Quakers.—Peaceable and quiet as the members of the Society of Friends are known to be now, they do not appear to have always borne that character in this neighbourhood, but the punishments inflicted upon them in the time of the Commonwealth seem to have been brutish in the extreme. In a history of the diocese of Worcester it is stated that the Quakers not only refused to pay tithes or take off their hats in courts of justice, but persisted in carrying on their business on Sundays, and scarcely suffering a service to be conducted without interruption, forcing themselves into congregations and proclaiming that the clergymen were lying witnesses and false prophets, varying their proceedings by occasionally running naked through the streets of towns and villages, and otherwise misbehaving themselves, until they were regarded as public pests and treated accordingly. In the year 1661, fifty-four Quakers were in Worcester gaol, and about the same time seven or eight others were in the lockup at Evesham, where they were confined for fourteen weeks in a cell 22 ft. square and 6 ft. high, being fed on bread and water and not once let out during the whole time, so that people could not endure to past the place; female Quakers were thrust with brutal indecency into the stocks and there left in hard frost for a day and night, being afterwards driven from the town. And this went on during the whole of the time this country was blessed with Cromwell and a Republican Government.—See "[Friends]."
Quaint Customs.—The practice of "heaving" or "lifting" on Easter Monday and Tuesday was still kept up in some of the back streets of the town a few years back, and though it may have died out now with us those who enjoy such amusements will find the old custom observed in villages not far away.—At Handsworth, "clipping the church" was the curious "fad" at Easter-time, the children from the National Schools, with ladies and gentlemen too, joining hands till they had surrounded the old church with a leaping, laughing, linked, living ring of humanity, great fun being caused when some of the link loosed hands and let their companions fall over the graves.—On St. John's Days, when the ancient feast or "wake" of Deritend Chapel was kept, it, was the custom to carry bulrushes to the church, and old inhabitants decorated their fireplaces with them.—In the prosperous days of the Holte family, when Aston Hall was the abode of fine old English gentlemen, instead of being the lumber-room of those Birmingham rogues the baronets abominated, Christmas Eve was celebrated with all the hospitalities usual in baronial halls, but the opening of the evening's performances was of so whimsical a character that it attracted attention even a hundred years ago, when queer and quaint customs were anything but strange. An old chronicler thus describes it:—"On this day, as soon as supper is over, a table is set in the hall; on it is set a brown loaf, with twenty silver threepences stuck on the top of it, a tankard of ale, with pipes and tobacco; and the two oldest servants have chairs behind it, to sit in as judges, if they please. The steward brings the servants, both men and women, by one at a time, covered with a winnow-sheet, and lays their right hand on the loaf, exposing no other part of the body. The oldest of the two judges guesses at the person, by naming a name; then the younger judge, and, lastly, the oldest again. If they hit upon the right name, the steward leads the person back again; but if they do not he takes off the winnow-sheet, and the person receives a threepence, makes low obeisance to the judges, but speaks not a word. When the second servant was brought the younger judge guessed first and third; and this they did alternately till all the money was given away. Whatever servant had not slept in the house the previous night forfeited his right to the money. No account is given of the origin of this strange custom, but it has been practised ever since the family lived there. When the money is gone the servants have full liberty to drink, dance, sing, and go to bed when they please."
