Views and Prospects Nᵒ.3: The East Prospect of Birmingham by William Westley (1732)

It seems apt that the first post for the new look should be about the East Prospect of Birmingham which has been used for the top image of the blog. It was made by William Westley in 1732, who also produced the 1731 map of Birmingham, so the two relate to each other nicely.

The prospect shows a thoroughly modern town, filled with brick (and they would have been red brick) buildings; a brand new church in the fashionable Baroque style (St. Philip's) on the highest point; and neat, uniformed streets in the 'new' town right of the church, including the new 'Square' built for the wealthy, and a modern innovation in early Georgian urban planning. It was Westley that produced this image as it was a view that his family's fingerprints were all over. His father, William Westley Senior, had worked on St. Philip's (the architect was Thomas Archer) and had built some of the surrounding streets (one was called Westley's Row); he was probably the man behind the 'Square' too. The Westley's had designed refinement and modernity into the fabric of the town, and were now promoting it in the beautiful East Prospect, and the map produced the previous year.

In a central engraving Westley dedicates the prospect to his 'Worthy Patrons' Thomas Archer and Henry Archer, Thomas of course being the architect of St. Philip's. The engraved stone is flanked by symbols of Birmingham's industry and refinement; a palette and mechanical devices on the left, and musical instruments on the right. The town is also described:

“BIRMINGHAM, a Market Town in the County of WARWICK, which by the art and industry of its Inhabitants has for some years past been render’d famous all over the World, for the rare choice and invention of all sorts of Wares and Curiositys [sic] in Iron, Steel, Brass &c. admir’d as well for their cheapness, as their peculiar beauty of Workmanship [...]”

The description of Birmingham's wares as 'curiosities' was the spark of my PhD thesis at the University of Birmingham,* and is referring to Birmingham 'toys' (small metal items NOT children's toys) and trinkets that were highly desirable commodities of the time. The poet William Shenstone, who lived at Leasowes in Handsworth near Birmingham, was a great lover of these toys, and noted 'I have often viewed my watch, standish (inkstand), snuff-box, with this kind of tender regard; allotting them a degree of friendship, which there are some men, that do not deserve'. Birmingham was already renowned for these items, and became even more so over the next century, becoming known as the 'Toy-shop of Europe'. Birmingham was supplying everything modern and fashionable, and Westley is showing the actual space of the town as the same.


A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PROSPECT

Below you can see Digbeth, a street that shot out south-east from Birmingham, and led to the neighbouring village of Aston, over the River Rea. To the left is St. John's chapel which served the community that huddled along the river, using the waters for tanning leather and powering mills and forges. St. Martin's is the church with the tall spire, still standing today, but rebuilt completely. To the left of St. Martin's is the moated manor house, which was the seat of the old 'de Birmingham' family, a remnant of the town's mediaeval history. The old Birmingham estate can be seen rolling towards the horizon, with Edgbaston Church a dot in the distance (far left).

Digbeth 300 years ago. 1732 Prospect & 1731 Map of Birmingham, by William Westley

Below St. Philip's can be seen on the hill, and the area around was being slowly filled with brand new houses for the Birmingham elite, whose wealth was growing rapidly as the town's trade in luxury wares expanded. One of these was Westley's Row which was near the Square (see pointing finger), which was frequented by Samuel Johnson, among other notable persons of the time. In the foreground is a stretch of the River Rea not on the map, and it is nice to see a party fishing on its banks, especially as the Rea here today flows morosely under the streets along brick culverts.

St. Philip's and the Square. 1732 Prospect & 1731 Map of Birmingham, by William Westley

Views and Prospects Nᵒ.2: The South-West Prospect by the Buck Brothers (1731)

Birmingham nearly three hundred years ago.

The vista of Birmingham, above, is a copy of one first produced in 1731, as the town was growing and beginning to achieve fame and prominence as a centre for industry and ingenuity. In the distance the landscape is one of rolling green fields, and from the vantage point taken, you can see the spire of Yardley Church (on the right), Whitacre, Curdworth, as well as Charlbury Forest in Leicestershire. It was produced by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, who visited Birmingham in 1729 to take initial drawings (see below).

