Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham. Walter Showell
Church were first used on February 2, 1878.
Bellows to Mend.—Our townspeople bellowed a little over their losses after Prince Rupert's rueful visit, but there was one among them who knew how to "raise the wind," for we find Onions, the bellows-maker, hard at work in 1650; and his descendants keep at the same old game.
Bennett's Hill.—There was a walled-in garden (with an old brick summer-house) running up from Waterloo-street to Colmore-row as late as 1838–9.
Benefit and Benevolent Societies.—See "Friendly Societies."
Bellbarn Road, or the road to Mr. Bell's barn.
Bermingham.—The Irish family of this name descended from Robert, son of Peter de Bermingham, who left here and settled in Connaught about the year 1169.
Bibles and Testaments.—In 1272 the price of a Bible, well written out, was £30 sterling, and there were few readers of it in Birmingham. The good book can now be bought for 6d., and it is to be hoped there is one in every house. The Rev. Angell James once appealed to his congregation for subscriptions towards sending a million New Testaments to China, and the Carrslaneites responded promptly with £410 8s., enough to pay for 24,624 copies—the publisher's price being 4d. each. They can be bought for a penny now.—A local Auxiliary Bible Society was commenced here May 9, 1806.
Bingley Hall—Takes its name from Bingley House, on the site of which it is built. It was erected in 1850 by Messrs. Branson and Gwyther, at a cost of about £6,000, the proprietary shares being £100 each. In form it is nearly a square, the admeasurements being 224 ft. by 212 ft., giving an area of nearly one acre and a half. There are ten entrance doors, five in King Edward's Place, and five in King Alfred's Place, and the building may be easily divided into five separate compartments. The Hall will hold from 20,000 to 25,000 people, and is principally used for Exhibitions and Cattle Shows; with occasionally "monster meetings," when it is considered necessary for the welfare of the nation to save sinners or convert Conservatives.
Bird's-eye View of the town can be best obtained from the dome of the Council House, to which access may be obtained on application to the Curator. Some good views may be also obtained from some parts of Moseley Road, Cannon Hill Park, and from Bearwood Road.
Birmingham.—A horse of this name won the Doncaster St. Leger in 1830 against 27 competitors. The owner, John Beardsworth, cleared £40,000. He gave Connolly, the jockey, £2,000.
Birmingham Abroad.—Our brethren who have emigrated do not like to forget even the name of their old town, and a glance over the American and Colonial census sheet shows us that there are at least a score of other Birminghams in the world. In New Zealand there are three, and in Australia five townships so christened. Two can be found in Canada, and ten or twelve in the United States, the chief of which is Birmingham in Alabama. In 1870 this district contained only a few inhabitants, but in the following year, with a population of 700, it was incorporated, and at once took rank as a thriving city, now proudly called "The Iron City," from its numerous ironworks, furnaces, and mills. Last year the citizens numbered over 12,000, the annual output of pig-iron being about 60,000 tons, and the coal mines in the neighbourhood turning out 2,000 tons per day. The city is 240 miles from Nashville, 143 miles from Chattanooga, and 96 miles from Montgomery, all thriving places, and is a central junction of six railways. The climate is good, work plentiful, wages fair, provisions cheap, house rent not dear, churches and schools abundant, and if any of our townsmen are thinking of emigrating they may do a deal worse than go from hence to that other Birmingham, which its own "daily" says is a "City of marvellous wonder and magic growth," &c., &c.
Birmingham Begging.—Liberal to others as a rule when in distress, it is on record that once at least the inhabitants of this town were the recipients of like favours at the hands of their fellow-countrymen. In the churchwardens' books of Redenall, Norfolk, under date September 20, 1644, is an entry of 6s. paid "to Richard Herbert, of Birmingham, where was an hundred fifty and five dwelling house burnt by Pr. Rupert."
Birmingham Borough, which is in the hundred of Hemlingford, and wholly in the county of Warwick, includes the parish of Birmingham, part of the parish of Edgbaston, and the hamlets of Deritend-and-Bordesley, and Duddeston-cum-Nechells, in the parish of Aston. The extreme length is six miles one furlong, the average breadth three miles, the circumference twenty-one miles, and the total area 8,420 acres, viz., Birmingham, 2,955; in Edgbaston, 2,512; and in Aston, 2,853. Divided into sixteen wards by an Order in Council, approved by Her Majesty, October 15, 1872. The mean level of Birmingham is reckoned as 443 feet above sea level.
Birmingham Heath.—Once an unenclosed common, and part of it may now be said to be common property, nearly 100 acres of it being covered with public buildings for the use of such as need a common home. There is not, however, anything commonplace in the style of these erections for sheltering our common infirmities, as the Workhouse, Gaol, and Asylum combined have cost "the Commons" something like £350,000. The Volunteers in 1798 made use of part of the Heath as a practice and parade ground.
Birmingham Bishops.—The Rev. John Milner, a Catholic divine and eminent ecclesiastical antiquary, who was educated at Edgbaston, was appointed Bishop Apostolic in the Midland district, with the title of "Bishop of Castaballa." He died in 1826, in his 74th year.—Dr. Ullathorne was enthroned at St. Chad's, August 30th, 1848, as Bishop of the present Catholic diocese.—The Rev. P. Lee, Head Master of Free Grammar School in 1839, was chosen as the first Bishop of Manchester.— The Rev. S. Thornton, St. George's, was consecrated Bishop of Ballarat, May 1, 1875.—The Rev. Edward White Benson, D.D., a native of this town, was nominated first Bishop of Truro, in December, 1876, and is now Archbishop of Canterbury.—The Rev. Thomas Huband Gregg resigned the vicarage of East Harborne in March, 1877, and on June 20 was consecrated at New York a Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church.
Birmingham (Little).—In a record of the early date of 1313 there is mention of a place called Little Birmingham (parvam Birmingham), as being in the hundreds of North and South Erpyngham, Norfolk.
Birmingham in the Future.—It has been proposed that the Borough should be extended so as to include the Local Board districts of Harborne and Handsworth, Balsall Heath, Moseley, King's Heath, part of King's Norton parish, the whole of Yardley and Acock's Green, part of Northfield parish, all Aston Manor, Saltley, Witton, Little Bromwich, and Erdington, covering an area of about 32,000 acres, with a present population of over half a million.
Blind Asylum.—See "Philanthropic Institutions."
Blondin made his first appearance at Aston Park, June 8, 1861; at the Birmingham Concert Hall, December, 1869, and March, 1870; at the Reservoir September, 1873, and September, 1878. Mrs. Powell, who was known as the "Female Blondin," was killed at a fête in Aston Park, July 20, 1868, by falling from the high rope.
Bloomsbury Institute.—Opened in 1860. The memorial stones of the lecture-hall in Bloomsbury Street were laid August 6, 1877, the £750 cost being given by Mr. David Smith. Seats 500.
Blue Coat School.—See "Schools."
Blues.—The United Society of True Blues was founded in 1805 by a number of old Blue Coat boys (formerly known as "The Grateful Society") who joined in raising an annual subscription for the School.
Board Schools.—See "School Board."
Boatmen's Hall, erected on Worcester Wharf, by Miss Ryland, was opened March 17, 1879.
Bonded Warehouses.—Our Chamber of Commerce memoralised the Lords of the Treasury for the extension of the bonded warehouse system to this town, in December, 1858, but it was several years before permission was obtained.
Books.—The oldest known Birmingham book is a "Latin Grammar, composed in the English tongue," printed in London in 1652, for Thomas Underhill, its author having been one of the masters