Chapter XXXII: Part III: , Pages 213 to 265

MINERALS. (OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT.)

BY C. J. WOODWARD, B.SC., F.G.S.

The crystalline minerals occurring within the limits of the Birmingham district may be most conveniently referred to under the titles of the several counties in which they actually occur. These counties are: Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.

=Derbyshire.=--The mines in this county are worked out, and there is but little opportunity of meeting with minerals. On the spoil-banks of the old mines poor specimens may be found. Mr. John Tym, of Castleton, is a local dealer, and the guide to the High Tor Grotto has minerals for sale. The following list with localities is taken from a paper on “Economic Geology of Derbyshire,” by Mr. A. H. Stokes, F.G.S., H.M. Inspector of Mines. _Barytes_, nearly all lead mines, Newhaven; _Blende_, Old hillocks, near Ashover and Hartington; _Gypsum_, Chellaston, also railway cutting between Trent and Loughborough; _Brown Hæmatite_, north west of Hubberdale mine, near Taddington, also near Elton; _Brown Lead Ore “Linnets,”_ Elton, and Newhaven, Winster; _Calcite_, colourless at lead mines of Nether Haddon, near Bakewell. Alpart, Ashover, and Wirksworth yield good specimens. _Elaterite_, Windy Knoll Quarry, Main Tor, Castleton; _Fluor Spar_, Blue John and other mines, Castleton; _Limonite_, a field, one mile north of Castleton, and to the east of Odin Lead mine; _Petroleum_, Riddings Colliery, near Alfreton. A sump is sunk at the bottom of the mine, and into this the oil finds its way. Some years as much as 100 tons of oil have been obtained at a price as high as £7. 10s. per ton. _Phosgenite_, very scarce, Meer Brook Sough mine, near Worksworth; _Pyrites_, large cubic crystals at Gregory mine, near Ashover; _Rock crystal_, Buxton, in amygdaloid cavities of toad stone; also Diamond Hill, near Miller’s Dale station; _Towanite_, Old hillocks at Ecton mine, Cumberland mine, Matlock Bath; _Wad_, mines near Elton; _White Lead Ore_ (_Cerussite_), near Brassington; Heyspots mine, near Elton; Cabin mine, Newhaven. A more extensive list of the minerals of Derbyshire, compiled by the Rev. J. M. Mello, will be found in “The Midland Naturalist,” Vol. iv., p. 183.

=Gloucestershire.=--Mr. H.B. Woodward, of the Geological Survey, has given the following list:--_Agate_, Berkeley, Damory Bridge; _Barytes_, Tortworth; _Bitumen_, Clifton; _Brown Spar_, Tortworth; _Celestine_, Tortworth, Thornbury, Wickwar, Aust; _Fluor Spar_, Clifton; _Göthite_, Clifton; _Jasper_, Tortworth; _Prehnite_, Woodford Bridge, Berkeley; _Rock Salt (pseudomorphs)_, Aust; _Steatite_, Tortworth; _Talc_, Tortworth; _Vivianite_, near Clifton.

Pyle Hill, near Clifton, is a well-known locality for Celestine. At Garden Cliff, near Westbury-on-Severn, the “bone bed” is well exposed, and in this bed occurs plenty of iron pyrites; and in the shales, as might be expected, crystals of selenite occur.

=Leicestershire.=--_Gold_ occurs in the quartz veins round Pedlar Tor, Charnwood Forest. _Garnets_ occur in “gneiss” at Brazil Wood (Mr. W. J. Harrison). _Copper pyrites_, _Molybdenum_, Mount Sorrel and Breedon. _Galena_, _Blende_, Dimminsdale; _Dolomite_, Cloud Hill; _Gypsum_ and _Selenite_, various places; _Iron pyrites_ in cubes, Swithland Great Pit (Mr. James Plant).

=Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire.=--_Barytes_, _Blende_, _Calcite_, _Galena_, _Glauconite_, _Gypsum_ (_Selenite_), _Lignite_, _Limonite_, _Pyrites_, _Websterite_, occur in the neighbourhood of Banbury (Mr. Thomas Beesley).

=Nottinghamshire.=--_Gypsum_ occurs in veins near Retford, and is used for garden rock-work.

=Shropshire.=--At Lilleshall an old mine known as the Stump Leasow, worked for limestone, yielded the following minerals:[67]--_Quartz_, a minute crystal only. _Erubescite_, a few minute patches in the massive form. _Copper Pyrites_, in sphenoids. _Iron Pyrites_, in radiating masses. _Hæmatite_, in minute chocolate-coloured hemispherical masses, also in an almost continual film containing the calc spar and other minerals with a coppery sheen. _Barytes_, in pink, lamellar, somewhat radiating masses. At the free surfaces of these masses are transparent crystals. _Calcite_, in beautiful ice-like clusters of crystals taking the form of steep three-faced pyramids. The groups are made up of steep scalenohedrous with rhombohedral summits. The calcite is in some cases pink due to manganese, a sample contained 1·20 per cent. of MnO. In the lower measures the calcite occurs in pointed scalenohedrous lining cavities in the stone. _Dolomite_, is the most interesting mineral of the group. It occurs in nodules made up of a succession of laminæ of varying diameters, the laminæ crystallizing at the edges in rhombs resembling pearl spar. The composition of one sample of this dolomite is nearly identical with what according to Boricky is one of the possible values of Ankerite. Another approximates to the formula 3 CaCO₃ + (FeMn) CO₃ + MgCO₃ and should be described as a ferriferous dolomite.

