BIRMINGHAM, a town (celebrated, manufacturing),
in the Birmingham division
of the hundred of HEMLINGFORD,
county of WARWICK,
18 miles (N.W. by W.) from
Coventry, 20 (N. W.) from
Warwick, and 109 (N.W.)
from London, on the road
to Holyhead, containing,
with the environs, nearly
100,000 inhabitants. The
earliest authentic notice of
this place occurs in Domesday-book, in which it is called
Bermengeham, whence may be easily deduced Bromwrjcham,
which name, together with those of Castle and
West Bromwich, two adjacent villages, is supposed to
be derived from the quantity of broom growing in the
neighbourhood. It is thought by some antiquaries to have
been the Bremenium of the Romans, from its situation
near the Iknield-street; and others state it to have been
a British town of soine importance prior to the Roman
invasion, and to have been eminent for the manufacture
of arms, for which the mines of iron and coal in the
vicinity rendered its situation peculiarly favourable. Its
history, prior to the Conquest, is involved in great obscurity,
and from that period until the reign of Charles I,
few incidents of moment are recorded. In the civil war
during that reign, the inhabitants embraced the cause
of the parliament; and in 1642, after the king had
passed through the town, on his route from Shrewsbury,
they seized the carriages containing the royal plate and
furniture, and conveyed them to Warwick castle; they
arrested all messengers and others supposed to be partizans
of the king, and frequently attacked small parties
of royalists, whom they sometimes defeated and sent
prisoners to Coventry. In 1643, Prince Rupert, on his
way to open a communication between Oxford and York,
met with considerable resistance from a detachment of
parliamentarian forces, assisted by the inhabitants, who
stationed themselves at Camp-hill, and opposed his entrance
into the town. A sharp conflict ensued, in which
the parliamentarians were driven from their station; the
Earl of Denbigh was killed, and a clergyman, who acted
as governor during the action, was taken prisoner by
the royalists, and, rejecting quarter, was killed after the
battle, at the Red Lion inn. The prince, provoked at
this resistance, set fire to the town, and, after several
houses had been burnt, the inhabitants saved themselves
from further suffering by the payment of a heavy fine.
On the 14th of July, 1791, a party having met at an
hotel, to celebrate the anniversary of the French revolution,
a mob collected in front of the house, and broke
the windows; they thence proceeded to the Unitarian
meeting-house, which, with another, they burnt down.
Doctor Priestley's dwelling-house, about a mile from the
town, was the next object of attack, which, with his library,
philosophical apparatus, and manuscripts, shared
the same fate. For some days they continued their
devastations, setting fire to several other meeting-houses
and private mansions, but on the arrival of the military
from Oxford and Hounslow, order was restored: at the
ensuing assizes four of the ringleaders were convicted,
and two of them suffered the penalty of the law.
Shortly after this occurrence barracks were erected on
the Vauxhall-road, near the town, consisting of a range
of handsome buildings, enclosing a spacious area for the
exercise of cavalry, and a smaller for parade, a ridingschool,
a magazine, and an hospital.
The extraordinary increase of the town, the improvement
of its manufactures, the extension of its
trade, and the rapid growth of its commerce, within
the last century, may be attributed to the mines of ironore
and coal with which the district abounds, to its
freedom from the restrictions of incorporation, which
has made it the resort of genius and of talent, and to
the numerous canals by which it is connected with every
part of the kingdom, and through which it not only
carries on an immense inland trade, but exports its
manufactures to every quarter of the world. Birmingham,
in the reign of Henry VIII., was inhabited
principally, as described by Leland, " by smithes that
use to make knives and all manner of cutting tooles,
and lorimers that make bittes, and a great many
nailours." Soon after the Revolution in 1688, the manufacture
of fire-arms was introduced, and continued
to flourish until the close of the late war, during which,
Ihe government contracts for muskets alone generally
averaged thirty thousand per month: the manufacturing
of swords and army accoutrements is still carried
on to a considerable extent. By an act obtained in
1813, the gun-makers were authorised to erect a proofhouse,
in which, under a heavy penalty, all gun and
pistol barrels are subjected to a severe proof, and
stamped by the master and wardens, under whose
inspection the business is conducted} and since this
period, the manufacture of fowling-pieces has greatly
increased: the building, called the Tower, stands on the
bank of the canal, and is a handsome structure, with
a row of cannon in front, presenting the appearance
of a military establishment. It is uncertain at .what
time the manufacture of buttons was begun, but
it has continued to flourish in every variety from
