William Hutton

A native of Derby, born in 1725, he was impressed by the vigour of Birmingham folk during a youthful visit to the town, and warmed by the kindliness of some working men who befriended him in his trouble at that time. Returning in 1750 he set up as a bookseller in Bull Street, and in time his business prospered. He became a man of substance and assumed several public offices. He was proud of his adopted town and came to know it very well. His 'History of Birmingham to the year 1780' was to remain in print for the next century, with additions : this was the work which Dr. Sam. Johnson professed to find so dull. We cannot share that opinion, for Hutton's rhythmic prose, forthrightness, and wry humour make his book a continuing delight. There are forgivable inaccuracies in the earlier history, but the lively descriptions of the Birmingham he knew more than compensate for these.

Of special interest to us is Hutton's perambulation of the bounds of Birmingham manor and parish. Part of it is quoted here, with modern street-names and loca-tions in brackets. ' ... we proceed up a narrow lane (Bell Barn Road), crossing the old Bromsgrove Road (Wheeleys Lane) and up (Islington Row Middleway) to the Turnpike at the Five Ways, in the road to Halesowen. Leaving this road (Hagley Road) also to the left, we proceed down the lane (to the valley head of Newhall Brook, then up, on Ladywood Middleway) towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield Street (Monument Road) a stone's cast from the Observatory, to the north extrem-ity of Rotton Park which forms an acute angle, near the Bear at Smethwick. From the River Rea to this point is about three miles, rather west, and nearly in a straight line with Edgbaston on the left. We now bear north-east about a mile, with Smethwick on the left, until we meet Shir(e)land Brook in the Dudley Road : thence to Pig Mill (junction of Shireland and Hockley Brooks in the 'Black Patch').

Hutton must have meant the west end of Rotton Park, since that is where the acute angle is formed between the Edgbaston and Smethwick bounds. It is strange that he did not record the Shireland Brook as the boundary then as now all the way from the Bear, not merely from Dudley Road northward. This was surely not because he took the short cut from Roach Pool to the Cape, for he was a remarkable walker and three extra miles meant nothing to him.