In the mining district of West Shropshire many beautiful and interesting minerals are met with. The district is best reached from Birmingham by taking train to Minsterley, via Shrewsbury. At Snailbeach Mine, near Minsterley, occur beautiful rhombs of _Calcite_, having a violet tinge, due to a small quantity of manganese. There are also crystals of _Blende_ and _Galena_. At several of the mines _Witherite_ and _Barytes_ are found, and, according to Mr. Morton, other minerals met with are _Quartz_, _Chalcedony_, _Petroleum_, _Pyrites_, _Malachite_, _Redruthite_, _Wad_, _Minium_, and _Cerussite_. At Wotherton, two miles from Chirbury, is a fine barytes lode which has been worked for more than 60 years, at first as an open mine, and subsequently by means of a shaft. The barytes is remarkably pure, and after grinding is sold in large quantities. In the lode are crevices and cavities filled with a fine mud, and penetrating into the mud are fine transparent crystals. These crystals have been measured by Mr. Miers, of the British Museum, and a record of the forms present will be found in his description.[68] (“Nature,” vol. xxix., p. 29.)

In connection with the mineralogy of Shropshire, it should be recorded that the extremely rare instance of the fall of an iron meteorite in the British Isles took place in this county at Rowton, near Wellington, on April 20th, 1876. This meteorite was extracted by Mr. G. Brooks, from the hole in which it had buried itself, and was hot when removed. It is now in the possession of the British Museum, and Prof. Maskelyne has given particulars of it in “Nature,” vol. xiv., p. 472. It weighs 7 lbs. 11 oz., “is a mass of metallic iron irregularly angular, although all its edges appear to have been rounded by fusion in its transit through the air, and, except at the point where it first struck the ground, it is covered by a thin black pellicle of the magnetic oxide of iron … the exposed metallic part of the surface exhibits crystalline structure very clearly when it is etched. It is only the seventh aërosiderite or meteoric iron of which the fall has been witnessed, although upwards of a hundred iron masses have been discovered in different parts of the globe, which are undoubtedly meteoric, and two such have been found in Great Britain.”[69]

=Warwickshire.=--Many years ago a pocket of _Grey Oxide of Manganese_ was found near Atherstone, but I have been unable to find now any traces of it. _Gypsum_ occurs in the cutting of a disused railway near Henley-in-Arden, and at Spernall (Spernall Plaster Pits), near Alcester. Mr. A. H. Atkins has called attention to the fact that gypsum was met with in sinking an artesian well in Small Heath Park, near Birmingham; he also mentions the occurrence of _Green Copper Carbonate_ at Vaughton’s Hole, near Birmingham.

=Worcestershire.=--Dr. Harvey B. Holl mentions the following minerals as occurring at the Malvern Hills:--_Quartz_, _Orthoclase_, _Labradorite_, _Anderine_, _Potash Mica_, _Ferruginous Mica_ (_Biolite_), _Augite_, _Hornblende_, _Epidote_, _Chlorite_, _Hæmatite_, _Calc Spar_, _Graphite_, _Zeolites_, and _Garnet_.

* * * * *

[The following articles refer to subjects which could not be included in previous papers, and which are yet worth notice as part of the history of Birmingham.--ED.]

=Botanical Gardens.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--The first proposal to establish Botanical Gardens, in accordance with the science of horticulture of the time, was made in 1829. Twelve acres were secured in the then rural suburb of Edgbaston, and on the advice of the famous J. C. Loudon four more acres were added, and the buildings erected by Clarke of Birmingham, and opened to the public in 1831. The original capital was 500 shares of £5 each, and an annual payment of three guineas which secured certain privileges of admission beyond those of the subscriber’s payment. The institution flourished, with some vicissitudes, for many years, but was necessarily exclusive, and only recently have admissions been made more easy by reduced and varying charges on different days. On Monday--the people’s day--large numbers attend, and the experiment has proved successful. The buildings were recently greatly extended and rearranged from the designs of Mr. Frank Osborne, and are now believed to be amongst the best of the kingdom. Flower shows are held during the summer, and prizes awarded, which are eagerly contended for by numerous horticulturists and florists of the town and neighbourhood.

