EDGBASTON, a parish in the Birmingham division
of the hundred of HEMLINGFORD, county of WARWICK,
1 mile (S. W.) from Birmingham, containing
2117 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in
the peculiar jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter of
Lichficld, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and
£200 royal bounty. Lord Calthorpe was patron in
1795. The church is dedicated to St. Bartholomew.
The village has within the last few years become an ex-
tensive and handsome appendage to the town of Birmingham,,
and consists of several spacious streets
well lighted with gas, containing many respectable
houses, exclusively of several substantial mansions in
detached situations, and numerous villas inhabited
chiefly by proprietors of factories in the town, by the
more opulent manufacturers, and private .families; the
buildings are chiefly of stone and brick, coated with
Roman cement, and exhibit a great variety of architectural
style. Of the few ancient buildings which existed
previously to the erection of the modern town, the hall,
which was garrisoned for the parliament in the reign of
Charles I., and a private house called the Monument,
from the erection of. a very high octagonal tower of
brick, near which passes the Roman Iknield-street, are
the principal now remaining. The subscription bowlinggreen
and pleasure-grounds are beautifully laid out and
well attended. The reservoir of the Birmingham
canal, which passes through, the parish, an extensive
sheet -of water covering -nineteen acres, and excavated
to the depth of twenty feet, derives from the rich
foliage on its banks all the beauty of a small lake.
The church, an ancient structure, has been recently enlarged,
and carefully restored, with a due regard to the
preservation of its original character. The asylum for
the deaf and dumb, on the borders of the canal, is a
commodious edifice, resembling in some degree the ancient
style of English architecture.