An History of Birmingham (1783) | Page 4

Free School, .................................
203 Charity School, .............................. 209
Workhouse, ................................... 215 Old and Welch
Cross, ......................... 229 St. Martin's Church, ......................... 232 St.
Philip's, ................................ 246 General Hospital, ............................
256 Canal, ....................................... 265 Navigation
Office, ........................... 267 Brass Works, ................................. 329

AN
HISTORY &c.
* * * * *
Some account of the derivation of the name of Birmingham.
The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation. During
the last four centuries it has been variously written _Brumwycheham,
Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham,
Byrmyngham_, and _Birmingham_; nay, even so late as the
seventeenth century it was written Bromicham. Dugdale supposes the
name to have been given by the planter, or owner, in the time of the
Saxons; but, I suppose it much older than any Saxon, date: besides, it is
not so common for a man to give a name to, as to take one from, a
place. A man seldom gives his name except he is the founder, as
Petersburg from Peter the Great.
Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute
beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local
circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give
his name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of ages
these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an honour, a
residence, and a name. The terminations of sted, ham, and hurst, are
evidently Saxon, and mean the same thing, a home.
The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone various
mutations; but the original seems to have been _Bromwych_; Brom
perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the growth of which the soil is
extremely favourable; Wych, a descent, this exactly corresponds with
the declivity from the High Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in
the neigbourhood bear the same name, which serves to strengthen the
opinion.
This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings of
existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of Bromwych. Its
center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the Old Cross, and
its increase, in those early ages of time must have been very small.
A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its name,

reside in it, and the particle ham would naturally follow. This very
probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and the name was no
other than Bromwycham.

SITUATION.
It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west extremity of the
county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the northern part of which is
bounded by Handsworth, in the county of Stafford, and the southern by
King's-norton, in the county of Worcester; it is also in the diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry, and in the deanery of Arden.
Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty yards
north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of the river,
with Deritend, in the parish of Aston, on our left. Before we come to
the Floodgates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by the Longmores, a
small part of King's-norton. Crossing the river Rea, we enter the
vestiges of a small rivulet, yet visible, though the stream hath been
turned, perhaps, a thousand years, to supply the moat. We now bear
rather west, nearly in a straight line for three miles, to Shirland brook,
with Edgbaston on the left. At the top of the first meadow from the
river Rea, we meet the little stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of
which, we cross the Bromsgrove road a little east of the first mile stone.
Leaving Banner's marlpit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane
crossing the old Bromsgrove road, and up to the turnpike at the five
ways in the road to Hales Owen. Leaving this road also to the left we
proceed down the lane towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield street, a
stone's cast east of the observatory, to the north extremity of Rotton
Park. We now meet with Shirland Brook, which leads us east, and
across the Dudley road, at the seven mile stone, having Smethwick in
the county of Stafford, on the left, down to Pigmill. We now leave
Handsworth on the left, following the stream through Hockley great
pool; cross the Wolverhampton road, and the Ikenield-street at the same
time down to Aston furnace, with that parish on the left. At the bottom
of Walmer-lane we leave the water, move over the fields, nearly in a
line to the post by the Peacock upon Gosty-green. We now cross the
Lichfield road, down Duke-street, then the Coleshill road at the A B
house. From thence down the meadows, to Cooper's mill; up the river

to the foot of Deritend bridge; and then turn sharp to the