=Guinea Gardens.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--Near the Botanical Gardens a group of small gardens may be seen, which are the only “survivals” of the acres of “allotment gardens” or “guinea gardens,” which surrounded Birmingham within a mile from the centre as late as 1830 to 1840. Birmingham was, in fact, a town of gardens fifty years ago, not merely as to the gardens attached to houses--front and back gardens in the principal parts of the town,--but of the groups of gardens rented by workmen and others, who could reach their gardens easily from their homes by a short walk, and devote mornings and evenings to them. The sites of the Kent Street Baths, and those opposite St. Thomas’s Church,--at Ladywood, Spring Hill, Hockley, Handsworth, and Aston road,--all within the Parish Boundary, formed a belt of gardens where the workman and his family often spent the summer evenings and enjoyed the (then) country air. All is now changed, and the distances even by rail and tram are too great, and land too valuable, to be let out in readily accessible gardens for the workers of the town, who cannot for many reasons live in the suburbs which railways have opened since 1840.

=Sunday Lecture Society.=--[THOS. ROSE.]--This Society, which has now become one of the most successful of our local institutions, had a very humble origin. In 1877, a few members of the Birmingham Temperance Society (foremost amongst whom was Mr. Thos. Hewins), conceived the idea of holding Meetings on Sunday evenings “for the social, moral, and intellectual improvement of the non-church and chapel-going portion of the community.” They accordingly formed themselves into a Committee, who engaged the then newly erected Board Schools in Bristol Street, for the winter season of 1877-8, and commenced what were described as “Sunday Evening Meetings for the People.” For a short time these meetings were of a purely temperance character, but finding that they were not so thoroughly appreciated as they had expected, the Committee extended the variety of the subjects, and lectures were delivered embracing a wide range of thought, both moral and religious, literary and dramatic, scientific and historical, occasionally interspersed with musical evenings illustrative of the principal oratorios. Foremost amongst the lecturers (who numbered many of our chief local literary and scientific men), was Mr. Sam: Timmins, who from the first took an active part in the movement, the success of which was from this time assured, the lectures being attended by crowded and appreciative audiences every Sunday evening, and occasionally hundreds were unable to obtain admission.

In 1880, the then Mayor (Alderman R. Chamberlain), generously offered the Committee the free use of the Town Hall, and for some months the lectures were delivered consecutively in that place to audiences numbering from 3 to 4,000 each Sunday. This gave rise to considerable opposition on the part of the various religious sects of the town against what was considered to be “a monopoly of the use of the hall by one particular sect,” and after much controversy in the public press, and debate in the Town Council, the question of the letting of the Town Hall on Sundays was left in the hands of the Mayor for the time being, on the understanding that its continuous use by any one sect should be refused. Thereupon the lectures were resumed in the Bristol Street Board School, with occasional special lectures in the Town Hall.

In 1881, the movement assumed a more representative character. The then Hon. Sec. (Mr. T. Rose), assisted by some of the leading members of the Committee, took steps to organize a Sunday Lecture Society, and a Meeting was held on July 1st, 1881, under the Presidency of Mr. William Harris, J.P., when the present Society was publicly inaugurated, the objects being--“To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Borough of Birmingham, and to encourage the delivery elsewhere of lectures upon subjects calculated to promote the social, moral, and intellectual well-being of the community at large, as hitherto conducted by the Committee of the Sunday Evening Meetings for the People.”

The constitution of the Society also provided that a minimum subscription of One Shilling per year should constitute membership, and that any pecuniary profit should be applied to the further promotion of the objects of the Society. Mr. Sam: Timmins was elected first President, and the management of its affairs was entrusted to a Committee of 30, exclusive of Officers, to be elected annually from amongst the body of members.

In the first year of the Society’s existence the members numbered 80, including the names of many of the most influential public men of the town, and the subscription list amounted to £45. 14s. 6d. The number of members is now 168, and the subscription list amounts to £70; the income being further augmented by the collections taken at the various lectures (which are thus largely self-supporting). Nearly all the lectures being given voluntarily, the cost of working the Society is comparatively small, and is fully met by the income derived from subscriptions and collections. Five of the principal Board Schools are engaged every Sunday evening throughout the winter season, from October to April, and at intervals special lectures are delivered in the Town Hall. During the season from 1885 to 1886, 71 lectures were delivered at the Board Schools, with a total attendance of 23,150, or an average of 326 to each lecture, and 10 lectures were delivered at the Town Hall, with a total attendance of 33,000, or an average of 3,300 for each lecture. Ald. R. Chamberlain, M.P., is now President of the Society, as well as one of its most popular lecturers. In Councillor R. F. Martineau, the Committee possesses a most able and energetic Chairman. Mr. W. B. Smith is the Treasurer, and Mr. J. H. Forrester, No. 1, Summer Hill Terrace, worthily fills the office of Hon. Secretary.

