Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham Part 11

~Ferrars.~--The De Ferrars were at one time Lords of the Manor, Edmund de Ferrars dying in 1438. The ancient public-house sign of "The Three Horseshoes" was taken from their coat of arms.

~Festivals.~--Notes of the past Triennial Musical Festivals for which Birmingham is so famous, the performances, and the many great artistes who have taken part therein, will be found further on.

~Fetes~ were held in Aston Park July 27, and September 15, 1856, for the benefit of the Queen's and General Hospitals, realising therefore 2,330. The first to "Save Aston Hall" took place August 17, 1857, when a profit of 570 was made. There have been many since then, but more of the private speculation cla.s.s, Sangers' so-called fete at Camp Hill, June 27, 1874, being the first of their outdoor hippodrome performances.

~Fires.~--When Prince Rupert's soldiers set fire to the town, in 1643, no less than 155 houses were burned.--Early in 1751 about 500 worth of wool was burned at Alc.o.c.k's, in Edgbaston Street.--May 24, 1759, the stage waggon to Worcester was set on fire by the bursting of a bottle of aqua-fortis, and the contents of the waggon, valued at 5,000, were destroyed.--In November, 1772, Mr. Crowne's hop and cheese warehouse, top of Carr's Lane, was lessened 400 in value.--The Theatre Royal was burned August 24, 1791, and again January 6, 1820.--Jerusalem Temple, Newhall Hill, was burned March 10, 1793.--St. Peter's Church suffered January 24, 1831.--There was a great blaze at Bolton's timber yard, Broad Street, May 27, 1841.--At the Manor House, Balsall Heath, in 1848.--Among Onion's bellows, in March, 1853.--At the General Hospital, December 24, 1853.--At the Spread Eagle Concert Hall, May 5, 1855.--At a builder's in Alcester Street, October 4, 1858.--At Aston Brook Flour mill, June 1, 1862, with 10,000 damage.--At Lowden & Beeton's, High Street, January 3, 1863; the firm were prosecuted as incendiaries.--At Gameson's Tavern, Hill Street, December 25, 1863; six lives lost.--On the stage at Holder's, July 3, 1865; two ballet dancers died from fright and injuries.--At Baskerville Sawmills, September 7, 1867.--In Sutton Park, August 4, 1868.--In a menagerie in Carr's Lane, January 25, 1870.

--At Dowler's Plume Works, March 16.--In Denmark Street, May 23; two children burned.--At Worcester Wharf, June 2, 1870; two men burnt.--At Warwick Castle, Dec. 3, 1871.--At Smith's hay and straw yard, Crescent, through lightning, July 25, 1872.--In Sherbourne Street, June 25, 1874, and same day in Friston Street; two men burned.--At the hatter's shop in Temple Street, Nov. 25, 1875.--At Tipper's Mystery Works, May 16, and at Holford Mill, Perry Barr, August 3, 1876.--At Icke and Co.'s, Lawley Street, May 17, 1877; 2,500 damage.--At Adam's colour warehouse, Suffolk Street, October 13, 1877; 10,000 damage.--In Bloomsbury Street, September 29, 1877; an old man burned.--In Lichfield Road, November 26, 1877; two horses, a cow, and 25 pigs roasted.--January 25, 1878, was a hot day, there being four fires in 15 hours.--At Hayne's flour mill, Icknield Port Road, Feb. 2, 1878, with 10,000 damage; first time steam fire engine was used.--At Baker Bros'., match manufactory, Freeth Street, February 11.--At Grew's and at Cund's printers, March 16, 1878; both places being set on fire by a vengeful thief; 2,000 joint damage.

