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Books: on pre 1851 Birmingham

BordesleyExile

BordesleyExile

master brummie
It is quite challenging to research pre 1851 Birmingham centre, so I wondered if any of you can suggest any books I might have overlooked? So far I have drawn upon A History of Birmingham by Chris Upton, Victorian & Edwardian Birmingham by Dorothy McCulla and The Making of Victorian Birmingham by Victor Skipp. I'll be ordering Birmingham A History in Maps in the New Year, but what else is there?
I find very early directories a bit sparse for my purposes. That far back my family were not listed as labourers were invisible. St Philips registers may give an interesting glimpse, but I cannot find them published in CD format.
The development of inner Birmingham must be fascinating & I guess from the posts I read that others are interested too.
 
Vol 1 of A History of Birmingham goes up to 1865 and is quite interesting(vol 1 by Conrad Gill . vol 2 by Asa Briggs, pub 1952 by OUP.). It concentrates a lot on the council and is out of print but would be in the central library.It has interesting snippets like that in 1803 the footpath in Paradise St was railed for safety reasonns, as the roadway in places had worn down to end up several feet below the footpath (they must have had health & safetyeven then !!)
Mike
 
Thanks, Mike, I have now ordered Vol 1 & look forward to reading it. Snippets like the one you mentioned are so very visual. I have come across Asa Briggs in the past & may order vol 2 in the future.
Shirley
 
Thanks for the suggestion & link, Mike. I have been looking through Hutton's book this morning & plan to return to it at a later date as it will be very useful when I focus on the family who I can trace back to 1750. The limited number of streets will narrow the locations where they are likely to have lived, particularly when I take the parish church into account.
Shirley
 
You could also try : ''A century of Birmingham'' by John Alfred Langford, LL.D, F.RH.S but I have no idea as to when it was printed, other than to guess at the mid-to-late Victorian era.

A real, and vast wealth of information can be found in the four volumes of ''Staffordshire and Warwickshire. Past and Present'' by the same author. Published by Mackintosh & Tildesley, of 32 Paradise Street, Birmingham. Again, I can find no date on my own copies.
 
BordesleyExile,

Here is a link to an e-text of Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men by Eliezer Edwards (1815-1891). The book was published in 1877, but is based on the author's experience of Birmingham from 1837, so covers part of the period you're interested in. I've found it to be very well written, and the illustrations are excellent.

Thylacine.
 
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Mike, that's an excellent find! After the text but before the ads there's a picture of "Bull Street, Birmingham in 1840, from a rare print in the possession of Mr John Suffield" which can be magnified twice by clicking on it. Very interesting indeed. This picture is actually the frontispiece of the book, lacking in the archive.org copy I linked to.
 
Aidan, that's a great list (thanks to Bill Dargue for taking the trouble to create it). Plenty for you to look at there, Bordesley!
 
Aidan, it's at Mike's link but uncaptioned (i e with text): after all the text of the book just before the first ad. It's a great plan, I've downloaded it.
 
Ah yes at the end of the text rather than the beginning - operator error (as per usual....). The ads are great aren't they.
 
Thylacine said:
BordesleyExile,

Here is a link to an e-text of Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men by Eliezer Edwards (1815-1891). The book was published in 1877, but is based on the author's experience of Birmingham from 1837, so covers part of the period you're interested in. I've found it to be very well written, and the illustrations are excellent.

Thylacine.
Click to expand...

I've just clicked on that link,,, Excellent!
 
Just a quick point for those who frequent libraries for a source of information on Birmingham and it’s local history, you can also join Dudley and Sandwell libraries too, you don’t have to live in either Dudley or Sandwell to join their libraries to borrow books. I have joined both of these areas libraries and have been amazed at the books on all subjects that I have never seen at any Birmingham library. Sorry to say it but I think they leave our Birmingham libraries in the dark when it comes to the extent both Dudley and Sandwell have on offer. Here is a couple of links if you want to take a look; www.dudley.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/libraries and www.sandwell.gov.uk/info/200062/libraries
 
This text is truly well worth reading. I was gripped by the sketch of the Bull Ring riots of 1839. The writing gives an almost "on the spot" feel down to the buildings, streets, businesses and people caught up in the Riots. Another section "Gossip about Royalty" makes an interesting observation about Prince Albert's visit to an exhibition at Bingley House in 1848. How much, I wonder, did this visit influence Prince Albert's plans for the Great Exhibition of 1851? Would love to think that it had a major influence! Viv.
 
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