=Newspapers.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--The earliest known Birmingham Newspaper was “The Birmingham Journal,” published by Thomas Warren, in 1733. It was at first published on Thursdays, but afterwards on Mondays. Only one copy has survived, that of May 21st, 1733, No. XXVIII. The “Journal” is interesting as it shows some traces of the style of Dr. Johnson, who very probably assisted Warren in his newspaper. “Aris’s Birmingham Gazette” was first published in 1741, and its original title is used on the Saturday issue from the Daily Gazette Office to this day. It was originally published on Mondays, and some of its earlier issues bore another heading, for special County circulation. “Swinney’s Birmingham Chronicle” was published for several years, from 1796 to 1816, but no complete file has been preserved. Jabet’s “Commercial Herald” was issued from 1804 to 1813. The “Birmingham Journal” was revived in 1825, by Wm. Hodgetts, and was continued until absorbed in “The Daily Post.” The “Birmingham Advertiser” was commenced in 1833, and continued till 1845. In 1836, the “Midland Counties Herald” was begun on a new plan of gratuitous circulation and is continued as a sheet of advertisements and news relating to the land and agricultural interests to this day. The “Birmingham Morning News” appeared in 1871, with George Dawson as its first editor, and was continued till 1875.

“Aris’s Birmingham Gazette” was one of the first two country papers which began a series of “Local Notes and Queries” in 1856. The example has been very generally followed, and the series continued in the “Weekly Post” and the “Weekly Mercury,” and many important facts of local history have thus been discovered and preserved.

The removal of the “taxes on knowledge”--the stamp duty and advertisement duty and the paper duty--soon produced local daily papers, the first being the “Daily Press,” in 1855, edited for some time by George Dawson, and followed by the “Daily Mercury.” In 1857 the “Daily Post” was started, and in 1879 the “Daily Globe” appeared. In 1869 the “Midland Illustrated News” was begun, but it survived only about a year and a half. Among the other newspapers were the “Birmingham Chronicle” (1823); the “Midland Chronicle” (1811); the “Philanthropist” (1835). Many other short-lived newspapers have been issued from time to time--many of which are to some extent preserved by odd copies in the Reference Library, and among them a German newspaper of which only one number appeared. Birmingham was one of the first towns which produced a Sunday newspaper--the “Sunday Echo,” and some others have been issued since. The “cheap press” secured a very large number of readers, when the first halfpenny daily evening paper, the “Daily Mail,” was established in 1869, followed for some time by a similar issue from the “Daily Gazette” office, and afterwards by the “Midland Echo.”

Many monthly pamphlets--practically newspapers--were issued, such as the “Independent” (1827), and “Inspector” (1817); the “Weekly Recorder” and “Register” (1819), by George Edmonds; and many serials, sarcastic or humorous, have appeared from time to time. The scurrilous “Argus” of fifty years ago, and later the “Town Crier” (1861), “Brum,” “Graphic,” “Dart,” “Owl,” “Free Lance,” &c., with our illustrated “Phonographic Punch,” and one local monthly, “Edgbastonia,” in which many interesting biographies of local celebrities have appeared. On several occasions Sunday sermons have been published in serials such as the “Birmingham Pulpit” (1871-73). Other attempts to establish newspapers for discussion rather than mere news have been tried as in the “Liberal Review” (1880).

=Theatres.=--[SAM: TIMMINS.]--Birmingham has been famous as a theatrical town for nearly a century, and especially as the “training ground” where many of the leading actors of the present century learned their art and won their first laurels. The stage was, however, rather a late creation in Birmingham, and no traces are found earlier than about 1730, when mere booths served the purpose of a “play-house,” and actors were only “rogues and vagabonds” according to law. “A shed in Temple Street” and a “stable in Castle Street,” with admission threepence each, and the small band parading the town during the day, in the absence of newspapers, to announce the performance, formed, according to Hutton, the “rise of the drama” in our town. As early as 1750 travelling circuses and theatres appeared in Coleshill Street; and in 1802 the famous Astley brought his circus to the “back of the Stork Hotel.” In 1730 a temporary building was erected in Moor Street, in 1743 another in New Street, in 1747 another in Smallbrook Street, and in 1776 a more important and permanent theatre was built in King Street--a street covered by the railway station and Stephenson Place, and the site of the theatre being now that of the front of the Exchange. This became an important theatre, and existed till late in the century in competition with the present Theatre Royal, which was founded about the same date. The few play bills which have survived, and the expenditure on the building, show that every effort was made to do justice to the drama a century ago. At this date theatres were merely tolerated, but in 1777 an application was made for a licence for the New Street Theatre to play for “four months in the year,” and this application was somewhat famous, for it was eloquently supported by Edmund Burke, who used the phrase--since so well-known and so little understood--that Birmingham was the “great Toy-shop of Europe.” The phrase, however, was not new, but was used in a book by Sir Samuel Morland a hundred years earlier to describe the shops where trinkets and small steel and iron wares were sold, and not in connection with children’s “toys.” The second reading of the Bill, to enable His Majesty the King to grant a Patent was, however, lost, but the enterprise was continued, and in 1780 the present front of the Theatre Royal was erected with a commodious theatre, well lighted by wax candles, and with “the passages warmed with stoves” as the performances were to be given in the winter as well as the summer months. It was not till 1807 that a “Patent” was secured for the Theatre which then became the Theatre Royal, and still remains under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain. In 1778 a “wooden building” was erected as an “opera house,” near the Plough and Harrow, in the Moseley Road, but this was burned down soon after. In 1792, the Theatre Royal was destroyed by fire, and again in 1820, but the front remained unharmed in these two great fires and the medallions of Shakespeare and Garrick remain as placed in 1780. In both cases the fires were believed to be incendiary and with good reason too. In 1795 the Theatre was rebuilt and re-opened by William Macready, who remained till 1810, in which year, on June 11, his future famous son, William Charles Macready, appeared as Romeo,--“a young gentleman and his first appearance on any stage.” In 1813, Macready was followed by Elliston, as lessee, and in 1819 he was succeeded by Alfred Bunn. During all this period all the great actresses, and actors, and singers, and celebrities of the time appeared on the Theatre Royal stage, and a very complete series of Play Bills has fortunately been preserved. The present lessee, Mr. M. H. Simpson, and his father have had the Theatre Royal for fifty years, and recently additions and alterations have been made, not only in the Theatre proper, but in the accessory rooms for actors and scenery which have never been surpassed for extent and convenience. The Theatre Royal was, practically, the only theatre for many years, but in 1853 a dramatic licence was granted by the magistrates for a building on the Bingley Hall site: in 1856 the “Music Hall” in Broad Street was built, but in 1862 it was converted into a theatre, and opened as the Royal Operetta House, by Mr. W. H. Swanborough. In 1866 it was bought by Mr. James Rodgers, and in 1876 was practically rebuilt, and additions and alterations are now in progress under Mr. Rodgers and his Son. In 1879 a license was granted to the Holte Theatre, in the Aston Lower Grounds; and the Grand Theatre, Corporation Street, built and managed by Mr. Andrew Melville, was opened November 14, 1883. In 1785 an Amphitheatre existed in Livery Street and was converted into a Chapel: in King Street the Theatre was also converted into a Chapel, and afterwards back again to a Public Hall; and in 1827 the Circus of James Ryan, permanently built some years later, was converted into the Circus Chapel. In short, the great progress of Birmingham in the second half of the last century was felt in every way: the Musical Festival was founded, and the drama grew rapidly as the town extended and the taste of the public improved.

