Loveday Street, from Loveday Croft, a field given in Good Queen Bess's reign, by John Cooper, as a trysting-place for the Brummagem lads and lasses when on wooing bent.
Low Rents.—A return of unassessed houses in the parish of Birmingham, taken October 19, 1790, showed 2,000 at a rental under £5, 2,000 others under £6, 3,000 under £7, 2,000 under £8, 500 under £9, and 500 under £10.
Lozells.—In the lease of a farm of 138 acres, sold by auction, June 24, 1793, it was written "Lowcells." Possibly the name is derived from the Saxon "lowe" (hill) and "cele" (cold or chill) making it "the cold hill."
Lunacy.—Whether it arises from political heat, religious ecstacies, intemperance, or the cares and worry of the universal hunt for wealth, it is certainly a painful fact to chronicle that in proportion to population insanity is far more prevalent now than it was fifty years ago, and Birmingham has no more share in such excess than other parts of the kingdom. Possibly, the figures show more prominently from the action of the wise rules that enforce the gathering of the insane into public institutions, instead of leaving the unfortunates to the care (or carelessness) of their relatives as in past days, when the wards of the poor-houses were the only receptacles for those who had no relatives to shelter them. The erection of the Borough Asylum, at Winson Green, was commenced in 1846, and it was finished in 1851. The house and grounds covered an area of about twenty acres, the building being arranged to accommodate 330 patients. Great as this number appeared to be, not many years passed before the necessity of enlargement was perceived, and, ultimately, it became evident the Winson Green establishment must either be doubled in size or that a second Asylum must be erected on another site. An estate of 150 acres on the south-eastern slopes of Rubery Hill, on the right-hand side of the turnpike road from here to Bromsgrove, was purchased by the Corporation, and a new Asylum, which will accommodate 616 patients, has there been erected. For the house and its immediate grounds, 70 acres have been apportioned, the remainder being kept for the purposes of a farm, where those of the inmates fit for work can be employed, and where the sewage from the asylum will be utilised. The cost of the land was £6,576 8s. 5d., and that of the buildings, the furnishing, and the laying out of the grounds, £133,495 5s. 8d. The report of the Lunatic Asylums Committee for 1882 stated that the number of patients, including those boarded under contract at other asylums, on the first of Jan., 1882, was 839. There were admitted to Winson Green and Rubery Hill during the year 349. There were discharged during the year 94, and there died 124, leaving, on the 31st Dec., 970. The whole of the 970 were then at the borough asylums, and were chargeable as follows:—To Birmingham parish, 644; to Birmingham borough, 8; to Aston Union, in the borough, 168; to King's Norton, 16; to other unions under contract, 98; the remaining 36 patients not being paupers. The income of the asylums for the year was—from Birmingham patients £20,748 1s. 9.; from pauper patients under contract, and from patients not paupers, £2,989 9s. 5d.; from goods sold, £680 1s. 5d.; total, £24,417 12s. 7d. The expenditure on maintenance account was £21,964 4s., and on building capital account £2,966 7s. 7d.—total, £24,915 11s. 7d.; showing a balance against the asylums of £497 19s. The nett average weekly cost for the year was 9s. 6-1/2d. per head. Mr. E.B. Whitcombe, medical superintendent at Winson Green, says that among the causes of insanity in those admitted it is satisfactory to note a large decrease in the number from intemperance, the percentage for the year being 7.7, as compared with 18 and 21 per cent. in 1881 and 1880 respectively. The proportion of recoveries to admissions was in the males 27.7, in the females 36, and in the total 32.3 percent. This is below the average, and is due to a large number of chronic and unfavourable cases admitted. At Rubery Hill Asylum, Dr. Lyle reports that out of the first 450 admissions there were six patients discharged as recovered.—The Midland Counties' Idiot Asylum, at Knowle, opened in 1867, also finds shelter for some of Birmingham's unfortunate children. The Asylum provides a home for about 50, but it is in contemplation to considerably enlarge it. At the end of 1882 there were 28 males and 21 females, 47 being the average number of inmates during the year, the cost per head being £41 13s. 6d. Of the limited number of inmates in the institution no fewer than thirteen came from Birmingham, and altogether as many as thirty-five candidates had been elected from Birmingham. The income from all sources, exclusive of contributions to the building fund, amounted to £2,033 3s. 8d., and the total expenditure (including £193 3s. 4d. written off for depreciation of buildings) to £1,763 15s. 7d., leaving a balance in hand of £269 8s. 1d. The fund which is being raised for the enlargement of the institution then amounted to £605 15s., the sum required being £5,000. The society's capital was then £10,850 12s. 8d. of which £7,358 12s. 5d. had been laid out in lands and buildings. Mr. Tait, the medical officer, was of opinion that one-fourth of the children were capable of becoming productive workers under kindly direction and supervision, the progress made by some of the boys in basket-making being very marked.