a remote period, and is still a source of wealth to
many, and of employment to thousands. The buckle
trade was established soon after the Revolution, and,
after exercising the inventive powers of the manufacturers
in every variety of size, form, and pattern,
became nearly extinct in 1812. The leather trade,
which formerly was extensively carried on, has very
much declined; at present there is only one tan-yard
in the town. The principal branches of manufacture
are those of light and heavy steel goods (here called
toys), gold, silver, and plated wares, trinkets, jewellery,
fancy articles of every kind in the gilt-toy trade,
machinery of every description, and steam-engines on
every known principle: there are many iron and brass
foundries, three metallic hot-house manufactories on a
large scale, in one of which a hot-house has lately been
made for the Duke of Northumberland, at an expense
of nearly £50,000, measuring five hundred feet in
length, and having in the centre a dome sixty-five feet
high, and forty feet in diameter, with wings, in the purest
style of modern architecture: there are also various
rolling-mills of great power, worked by steam. Casting,
modelling, die-sinking, and engraving, have been brought
to great perfection; and several glass-houses have been
erected within the last few years, besides many mills
for cutting glass, of which brilliant specimens may be
seen in all the show-rooms in the town. There are
divers establishments for supplying the town with articles
requisite for the use of the inhabitants, and for
carrying on the manufactures: the Old and New Union-
Mill Bread and Flour Companies, and the public and
private coal-wharfs, are on an extensive scale. Of the
numerous manufactories with which the neighbourhood
abounds, the most ancient and extensive is the Spho
Manufactory, about a mile from the town, in which,
under the superintending genius of the late Mr. Boulton,
the Birmingham manufactures were brought to
their present high degree of perfection; and in which,
under the same proprietor, assisted by his colleague,
the late Mr. Watt, the most efficient application of mechanical
power was produced in the construction of
machinery. In this factory were coined the pennypieces
still in circulation, in a mint of great mechanical
ingenuity, which, with the assistance of one or two
persons, performed the whole process of coinage from
the rolled metal. It was here also that the first application
of gas, as a substitute for oil and tallow,
was made under the auspices of Mr. Murdock, who,
after a course of experiments at Redruth, in Cornwall,
lighted the shops of this factory, and, in 1802, displayed
the success of his researches in a splendid public illumination
of the Soho, in celebration of the peace with
France. Mr. Thomason's manufactory, in Churchstreet,
has a splendid suite of show-rooms attached to
it, replete with costly and elaborate specimens of workmanship,
in gold, silver, plated ware, medals, bronzes,
and the chrystallized bases of metals and semi-metals.
Among the more massive productions is a fine statue
in bronze of his late majesty, George IV., in his coronation
robes: the attitude is graceful and digni^a;
the figure, which is more than six feet high, weighs
forty-five hundred weight, and is so proportioned, as,
at its proper elevation, to present a fine resemblance i
countenance, form, and stature, of the monarch when
at the age of fifty. In a lofty room of suitable dimensions,
built for the purpose, and solely appropriated to
its exhibition, is the large metallic vase, a fac-simile in
size, form, and embellishment, of the celebrated Grecian
vase of Lysippus, dug from the ruins of Adrian's palace,
near Tivoli, which was, by the direction and at the
expense of Lord Warwick, brought over to England
by the late Sir William Hamilton, and placed in the
gardens of Warwick castle. To this huge piece of
art, which is more than twenty-one feet in circumference,
six feet in height, and which weighs ninety hundredweight,
the proprietor, by the peculiar process which
he adopted, has imparted a soft solidity of colour, unequalled
by any example of the kind, both in the porphyritic
oxyde of the ground, or field, and in the ancient
green bronze of the arms, visors, panthers' skins,
foliage, and other ornaments with which it is embellished.
Mr. Thomason's latest production is a beautiful
series of sixteen scientific and philosophical medals
of German silver, each containing, within a circle of
three inches in diameter, a complete epitome of one
of the sciences; they are enclosed in a morocco case,
in the form, and of the size, of an imperial octavo
volume. The manufacture of japan and papier mache'
has been much improved by Messrs. Jenneus and Betteridge,
who, by a chemical process in the preparation
of pearl, by which it is reduced to the eightieth part of
an inch in thickness, and made susceptible of greater
transparency and brilliancy of colour, have rendered
it peculiarly elegant in the decoration of cabinets,
tea-trays, fans, snuff-boxes, &c., of which many beautiful
specimens are exhibited in their show-rooms.