THE COVENTRY INDUSTRIES.

BY W. G. FRETTON, F.S.A.

An exhaustive account of the ribbon and watch manufactures of Coventry, with technical descriptions of the various processes involved in the treatment of the raw material, in its progress of manufacture from its primitive condition to its finished state, having already appeared in the comprehensive series of articles in the midland industries, published on the occasion of the former visit of the Association in 1865, it only remains to note the changes and additions which have been made since that period in the Industries of Coventry.

=Ribbon Trade.=--Several causes have combined to produce a very serious decline in the manufacture of silk fabrics, the chief of them being the French commercial treaty, to which may be added change of fashion, and increased competition and more rapid production by the further development of machinery. From 1860 to 1878 the ribbon trade in Coventry and its neighbourhood, had decreased by at least one half, and the decline has been going on since that period, with exceptional experiences of spasmodic improvement, ever since. Efforts have been made in various ways to direct the textile skill of the artisans into other channels wherein their weaving abilities might be turned to their advantage, and the area of textile manufactures increased. In one of these departments may be specially noticed the manufacture of _bookmarks_, and other illuminated ribbons. This trade was chiefly introduced by Mr. Thomas Stevens, and has been most successfully developed by himself and other manufacturers, until their extent, beauty of design, variety of application, &c., have been marvellous. Portraits, valentines, presents suitable to the seasons, birthdays, views of noted buildings, poetical sentences, mottoes, labels, and other decorative and descriptive ornaments have been produced, which, half a century ago, it would have been deemed impossible to produce from a loom. But this has involved the construction of complicated and expensive machinery, and has raised the art of loom-making considerably. Such a trade is, after all, but limited, it is the production of a luxury, a merchandise “which none but the rich can buy.”

=Trimming Trade.=--Another department of textile industry which has sprung up, somewhat analogous to the Ribbon manufacture, is the Trimming trade, for which special looms have been adopted--cambric frilling, mainly introduced by Messrs. Cash; bead work, and other ornamental fabrics have also been introduced.

=Cotton Spinning and Weaving.=--Soon after the decline of the ribbon trade the attention of the Coventry manufacturers was drawn to the experiment of introducing the cotton spinning and weaving. A large factory with suitable annexes for carrying on a large trade was erected on the north side of the city by a company formed in 1860, the Rev. S. H. Widdrington, then vicar of St. Michael’s, taking a great interest in the project. Its operations have been attended by varied success; the distance from the centres of the cotton trade forming an obstacle to its full development, the spinning department has received most attention.

=Elastic Web.=--In 1859 Messrs. Dalton and Barton introduced the manufacture of elastic webs, but afterwards disposed of this department of their business to Mr. Pridmore, by whom it is still carried on at Foleshill. In 1862 a company was formed for carrying on the same kind of trade, chiefly through the instrumentality of the vicar of St. Michael’s, and known as the Coventry Elastic Weaving Company, and for nearly twenty years it conducted a large business, having branches at Red Lane, Foleshill, and in White Friars’ Lane, Coventry. Owing to a brisk competition in other weaving centres, and consequent over-production, the company dissolved a few years ago, a portion of the plant and trade being retained by Mr. J. C. Odell, one of the members of the company, and still successfully carried on. There are several firms in the city conducting similar business.