--At corner of Bow Street, July 29, 1878.--At Dennison's shop, opposite Museum Concert Hall, August 26, 1878, when Mrs. Dennison, her baby, her sister, and a servant girl lost their lives. The inquest terminated on September 30 (or rather at one o'clock next morning), when a verdict of "accidental death" was given in the case of the infant, who had been dropped during an attempted rescue, and with respect to the others that they had died from suffocation caused by a five designedly lighted, but by whom the jury had not sufficient evidence to say. Great fault was found with the management of the fire brigade, a conflict of authority between them and the police giving rise to very unpleasant feelings. At Cadbury's cocoa manufactory, November 23, 1878. In Legge Street, at a gun implement maker's, December 14, 1878; 600 damage.--And same day at a gun maker's, Whittall Street; 300 damage.--At Hawkes's looking-gla.s.s manufactory, Bromsgrove Street, January 8, 1879; 20,000 damage.--The Reference Library, January 11, 1879 (a most rueful day); damage incalculable and irreparable.--At Hinks and Sons' lamp works, January 30, 1879; 15,000 damage.--At the Small Arms Factory, Adderley Road, November 11, 1879; a fireman injured.--At Grimsell and Sons', Tower Street, May 5, 1880; over 5,000 damage.--Ward's cabinet manufactory, Bissell Street, April 11, 1885.

~Firearms.~--See "_Trades_."

~Fire Brigades.~--A volunteer brigade, to help at fires, was organised here in February 1836, but as the several companies, after introducing their engines, found it best to pay a regular staff to work them, the volunteers, for the time, went to the "right about." In 1863 a more pretentious attempt to const.i.tute a public or volunteer brigade of firemen, was made, the members a.s.sembling for duty on the 21st of February, the Norwich Union engine house being the headquarters; but the novelty wore off as the uniforms got shabby, and the work was left to the old hands, until the Corporation took the matter in hand. A Volunteer Fire Brigade for Aston was formed at the close of 1878, and its rules approved by the Local Board on Jan. 7, 1879. They attended and did good service at the burning of the Reference Library on the following Sat.u.r.day. August 23, 1879 the Aston boys, with three and twenty other brigades from various parts of the country, held a kind of efficiency compet.i.tion at the Lower Grounds, and being something new in it attracted many. The Birmingham brigade were kept at home, possibly on account of the anniversary of the Digbeth fire. Balsall Heath and Harborne are also supplied with their own brigades, and an a.s.sociation of Midland Brigades has lately been formed which held their first drill in the Priory, April 28, 1883.

~Fire Engines.~--In 1839 the Birmingham Fire Office had two engines, very handsome specimens of the article too, being profusely decorated with wooden battle axes, iron scroll-work, &c. One of these engines was painted in many colours; but the other a plain drab, the latter it was laughingly said, being kept for the Society of Friends, the former for society at large. The first time a "portable" or hand engine was used here was on the occurrence of a fire in a tobacconist's shop in Cheapside Oct. 29, 1850. The steam fire engine was brought here in Oct.

1877.--See "_Fire Engine Stations_" under "_Public Buildings_."

~Fire Grates.~--The first oven grate used in this district was introduced in a house at "the City of Nineveh" about the year 1818, and created quite a sensation.

~Fire Insurance Companies.~--The Birmingham dates its establishment from March 1805. All the companies now in existence are more or less represented here by agents, and no one need be uninsured long, as their offices are so thick on the ground round Bennet's Hill and Colmore Row, that it has been seriously suggested the latter thoroughfare should he rechristened and be called Insurance Street. It was an agent who had the a.s.surance to propose the change.

~Fish.~--In April, 1838, a local company was floated for the purpose of bringing fish from London and Liverpool. It began swimmingly, but fish didn't swim to Birmingham, and though several other attempts have been made to form companies of similar character, the trade has been kept altogether in private hands, and to judge from the sparkling rings to be seen on the hands of the ladies who condescend to sell us our matutinal bloaters in the Market Hall, the business is a pretty good one--and who dare say those _dames de salle_ are not also pretty and good? The supply of fish to this town, as given by the late Mr. Hanman, averaged from 50 to 200 tons per day (one day in June, 1879, 238 tons came from Grimsby alone) or, each in its proper season, nearly as follows:--Mackerel, 2,000 boxes of about 2 cwt. each; herrings, 2,000 barrels of 1-1/2 cwt.

each; salmon, 400 boxes of 2-1/2 cwt. each; lobsters, 15 to 20 barrels of 1 cwt. each; crabs, 50 to 60 barrels of 1-1/4 cwt. each; plaice, 1,500 packages of 2 cwt. each; codfish, 200 barrels of 2 cwt. each; conger eels, 20 barrels of 2 cwt. each; skate, 10 to 20 barrels of 2 cwt. each.--See "_Markets_."

