Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men | Page 7

inmate of the establishment, I have reason to believe that other
quadrangles and other buildings were in the rear. The portion
vouchsafed to public inspection was mean in architectural style, and

apparently very inadequate in size. From this point I do not remember
anything worthy of note until Aston Park was reached, in the Aston
Road. The park was then entire, and was completely enclosed by a high
wall, similar in character to the portion remaining in the Witton Road
which forms the boundary of the "Lower Grounds." The Hall was
occupied by the second James Watt, son of the great engineer. He had
not much engineering skill, but was a man of considerable attainments,
literary and philosophical. His huge frame might be seen two or three
times a week in the shop of Mr. Wrightson, the bookseller, in New
Street. He was on very intimate terms of friendship with Lord
Brougham, who frequently visited him at Aston. The favourite seat of
the two friends was in the temple-like summer-house, near the large
pool in Mr. Quilter's pleasant grounds. The village of Aston was as
country-like as if located twenty miles from a large town. Perry Barr
was a terra incognita to most Birmingham people. Erdington, then
universally called "Yarnton," was little known, and Sutton Coldfield
was a far-off pleasant spot for pic-nics; but, to the bulk of Birmingham
people, as much unknown as if it had been in the New Forest of
Hampshire.
Broad Street was skirted on both sides by private houses, each with its
garden in front. Bingley House, where the Prince of Wales Theatre now
stands, was occupied by Mr. Lloyd, the banker, and the fine trees of his
park overhung the wall. None of the churches now standing in Broad
Street were at that time built. The first shop opened at the Islington end
of the street, was a draper's, just beyond Ryland Street. This was started
by a man who travelled for Mr. Dakin, the grocer, and I remember he
was thought to be mad for opening such a shop in so outlandish a place.
The business is still carried on by Mr. D. Chapman. Rice Harris then
lived in the house which is now the centre of the Children's Hospital,
and the big ugly "cones" of his glass factory at the back belched forth
continuous clouds of black smoke. Beyond the Five Ways there were
no street lamps. The Hagley Road had a few houses dotted here and
there, and had, at no distant time, been altered in direction, the line of
road from near the present Francis Road to the Highfield Road having
at one time curved very considerably to the left, as anyone may see by
noticing the position of the frontage of the old houses on that side. All

along the straightened part there was on the left a wide open ditch,
filled, generally, with dirty water, across which brick arches carried
roads to the private dwellings. "The Plough and Harrow" was an
old-fashioned roadside public-house. Chad House, the present
residence, I believe, of Mr. Hawkins, had been a public-house too, and
a portion of the original building was preserved and incorporated with
the new portion when the present house was built. Beyond this spot,
with the exception of Hazelwood House, where the father of Rowland
Hill, the postal reformer, kept his school, and some half-dozen red
brick houses on the right, all was open country. Calthorpe Street was
pretty well filled with buildings. St. George's Church was about half
built. Frederick Street and George Street--for they were not "Roads"
then--were being gradually filled up. There were some houses in the
Church Road and at Wheeleys Hill, but the greater portion of
Edgbaston was agricultural land.
The south side of Ladywood Lane, being in Edgbaston parish, was
pretty well built upon, owing to its being the nearest land to the centre
of the town not burdened with town rating. There was a very large and
lumbering old mansion on the left, near where Lench's Alms-houses
now stand. Mr. R.W. Winfield lived at the red brick house between
what are now the Francis and the Beaufort Roads. Nearly opposite his
house was a carriage gateway opening upon an avenue of noble elms, at
the end of which was Ladywood House, standing in a park. This, and
the adjoining cottage, were the only houses upon the populous district
now known as Ladywood. At the right-hand corner of the Reservoir
"Lane" was the park and residence of Mr. William Chance. Further to
the east, in Icknield Street, near the canal bridge--which at that time
was an iron one, narrow and very dangerous--was another mansion and
park, occupied by Mr. John Unett, Jun. This house is now occupied as a
bedstead manufactory. Still further was another