=The Bradford Stuff Manufacture= was introduced into Coventry in 1864, and established in a large disused factory, originally erected as a cotton mill, in Hill Street, afterwards occupied as a ribbon manufactory. The firm is known as the “Leigh” Mills Company (Limited), the present Lord-Lieutenant of the County having shown much interest in the promotion of this and other new industries in Coventry. Excellent woollen and worsted goods are made here, silk and cotton being also used in some of the varieties manufactured.

=Coach Lace and Broad Stuffs= for railway and other carriages, trimmings for furniture, &c., are largely manufactured by Messrs. Dalton and Barton, Messrs. Perkins and Son, and others.

=Silk Dyeing= is still carried on to a considerable extent by several firms, and the city maintains its old character for the permanence and brilliancy exhibited in this class of work, which is one of the ancient staples of the city.

It will be seen that while Coventry still maintains its textile productions in the weaving industry, its works are not confined to ribbons, and the manufacturers and artisans generally deserve the highest commendation for the spirit and the aptitude they have displayed in adapting themselves to the altered circumstances of the textile industry of the city, and the opening up of new branches of the weaving industry has emancipated the city from dependence on the ribbon trade alone.

Many firms are still engaged in the manufacture of ribbons, sashes, ladies’ scarfs, &c., and during the last year or two, gauzes having been in demand have been largely made.

=Watch Manufacturing.=--Coventry is one of the principal places in England for this branch of manufacturing industry, and at the head of the numerous firms engaged therein, Messrs. J. Rotherham and Sons hold the first and oldest position. A trade of such extent, and exhibiting so many stages of progress in its production, necessarily possesses many features of interest, and may be divided into the following, with minor divisions springing from them:--watch manufacturers, case makers, engravers, springers, engine-turners, and polishers; cap makers, dial makers, escapement, balance, pallet, roller, and lever makers; movement, motion, index, hand, and glass makers; fuzee cutters, gilders, examiners, and finishers; jewellers, keyless motion and movement makers, and motioners.

The trade has been subject to many changes and fluctuations, and is at present in a depressed state, owing largely to foreign competition, and the production of cheap watches by means of machinery. Efforts have been made by more than one of the Coventry firms to meet the latter source of competition by the introduction of machinery in the construction of various parts of the watch, and in the subdivision of labour, more especially in the class known as “going barrels” with various measures of success; but for the better class of watch, the old system bids fair to maintain its position. A project for the establishment of technical schools for special instruction in the various processes in connection with the Coventry staple trades in general, and that of Horology in particular, is still under consideration, and may lead to satisfactory results. There are about 150 manufacturers of watches in Coventry.

=The Cycle Manufacture= was introduced into this city about 20 years ago in conjunction with the making of sewing machines. The latter branch of trade has given place almost entirely to the former, and the reputation which the various firms engaged in the trade have succeeded in obtaining, have placed Coventry in the first rank in this new and peculiar manufacture. The Coventry Machinists’ Company (Cheylesmore) were the first to introduce this trade into this country, and it is still one of the largest of the producers. Among the rest may be mentioned the Rudge, Premier, Singer and Co., Fleet, Centaur, Meteor, Excelsior, Wellington, Victoria, and others, all of which have some speciality claiming some peculiar excellence.

=Artistic Work in Metal= was introduced into Coventry chiefly by the exertions and artistic taste of Mr. Skidmore over 30 years ago, and has been followed out by himself, and by various Companies in the same direction ever since. Work from the different firms established in Coventry of great excellence, may be found in many of the principal towns in the British Islands, and on the Continent, notably in Lichfield and Hereford Cathedrals, Prince Consort Memorial, Burlington House, &c. Ironfounding and agricultural implement manufacturing has also attained a high position of excellence under the firm of Matterson, Huxley, and Watson of this city.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The information in this section, up to the close of 1884, is taken from the very accurate and interesting “History of the Corporation of Birmingham,” by J. Thackray Bunce. Two vols., 1878 and 1885.

[2] In 1795 it had risen to £1,200; in 1818 to £3,000; in 1861 to £11,000; in 1880 to £21,983; and it is reckoned that at the end of the century the revenue of the School will be £50,000.

[3] This barn and croft were taken away in 1738 from both chief master and usher, and their salaries raised in lieu to £88. 15s. 0d. and £60.

[4] In all these provisions boys from the manor had the preference.

[5] An alternative plan, apparently not adopted, was to have two exhibitions of £5 each, at Catherine Hall, Cambridge; and two fellowships of £30 a year each at the same college.

