Later Georgian Birmingham

In 1770 there were 72 distinct trades and 300 miscellaneous occupations, not counting tradesmen, shopkeepers, and professional men. Birmingham was behind other towns until mid-century, thereafter became the centre of invention. Great interest in science and its application - typified by the LUNAR SOCIETY, founded 1766. Samuel Galton, Quaker gunsmith; Matthew Boulton, manufacturer, inventor, and business man; Dr. Erasmus Darwin, naturalist and physician; John Baskerville, printer and designer; Dr. Joseph Priestley, analytical chemist and philosopher; Dr. William Withering, physician, Josiah Wedgwood, potter and mineralogist, Dr. William Small, and others. Later James Watt and William Murdoch were members. The Society often met at Boulton's Soho Hall, to discuss practical and theoretical science. TAYLOR & LLOYD'S BANK, 1765, first in town: partners were John Taylor, wealthy manufacturer of buckles, buttons, and snuffboxes, of Bordesley Hall, and Sampson Lloyd II, ironmaster and miller, of Farm Park, Sparkbrook, and their sons. Very profitable venture.

Matthew Boulton's SOHO WORKS, 1761, ultimately provided space and power for 1000 workmen. Sited on Hockley Brook, Soho Pool for water power, ingenious machinery, quality and mass production. 'Commercial development based on science'. Brook inadequate, too little power; transport costly, goods damaged. Boulton supported Watt, whose engines were to solve the power shortage, the B.C.N. which through its connections solved the transport problem (Soho Branch), and the new institutions - Assay Office, Brasshouse, General Hospital. Partnership of Boulton & Watt 1774 brought together the enterprise and organisational talents of 'the Prince of Soho' and the universal genius of the Scots inventor. To these was added the brilliant practicality of Murdoch, inventor of the steam locomotive and gas lighting. SOHO FOUNDRY, 1795, built by the canal to make Watt's rotative engines - 1,164by 1824.

Appearance of the Town
By 1780 the town extended to Newhall Brook in the north, New Town on the Colmore Estate now being developed on a quadrilateral grid, on the west to Suffolk Street and on the east to Gosta Green. The old demesne was about to disappear: Holme Park bought by Sir Thos. Gooch 1766, St. Bartholomew's Church 1750 on edge of Little Park. New Hall still standing, St. Paul's Church and Square building from 1773, St. Mary's Church and Square 1774 et sequ. General Hospital, Summer Lane, 1779-90. B.C.N. Offices 1771, Suffolk Street. Bingley House off Broad St., Foundries and Brasshouse by canal wharves. Old Wharves, Newhall Branch; Fazeley Canal not yet begun, Newhall Brook open but culverted.

The Streets Commissioners
First Town Improvement Act 1769 set up. Commission. 'Lamp Act'. Five later Acts made Commissioners responsible for cleaning and paving streets, removing obstructions, providing market areas, improving Rea bridge and approaches, providing watchmen, clearing the Bull Ring, and finally making sewers and drains and re-making all the highways of the parish - not just the built-up area as formerly. Tollgates then removed to beyond boundaries. Tollbooth removed c.1770, Roundabout Houses and Old Cross demolished 1785, bridge and river works after 1788, Welch Cross demolished 1803. Public Offices, Commission H.Q., court and prison, built in Moor Street 1801.

35.1. Map 23a

Hutton's Perambulation
William Hutton, bookseller and magistrate at Debtors' Court (Court of Requests off High Street, c.1806), first historian of Birmingham 'to the year 1780'. His Perambulation of Manor and Parish as follows, with modern names in brackets. '……from Digbeth……up the bed of the old river, with Deritend in Aston on our left….the Longmores...the floodgates near Vaughton's Hole (Vaughton St.) Crossing the Rea we enter the vestiges of a small rivulet (former course of long-diverted Pudding Brook, mill leat). At the top of the first meadow from the Rea we meet the same stream in pursuit of which we cross the Bromsgrove Road (Bristol Road….up a narrow lane (Bell Barn Road), crossing the Old Bromsgrove Road (Wheeleys Lane) and up (via Islington Row) to the Turnpike at the Five Ways, in the road to Halesowen. Leaving this road (Hagley Road) to the left, we proceed down the lane (Middleway, Ladywood Road, Reservoir Road) a stone's cast of (from) the Observatory (Perrott's Folly 1758-60, now observatory for weather not view)….to the extremity of Rotton Park, near the Bear (Inn) at Smethwick….now north-east about a mile Shir(e)land Brook….thence to Pig Mill (at confluence with Hockley Brook)….follow the stream (Hockley Brook) down to Aston Furnace (north end of Summer Lane)….Walmer Lane (Newtown Row)….over fields in a line….to Gorsty Green (Lancaster Circus)….down Duke Street (to) the A-B House. From thence along the meadows to Coopers Mill (east end of Heath Mill Lane), up the river to the foot of Deritend Bridge….the course of a drain in the form of a sickle (former Rea course) into Digbeth.

John Kempson's Map of the Parish of Birmingham, 1810." Boundary features and pools are shown, but not streams. The built-up area is seen to be spreading in five directions: along the Bromsgrove and Wednesbury Turnpikes, into Ashted and Highgate/Balsall Heath, between Newtown Road and Aston Road, and in the angle of the Worcester and Fazeley Canals. There are two small detached developments, Summerhill/Camden Street, and the new suburb of Islington. The scattered hamlet of Winson Green and odd houses elsewhere are the only outliers. The canals shown are the B.C.N. (Brindley Cut), Worcester, Fazeley, Warwick, and the Newhall, Digbeth and Soho Branches. Old Wharf, Newhall, Crescent, Bordesley, Soho Wharves. Churches - Christ Church Ann St. (top of New Street) 1803, Roman Chapels (St. Peter's off Broad Street 1787, also Shadwell St.): St. Bart's, St. Paul's and St. Mary's all now surrounded by new building. Cavalry Barracks on Great Brook Street following 1791 Riots. Royal Hotel, first burnt by so-called 'Church and King' rioters, shown. Other buildings sacked and/or burnt: Hutton's houses in New Street and Washwood, Joseph Priestley's Fair Hill in Bordesley, John Taylor II's Bordesley and Moseley Halls. Edgbaston Hall and 'Farm' threatened but saved. Pudding Brook shown, two channels flowing opposite ways (ref. Hutton). Apollo and Vauxhall pleasure gardens shown. Rectangular pattern of streets in "Bordesley/Balsall Heath as in Birmingham New Town. New Hall still shown, blocking Newhall St. Five Ways still five, but Calthorpe Road made 1810, off Harborne Road.

Industry and Improvement
By early C19 th Birmingham had emerged as chief industrial and commercial centre of the Plateau, linked by canals and improved turnpikes to navigable rivers, markets, and sources of supply: and increasingly employing steam-powered machinery in factories large and small. Population grew from 42,550 in 1778 to 70,000 in 1801 and to 130,000 in 1831. The gun trade, carried on by families and 'small masters' flourished during the Napoleonic Wars. Between wars sporting and quality pieces kept skilled workers employed. Proof House built by Warwick Canal 1813. Button manufacture was declining, jewellery just beginning in 1800. Brass working the staple trade. Steam-powered rolling and tube mills, but many small workshops, much sub-division in all trades. Edge tools, light iron castings, screws, steel pens, leather wares. Commercial services - banks, associations, factors and merchants, contractors, Theatres, gardens, entertainments.