in front of us, the dim outlines of the steeples and
factory chimneys of Birmingham. On still; down the wide open roadway of
Deritend; past the many-gabled "Old Crown House;" through the only
really picturesque street in Birmingham--Digbeth; up the Bull Ring, the
guard merrily trolling out upon his bugle, "See the Conquering Hero
Comes;" round the corner into New Street where we pull up--the horses
covered with foam--at the doors of "The Swan." Our journey has taken us
just twelve hours.
And this is Birmingham! The place which I, in pleasant Kent and Surrey,
had so often heard of, but had never seen. This is the town which, five
years before, had vanquished the Conqueror of the Great Napoleon! This
is the place which, for the first time in his life, had compelled the
great Duke of Wellington to capitulate! This is the home of those who,
headed by Attwood, had compelled the Duke and his army--the House of
Lords--to submit, and to pass the memorable Reform Bill of 1832!
My destination was at the top of Bull Street, where my apartments were
ready, and a walk to that spot completed an eventful day for me. I had
come down on a special business matter, but I remained six months, and a
few years later came again and settled down in Birmingham. My
impressions of the place during those six months are fresh upon my
memory now; and, if I write them down, may be interesting to some of the
three hundred thousand people now in Birmingham, who know nothing of its
aspect then.
Bull Street was then the principal street in Birmingham for retail
business, and it contained some very excellent shops. Most of the then
existing names have disappeared, but a few remain. Mr. Suffield, to
whose courtesy I am indebted for the loan of the rare print from which
the frontispiece to this little book is copied, then occupied the
premises near the bottom of the street, which he still retains. Mr.
Adkins, the druggist, carried on the business established almost a
century ago. He is now the oldest inhabitant of Bull Street, having been
born in the house he still occupies before the commencement of the
present century. Mr. Gargory--still hale, vigorous, and hearty, although
rapidly approaching his eightieth year--then tenanted the shop next
below Mr. Keirle, the fishmonger. His present shop and that of Mr.
Harris, the dyer, occupy the site of the then Quakers' Meeting House,
which was a long, barn-like building, standing lengthwise to the street,
and not having a window on that side to break the dreary expanse of
brickwork. Mr. Benson was in those days as celebrated for beef and
civility as he is now. Mr. Page had just opened the shawl shop still
carried on by his widow. Near the Coach Yard was the shop of Mr. Hudson,
the bookseller, whose son still carries on the business established by
his father in 1821. In 1837, Mr. Hudson, Sen., was the publisher of a
very well conducted liberal paper called _The Philanthropist_. The paper
only existed some four or five years. It deserved a better fate. Next
door to Mr. Hudson's was the shop of the father of the present Messrs.
Southall. All these places have been materially altered, but the wine
and spirit stores of Mrs. Peters, at the corner of Temple Row, are
to-day, I think, exactly what they were forty years ago. The Brothers
Cadbury--a name now celebrated all over the world--were then, as will be
seen by reference to the frontispiece, shopkeepers in Bull Street, the
one as a silk mercer, the other as a tea dealer. The latter commenced in
Crooked Lane the manufacture of cocoa, in which business the name is
still eminent. The Borough Bank at that time occupied the premises
nearly opposite Union Passage, which are now used by Messrs. Smith as a
carpet shop. In all other respects--except where the houses near the
bottom are set back, and the widening of Temple Row--the street is
little altered, except that nearly every shop has been newly fronted.
High Street, from Bull Street to Carrs Lane, is a good deal altered. The
Tamworth Banking Company occupied a lofty building nearly opposite the
bottom of Bull Street, where for a very few years they carried on
business, and the premises afterwards were occupied by Mrs. Syson, as a
hosier's shop. The other buildings on both sides were small and
insignificant, and they were mostly pulled down when the Great Western
Railway Company tunneled under the street to make their line to Snow
Hill. "Taylor and Lloyd's" Bank was then in Dale End. The passage
running by the side of their premises is still called "Bank Alley."