The Pantechnetheca, or General Repository, was
erected in 1824, for the exhibition and sale of articles
in the finer department of the arts, selected from the
various manufactories in the town: the exterior of the
building is fronted, on the basement story, with a Grecian
Doric colonnade, supporting another of the Ionic
order, surmounted by a handsome balustrade with projecting
pedestals, on which are emblematical figures
well sculptured; the interior consists of two handsome
show-rooms, in which the manufactured articles are
judiciously displayed. Mr. Phipson's pin-manufactory,
by a simple but effective process, exhibits the progress
of this article through all its stages, from the drawing of
the wire, to sticking the pin upon paper, and occupies
a thousand persons, besides affording, in many of its
branches, employment to the inmates of the parish asylum,
and the county bridewell. The number and variety
of the manufactories, in almost all of which there is
some ingenious application of machinery, either to expedite
or to improve the manufacture of the article,
while they preclude the possibility of enumeration^
are such as to justify the assertion, that there is no
species of manufacture carried on here which is not
in a state of absolute or relative perfection.
The town is pleasantly situated on an eminence, at
the north-western extremity of the county, bordering
closely on the counties of Stafford and Worcester, from
the former of which it is separated by a small brook.
The streets, which are very numerous, and in general
spacious, are, with the exception of a few in the more
retired parts of the town, well paved, and lighted with
gas, and, being on a declivity, are always clean. The
houses, mostly modern and well built, are chiefly of
brick, but, since- the use of the Roman cement, they
have assumed an improved appearance, and present,
nearly throughout the town and its environs, specimens
of elegance in almost every style of architecture:
among those erected within the last three or four
years are many splendid edifices. The inhabitants are
amply supplied with water from pumps attached to their
houses, and soft water is obtained from two fine wells
at the lower extremity of the town. On entering
Birmingham from London, the road, by a handsome
stone bridge over the small river Rea, leads up an ascent
into .the market-place, in the centre of which is a statue
in bronze of Lord Nelson, finely executed by Westmacott,
at an expense of £3000, raised by subscription
among the inhabitants. An act of parliament has
recently been obtained for taking down the houses on
one side of the present market-place, and forming an
extensive area, in which it is intended to build a markethouse;
and under the same act, the erection of a townhall
is contemplated. The market days are Monday and
Thursday, the latter being also for the sale of horses and
horned cattle; and there is a market for hay on Tuesday.
The cattle market and horse fair are held at Smithfield,-a
spacious area to the south-east of the town, conveniently
divided and arranged for the purpose. A sale of horses
by auction takes place also on the same day, at Beardsworth's
Repository, an establishment of unequalledmagnitude,
near the spot. The buildings comprise a
spacious quadrangular area, round which are stalls for
one hundred and fifty horses, exclusively of twenty-four
boxes for hunters; above these are galleries, in which
there are standings for four hundred carriages, which
are constantly on sale: the whole area is covered with
a shed-roof supported on pillars forty feet high, and is
lighted with a double range of upper windows: on one
side of the quadrangle, over which the roof is continued,
there is a covered ride, one hundred and eight yards in
length, and forty yards in width; and on the opposite
side is another of equal extent, enclosed by walls, but
not roofed. In addition to the accommodations of a
repository, it contains a splendid suite of apartments,
elegantly furnished for the reception of gentlemen or
families, who may visit Birmingham at the triennial
festival, or on any other public occasion. The fairs are
on the Thursday in Whitsun-week, and on the Thursday
next before Michaelmas-day, each for three days; they
are chiefly show fairs, though on the first day many
horses and horned cattle are sold.