~Fis.h.i.+ng.~--There is very little scope for the practice of Isaac Walton's craft near to Birmingham, and lovers of the gentle art must go farther afield to meet with good sport. The only spots within walking distance are the pools at Aston Park and Lower Grounds, at Aston Tavern, at Bournbrook Hotel (or, as it is better known, Kirby's), and at Pebble Mill, in most of which may be found perch, roach, carp, and pike. At Pebble Mill, March 20, last year, a pike was captured 40 inches long, and weighing 22 lbs., but that was a finny rarity, and not likely to be met with there again, as the pool (so long the last resort of suicidally inclined mortals) is to be filled up. A little farther off are waters at Sarehole, at Yardley Wood, and the reservoir at King's Norton, but with these exceptions anglers must travel to their destinations by rail.

There is good fis.h.i.+ng at Sutton Coldfield, Barnt Green (for reservoir at Tardebigge), Alcester, Shustoke, Salford Priors, and other places within a score of miles, but free fis.h.i.+ng nowhere. Anyone desirous of real sport should join the Birmingham and Midland Piscatorial a.s.sociation (established June, 1878), which rents portions of the river Trent and other waters. This society early in 1880, tried their hands at artificial salmon-hatching, one of the tanks of the aquarium at Aston Lower Grounds being placed at their disposal. They were successful in bringing some thousand or more of their interesting protegees from the ova into fish shape, but we cannot find the market prices for salmon or trout at all reduced.

~Fishmongers' Hall.~--Not being satisfied with the accommodation provided for them in the Fish Market, the Fish and Game Dealers'

a.s.sociation, at their first annual meeting (Feb. 13, 1878), proposed to erect a Fishmongers' Hall, but they did not carry out their intention.

~Flogging.~--In "the good old days," when George the Third was King, it was not very uncommon for malefactors to be flogged through the streets, tied to the tail end of a cart. In 1786 several persons, who had been sentenced at the a.s.sizes, were brought back here and so whipped through the town; and in one instance, where a young man had been caught filching from the Mint, the culprit was taken to Soho works, and in the factory yard, there stripped and flogged by "Black Jack" of the Dungeon, as a warning to his fellow-workmen. This style of punishment would hardly do now, but if some few of the present race of "roughs" could be treated to a dose of "the cat" now and then, it might add considerably to the peace and comfort of the borough. Flogging by proxy was not unknown in some of the old scholastic establishments, but whipping a scarecrow seems to have been the amus.e.m.e.nt on February 26th. 1842, when Sir Robert Peel, at that day a sad delinquent politically, was publicly flogged in elligy.

~Floods~--The milldams at Sutton burst their banks, July 24, 1668, and many houses were swept away.--On the 24th November, 1703, a three days'

storm arose which extended over the whole kingdom; many parts of the Midlands being flooded and immense damage caused, farmers' live stock especially suffering. 15,000 sheep were drowned in one pan of Gloucesters.h.i.+re; several men and hundreds of sheep near to Worcester; the losses in Leicesters.h.i.+re and Staffords.h.i.+re being also enormous.

Though there is no local record respecting it here, there can be little doubt that the inhabitants had their share of the miseries.--July 2, 1759, a man and several horses were drowned in a flood near Meriden.-- Heavy rains caused great floods here in January, 1764.--On April 13, 1792, a waterspout, at the Lickey Hills, turned the Rea into a torrent.