Carrs Lane had a very narrow opening, and the Corn Exchange was not
built. Most of the courts and passages in High Street were then filled
with small dwelling houses, and the workshops of working bookbinders.
Messrs. Westley Richards and Co. had their gun factory in one of them.
The large pile of buildings built by Mr. Richards for Laing and Co., and
now occupied by Messrs. Manton, the Bodega Company, and others, is the
most important variation from the High Street of forty years ago. The
narrow footpaths and contracted roadway were as inconveniently crowded
as they are to-day. The house now occupied by Innes, Smith, and Co. was
then a grocer's shop, and the inscription over the door was "Dakin and
Ridgway," two names which now, in London, are known to everybody as
those of the most important retail tea dealers in the metropolis. Mr.
Ridgway established the large concern in King William Street, and Mr.
Dakin was the founder of "No. 1, St. Paul's Churchyard."
New Street is greatly altered. At that time it was not much more lively
than Newhall Street is now. The Grammar School is just as it was; the
Theatre, externally, is not much altered; "The Hen and Chickens" remains
the same; the Town Hall, though not then finished, looked the same from
New Street; and the portico of the Society of Artists' rooms stood over
the pavement then. With these exceptions I only know one more building
that has not been pulled down, or so altered as to be unrecognisable.
The exemption is the excrescence called Christ Church, which still
disfigures the very finest site in the whole town.
Hyam and Co. had removed from the opposite side of the street, and had
just opened as a tailor's shop the queer old building known as the
"Pantechnetheca," and the ever-youthful Mr. Holliday was at "Warwick
House." The recollections of what the "House" was then makes me smile as
I write. It had originally been two private houses. The one abutted upon
the footway, and the other stood some thirty feet back, a pretty garden
being in the front. The latter had been occupied by Mr. James Busby,
who carried on the business of a wire-worker at the rear. The ground
floor frontages of both had been taken out. A roof had been placed over
the garden, two hideous small-framed bay windows fronted New Street, and
a third faced what is now "Warwick House Passage." The whole place had a
curious "pig-with-one-ear" kind of aspect, the portion which had been
the garden having no upper floors, while the other was three storeys
high. The premises had been "converted" by a now long-forgotten
association, called the "Drapery Company," and as this had not been
successful, Mr. Holliday and his then partner, Mr. Merrett, had become
its successors. It was in 1839 that the first portion of the present
palatial building was erected.
A few doors from this was the office of _The Birmingham Journal_, a very
different paper then from what it afterwards became. It had been
originally started as a Tory paper by a few old "fogies" who used to
meet at "Joe Lindon's," "The Minerva," in Peck Lane; and this was how it
came about: _The Times_ had, early in 1825, in a leader, held up to
well-deserved ridicule some action on the part of the Birmingham Tory
party. This gave awful and unpardonable offence, and retaliation was
decided upon. Notes were sent to several frequenters of the room that,
on a certain afternoon, important business would be "on" at Lindon's,
and punctual attendance was requested. The room at the appointed time
was full, and the table had been removed from the centre. The ordinarily
clean-scrubbed floor was covered with sheet iron. A chairman was
appointed; and one gentleman was requested to read the obnoxious
article. This over, a well-fed, prosperous-looking, fox-hunting iron
merchant from Great Charles Street rose, and in very shaky grammar
moved, that _The Times_ had disgraced itself and insulted Birmingham,
and that it was the duty of every Birmingham man to stop its circulation
in the town. This having been seconded, and duly carried, another rose
and proposed that in order to mark the indignation of those present, the
copy of the paper containing the offensive leader should be
ignominiously burnt. This, too, was carried; whereupon the iron-dealer
took up the doomed newspaper with a pair of tongs, placed it on the
sheets of iron, and, taking a "spill" between the claws of the tongs,
lighted it at the fire of the room, and ignited the ill-fated paper,
which, amid the groans and hisses of the assembled patriots, burned to
ashes. This ceremony being solemnly concluded, the "business" began. It
was deplored that the "loyal" party was imperfectly represented in the
town. It was considered desirable that the party should have an "organ"
