Baptists.—Prior to 1737, the "Particular Baptists" do not appear to have had any place of worship of their own in this town, what few of them there were travelling backwards and forwards every Sunday to Bromsgrove. The first home they acquired here was a little room in a small yard at the back of 38, High Street (now covered by the Market Hall), which was opened Aug. 24, 1737. In March of the following year a friend left the Particulars a sum of money towards erecting a meeting-house of their own, and this being added to a few subscriptions from the Coventry Particulars, led to the purchase of a little bit of the Cherry Orchard, for which £13 was paid. Hereon a small chapel was put up, with some cottages in front, the rent of which helped to pay chapel expenses, and these cottages formed part of Cannon Street; the land at the back being reserved for a graveyard. The opening of the new chapel gave occasion for attack; and the minister of the New Meeting, Mr. Bowen, an advocate of religious freedom, charged the Baptists (particular though they were) with reviving old Calvinistic doctrines and spreading Antinomianism and other errors in Birmingham; with the guileless innocence peculiar to polemical scribes, past and present. Mr. Dissenting minister Bowen tried to do his friends in the Bull Ring a good turn by issuing his papers as from "A Consistent Churchman." In 1763 the chapel was enlarged, and at the same time a little more land was added to the graveyard. In 1780 a further enlargement became necessary, which sufficed until 1805, when the original buildings, including the cottages next the street, were taken down to make way for the chapel so long known by the present inhabitants. During the period of demolition and re-erection the Cannon Street congregation were accommodated at Carr's Lane, Mr. T. Morgan and Mr. John Angell James each occupying the pulpit alternately. The new chapel was opened July 16, 1806, and provided seats for 900, a large pew in the gallery above the clock being allotted to the "string band," which was not replaced by an organ until 1859. In August, 1876, the Corporation purchased the site of the chapel, the graveyard, and the adjoining houses, in all about 1,000 square yards in extent, for the sum of £26,500, the last Sunday service being held on October 5, 1879. The remains of departed ministers and past members of the congregation interred in the burial-yard and under the chapel were carefully removed, mostly to Witton Cemetery. The exact number of interments that had taken place in Cannon Street has never been stated, but they were considerably over 200; in one vault alone more than forty lead coffins being found. The site is now covered by the Central Arcade. Almost as old as Cannon Street Chapel was the one in Freeman Street, taken down in 1856, and the next in date was "Old Salem," built in 1791, but demolished when the Great Western Railway was made. In 1785 a few members left Cannon Street to form a church in Needless Alley, but soon removed to Bond Street, under Mr. E. Edmonds, father of the well-known George Edmonds.—In the year 1870 fifty-two members were "dismissed" to constitute a congregation at Newhall Street Chapel, under the Rev. A. O'Neill.—In the same way a few began the church in Graham Street in 1828.—On Emancipation Day (Aug. 1, 1838), the first stone was laid of Heneage Street Chapel, which was opened June 10, 1841.—In 1845 a chapel was erected at Shirley; and on Oct. 24, 1849, the Circus in Bradford Street was opened as a Baptist Chapel. Salem Chapel, Frederick Street, was opened Sept. 14, 1851.—Wycliffe Church, Bristol Road, was commenced Nov. 8, 1859, and opened June 26, 1861.—Lombard Street Chapel was started Nov. 25, 1864.—Christ Church, Aston, was opened April 19, 1865.—The Chapel in Balsall Heath Road was opened in March, 1872; that in Victoria Street, Small Heath, June 24, 1873; and in Great Francis Street, May 27, 1877. When the Cannon Street Chapel was demolished, the trustees purchased Graham Street Chapel and schools for the sum of £14,200, other portions of the money given by the Corporation being allotted towards the erection of new chapels elsewhere. The Graham Street congregation divided, one portion erecting for themselves the Church of the Redeemer, in Hagley Road, (opened May 24, 1882), while those living on the Handsworth side built a church in Hamstead Road (opened March 1, 1883), each building costing over £10,000. The first stone of the Stratford Road Church (the site of which, valued at £1,200, was given by Mr. W. Middlemore) was laid on the 8th of June, 1878, and the building, which cost £7,600, was opened June 3, 1879. Mr. Middlemore also gave the site (value £2,200) for the Hagley Road Church, £6,000 of the Cannon Street money going to it, and £3,500 to the Stratford Road Church.—The Baptists have also chapels in Guildford Street, Hope Street, Lodge Road, Longmore Street, Great King Street, Spring Hill, Warwick Street, Yates Street, as well as at Erdington, Harborne, King's Heath, Selly Oak, Quinton, &c.
