This is what Carl Chinn had to say.
AS THE hit song goes: "Let's hear it for New York". Well, locally what about: "Let's hear it for Deritend"? Why? Because Deritend is one of the oldest and most important place names in the history of Birmingham and yet it seems doomed to disappear from the 21st century city.
By contrast the name of Digbeth has waxed to such an extent that it is no longer just a street between High Street Deritend and the Bull Ring. Now it is also used to define a large area.
To the north of Digbeth the street, the new district of Digbeth seems to encompass all those streets from Park Street almost up to Camp Hill; whilst to the south it embraces all those streets below the Bull Ring markets and again almost up to Camp Hill. In reality many of these streets actually lie in Deritend.
This shrinking of Deritend and the expansion of Digbeth has led to confusions and inaccuracies in official communications, on radio stations, in newspapers and on a plethora of websites. Many addresses are given as on Digbeth High Street. There is no such place and never has been such a place. Other addresses are given as in Digbeth when they are not.
The Digbeth Campus of South Birmingham College, the Irish Centre and the Custard Factory are not in Digbeth. All three are in Deritend.
Does all this matter given popular usage? It does if we care about our historical place names and the people who lived in them. And it does matter for all those Brummies who grew up in Deritend and now watch unhappily as their district is pushed from history.
For hundreds of years Deritend belonged to the parish of Aston and was separated from Birmingham by the River Rea. This ran below what is now Rea Street, at the top of which (by the later Middle Ages) it split into two channels. One then went along what is now Milk Street, whilst the other went down what became Floodgate Street. Both later joined up. The land in between the two channels, which is now occupied by South Birmingham College, was known as Deritend Island.
Deritend has been tightly bound with Birmingham for centuries. Located distantly from Aston Parish Church it was pulled into a deeper relationship with its nearer neighbour after Birmingham's lord gained the right to have a market in 1166.
Soon after, Deritend was probably granted to the de Berminghams by their overlords, the Paganells of Dudley.
Recently the assiduous researcher George Demidowicz made a discovery that has transformed our understanding of medieval Birmingham. He came across the rentals for the borough of Birmingham in 1296. These indicated a number of streets, one of which was Deregatestret. Mentioned again in a deed from 1319, this Deer Gate Street became Deer-gate End in a document from 1381 and hence Deritend.
The spelling of Deregatestret solves the debate about the meaning of Deritend. Some historians had argued that the "der" element was derived from the Welsh "dwr" meaning water, whilst the rest of the name is from "yetend" - signifying gate end. However, the 1296 entry strengthens the case put forward by Joseph Toulmin, a 19th century expert on Birmingham. In his opinion Deritend is from "der-yat-end" and means the deer gate end. End was used to signify an outlying hamlet or the edge of a settlement.
In this case it indicated that Deritend was a suburb of Birmingham. As for the deer gate, this would have led into Over Park, recalled in Park Street, where the lords of Birmingham kept deer.
Digbeth was not mentioned as such in the 1296 Borough Rentals, although there is a record of "versus aquam". Meaning "towards the water", this was probably the route that went down to the Rea and which became Digbeth.
This documentary evidence for Deritend is bolstered by discoveries made over the last few years in archaeological excavations. They revealed signs of houses on Deritend Island in the 1200s. It appears that they were abandoned later in that century, but pottery from the same site indicated renewed activity here in the early 16th century. They also uncovered evidence of a tannery and of metal working.
The importance of Deritend both to the urbanisation and industrialisation of Birmingham is further emphasised by its distinction as the first of Birmingham's streets to be described. In about 1540 the Tudor traveller John Leland visited the town, coming down Camp Hill through "as pretty a street or ever I entrd". This was Deritend High Street, or "Dirtey" as Leland called it. In it dwelt smiths and cutlers, and it boasted both a chapel (St John's) and a mansion house of timber (the Old Crown pub).
This High Street became the centre of a workingclass township that included most of modern Highgate.
Dominated by factories, backto-back houses and railway lines, its people were pushed out in the post-war redevelopment of Birmingham.
Despite this loss, many fine buildings remain as does the late 18th and early 19th century street pattern. So "Let's hear it for Deritend" and call it by its correct name.
I've been researching my ancestors, the Geasts, for many years and they are shown on a map from Paul Leslie Lines'
book
'Birmingham A History in Maps'. (Sorry about the scan, I haven't worked out how to crop them yet). Their address was variously given as 'Deritend Island' and 'Deritend Bridge' and you can see the name 'Geast' on the property. They were there from the early 1400's to about 1820 when the bridge was rebuilt.