The inscription written at the bottom is added below:

"BIRMINGHAM (anciently written BIRMYNCHAM also BRYMYNCHAM) is neither Borough nor Corporation; but remains, what it was before the Norman Conquest, only a Lordship: nevertheless, by the Industry & Ingenuity of its Inhabitants & the Advantage of its being an open free place of Trade, it is become famous for the vast Quantities of Iron & Brass, besides, Thread and Leather &c. manufactured there, and risen to A Competition with any of the most flourishing Towns in England being adorn’d with several beautiful Structures, such as a New Church: a Charity School, wherein are maintain’d and taught upwards of 50 Boys & Girls and a Free Grammar School founded and endow’d with a large revenue by King Edward teh sixth now rebuilt in a stately and commodious form. The Town is govern’d only by two Constables & holds a large Weekly market on Thursday, with two Annual Fairs, one on Ascension day, & the other on the feast of St. Michael. ____________ 1. New Hall. 2. St. Philip’s Church. 3. The Road to Worcester. 4. The Free School. 5. The Market House. 6. The Parsonage. 7. Charlbury Forest in Leicestershire. 8. St. Martin’s Church. 9. Curdworth. 10. Whitacre. 11. Lady’s Well. 12. The Manor House. 13. Digbeth. 14. The Bridge. 15. The River Rea. 16. St. John’s Chappel in Deritend. 17. Collshal. 18. Yardley."

The landmarks listed have been numbered more clearly below.

Below is one of the original drawing that the Buck's produced in 1729.

Drawing for the later printed prospect, pen and Indian ink with wash over pencil, 1729.
Held at Birmingham Museums (1934P399).

Paper Remnants: The First Birmingham Stage-Coach

Print of a poster from May 1731 advertising the first regular stage-coach from Birmingham to London. The journey took two and a half days; but notice the get-out clause 'if God permit', allowing for anything from bad roads (which were common), poor weather (this is England) and any other eventuality that may be thrown at the journey. A regular stage-coach means that Birmingham's traders and manufacturers have a cheaper and easier way to reach the capital in order to make and maintain business connections. Take a journey on the London to Birmingham stage coach here.

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.7: Bennett's Hill House and Gardens (Bennetts Hill and Ann Street (Colmore Row))

Top of Newhall Street, looking towards St. Philip's and Bennett's Hill House.
Probably by Samuel Lines Senior.

The sketch above is recorded in the archive as being made in 1828, though it may possibly be earlier that decade as the house on the far right was most likely taken down when Bennett's Hill was cut in the early 1820s. The three storey house just to the left is Bennett's Hill House, and the land that the road 'Bennett's Hill' was built on (as well as Waterloo Street) was attached to this house. The house was built in 1698 by the wealthy iron merchant, John Pemberton, with a lease for the land of 120 years, but it was his son, Thomas, that added the fashionable gardens to the house in the early 1730s. He initially added a walled garden and then planted long walks lined with trees (see map). A visitor to the house in 1755 described the gardens:
‘[They] consist of two parts, a handsome flower-garden about half an acre, square and walled in; neatly laid out, and as neatly kept. On the left hand stands a convenient summer-house, opposite to which is a gate opening to a long grass-walk, having a row of fan elms on each side, with borders of various kinds of plants and flowering shrubs; this walk parts the fruit and kitchen garden; at the end is another walk on the left hand, with rows of tall fir-trees, etc. The house stands on the highest ground of the town, over which the garden commands a good view of the country on that side for some miles.’*



Part of T. Underwood's copy of the 1731 south-west prospect of Birmingham
Bennett's Hill House is under the star, and the hill infront is Bennett's Hill

During this period the fashion for public walks and promenards expanded. Walks were sociable environments, a place for 'refined' people to meet similar friends and acquaintances, and a place to meet prospective spouses. St. Philip's church, which can be seen to the right of Bennett's Hill House in the image above, had a public walk attached to its grounds throughout the middle of the eighteenth century. The gardens and walks at Bennett's Hill House although private, show the 'walk' as a popular leisure pursuit of the wealthier classes of the time, and Pemberton's personal gardens asserted his personal wealth and pre-eminence within the town. They would have been enjoyed by the Pemberton's and their wealthy friends and acquaintances.