in the town; and it was decided to open a subscription there and then,
to start one. The necessary capital was subscribed, and a committee was
formed to arrange with Mr. William Hodgetts, a printer in Spiceal
Street, for the production of the new paper. Mr. Hodgetts subscribed to
the fund to the extent of L50, and the singularly inappropriate name for
a _weekly_ paper, _The Birmingham Journal_, was selected. The first
number appeared June 4th, 1825. The editor was Professor Bakewell. It
continued in the same hands until June, 1827, when Mr. Hodgetts paid out
the other partners, and became sole proprietor. He enlarged it in 1830,
at which time it was edited by the well-remembered Jonathan Crowther. In
1832 it was sold to the Liberal party. _The Argus_, in its issue for
June, 1832, thus chronicles the fact:
"THE JOURNAL.--This newspaper is now the property of Parkes,
Scholefield, and Redfern. It was purchased by Parkes in February
last for the sum of two thousand pounds, and was delivered up to him
on the 25th of March last. Poor Jonathan was unceremoniously turned
out of the editorial snuggery into the miserable berth of the
Editor's devil. 'Oh, what a falling off is here, my countrymen!' And
who, think ye, gentle readers, is now Editor of _The Journal_? An
ex-pedagogue, one of the New Hall Hill martyrs, a 'talented' writer
that has been within the walls," &c., &c.
This seems to point to George Edmonds; but I cannot find any other
evidence that he was ever editor. Be that as it may, Crowther
remained, and the paper was published at the old office in Spiceal
Street as late as May, 1833, when it seems to have been removed to New
Street, and placed under the care of Mr. Douglas. In May of that
year, Mr. Hodgetts published the first number of _The Birmingham
Advertiser_. Meanwhile, Mr. Douglas sat in _The Journal_ office,
in New Street. It was a little room, about 10 ft. by 6 ft., and
the approach was up three or four steps. Here he reigned supreme,
concocted Radical leaders in bad taste and questionable English, and
received advertisements and money. The whole thing was in wretched
plight until about the year 1844, when--Mr. Michael Maher being
editor--Mr. Feeney, who was connected with another paper in the town,
went to London, saw Mr. Joseph Parkes, and arranged to purchase _The
Journal_. Mr. Jaffray soon after came from Shrewsbury to assist in the
management, and with care, industry, and perseverance, it soon grew to
be one of the very best provincial papers in the country.
The Post Office occupied the site now covered by Lilly and Addinsell's
shop. The New Street frontage was the dwelling house of Mr. Gottwaltz,
the post-master. A little way up Bennetts Hill was a semicircular
cove, or recess, in which two people might stand. Here was a slit,
into which letters were dropped, and an "inquiry" window; and this was
all. There were seven other receiving houses in the town, which were
as follows: Mr. Hewitt, Hagley Row; Mr. E. Gunn, 1, Kenion Street; Mr.
W. Drury, 30, Lancaster Street; Mr. Ash, Prospect Row; Mr. White,
235, Bristol Street; Miss Davis, Sand Pits; and Mrs. Wood, 172, High
Street, Deritend. Two deliveries took place daily--one at 8 a.m., the
other at 5 p.m. The postage of a "single" letter to London then was
ninepence; but a second piece of paper, however small, even the half
of a bank note, made it a "double" letter, the postage of which was
eighteenpence.
Between Needless Alley and the house now occupied by Messrs. Reece and
Harris, as offices, were three old-fashioned and rather dingy looking
shops, of which I can tell a curious story. Rather more than twenty
years ago, the late Mr. Samuel Haines acquired the lease of these
three houses, which had a few years to run. The freehold belonged
to the Grammar School. Mr. Haines proposed to Messrs. Whateley, the
solicitors for the school, that the old lease should be cancelled;
that they should grant him a fresh one at a greatly increased rental;
and that he should pull down the old places and erect good and
substantial houses on the site. This was agreed to; but when the
details came to be settled, some dispute arose, and the negotiations
were near going off. Mr. Haines, however, one day happened to go
over the original lease--nearly a hundred years old--to see what the
covenants were, and he found that he was bound to deliver up the plot
of land in question to the school, somewhere, I think, about 1860
to 1865, "well cropped with potatoes." This discovery removed the
difficulty, the lease was granted, and the potato-garden is the site
of the fine pile known as Brunswick Buildings, upon each house of
which Mr. Haines's monogram, "S.H.," appears in an ornamental scroll.