[6] The first exhibitioners were William Milner and Bartholomew Baldwin, in 1677. Up to 1817, eighty-two exhibitioners had been elected. In 1723, however, a chancery commission declared it a manifest breach of trust on the Governors’ part that no exhibition had been granted for twenty years; while on January 18, 1734, _the chief master, having no scholars under his care_, William Spilsbury, jun., a scholar in the _usher’s_ school, was elected exhibitioner at Oxford, no other boy being qualified or likely to be qualified for some years.

[7] See the illustrations in _Hutton’s_ Birmingham.

[8] The first appointed were in 1752, as follows: William Latham, in Dudley Street; Thomas Wilson, near the Old Cross; Mary Ankers, wife of Noel Ankers, in Freeman Street; another Widow Austin, in London Prentice Street.

[9] For some reason not very clear, the _branch_ school in Shutt Lane, as also a drawing school established by the Governors, were in 1829 declared by a decree in Chancery to be unauthorised by the charter, and were then discontinued.

[10] This was the original intention. But one of these two large apartments was taken by the Governors, and the room designed for the library was given to the commercial school in its place. The latter is now the assembly room of the Girls High School.

[11] It should be added that Mr. Green’s report also declares that “it is universally admitted that the present Board has discharged its duties with all care and conscientiousness.”

[12] The present bailiff.

[13] See the development of 1883.

[14] The imposition of fees has ever been a sore point. The first report of the new Town Council Governors was issued on January 7th, 1879, and stated that they had endeavoured to reduce these fees; and in 1880 they expressed their regret at their imposition.

[15] In 1800, there were 120 boys: in 1850, 250 boys; in 1860, 456 boys in Grammar School, and 1080 children in the Elementary Schools: there are now 343 boys and 195 girls in the High School: 849 boys and 644 girls in the Grammar Schools. Grand total, 1493.

[16] The number of Masters in the Grammar School was, in 1878, 26; in the Elementary Schools there were 20 teachers and 21 monitors.

[17] Existing rights reserved; in 1878 the Head Master had 17, and the second Master, 5 boarders.

[18] These amounts have been greatly exceeded. The annual expenditure on exhibitions is, Boys’ High School, £690; Girls, £200; Boys’ Grammar School, £270; Girls, £360. There is only one James Exhibition.

[19] Opened September, 1883.

[20] Five sums of £1,000 each for Scholarships, Prize Essays, Chaplaincy, Divinity Lectureship, and Medical Tutorship.

[21] _e.g._, Law, which was shortly added.

[22] The arts department being henceforward regarded as preparatory to the other two.

[23] In that year the present Warden, the Rev. W. H. Poulton, came into office, and the number immediately increased to 22.

[24] The purchase value of the property was £110,000, yielding an annual rent of £3,700. £60,000 was spent upon the building and furnishing. The total amount of the benefaction will, in the end, approach £200,000. As early as 1882, however, we find that the Council “view with regret the narrow margin that is likely to exist unless the present endowment is supplemented by other gifts,”--[Report, p. 11.]--and this anxiety is again forcibly expressed in 1885. It was relieved in that year, however, by an “Additional Endowment Fund,” the subscriptions to which reached £4,855.

[25] In 1882, it was ordered that wives and children of Professors, Lecturers, and Secretaries, who died during their term of office, be admitted to all classes without payment.

[26] Two exhibitions of £15 each, increased next year to four, awarded by the Governors of King Edward’s Schools, and a Science Scholarship of £20 a year, created by the Trustees of Piddock’s Charity, are also tenable at the College.

[27] Various other societies have been formed within the college, _e.g._, Physical, Chemical, Botanical, Poesy, and French Debating Societies.

[28] The Libraries and Fine Art Gallery were shortly undertaken by the town, and have never formed part of the work of the Institute.

[29] _Paid_ Teachers were substituted in 1860.

[30] The Perry Barr and Harborne Institutes had been opened previously.

[31] M. Achille Albitès.

[32] Now covered by the Schools of the Society of Friends, and where Wyatt and Paul’s first spinning of cotton by rollers was tried.

[33] The principal object of this part is to shew the development of the parochial system, and readers will therefore kindly notice--

1.--All architectural details are omitted, and will be found under the head, “Architecture,” where there is anything special to notice.

2.--Particulars as to patronage, annual value of livings, number of sittings, are, in order to economise space and prevent repetition, relegated to a table at the end of this section, in which table all the churches in the Borough are arranged alphabetically, irrespective of whether they are in the parish of Birmingham, Edgbaston, or that part of Aston parish which is within the Borough.

[34] For the records of these sales see a valuable paper by Mr. J. R. Holliday on St. Martin’s Church, in the Transactions for 1873 of the Archæological Section of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.

[35] See the excellent monograph, “Old St. Martin’s,” by J. T. Bunce, 1875.

[36] A copy and translation of this interesting document will be found in Toulmin Smith’s Memorials of Old Birmingham, 1864.

[37] The materials for the historical facts are to be found in the “Sketch of the History of Protestant Non-Conformity in Birmingham,” by the Rev. J. R. Wreford, formerly minister of the New Meeting House, Birmingham, 1832, and “Protestant Non-Conformity in Birmingham,” by the Rev. J. A. James, Birmingham, 1849.