About 15 years after the 1731 prospect was drawn, Thomas Pemberton must have felt that the rural ambience of his gardens was under threat by the growing town, as he added terms to the family's 120 year lease that the land could not be built on the the term of the lease. This meant that as the town grew up all around, Bennett's Hill became marooned from the rest of the countryside, and a green enclave in the bustle of Birmingham. Ann street which passed it leading to St. Philip's became known as Mount Pleasant, probably because it was such a pleasant walk from St. Philip's down to the newly developed middle-class areas of the town.  From 1794 to 1817 a hay market was held on the hill, and in 1805 a site at the bottom corner was negotiated for the building of Christ Church, a church with free pews for the poor. In 1818 the 120 year lease expired and the land could then be built on, and two new streets, Bennett's Hill and Waterloo Street were laid out across what had been the Pemberton gardens. The house itself remained until 1849.



Bennett's Hill House, shortly before demolition.

 NOTES
* References on request
Images courtesy of Birmingham Library and Archive Services

1731 Map of Birmingham

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE OF THE MAP
Colour adaption below and also found at Map Seeker
1731 Map of Birmingham by William Westley (probably junior)

It is thought that William Westley (senior) was the designer of much of the Priory Estate, which was an area in the north-west of the town built up in the early Georgian period; this is likely as a street within the area was named Westley Row (as seen on map). The Priory Estate was Birmingham’s first planned estate of houses, the centre-piece of which was a grand square (possible also by Westley), all of which would have displayed the new fashions in street and house building. Urban planning was new in the towns and this can be perceived as the usage of the houses in the Square was restricted, there was a certain amount of uniformity to the houses, and certain areas were built up as a coherent whole. It was probably a certain amount of family pride that encouraged the production of this, Birmingham’s first map; the Westley’s had had a hand in the changing landscape and preserved it through this and a number of prospects that Westley produced at a similar time.

Westley dedicated the map to Edward Digby and William Peyto (Esq.s) who were Members of Parliament for Warwickshire (this was long before Birmingham had any of its own MP’s). This plate is a later copy, as can be determined from the addition of the text ‘in the possession of Theoph. Richards in the year 1789. Nephew to Mr. Westley’. The man mentioned in Theophilus Richards, who is one of the notable Richards family that resided in High Street for many years and whose gun-making business still survives today. The map contains two written sections which read;
On the left: “In the Year 1700, Birmingham Contained 30 Streets, 100 Courts and Alleys, 2504 Houses, 15032 Inhabitants, one Church dedicated to St. Martin & a Chappel to St. John & a School founded by Edward 6th also 2 Dissenting Meeting Houses.”
On the right: “The Increase of this Town from 1700 to ye Year 1731~ is as follows: 25 Streets, 50 Courts and Alleys, 1215 Houses, 8254 Inhabitants, together with a new Church, Charity School, Market Cross, & 2 Meeting Houses. for a further account see [illeg.]”

The map depicts the relatively newly built St. Philip’s church still on the outskirts of the town; in the same area is the grand New Hall, and also off New Hall Lane (but unmarked) id Bennett’s Hill House and you can see the elegant gardens marked at the rear of the house. Much of the top end of what is now New Street is still being used as cherry orchards, as is much of the land (as Walker’s orchard) where Corporation Street now runs, and Corbett’s bowling green also sits adjacent to here. The original moats can be seen encircling the old parsonage of St. Martin’s and the buildings that were the seat of the De Birmingham’s. You can also find a number of industrial landmarks including Lloyd’s slitting mills and Kettle’s steel houses.

The 1731 map is unusual as it was drawn with west at the top, which makes it a little more difficult to compare this with later maps. For this blog I have turned the 1731 map 90° so that north is at the top and edited the street names so that they can be read the correct way up, but I have left all other landmarks as they were. I have also included the map in its original form for its own value.