Catholic Apostolic Church, Summer Hill Terrace.—This edifice, erected in 1877, cost about £10,000, and has seats for 400.
Christian Brethren.—Their head meeting-house is at the Central Hall, Great Charles Street, other meetings being held in Bearwood Road, Birchfield Road, Green Lanes, King Street, (Balsall Heath), New John Street, Wenman Street, (opened in June, 1870), and at Aston and Erdington.
Christadelphians meet at the Temperance Hall, Temple Street.
Church of the Saviour, Edward Street.—Built for George Dawson on his leaving the Baptists, the first turf being turned on the site July 14, 1846, and the opening taking place Aug. 8, 1847.
Congregational.—How the Independents sprang from the Presbyterians, and the Congregationalists from them, is hardly matter of local history, though Carr's Line Chapel has sheltered them all in rotation. The first building was put up in 1747-48, and, with occasional repairs lasted full fifty years, being rebuilt in 1802, when the congregation numbered nearly 900. Soon after the advent of the Rev. John Angell James, it became necessary to provide accommodation for at least 2,000, and in 1819 the chapel was again rebuilt in the form so well known to the present generation. The rapidity with which this was accomplished was so startling that the record inscribed on the last late affixed to the roof is worth quoting, as well on account of its being somewhat of a novel innovation upon the usual custom of foundation-stone memorial stone, and first-stone laying and fixing:—
"Memoranda. On the 30th day of July, 1819, the first stone of this building was laid by the Rev. John Angell James, the minister. On the 30th day of October, in the same year, this the last slate was laid by Henry Leneve Holland, the builder, in the presence of Stedman Thomas Whitwell, the Architect.—Laus Deo."
In 1875-76 the chapel was enlarged, refronted, and in many ways strengthened and improved, at a cost of nearly £5,000, and it now has seats for 2,250 persons.—Ebenezer Chapel, Steelhouse Lane, which will seat 1,200, was opened Dec. 9, 1818. Its first pastor, the Rev. Jehoida Brewer, was the first to be buried there.—The first stone of Highbury Chapel, which seats 1,300, was laid May 1, 1844, and it was opened by Dr. Raffles in the following October.—Palmer Street Chapel was erected in 1845.—The first stone of the Congregational Church in Francis Road was laid Sept. 11, 1855, the opening taking place Oct. 8, 1856.—The first stone of the Moseley Road building was laid July 30, 1861, and of that in the Lozells, March 17, 1862.—The chapel at Small Heath was commenced Sept. 19, 1867, and opened June 21, 1868; that at Saltley was began June 30, 1868, and opened Jan. 26, 1869.—The chapel in Park Road, Aston, was began Oct. 7, 1873; the church on Soho Hill, which cost £15,000, was commenced April 9, 1878, and opened July 16, 1879.—The memorial-stones of the church at Sutton Coldfield, which cost £5,500, and will seat 640, were laid July 14, 1879, the opening taking place April 5, 1880; the Westminster Road (Birchfield) Church was commenced Oct. 21, 1878, was opened Sept. 23, 1879, cost £5,500, and will seat 900; both of these buildings have spires 100ft. high.—The foundation-stone of a chapel at Solihull, to accommodate 420, was laid May 23, 1883.—Besides the above, there is the Tabernacle Chapel, Parade, chapels in Bordesley Street, Gooch Street, and St. Andrew's Road, and others at Acock's Green, Erdington, Handsworth, Olton, Yardley, &c.
Disciples of Christ erected a chapel in Charles Henry Street in 1864; in Geach Street in 1865; in Great Francis Street in 1873.
Free Christian Church, Fazeley Street—Schoolrooms were opened here in 1865 by the Birmingham Free Christian Society, which were enlarged in 1868 at a cost of about £800. Funds to build a church were gathered in succeeding years and the present edifice was opened April 1, 1877, the cost being £1,300.