[38] See the interesting volume, “Memorials of the Old Meeting House and Burial Ground.” by Catherine Hutton Beale. Printed for subscribers by White and Pike, Birmingham.

[39] In the order of time there was an intermediate meeting house in Livery Street, originally a circus, and used by the congregations of the Old and New Meetings, whilst those meeting houses were being rebuilt after the riots of 1791. It was afterwards occupied by a part of the Carr’s Lane congregation, on Mr. Brewer’s resignation of the pastorate there in 1802, and, it becoming too small, it was resolved to build Ebenezer Chapel. The chapel in Livery Street was pulled down in 1853, and the printing establishment of M. Billing, Sons, and Co., is built on the site.

[40] An excellent paper on the Old Church may be found in the third vol. of the Transactions of the Archæological Section of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.

[41] The principal chemicals manufactured on a large scale are:--Sulphuric, Sulphurous, Hydrochloric, Nitric, Crude Carbolic, Hydrocyanic, and Hydrofluoric Acids; Washing Soda, Bicarbonate of Soda, Rochelle Salt, Glauber’s Salt, Carbonate of Potash, Bicarbonate of Potash, Chlorate of Potash, Cyanide of Potassium, Iodide of Potassium, Oxalate of Potash, Bleaching Powder, Ammonia, Sulphate of Ammonia, Sal Ammoniac, Carbonate of Ammonia, Precipitated Chalk, Bisulphite of Lime, Citrate of Magnesia, Fluid Magnesia, Nitrates of Barium and Strontium, Sulphate of Copper, Phosphorus, Milk of Sulphur, Tin Crystals, Benzol, Toluene, Xylene, Phenol, Naphthalene, Crude Anthracene, and other Tar Products, Fruit Essences.

[42] Mungo consists of tailors’ scraps of cloth torn up into shreds, and rendered suitable for working up afresh. Shoddy is a similar material, but made from old garments instead of new material.

[43] A heavy knife used for cutting down sugar cane.

[44] Among goldbeaters Gypsum goes by the name of talc

[45] I am indebted to my colleague Mr. A. H. Hiorns for these particulars.

[46] Sometimes “the process is simply performed by rubbing two pieces of bone quite flat on a smooth stone, and then cutting in one of the pieces the shape required, leaving a hole through to the edge by which to pour in the metal.”--Mr. C. B. Bragg.

[47] For these particulars I am indebted to my colleague, Mr. A. H. Irons.

[48] “Birmingham and Midland Hardware District,” edited by Samuel Timmins, London, Hardwicke, 1866.

[49] The screw hand-press so generally used in Birmingham trades was the first great means of cheapening the making of steel pens, which had previously been made by hand, in Sheffield and London. Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Joseph Gillott, and Sir Josiah Mason, were the first to make steel pens by press work.--Ed.

[50] This mechanism was first used by James Watt, for copying medallions and busts, and his machines are still preserved at Heathfield Hall, Handsworth.--Ed.

[51] For the Enfield-Martini of 0·4″ bore, the thickness is 0·130 inch, and the disc cut out is 1·205 in diameter.

[52] I am indebted to Mr. J. W. Davis for these particulars.

[53] In these cases the value of the gold is trifling as compared with the labour expended, hence there is every confidence in the value of the metal.

[54] The statistics given have been supplied by Messrs. Crawley, Parsons and Co.

[55] I have been surprised to note Birmingham made pearl buttons put on cards headed _Nouveauté, Paris_. I understand that many of these buttons are sent to the United States.--C. J. W.

[56] Sir William Thomson has proposed intervals corresponding to the dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet in order to distinguish lighthouses. C. J. W.

[57] It is interesting to know that Mr. Edward White Benson, father of the present Archbishop of Canterbury, was associated with Mr. Askin in the early experiments on extraction of nickel.

[58] Mr. Henry Bore, who has been connected with the Perryan Pen Works for nearly thirty years, has in the press a work dealing principally with the origin of pen making. Mr. Bore’s investigation points to Mr. John Mitchell as the first to introduce the making of pens by means of tools principally if not entirely his invention, but there is little doubt that the use of steel pens by the writing public is due in the first instance to the energy of Mr. James Perry, who was assisted in this work by the late Sir Josiah Mason.

[59] An amalgam of gold is spread on the work to be gilt. The article is then put in an oven and heated till the mercury escapes, leaving the gold behind. Military buttons and ornaments are gilt in this manner.--C. J. W.

[60] Ramsay. Quart. Journal Geol. Society, 1855, p. 191, &c.

[61] Jukes, South Staffordshire Coalfield, 2nd Edition, p. 15.

[62] For a Note by the writer on the distribution of this species in Britain, see _Midland Naturalist_, Vol. 1, 1878, p. 323.

[63] Those who are interested in the Embryology of these lowly creatures will find a paper upon the subject by Professor E. Ray Lankester, in the “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.”