Saltley Training College, which covers nearly seven acres of land, was instituted in 1847, and was opened at Easter, 1852, for the education of future schoolmasters in connection with the Established Church. The building cost nearly £18,000 and will accommodate 100 students who undergo a two years' training, the College being under the inspection of the Committee of Council on Education. Government grants amount to about two-thirds of the income, the balance being raised by public subscription and from fees. In addition to over fifty scholarships tenable by students who pass their examination, there are four exhibitions arising from a sum of £2,000 given in October, 1874, by the late Mr. Arthur Ryland (for a donor who desired to be anonymous) to the governing body of this College "to found a trust for promoting the teaching of teachers the laws of health, and inducing teachers to make that subject one of the things statedly taught in their own schools," and a further £1,000 for four exhibitions to students.
Severn Street First Day Adult School.—The name tells pretty well that this school was commenced by some members of the Society of Friends, though there is really nothing sectarian about it. Established in 1815, in a simple way and with but few classes, there is hardly an institution in the town that can be compared to it in the matter of practical usefulness, and certainly none at which there has been exhibited such an amount of unselfish devotedness on the part of teachers and superintendents. The report to the end of 1883 stated that during the year the progress of the school had been of an encouraging character. The following statistics were given of the total attendance at all the schools connected with the movement:—Number of teachers, 57 males, 25 females—total, 82, average attendance, 51 males, 23 females—total 74. Elementary teachers, 173 males, 21 females—total, 194; average attendance, 152 males, 19 females—total, 171. Number of scholars, 3,370 males, 653 females—total, 4,023; average attendance, 2,510 males, 510 females—total 3,080. The total number admitted since the men's school commenced in 1845, and the women's in 1848, had been 40,350. In connection with the school there are a number of organisations of great utility, such as sick societies, building societies, savings' funds, libraries, excursions clubs, &c. In the savings' fund the balance in hand reached £14,000, while over £18,000 had been paid into the building societies. There are a dozen other "adult schools" in the town which have sprung from Severn Street.
Spring Hill College.—For the education and training of Independent ministers, was first opened in 1838, in the mansion of Mr. George Storer Mansfield, at Spring Hill, that gentleman giving certain landed property towards its future support. The present edifice, near Moseley, to which the old name was given, was opened in June, 1857, the cost of the building, &c., nearly £18,000, being raised by voluntary contributions. It has room for 36 students.
Sunday Schools.—Sunday classes for the teaching of the Catechism, &c., date from a very early period of Church history, but Sunday Schools as they are now known seem to have been locally organised about a hundred years ago, the Sunday after Michaelmas Day in 1784 being marked as a red-letter-day on account of there being twenty-four schools then opened, though the course of instruction went no further than teaching the children to read. In 1789 some young men formed the "Sunday Society" as an addition thereto, the object being to teach writing and arithmetic to boys and youths of the artisan class. In 1796 the society was extended, other classes being formed, lectures delivered, &c., and it was then called the "Brotherly Society." Mr. James Luckcock and Mr. Thos. Carpenter were the leaders, and this is claimed to have been the origin of Mechanics' Institutes. The Unitarians date their Sunday Schools from 1787: the Baptists and Methodists from 1795. Deritend Sunday School was opened by Mr. Palmer in 1808, with but six scholars; in a month they were so numerous that part had to be taught in the street. The first prizes given to the children were new Boulton pennies. On Emancipation Day (August 1, 1838) there was a procession of over 3,000 scholars from the Baptist Sunday Schools. In 1812 the Birmingham Sunday School Union was organised. The medallists of this town sent out about 800,000 commemoration medals in 1880, when the Sunday School Centenary was kept. Nearly 2,000 teachers attend the Church schools and about 2,500 attend Dissenting and other schools, the number of children on the books of Sunday Schools in Birmingham being estimated at—
| 14 years and over | Under 14 years | Total. | |
| Church of England schools | 5,500 | 16,500 | 22,000 |
| Sunday School Union | 7,312 | 13,660 | 20,972 |
| Wesleyan and others | 2,745 | 6,627 | 9,372 |
| Roman Catholic | 1,200 | 1,950 | 3,150 |
| Unitarian | 692 | 1,359 | 1,961 |
| Other schools | 550 | 750 | 1,250 |
| 17,859 | 40,846 | 58,705 |
Wesleyan College.—The five memorial stones of a College for training Wesleyan ministers, at the corner of Priory and College Roads, Handsworth, were laid June 8, 1880. The site includes 17-1/2 acres, and cost over £7,000, the total cost of the College when completed and furnished being estimated at £40,000. About fifty students are accommodated at present, but there is room for thirty more.
Scraps of Local History.—A foreign visitor here in the reign of James II., wrote that our tradesmen were in the habit of spending their evenings in public-houses, and were getting into lazy habits, so that their shops were often not opened before 7 a.m.
Another intelligent foreigner (temp Charles II.) has left it on record that not only was smoking common among women here, but that the lads took a pipe and tobacco with them to school, instead of breakfast, the schoolmaster teaching them at the proper hour how to hold their pipes and puff genteelly.
Hutton believed that the scythe-blades attached to the wheels of Queen Boadicea's war chariots (A.D. 61), as well as the Britons' swords, were made in this neighbourhood.
When escaping from Boscobel, in the guise of Miss Lane's servant, Charles II. had to appeal to a blacksmith at Erdington to re-shoe his horse. The knight of the hammer was a republican, and his majesty chimed in with the man's views so readily, that the latter complimented his customer on "speaking like an honest man." Miss Lane afterwards married Sir Clement Fisher, of Packington, and her portrait may be still seen at the Hall.