1867 AD - George Dixon & Joseph Gillott

A hymn ended and soon people were pouring out of the church. From their remarks I gathered the service had been one of dedication, the first to be held in St. Augustine's. Church dignitaries and distinguished visitors were escorted to their carriages. When the last of these had driven away and the congregation had dispersed two gentlemen were left talking together. I recognised George Dixon from his photographs, and I soon realised that the older man was Joseph Gillott, the wealthy pen-nib manufacturer : he was a short man with a cheerful face and a silvery beard.

This was the conversation I overheard :

Dixon: A splendid service, splendidly attended, Mr.Gillott! We must not expect so many worshippers to our chapel in future, however.

Gillott: No, Mr. Dixon, many of today's congregation had travelled some distance. If St. Augustine's is to become a parish church there must be more people for it to serve.

Dixon: Where are they to come from? Your Rotton Park estate is still farmland, and most of it is in St. Martin's parish.

Gillott: True, but I intend that it shall change in both respects before long. I plan to develop parts of the estate, and there will be wide roads across the old Park in a few years' time, as well as that railway to Harborne that I'm being asked to sell land for. One road will run parallel to the line, and it if is not too immodest I shall call it Gillott Road. Another, unnamed as yet, will run straight for more than a mile between Dudley Road and Sandon Road - that's the old Bearwood Lane. A third, almost as long, which I intend to call Portland Road, will go from Hagley Road, near the old Observatory, to the Smethwick boundary. Other roads will be named after some of the noble families whose friendship I enjoy, such as Montagu and Clarendon. York Road will honour the county from which both you and I came to make our fortune here! I am told that Beaks Farm, west of my estate, is to be let out in building lots on two long avenues. So in twenty years' time, though I shall not live to see it, the district will be populous enough for St. Augustine's to claim its own parish, be free of St. Bart's and perhaps build the tower and spire to complete the church.

Dixon: I shall be sorry to see Rotton Park vanish at last beneath brick and stone, even in a good cause! You will, I presume, let out the plots on leases that will restrict their use and specify the type of building that may be erected on them?

Gillott: Yes, I shall follow the example of Lord Calthorpes Estate across the way, in making sure that the houses shall be of a certain standard, that there shall be no industry and no crowding of several dwellings on a single plot. There is to be a suburb of villas for people of modest wealth in the south, with terraced houses for the better class of artisans and trades people at the Dudley Road end. As you know, Birmingham Heath is being built up now, with long terraces and courts behind: that will not be the sort of district near which the upper classes will wish to live, and so I shall not build like that. With all the building now taking place on the Heath, no doubt we shall soon be asked to help provide churches there, and schools with them !

Dixon: This may sound strange, coming from a churchman like myself, but I am against church schools! What I want is a national school system, paid for by the local rates and Government grants, and controlled by borough councils. It was because I knew that only Parliament could provide such a system that I gave up the Mayoralty of Birmingham last year in order to stand for election to Parliament.

Gillott: As a fellow-Yorkshireman I rejoiced in your success at the by-election, and I congratulate you on retaining the seat at the recent General Election.

Dixon: Thank you, Mr. Gillott. I very much regretted that I had to give up the honour of being First Citizen of my adopted town. But my work as a magistrate had shown me that crime and lack of education go together. Parents are not obliged to send their children to school, and there would be too few schools if they were: do you know that church schools teach less than half of Birmingham's children? In the House of Commons I hope to find supporters for an Education Bill that will bring about compulsory schooling for all children up to the age of 13 years old.

Gillott: You will have my full support in your campaign. After all, I make pen-nibs; and the more people there are who can write, then the more I shall sell !

Dixon: If your mansion in Westbourne Road, your famous collection of paintings, and this estate are anything to go by, you have done very well in selling them already!

Gillott: True enough. We have both done well in Birmingham. Shall we walk home together? I have dismissed my carriage.

Dixon: Yes, come with me to 'The Dales' and tell my wife about the service. She was so sad to miss it, but she really wasn't well enough to come. Then you can go on from Augustus Road in my carriage. We might look in on my good friend and neighbour, young Joseph Chamberlain, if you have time. He is as interested in education as I am, and anything to do with improving the life of Birmingham folk is sure of his enthusiastic support.

Gillott: Where would this town be if it were not for its immigrants like you and Chamberlain? You come here, make your fortunes, and now devote your lives to helping your adopted 'family'. You became Mayor only three years after your election to the Borough Council. That Education Aid Society of yours which pays the school fees for so many hundreds of children has earned you the title 'the most popular man in Birmingham' : and I happen to know that for every good cause you openly subscribe to, there are many others that you help in secret.

Dixon: Spare my blushes, Mr. Gillott ! What of yourself? You are known to be an excellent employer, your workpeople never wish to leave, and your Graham Street factory is an example to the world!

The two gentlemen reached Hagley Road, and the waited while a horse-bus and a steam-wagon went by, raising clouds of dust.

Gillott: Phew! I wonder when the Council will do something about the state of this road? I recognise that they have had a tremendous task since they took over from the Streets Commissioners 17 years ago, but by now they should have been able to give some attention to this, the main highway into the town from the west!

Dixon: I agree that this bad surface and those stinking ditches are not a pleasant introduction to Birmingham. It is a disgrace that gentlemen's houses still drain their sewage into roadside ditches. But there are so many sewers still to be laid in the built-up districts that we cannot yet expect them here, on the edge of the country.

They turned down Norfolk Road, and I let them go. Although it was Sunday, when the factories were not at work, a black smoky cloud still hung over the town to the east.

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