The Town Hall had been opened three years. The Paradise Street front
was finished, and the two sides were complete for about three-fourths
of their length; but that portion where the double rows of columns
stand, and the pediment fronting Ratcliff Place, had not been built.
The whole of that end was then red brick. Prom the corner of Edmund
Street a row of beggarly houses, standing on a bank some eight feet
above the level of the road, reached to within a few yards of the hall
itself, the space between them and the hall being enclosed by a high
wall. On the other side, the houses in Paradise Street came to within
about the same distance, and the intervening space was carefully
enclosed. The interior of the hall was lighted by some elaborate
bronzed brackets, projecting from the side, between the windows.
They were modelled in imitation of vegetable forms; and at the ends,
curving upwards, small branches stood in a group, like the fingers of
a half-opened human hand. Each of these branchlets was a gas burner,
which was covered by a semi-opaque glass globe, the intent being,
evidently, to suggest a cluster of growing fruits. Some of the same
pattern were placed in the Church of the Saviour when it was first
opened, but they, as well as those at the Town Hall, were in a
few years removed, greatly to the relief of many who thought them
inexpressibly ugly.
Nearly opposite the Town Hall was a lame attempt to convert an ugly
chapel into a Grecian temple. It was a wretched architectural failure.
It was "The School of Medicine," and, as I know from a personal visit
at the time, contained, even then, a very various and most extensive
collection of anatomical preparations, and other matters connected
with the noble profession to whose use it was dedicated. From the Town
Hall to Easy Row the pathway was three or four feet higher than the
road, and an ugly iron fence was there, to prevent passengers from
tumbling over. On this elevated walk stood the offices of a celebrated
character, "Old"--for I never heard him called by any other name--"Old
Spurrier," the hard, unbending, crafty lawyer, who, being permanently
retained by the Mint to prosecute all coiners in the district, had a
busy time of it, and gained for himself a large fortune and an evil
reputation.
Bennetts Hill was considered _the_ street of the town, architecturally.
The Norwich Union Office then held aloft the same lady, who, long
neglected, looks now as if her eyes were bandaged to hide the tears
which she is shedding over her broken scales. The Bank of England has
not been altered, though at that time it was occupied by a private
company. Where the Inland Revenue Offices now stand, was a stone barn,
which was called a news-room. It was a desolate-looking place, inside
and out, and it was a mercy when it was pulled down. At the right-hand
corner, at the top, where Harrison's music shop now stands, there was,
in a large open court-yard, a square old brick mansion, having a brick
portico. A walled garden belonging to this house, ran down Bennetts
Hill, nearly to Waterloo Street, and an old brick summer-house, which
stood in the angle, was then occupied by Messrs. Whateley as offices,
and afterwards by Mr. Nathaniel Lea, the sharebroker. At the corner of
Temple Row West was a draper's shop, carried on by two brothers--William
and John Boulton. The brothers fell out, and dissolved partnership.
William took Mr. R.W. Gem's house and offices in New Street, and
converted them into the shop now occupied by Messrs. Dew; stocked it;
married a lady at Harborne; started off to Leamington on his wedding
tour; was taken ill in the carriage on the way; was carried to bed at
the hotel at Leamington, and died the same evening. His brother took to
the New Street shop; closed the one in Temple Row; made his fortune; and
died a few years ago--a bachelor--at Solihull.
The present iron railings of St. Philip's Churchyard had not then been
erected. There was a low fence, and pleasant avenues of trees skirted
the fence on the sides next Colmore Row and Temple Row. I used to like
to walk here in the quiet of evening, and I loved to listen to the
bells in St. Philip's Church as they chimed out every three hours the
merry air, "Life let us Cherish."