--The lower parts of the town were flooded through the heavy rain of June 26, 1830.--There were floods in Deritend and Bordesley, Nov. 11, 1852.--June 23, 1861, parts of Aston, Digbeth, and the Parade were swamped.--Feb. 8, 1865, Hockley was flooded through the bursting of the Ca.n.a.l banks; and a simmilar accident to the Worcester Ca.n.a.l, May 25, 1872, laid the roads and gardens about Wheeley's Road under water.-- There were very heavy rains in July and October, 1875, causing much damage in the lower parts of the town.--Aug. 2 and 3, 1879, many parts of the outskirts were flooded, in comparatively the shortest time in memory.

~Flour Mills.~--The Union Mill Co. (now known as the Old Union, &c.) was formed early in 1796, with a capital of 7,000 in 1 shares, each share-holder being required to take a given amount of bread per week.

Though at starting it was announced that the undertaking was not intended for profit,--such were the advantages derived from the operations of the Company that the shareholders it is said, in addition to a dividend of 10 per cent., received in the course of couple of years a benefit equal to 600 per cent, in the shape of reduced prices. Large dividends have at times been received, but a slightly different tale is now told.--The New Union Mill was started in 1810; the Snow Hill Mill about 1781; the Britannia Mills in 1862.

~Fly Vans.~--"Fly Boats" to the various places connected with Birmingham by the ca.n.a.ls were not sufficient for our townspeople seventy years ago, and an opposition to the coaches started in 1821, in the shape of Fly Vans or light Post Waggons, was hailed with glee. These Fly Vans left the Crescent Wharf (where Showell and Sons' Stores are now) three evenings a week, and reached Sheffield the following day. This was the first introduction of a regular "parcels' post," though the authorities would not allow of anything like a letter being sent with a parcel, _if_ they knew it.

~Foolish Wager.~--On July 8,1758, for a wager, a man named Moraon got over the battlements of the tower at St. Martin's, and safely let himself down to the ground (a distance of 73 feet) without rope or ladder, his strength of muscle enabling him to reach from cornerstone to cornerstone, and cling thereto as he descended.

~Football.~--See "_Sports_."

~Forgeries.~--The manufacture of bogus bank-notes was carried on here, at one time, to an alarming extent, and even fifty years ago, though he was too slippery a fish for the authorities to lay hold of, it was well-known there was a clever engraver in the Inkleys who would copy anything put before him for the merest trifle, even though the punishment was most severe. Under "_Notable Offences_" will be found several cases of interest in this peculiar line of business.

~Forks.~--Our ancestors did without them, using their fingers. Queen Elizabeth had several sent to her from Spain, but she seldom used them, and we may be quite sure it was long after that ere the taper fingers of the fair Brums ceased to convey the t.i.tbits to their lips. Even that sapient sovereign, James I., the Scotch Solomon, did not use the foreign invention, believing possibly with the preacher who denounced them in the pulpit that it was an insult to the Almighty to touch the meat prepared for food with anything but one's own fingers. Later on, when the coaches began to throng the road, gentlemen were in the habit of carrying with them their own knife and fork for use, so seldom were the latter articles to be found at the country inns, and the use of forks cannot be said to have become general more than a hundred years ago.

~Forward.~--The self-appropriated motto of our borough, chosen at one of the earliest committee meetings of the Town Council in 1839. Mr. William Middlemore is said to have proposed the use of the word as being preferable to any Latin, though "Vox populi, vox Dei," and other like appropriate mottoes, have been suggested. Like all good things, however, the honour of originating this motto has been contested, the name of Robert Crump Mason having been given as its author.

~Fogs.~--Bad as it may be now and then in the neighbourhood of some of our works, it there is one thing in nature we can boast of more than another, it is our comparatively clear atmosphere, and it is seldom that we are troubled with fogs of any kind. In this respect, at all events, the Midland metropolis is better off than its Middles.e.x namesake, with its "London particular," as Mr. Guppy calls it. But there was one day (17th) in December, 1879, when we were, by some atmospheric phenomena, treated to such "a peasouper" that we must note it as being the curiosity of the day, the street traffic being put a stop to while the fog lasted.

