Memorials of the Old Square : being some notices of the Priory of St. Thomas in Birmingham, and the lands appertaining thereto; also of the Square built upon the Priory Close, known in later times as the Old Square; with notes concerning the dwellers in the sixteen houses thereof, and of some notable persons associated therewith / by Joseph Hill and Robert K. Dent.

  • Hill, Joseph, of Birmingham.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorials of the Old Square : being some notices of the Priory of St. Thomas in Birmingham, and the lands appertaining thereto; also of the Square built upon the Priory Close, known in later times as the Old Square; with notes concerning the dwellers in the sixteen houses thereof, and of some notable persons associated therewith / by Joseph Hill and Robert K. Dent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Temple Row (called at first Tory Row) developed from a gate-road into a highly respectable professional quarter, in which doctors, lawyers, clerics, and successful tradesmen found more congenial abodes within the new suburb upon the old hilly fields. Hitherto they had, perforce, been content to live with the surroundings of unsavoury tan pits, amid the smell or leather and the noise of the grindstone and the forge of the smith. ihe homes of substantial men of the town were still in Edgbaston Street or Park Street, varied by a limited choice near Deritend Chapel and Bridge, or in Moor Street and Dale End, or, for the more prosperous, beyond the gates of New Street end which led to the Bewdley Road. One wealthy ironmaster, John Jennens, had built himself a mansion in the Beast Market (High Street), but had just been driven away by the advancing tide ot progress, and already his house was devoted to business purposes, and shops were reared upon his lawn. i i j r • That the rapid extension of the town’s boundaries was unlooked tor is shown by the fact that in 1698 Robert Phillips (the owner of the estates now belonging to the Inge family), whose ancestors had formerly resided in the town, granted a lease to one Hawkesford whereby three closes of land. BIRMINGHAM FROM ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, circa 1814. .9. Lines. now occupied by Bennetts Hill, Waterloo Street, and St. Philip s church- yard and extending nearly to Bull Street, were tied up as agricultural land for 120 years. These fields were called Bennetts Hill, Banners Croft, and the Horse Close. The latter was speedily surrendered as a site for St.