The “Broad” Church party is scarcely represented in Birmingham, and with the exceptions of the Head Master and some of the other Masters of the Free Grammar School, and the Rector of St. Martin’s, who, from his position, is naturally a representative man, the Birmingham clergy do not concern themselves much with either the political, municipal, scientific, or literary pursuits of their fellow townsmen. They have the good reason that the work of their parishes makes such demands upon them that they have neither time nor strength for any other labours. Hence the public work of the town (with the exception of the School Board, on which the clergy have been always strongly represented) has for the last forty years been more influenced by the leading Nonconformist ministers than by the clergy.
Whilst the religious activity of the Nonconformists has not abated, they have gained immensely in influence in all the governing bodies and public institutions. For example, for a century previous to the year 1873, no dissenter had been elected a Governor of the Free Grammar School; now there are nine Nonconformists out of the twenty-one Governors. The religious activity of the Church has been widened and deepened by the development of the parochial system, whilst the natural “set” of nonconformist activity towards political and social reforms has won for them the control of political and municipal affairs. This cannot be better illustrated than by a few particulars of the composition of the Birmingham Town Council, which has acquired the reputation of being above the average of Town Councils in the social standing and ability of its members. Of the sixty-four members of which the Town Council is composed, seventeen only are churchmen. Of the sixteen Aldermen (assumed to be elected by the Council on account of services either exceptional in kind or duration) only one is a churchman. The forty-seven members of the Council not belonging to the Established Church, are composed of six Baptists, nine Congregationalists, six members of the Society of Friends, one Jew, one Presbyterian, two Roman Catholics, nine Unitarians, six Undenominational, and seven members of the Wesleyan and other Methodist bodies. The preponderance of Quakers and Unitarians in the Council, in proportion to their numerical strength in the country, is very remarkable. The number of members of the Society of Friends in England and Wales, is about one to every 1,725 of the population, according to the census of 1881. The number of their members and attendants on their services in Birmingham, is about one to every 527 of the population of the Borough; whilst in the Council their numbers are nearly one in ten (accurately 9.375 per cent.) or more than fifty times their numerical proportion. It is not possible to determine so accurately the number of Unitarians, but it may be safely asserted that their representation in the Council is many times in excess of their numerical proportion.
BURIAL GROUNDS AND CEMETERIES.
Most of the Churches built in Birmingham up to the year 1834 had churchyards added to them. The Churchyard of St. Martin being found inadequate, nearly three acres of land in Park Street was consecrated in the year 1813 as a burial ground, and have been since laid out as a public garden (see St. Bartholomew). There were burial grounds attached to the Old Meeting, to the Baptist Chapel, Cannon Street, and to the Friends Meeting House; there was also a piece of ground in Walmer Lane, appropriated by a Congregationalist, Joseph Scott, for the burial of Protestant Dissenters (A.D. 1779). There were also burial grounds for the Jewish Community in a spot called the Froggery, now part of New Street Station, in Granville Street and Betholom Row.
In 1832, a joint stock company was formed for constructing the General Cemetery at Key Hill—the area of which is about twelve acres. Divided from it by Pitsford Street is the Church of England Cemetery, consecrated in 1848. In 1850 the Catholic Cemetery of St. Joseph was established.
By successive orders in Council most of the intra-mural burial grounds were closed, and in the year 1860 the Corporation purchased 105 acres of land at Witton for a Borough Cemetery. Of this area, fifty-three acres are consecrated for use by members of the Established Church; thirty-five are set apart for Nonconformists, two acres and a half have been sold for the use of the Hebrew Community, and the residue is appropriated for the use of Roman Catholics. There are four distinct buildings for the use of the Church of England, Roman Catholics, Nonconformists, and Jews. To this Cemetery the coffins from Scott’s burial ground (72), Cannon Street Chapel (142), and the Old Meeting House (1503), have been removed.
Chapter VII.
ART.
Architecture.—[By J. A. Cossins.]—Although anciently possessing a Church, a Priory and a Castle, Birmingham now retains hardly a vestige of the work of the builders of the middle ages. When the old Parish Church of St. Martin was pulled down in 1872 to make way for its very fine successor, the indications of its history, hidden for nearly two centuries by a casing of brickwork, were revealed: traces were found of the work of the 12th and 13th centuries, and considerable remains of what must have been a fine building, mainly of the 14th century. The altar tombs, with effigies of the Lords de Birmingham, were carefully preserved and refixed in the new Church, and are well worthy of examination.[40]