Local Government

The increasing complexity of life from mid-Georgian times make it impossible to continue a strict chronological account : it becomes necessary to deal with topics rather than times. For nearly three centuries Birmingham had been inade-quately governed : after the de Birmingham family's four hundred years of posses-sion the manor never had a resident owner. Successive Marrows, Archers, and Mus-graves retained the right to levy market and fair tolls until 1824, but sold much of the property. The Vestry and its Overseers were not equipped or financed to cope with ever-expanding town trade and traffic, yet they formed the sole governing body (if one discounts the manorial officials and other bodies with strictly limited functions) until 1769.

In that year a hundred Streets Commissi-oners were appointed, but their powers were few and confined to the 'Borough' only. However the Acts of 1801 and later extended their control to the whole parish and gave them wide powers to pave, light, drain and clear streets - which meant removing obstructions to traffic and moving markets to new sites. The folk of west Birmingham and Edgbaston had little reason to enjoy paying rates to the Commission, for their rural lanes and turnpikes were hardly affected during its eighty years of office ! The roads did appear on a map, however, for John Kempson's fine map of the whole parish was produced to show the Commissioners their bounds and their responsibilities.

Meanwhile Birmingham's lack of responsible elected government had been demon-strated in the so-called 'Church and King' Riots. For four days mobs burned and looted the property of prominent Dissenters who were claimed to be friends of the French Revolution, Hutton among them. The magistrates swore in many special constables, for there were no police, but they could do nothing to hinder the drunken crowds. Hutton's business premises and his home were destroyed, and Edg-baston Hall, then (1791) the residence of Dr. William Withering, was saved by servants and mill-workers : hearing that troops were on the way, the mob they confronted began to disperse. Because Birmingham was not a borough, suits for damage could not be brought against it by the victims, and the case was heard by the Court of Hemlingford Hundred, just as it might have been a thousand years before.

In 1832 Birmingham and Edgbaston were joined to make one new Parliamentary constituency, and six years later were linked in the formation of the Borough of Birmingham, along with Bordesley, Deritend, Duddeston, and Nechells. The Ves-try of Edgbaston objected strongly, but to no avai1 : they were to retain one function, that of administering the Poor Law throughout the ancient parish of St. Bartholomew, until 1931. Their last home, in Islington Row, was a theatre centre until its demolition a few years ago. The headquarters of the Birmingham Guardians of the Poor in Edmund Street is now the Rates Office.

The new Borough found that it had to repair and remake stretches of road it did not own, which were subject to Turnpike tolls. The 1851 Act under which the Streets Commission gave up all its powers to the Corporation also provided for the removal of tollgates beyond the municipal bounds. This is part of the reason why no tollhouse has survived in Birmingham. But in Smethwick High Street a late two-storey house with Gothic windows still stands as a reminder of the Trusts, which were not finally abolished until 1877.

Since its foundation the Borough has been enlarged five times : only in our district is the boundary the same now as in 1838. Smethwick Local Board rejected by a casting vote an invitation to join the enlarged municipality of 1891, and the offer was never renewed. Small boundary adjustments in 1966 hereabout were for administrative convenience only - but they made foreigners of Brummies in Poplar and Drayton Roads, with unwanted consequences for the education of their children. That same year brought a change of name and county to Birmingham's ancient neighbour : Smethwick became part of Warley Borough in Worcestershire. In '74 Shireland Brook became the common border of two Metropolitan Districts, the Sutton-gulping City of Birmingham and Sandwell (Warley / West Bromwich), both in the unloved County of West Midlands.