Railways: London and North Western.—The first proposal for converting Birmingham with the outer world by means of a railway seems to have originated in 1824, as we read of the share-book for a Birmingham and London line being opened here on December 14 of that year. There was a great rush for shares, 2,500 being taken up in two hours, and a £7 premium offered for more, but as the scheme was soon abandoned it is probable the scrip was quickly at a discount. Early in 1830 two separate companies were formed for a line to the Metropolis, but they amalgamated on September 11, and surveys were taken in the following year. Broad Street being chosen as the site for a station. The Bill was introduced into the House of Commons February 20, 1832, but the Lords rejected it in June. Another Bill, with variations in the plans, was brought in in the session of 1833, and it passed on May 6, the work being commenced at the London end in July, and at Birmingham in June of the following year. The line was to be 112-1/2 miles long and estimated to cost £2,500,000, but the real cost amounted to £4,592,700, of which £72,868 18s. 10d. was spent in obtaining the Act alone. The line was opened in sections as completed, the first train running from Euston to Boxmoor, 24-1/2 miles, on July 20, 1837. The average daily number of persons using the line during the first month was 1,428, the receipts being at the rate of £153 per day. On April 9, 1838, the trains reached Rugby, and on Aug. 14, the line was completed to Daddeston Row, the directors taking a trial trip on the 20th. There were only seventeen stations on the whole line, over which the first passenger train ran on Sept. 17.—The prospectus of the Grand Junction Railway (for Liverpool and Manchester) was issued May 7, 1830, and the line from Vauxhall Station to Newton (where it joined the Manchester and Liverpool line) was opened July 4, 1837. The importance of this line of communication was shown by the number of passengers using it during the first nine weeks, 18,666 persons travelling to or from Liverpool, and 7,374 to or from Manchester, the receipts for that period being £41,943.—The Birmingham branch of the South Staffordshire Railway was opened Nov. 1, 1847; the Birmingham and Shrewsbury line, Nov. 12, 1849; and between Dudley and Walsall May 1, 1850. The Stour Valley line was partially brought into use (from Monument Lane) Aug. 19, 1851, the first train running clear through to Wolverhampton July 1, 1852. The line to Sutton Coldfield was opened June 2, 1862, and the Harborne line (for which the Act was obtained in 1866) was opened Aug. 10, 1874. The Act for the construction of the Birmingham and Lichfield line, being a continuation of the Sutton Coldfield Railway, passed June 23, 1874; it was commenced late in October, 1881, and it will shortly be in use. The Bill for the Dudley and Oldbury Junction line passed July 15, 1881. A new route from Leamington to Birmingham was opened in Sept. 1884, shortening the journey to London.
Midland.—The Derby and Birmingham Junction line was opened through from Lawley Street Aug. 12th, 1839. The first portion of the Birmingham and Gloucester line, between Barnt Green and Cheltenham, was opened July 1, 1840, coaches running from here to Barnt Green to meet the trains until Dec. 15, 1840, when the line was finished to Camp Hill, the Midland route being completed and opened Feb. 10, 1842. The first sod was cut for the West Suburban line Jan. 14, 1873, and it was opened from Granville Street to King's Norton April 3, 1876. This line is now being doubled and extended from Granville Street to New Street, at an estimated cost of £280,400, so that the Midland will have a direct run through the town.
Great Western.—The first portion of the Oxford and Birmingham Railway (between here and Banbury) was opened Sept. 30, 1852, the tunnel from Moor Street to Monmouth Street being finished on June 6th previous. The original estimated cost of this line was but £900,000, which was swelled to nearly £3,000,000 by the bitter fight known as the "Battle of the Gauges." The line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton was opened Nov. 14, 1854. The first train to Stratford-on-Avon was run on Oct. 9, 1860. The Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line was opened in May, 1852. The broad gauge was altered in 1874.
Railway Jottings.—The London and Birmingham line cost at the rate of £23,000 per mile, taking nearly five years to make, about 20,000 men being employed, who displaced over 400,000,000 cubic feet of earth. The Grand Junction averaged £16,000 per mile, and at one time there were 11,000 men at work upon it. Slate slabs were originally tried for sleepers on the Birmingham and London line.
The first railway carriages were built very like to coaches, with an outside seat at each end for the guard, though passengers often sat there for the sake of seeing the country.
The fares first charged between Birmingham and London were 30s. by first class, and 20s. second class (open carriages) by day trains; 32s. 6d. first class and 25s. second class, by night. In 1841 the fares were 30s. first, 25s. second, and 20s. 3d. third class; they are now 17s. 4d., 13s. 6d., and 9s. 5d.
"Booking" was a perfectly correct term when the lines were first used, as when passengers went for their tickets they had to give their names and addresses, to be written on the tickets and in the book containing the counterfoils of the tickets.
The day the Grand Junction line was opened was kept as a general holiday between here and Wolverhampton, hundreds of tents and picnic parties being seen along the line.