The town is wholly within the jurisdiction of the
county magistrates, qf whom, those acting for the town
hold a meeting, every Monday and Thursday, at the
public office: a high bailiff (who is clerk of the market,
and by courtesy presides at all public meetings), a low
bailiff, two constables, a headborough, two ale-conners,
two flesh-conners, two affeirers, and two leather-sealers,
are chosen at the court leet of the lord of the manor,
which is held at Michaelmas. A court of requests for
the recovery of debts under 40s., established by an act
passed in the 25th of George II., the powers of which,
by a subsequent act in the 47th of George III., were
extended to the recovery of debts under £5, is held
every week: it consists of seventy-two commissioners,
three of whom, assisted by two clerks, who must be
lawyers, form a quorum; its jurisdiction extends only
to the limits of the parish. The public office is a commodious
building with a handsome stone front; the
court-room is well arranged, and behind it is a prison,
for the confinement of malefactors previously to their
committal to the county gaol. The news-room, built in
189,5, is a handsome edifice with a stuccoed front, ornamented
with lofty pillars of the Ionic order: the interior
consists of one large room, opening through folding
doors into two smaller apartments, over which are a
billiard-room and a refectory; and a suite of rooms has
lately been added, in which copies of the public records,
and books of reference, are deposited. The old library,
established in 1798, is a handsome stone building, with
a circular portico; the reading-room is circular, and is
lighted by a dome lanthern resting on handsome Ionic
pillars of porphyry: this institution, the number of
volumes in which exceeds thirty thousand, is under the
direction of a committee; admission is obtained by the
purchase of a share of the value of £ 10, and the payment
of an annual subscription of £ 1. The new library,
similarly conducted, but upon a smaller scale, is a neat
building, recently erected, and internally well arranged.
The Philosophical Society, which had been instituted
some years previously, extended their plan in 1810, and
erected a commodious theatre for the delivery of lectures
by their own members, and occasionally by eminent professors,
in the various branches of science: they have
a museum, containing a fine collection of minerals and
fossils, an extensive philosophical apparatus, a library,
and a reading-room. The school of medicine and surgery
was established in 1828, by Mr. W. S. Cox, and
the resident physicians and surgeons lecture weekly
upon subjects connected with the design of the institution;
certificates of having attended these lectures qualify
students to pass their examination at the Royal College
of Surgeons in London: a handsome and appropriate
building has been recently erected on Snow-hill for the
use of this establishment.
The Society of Arts was instituted in 1821, for promoting
the general study of the fine arts, by procuring
from the nobility and gentry, who are its patrons, the
loan of original pictures of the old and new schools, in
order to stimulate the genius and industry of the
members, and to enrich their annual exhibition: it
comprehends also, in addition to the higher pursuits of
the art, the cultivation of those particular departments
of it which are connected with the manufactures of the
town. The building is a chaste and elegant specimen of
the Corinthian order, with a boldly projecting portico of
four elegant columns, supporting a triangular pediment.
An institution for promoting the fine arts, established
in 1828, for the encouragement of artists resident within
thirty miles of Birmingham, by appropriating its funds
to the purchase of pictures from the walls at their annual
exhibition, has been recently incorporated with the former.
A mechanics' institution was established in 1825.
The theatre is a spacious and well-arranged building,
with a handsome stone front, consisting of a portico of
the Ionic order, supported by a piazza, through which
is the entrance to the boxes; on one side is that to a
coffee-room, and on the other to a billiard-room, over
which is an elegant suite of assembly-rooms: it was
rebuilt in 1820, at an expense of £14,000, which was
subscribed in shares,- the present front is what remains
of the former theatre, which was burnt down in the
beginning of the same year: the season generally commences
in May, and ends in October. Assemblies are
held periodically, during the winter, at the Royal Hotel;
the room, which is spacious and elegantly fitted up, ig
also appropriated to the subscription concerts, which are
supported by more than three hundred subscribers
under the patronage of the nobility and gentry in the
neighbourhood: the orchestra combines the first-rate
talent of the metropolis with the professional skill of
the town. A second concert has been recently established,
which, originating, like the other, in a private
meeting of amateurs, promises to equal the former in
respect of numbers, though not enjoying such distinguished
patronage. Triennial music meetings, the receipts
of which are appropriated to the support of the general
hospital, are held at the church and at the theatre; at
the former, oratorios and selections of sacred music are
performed, and at the latter, miscellaneous concerts in
which the principal vocal and instrumental performers
in the kingdom are engaged. The Vauxhall Gardens,
which are brilliantly illuminated, are open during the
summer, and attract much company to concerts performed
there, and to grand displays of fireworks,'
which are frequent during the season. The Lady-well
baths (so called from one of the springs by which they
are supplied) form a complete establishment, consisting
of hot, cold, sulphureous, vapour, and fumigating
baths, attached to which are dressing-rooms and every'
accommodation for invalids. The swimming, or pleasure
bath is one hundred and ten feet long, and fiftytwo
feet wide, and is supplied with a constant influx
of water, at the rate of one thousand hogsheads per
hour; it is surrounded with high walls, shaded withlofty
trees, and furnished with alcoves and dressingboxes.
