For men and their wives go there and get parted."
Mission services in connection with Christ Church are held in the Pinfold Street and Fleet Street Schoolrooms.
Christ Church, Gillott Road, Summerfield. The foundation stone of a church to be erected to the memory of the late Rev. George Lea (for 43 years connected with Christ Church and St. George's, Edgbaston) was laid Nov. 27, 1883. It is intended to accommodate 850 persons, and will cost about £8,000, exclusive of a tower 110ft. high which will be added afterwards at a further cost of £1,200.
Christ Church, Quinton, was erected in 1841, at a cost of £2,500, and will seat 600, two-thirds being free. The living is valued at £200, is in the gift of the Rector of Halesowen (in whose parish Quinton was formerly included), and is held by the Rev. C.H. Oldfield, B.A.
Christ Church, Sparkbrook, is a handsome Gothic erection, built on land given by Mr. S.S. Lloyd, the first stone being laid April 5, 1866, and the opening ceremony on October 1, 1867. The living, a perpetual curacy, is in the gift of trustees, and is valued at £350 per annum, and has been held hitherto by the Rev. G. Tonge, M.A. The building of the church cost nearly £10,000, the accommodation being sufficient for 900 persons, one-half the seats being free. The stained window in chancel to the memory of Mrs. S.S. Lloyd, is said by some to be the most beautiful in Birmingham, the subject being the Resurrection. There are Mission Rooms and Sunday Schools in Dolobran Road, Montpellier Street, Long Street, and Stratford Road, several thousands having been spent in their erection.
Christ Church, Yardley Wood, was built and endowed by the late John Taylor, Esq., in 1848, the consecration taking place April 4, 1849. Vicarage, value £185; patrons, trustees; Vicar, Rev. C.E. Beeby, B.A. Seats 260, the 60 being free.
Edgbaston Old Church.—It is not known when the first church was built on this site, some writers having gone so far back as to fix the year 777 as the probable date. The present edifice, though it incorporates some few remains of former erections, and will always be known as the "old" church, really dates but from 1809-10, when it was re-built (opened Sept 10, 1810) but, as the Edgbastonians began to increase and multiply rapidly after that time, it was found necessary to add a nave and aisle in 1857. There is now only accommodation for 670, and but a hundred or so of the seats are free, so that possibly in a few more years the renovators and restorers will be busy providing another new old church for us. The patron is Lord Calthorpe, and the living is valued at £542, but the power of presenting has only been exercised three times during the last 124 years, the Rev. John Prynne Parkes Pixell, who was appointed vicar in 1760, being succeeded by his son in 1794, who held the living fifty-four years. At his death, in 1848, the Rev. Isaac Spooner, who had for the eleven previous years been the first incumbent of St. George's, Edgbaston, was inducted, and remained vicar till his death, July, 1884. In the Church there are several monuments to members of the Calthorpe family, and one in memory of Mr. Joshua Scholefield, the first M.P. for Birmingham, and also some richly-coloured windows and ancient-dated tablets connected with the oldest families of the Middlemores and others.
Hall Green Church was built in Queen Anne's reign, and has seats for 475, half free. It is a vicarage (value £175), in the gift of trustees, and now held by the Rev. R. Jones, B.A.
Handsworth Church.—St. Mary's, the mother church of the parish, was probably erected in the twelfth century, but has undergone time's inevitable changes of enlargements, alterations, and rebuildings, until little, if any, of the original structure could possibly be shown. Great alterations were made during the 15th and 17th centuries, and again about 1759, and in 1820; the last of all being those of our own days. During the course of the "restoration," now completed, an oval tablet was taken down from the pediment over the south porch, bearing the inscription of "John Hall and John Hopkins, churchwardens, 1759," whose economising notions had led them to cut the said tablet out of an old gravestone, the side built into the wall having inscribed on its face, "The bodye of Thomas Lindon, who departed this life the 10 of April, 1675, and was yeares of age 88." The cost of the rebuilding has been nearly £11,000, the whole of which has been subscribed, the reopening taking place Sept. 28, 1878. There are several ancient monuments in fair preservation, and also Chantrey's celebrated statue of Watts. The living is valued at £1,500, the Rector, the Rev. W. Randall, M.A., being his own patron. The sittings in the church are (with a few exceptions only) all free and number over 1,000, Sunday and other services being also held in a Mission Room at Hamstead.
Holy Trinity.—The first stone of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Camp Hill, was placed in position Sept. 29, 1820. The building was consecrated Jan. 23, 1823, and opened for services March 16 following. The cost was £14,325, and the number of sittings provided 1,500, half to be free. The services have from the first been markedly of a Ritualistic character, and the ornate decorations of the church have been therefore most appropriate. The living (value £230) is a vicarage in the gift of trustees, and is at present held by the Rev. A.H. Watts, who succeeded the Rev. R.W. Enraght after the latter's suspension and imprisonment.— See "[Ritualism]."