~Folk-lore.~--Funny old sayings are to be met with among the quips and quirks of "folk-lore" that tickled the fancies of our grandfathers. The following is to [**] with several changes, but it [**] good to be lost:--

"Sutton for mutton, Tamworth for beeves, Walsall for knockknees, And Brummagem for thieves."

~Fountains.~--Messrs. Messenger and Sons designed, executed, and erected, to order of the Street Commissioners, in 1851, a very neat, and for the situation, appropriate, fountain in the centre of the Market Hall, but which has since been removed to Highgate Park, where it appears sadly out of place.

The poor little boys, without any clothes, Looking in winter as if they were froze.

A number of small drinking-fountains or taps have been presented to the town by benevolent persons (one of the neatest being that put up at the expense of Mr. William White in Bristol Road in 1876), and granite cattle-troughs are to be found in Const.i.tution Hill, Icknield Street, Easy Row, Albert Street, Gosta Green, Five Ways, &c. In July, 1876, Miss Ryland paid for the erection of a very handsome fountain at the bottom of Bradford Street, in near proximity to the Smith field. It is so constructed as to be available for quenching the thirst not only of human travellers, but also of horses, dogs, &c., and on this account it has been appropriately handed over to the care of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It is composed of granite, and as it is surmounted by a gas lamp, it is, in more senses than one, both useful and ornamental.--The fountain in connection with the Chamberlain Memorial, at back of Town Hall, is computed to throw out five million gallons of water per annum (ten hours per day), a part of which is utilised at the fishstalls in the markets. The Water Committee have lately put up an ornamental fountain in Hagley Road, in connection with the pipe supply for that neighbourhood.

~Foxalls.~--For centuries one of the most prosperous of our local families, having large tanneries in Digbeth as far back as 1570; afterwards as cutlers and ironmongers down to a hundred years ago. They were also owners of the Old Swan, the famous coaching house, and which it is believed was the inn that Prince Rupert and his officers came to when Thomas, the ostler, was shot, through officiously offering to take their horses.

~Fox Hunts.~--With the exception of the annual exhibition of fox-hounds and other sporting dogs, Birmingham has not much to do with hunting matters, though formerly a red coat or two might often have been seen in the outskirts riding to meets not far away. On one occasion, however, as told the writer by one of these old inhabitants whose memories are our historical textbooks, the inhabitants of Digbeth and Deritend were treated to the sight of a hunt in full cry. It was a nice winter's morning of 1806, when Mr. Reynard sought to save his brush by taking a straight course down the Coventry Road right into town. The astonishment of the shop-keepers may be imagined when the rush of dogs and horses pa.s.sed rattling by. Round the corner, down Bordesley High Street, past the Crown and Church, over the bridge and away for the Shambles and Corn Cheaping went the fox, and close to his heels followed the hounds, who caught their prey at last near to The Board. "S.D.R.," in one of his chatty gossips anent the old taverns of Birmingham, tells of a somewhat similar scene from the Quinton side of the town, the bait, however, being not a fox, but the trail-scent of a strong red herring, dragged at his stirrup, in wicked devilry, by one of the well-known haunters of old Joe Lindon's. Still, we _have_ had fox-hunts of our own, one of the vulpine crew being killed in St. Mary's Churchyard, Feb. 26, 1873, while another was captured (Sept. 11, 1883) by some navvies at work on the extension of New Street Station. The fox, which was a young one, was found asleep in one of the subways, though how he got to such a strange dormitory is a puzzle, and he gave a quarter-hour's good sport before being secured.

~Freemasons.~--See "_Masonic_."

~Freeth, the Poet.~--The first time Freeth's name appears in the public prints is in connection with a dinner given at his coffee-house, April 17, 1770, to celebrate Wilkes' release from prison. He died September 29, 1808, aged 77, and was buried in the Old Meeting House, the following lines being graved on his tombstone:--

"Free and easy through life 'twas his wish to proceed.