The gentlemen's cold bath is sixteen feet long,
and twelve feet wide, and is supplied by a spring within
itself, at the rate of twelve hogsheads per hour; the
buildings are replete with every accommodation, and
the gardens and pleasure grounds are extensive and retired.
Prior to the year 1715, Birmingham comprised only
one parish, and for all civil purposes it is still so considered:
at that time, a small portion of the original
parish of St. Martin, consisting of a district in the centre
of the town, was formed into the parish of St. Philip;
and, in 1829, two other districts were formed into the
parishes of St. George and St. Thomas: they are all
within the archdeaconry of Coventry, and diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry. The living of St. Martin's is
a rectory, rated in the king's books at £19. 3. 6., and
in the patronage of the Executors of the late William
Hawkes, Esq. The church is an ancient structure, in
the decorated style of English architecture, with a square
tower, and a lofty and well-proportioned spire, with the
exception of which, the building, originally of stone, has
been cased with brick: within are several effigies, the
details of some of which are finely executed. The living
of St. Philip's is a rectory not in charge, to which is
annexed the prebend of Sawley, including the dignities
of canon residentiary and treasurer in the Cathedral-
Church of Lichfield, with the patronage of the perpetual
curacy of Sawley, in the county of Derby: it is in
the patronage of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.;
The church, erected in 1725, is a handsome structure,
in the.Grecian style of architecture, combining the,
Corinthian and the Doric orders, with a tower supporting
a dome and a cupola: the churchyard is a spacious
area, around which are many elegant buildings
of modern erection. The living of St. George's is a
rectory not in charge, in the patronage of the Executors
of the late William Hawkes, Esq. The church,
containing one thousand three hundred and seventyeight
free sittings, was erected in 1822, by subscription
among the inhabitants, aided by a grant from the parliamentary
commissioners, at an expense of £12,491.6.6.:
it is a fine specimen of the early character of the
decorated style of English architecture, with a lofty
square embattled tower, with pierced parapet and
crocketed pinnacles. The living of St. Thomas' is a rectory
not in charge, to which the Executors of the late
William Hawkes, Esq. presented in 1829, in which year
the church, containing one thousand four hundred and
twenty-three free sittings, was completed, at an expense
of £ 14,712. 10., which was wholly defrayed by a grant
from the parliamentary commissioners: it is a chaste
and elegant structure, in the Grecian style of architecture,
with a handsome steeple, connected in the lower part
with the sides of the church, by quadrants of the Ionic
order. St. Mary's chapel, in the parish of St. Martin,
erected by subscription in 1774, on a site given by
Miss Weaman, is an octagonal brick building, with a
small stone steeple: the living is a perpetual curacy,
in the patronage of trustees appointed under the will
of the late Miss Weaman. St. Paul's chapel, in the same
parish, built by subscription in 1779, on a site given by
Miss Colmore, is a handsome edifice in the Grecian
style: the roof, which over the galleries is plainly
groined, is supported on handsome pillars of the Ionic
order; the altar-piece is ornamented with a painting
in stained glass of the Conversion of St. Paul; the
steeple, which is much admired for the lightness and
elegance of its design, was added in 1820: the living
is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Mr. Latimer.
Christ Church, in the parish of St. Philip, erected in
1813, by subscription, for the especial accommodation
of the poor, is a neat plain building, with a handsome
portico of the Tuscan order, and a spire: the living is
a perpetual curacy, to which is annexed the prebend of
Tachbrook in the Cathedral Church of Lichfield; it is
in the patronage of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.
St. Bartholomew's, a chapel of ease to the rectory
of St. Martin's, is a plain brick building, with
a cupola; the interior is a good specimen of the
Tuscan order, and the altar-piece is richly carved.
St. Peter's, a chapel of ease to the rectory of St. Philip's,
containing one thousand four hundred and thirty-one
free sittings, was built in 1827, at an expense of
£13,365. 16. 6., part of which was defrayed by the
parliamentary commissioners, and was almost destroyed
by fire, in January 1831. There are places of worship
for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents,
Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, Swedenborgians,
and Unitarians j besides a Scotch church, two Roman
Catholic chapels, and a synagogue. Among these, Zion
chapel, Carr's Lane meeting-house, the Scotch church,
and Ebenezer chapel, may be distinguished as spacious
and handsome structures.
