Henry, the Steward's son

A fine October morning : Henry sprang from his box-bed, swung wide the small-paned casement, looked out over the yard and outbuildings, neat garden and small orchard, to the willow-fringed river. Holiday - King Edward VI School, founded only 6 years before, closed today : Founder's Day Service at St. Martin's Church, then boys free - all but Henry.

His father was Steward of Berminghame, the Crown's Officer in the manor, which had been taken from the de Birmingham family some years before, and now it was to be put up for sale. Thomas Marrow of Berkswell wanted it. Crown Surveyors had arrived last night, were staying until a complete survey of the manor had been made, to find its true value. Henry had been told to accompany the party and keep quiet. First intent was to perambulate town and get general impression : about to set off when elected officials - High Bailiff (Mayor), Low Bailiff, Headborough (Constable), Ale and Meat Connors, and Leather Sealers - all arrived, seeking Steward's ruling about street obstructions : market day, traffic chaos as usual, authority needed to remove piles of rubbish etc. Steward excused himself, sent Henry as guide to Surveyors.

Hoping to meet classmates after service, Henry led way through alley to Digbeth, talking all the time about the history of the manor, past cottages and houses of which many were workshops and roaring forges - hammers clanging on anvils, quenched iron hissing, smoke billowing. Down alley then narrow littered street, dodging a line of packhorses loaded with iron and coal from south Staffordshire and another bringing wood from Sheldon forests, to the old stone bridge across the Rea. Approached by long 'causey' (causeway), so useable when meadows flooded : first timber bridge replaced 200 years before. Henry pointed out Heath Mill downstream, at manor boundary, so as to have a large millpond within the manor, but not to cause flooding at Deritend. Mill often without enough water though - mills at Duddeston and Saltley also used to grind Birmingham corn, but a much longer journey. Bridge needing repair - whose responsibility, Surveyors asked. Should be County since Guild of Holy Cross dissolved, said Henry, but no repair since then (1547).

Tanyards by river very smelly, even to Tudor noses which were used to smells, so Surveyors began to cross river, intending to look over township of Deritend - a tree-lined street of workshops and cottages, with St. John's Chapel facing the 'mansion house of timber' noted by Leyland 15 years before (later Old Crown Inn) : Henry told them Deritend was part of Aston parish and Birmingham manor. Digbeth now quite blocked by farm carts piled with grain and charcoal, as well as packhorses, so Henry led way onto Holme Park - round behind houses and gardens, past the Malt Mill and the Corn Mill and their ponds, to the Moat House. Ancient seat of the Lords of Birmingham now in ruinous state - none of family had lived there that century - and moat nearly full of rubbish.

House too near tanneries, so nobody would rent it. They walked up brook past the few remaining strips behind Edgbaston Street to moated Parsonage : town ended there on west - Dudwall Lane (Dudley Street) leading to top end of New Street was a country lane. Back along Edgbaston Street, some fine houses : all buildings except church were half-timbered and many were thatched. So to former open space, village green, now crowded with buildings. St. Martin's Church, with its tall 15th century spire, nearly surrounded by houses and shops. Henry wanted to show tombs of de Birmingham family - many had fought in wars of their time, been at Parliament, knights, and King's officials - but Surveyors turned up Mercer Street, where the cloth merchants lived and traded, then crossed to Corn Cheaping - last open space, used for market and bull-baiting- iron ring in ground for tethering bulls gives name of Bull Ring. All streets now filling with carts, barrows, horses and people : stalls selling cloth, knives, tools, leather goods, and countless small metal wares. Henry in charge again, led party up High Street where cattle market was held, past the Shambles (butchers' shops) and High Cross, a small market hall, to New Street junction. Greatest confusion here - Steward and Council there trying to get traffic moving, Henry's father shouting down from a window in the Toll House, which blocked the entrance to street, leaving only a narrow arch for traffic.

The Toll House was also the Leather Hall, where the quality of hides was checked, and where the Manor Court met with the Steward as chairman. As he was only an official, the burgesses often got concessions from him which a resident lord would have probably refused !

New Street - once they could get into it - seemed peaceful for though no longer 'new', it was undeveloped much beyond the Guild Hall, to which Henry referred with pride, for it was now the Grammar School : some Guild property had been returned to the manor to provide a school - property that was to become astronomically valuable.

By cutting across the Cherry Orchard of the Priory, they missed the worst of the crush in the English Market (Upper High Street), and an alley (later Martineau Street) brought them to the Welsh Cross and Market at the top of Dale End - so called because Welsh drovers came there with cattle. Chappell Street (Bull Street) led them to the Chapel, once a popular second church, now without endowment since the Priory of St. Thomas had been closed in 1536 and its extensive properties sold.

Having walked up Chappell Street and Conygre (Rabbit Warren) Lane - now Steelhouse Lane - the party had seen nearly all the 'Borough', the built-up part of Berminghame, which was as Leyland had said, little more than 'one street going along' from the river. They returned beside the brook that bounded the borough on the east, past the sheep-folds of Dale End, and so down Little Park Street, which took its name from the smaller Demesne Park, to St. Martin's and the Steward's house.

The Surveyors had had enough of Henry's chatter, and refused his offer to ride with them that afternoon across the 'Foreign' of the manor, the unbuilt part to the north : after the noise of the market they were glad of the quiet of the barren heath with its small pools, the small hedged crofts where the great open fields had been, even the ugly scrubland where Lady Wood had been destroyed to provide charcoal for the ever-hungry furnaces of Berminghame. Henry was disappointed not to go - but the Surveyors were his father's guests, and he would have many more chances to tell them all they should know.