Good men he revered, whatever their creed.

His pride was a sociable evening to spend, For no man loved better his pipe and his friend."

~Friendly Societies~ are not of modern origin, traces of many having been found in ancient Greek inscriptions. The Romans also had similar societies, Mr. Tomkins, the chief clerk of the Registrar-General, having found and deciphered the accounts of one at Lanuvium, the entrance fee to which was 100 sesterces (about 15s.), and an amphora (or jar) of wine. The payments were equivalent to 2s. a year, or 2d. per mouth, the funeral money being 45s., a fixed portion, 7s. 6d. being set apart for distribution at the burning of the body. Members who did not pay up promptly were struck off the list, and the secretaries and treasurers, when funds were short, went to their own pockets.--The first Act for regulating Friendly Societies was pa.s.sed in 1795. Few towns in England have more sick and benefit clubs than Birmingham, there not being many public-houses without one attached to them, and scarcely a manufactory minus its special fund for like purposes. The larger societies, of course, have many branches (lodges, courts, &c), and it would be a difficult matter to particularise them all, or even arrive at the aggregate number of their members, which, however, cannot be much less than 50,000; and, if to these we add the large number of what may be styled "annual gift clubs" (the money in hand being divided every year), we may safely put the total at something like 70,000 persons who take this method of providing for a rainy day. The following notes respecting local societies have been culled from blue books, annual reports, and private special information, the latter being difficult to arrive at, in consequence of that curious reticence observable in the character of officials of all sorts, club stewards included.

_Artisans at Large_.--In March, 1868, the Birmingham artisans who reported on the Paris Exhibition of 1867, formed themselves into a society "to consider and discuss, from an artisan point of view, all such subjects as specially affect the artisan cla.s.s; to promote and seek to obtain all such measures, legislative or otherwise, as shall appear beneficial to that cla.s.s; and to render to each other mutual a.s.sistance, counsel, or encouragement." Very good, indeed! The benefits which have arisen from the formation of this society are doubtless many, but as the writer has never yet seen a report, he cannot record the value of the mutual a.s.sistance rendered, or say what capital is left over of the original, fund of counsel and encouragement.

_Barbers_.--A few knights of the razor in 1869 met together and formed a "Philanthropic Society of Hairdressers," but though these gentlemen are proverbial for their gossiping propensities, they tell no tales out of school, and of their charity boast not.

_Butchers_.--A Butchers' Benefit and Benevolent a.s.sociation was founded in 1877.

_Coaldealers_.--The salesmen of black diamonds have a mutual benefit a.s.sociation, but as the secretary declines to give any information, we fear the mutual benefit consists solely of helping each other to keep the prices up.

_Cannon Street Male Adult Provident Inst.i.tution_ was established in 1841. At the expiration of 1877 there were 8,994 members, with a balance in hand of 72,956 15s. 5d. The total received from members to that date amounted to 184,900, out of which 131,400 had been returned in sick pay and funeral benefits, the payments out varying from 4s. to 20s. a week in sickness, with a funeral benefit of 20, 8 being allowed on the death of a wife.

_Carr's Lane Provident Inst.i.tution_ was commenced in 1845, and has 299 male and 323 female members, with a capital of 5,488, the amount paid in 1883 on account of sickness being 242, with 54 funeral money.

_Chemistry_.--A Midland Counties' Chemists' a.s.sociation was formed in May, 1869.

_Christ Church Provident Inst.i.tution_ was established in 1835, and at the end of 1883, there were 646 male and 591 female members; during the year 423 had been paid among 138 members on account of sickness, besides 25 for funerals. Capital about 5,800. A junior or Sunday school branch also exists.

_Church of the Saviour Provident Inst.i.tution_ was started in 1857.

_Church School Teachers_.--The Birmingham and District Branch of the Church Schoolmaster's and Schoolmistresses' Benevolent Inst.i.tution was formed in 1866, and the members contribute about 250 per year to the funds.