The free grammar school was founded by Edward VI.,
in the fifth year of his reign, and endowed with the revenue
of the guild of the Holy Cross, which, prior to the
dissolution, occupied the site of the present building:
the endowment, arising from land, at that time amounted
only to £30 per annum; at present, from the ground
having been let on building leases, it produces from
£8000 to £10,000 per annum, which, upon the
expiration of the leases, will be greatly augmented.
The management is vested in a bailiff and eighteen
governors, who appoint a head-master, second master,
and two ushers, with a writing-master and a drawingmaster.
There are seven exhibitions, of £70 per
annum each, to either of the Universities; and not
less than eight subordinate schools are attached to
the establishment: the number of scholars on the
foundation is one hundred and fifty: the premises, occupying
three sides of a quadrangle, with houses for the
masters, are about to be rebuilt. The Blue-coat charity
school was. established by subscription, in 1724, for
the maintenance, clothing, and education of twenty-two
boys and ten girls: its funds having been increased
by additional subscriptions, donations, and legacies, the
buildings were enlarged in 1794; there are at present
one hundred and thirty boys and sixty girls in the
school. A similar school for the children of dissenters,
established in 1762, is now limited to the maintenanceand
instruction of forty-eight girls. The National
and the Lancasterian schools are supported by subscription
and an infant school, which is under excellent
regulations,, is numerously attended.
The general hospital is a handsome and spacious
brick building, consisting of a centre and two wings,
and containing fourteen wards, in which are one hundred
and sixty-five beds. This establishment has obtained
extensive patronage and support: it was opened
in 1779, when the committee, in order to augment its
funds, had recourse to a performance of sacred music,
under the direction of a London professor, the produce
of which was £ 127. This performance, repeated every
third year, formed the groundwork of the triennial
musical festival, for which, under the gratuitous superintendence
of Mr. Joseph Moore, a resident amateur,
Birmingham has, for the last twenty years, been so
justly celebrated. The receipts, which have been progressively
increasing, now average a net sum of upwards
of £5000, available for the benefit of the institution,
which, as a school of medicine and surgery,
has attained a high degree of celebrity. The dispensary
was established by subscription, in 1794, and
affords medical relief to about four thousand patients
annually: the building, consisting of a centre and two
wings, is a handsome structure of freestone, with four
lofty pilasters supporting a triangular pediment, ornamented
with a basso-relievo of the "Good Samaritan."
The self-supporting dispensary, upon the plan of Mr.
Smith, of Southam, is maintained by small annual
subscriptions from the poor, aided by those of the
honorary members. The infirmary for diseases of the
eye and ear, established by Mr. Hodgson, surgeon, in
1823; and the infirmary for the cure of bodily deformity,
established in 1817, under the patronage of the
Earl of Dartmouth, are liberally supported; and a
house, at the extremity of the town, has, under the superintendence
of Dr. Birt Davies, been appropriated as
a house of recovery from fever. The asylum for deaf
and dumb children was established in 1815, and is
partly supported by a weekly charge, and partly by
subscription; the number at present in the institution
is thirty. The school of industry is a large establishment
tinder the management of the guardians of the
poor, in which three hundred children are maintained,
and employed in platting straw, heading pins, and in
other kinds of work suited to their age. There are
also almshouses for the aged and infirm, and numerous
and extensive funds for charitable purposes. About a
mile from the town' is a chalybeate spring, which,
though known to possess highly medicinal properties,
is not much noticed; and about three miles to the
west, and within a few hundred yards of the Iknield-
street, are the remains of a large quadrangular
encampment, surrounded by a triple fosse, which,
from the extent of its area (being more than thirty
acres), is supposed to be of. Danish origin: pieces of
armour, broken swords, and battle-axes, have been
ploughed up in the vicinity. Inconsiderable vestiges of
an ancient priory are still visible in the cellars of some
houses in the square, which now occupy its site; and
a great number of human bones, and sculls with teeth
having the enamel perfect, have been found in the neighbourhood,
parts of which still bear the names of the
Upper and Lower Priory. At the western extremity
of the town was an hospital, dedicated to St. Thomas
the Apostle, the revenue of which, in the 26th of
Henry VIII., was £8. 5. 3. Birmingham gives the
title of baron to the Earl of Dudley.