Lunar Society.—So called from the meetings being held at the full of the moon that the members might have light nights to drive home, but from which they were nicknamed "the lunatics." Originally commenced about 1765, it included among its members Baskerville, Boulton, Watt, Priestley, Thomas Day, Samuel Galton, R.L. Edgeworth, Dr. Withering, Dr. Small, Dr. Darwin, Wedgwood, Keir, and indeed almost every man of intellectual note of the time. It died down as death took the leaders, but it may be said to have left traces in many learned societies of later date.
Luncheon Bars.—The honour of introducing the modern style of luncheon bar must be awarded to the landlord of the Acorn, in Temple Street, who, having seen something of the kind in one of the Channel Islands, imported the notion to Birmingham. The lumber rooms and stables at back of his house were cleared and fitted up as smoke rooms, and bread and cheese, and beer, &c., dealt out over the counter. Here it was that Mr. Hillman took his degree as popular waiter, and from the Acorn also he took a wife to help him start "The Stores," in Paradise Street. Mr. Thomas Hanson was not long behind Hillman before he opened up "The Corner Stores," in Union Passage, following that with the "St. James" in New Street, and several others in various parts of the town. The "Bars" are now an "institution" that has become absolutely indispensable, even for the class who prefer the semi-privacy of the "Restaurants," as the proprietors of the more select Bars like to call their establishments.
Magistrates.—By direction of the Queen's Council, in 1569, all magistrates had to send up "bonds" that they would subscribe to the then recently passed Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayers and Services in the Church, and the Administration of the Sacraments. The local name of Middlemore appears among the few in this county who objected to do so, and most likely his descendants would do the same. The first twenty-five of our borough magistrates were appointed about nine weeks after the date of the Charter of Incorporation, 1839. In 1841, 1849, 1856, and 1859, other gentlemen were placed on the roll, and in April, 1880, ten more names were added to the list, having been sent up to the Lord Chancellor a few days before he vacated office, by some knowing gentlemen who had conceived a notion that the Conservative element was hardly strong enough among the occupants of the Bench. There are now 52, in addition to the Stipendiary Magistrate and the Recorder, and as politics must enter into every matter connected with public life in Birmingham, we record the interesting fact that 31 of these gentlemen are Liberals and 21 Conservatives. Mr. T.C.S. Kynnersley first acted as Stipendiary, April 19, 1856.
Magazines.—See "[Newspapers and Periodicals]."
Manor House.—How few of the thousands who pass Smithfield every day know that they are treading upon ground where once the Barons of Birmingham kept house in feudal grandeur. Whether the ancient Castle, destroyed in the time of Stephen, pre-occupied the site of the Manor House (or, as it was of late years called—the Moat House), is more than antiquarians have yet found out, any more than they can tell us when the latter building was erected, or when it was demolished. Hutton says: "The first certain account we meet of the moat (which surrounded the island on which the erections were built) is in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de Bermingham, then lord of the fee, had a castle here, and lived in splendour. All the succeeding lords resided upon the same island till their cruel expulsion by John, Duke of Northumberland, in 1537. The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of time. Upon the spot, about fifty years ago [1730], rose a house in the modern style, occupied by a manufacturer (Thomas Francis); in one of the outbuildings is shown the apartment where the ancient lords kept their court leet. The trench being filled with water has nearly the same appearance now as perhaps a thousand years ago; but not altogether the same use. It then served to protect its master, but now to turn a thread mill." Moat Lane and Mill Lane are the only names by which the memory of the old house is now retained. The thread mill spoken of by Hutton gave place to a brass or iron foundry, and the property being purchased by the Commissioners, the whole was cleared off the ground in 1815 or 1816, the sale of the building materials, &c., taking place July 5, 1815. Among the "lots" sold, the Moat House and offices adjoining realised £290; the large gates at the entrance with the brick pillars, £16; the bridge, £11; the timber trees, £25; a fire engine with carriage, &c., £6 15s. (possibly some sort of steam engine, then called fire engines); the total produce, including counting-house, warehouse, casting, tinning, burnishing, blacking, and blacksmiths' shops, a horse mill, scouring mill, and a quantity of wood sheds and palisading, amounted to nearly £1,150. The prosaic minds of the Commissioners evidently did not lead them to value "the apartments where the ancient lords kept their court," or it had been turned into a scouring or tinning shop, for no mention was made of it in the catalogue of sale, and as the old Castle disappeared, so did the Manor House, leaving not a stone behind. Mr. William Hamper took a sketch of the old house, in May, 1814, and he then wrote of the oldest part of the building, that it was "half-timbered," and seemingly of about Henry VIII.'s time, or perhaps a little later, but some of the timbers had evidently been used in a former building (probably the old Manorial residence) as the old mortices were to be seen in several of the beams and uprights. The house itself was cleared away in May, 1816, and the last of the outbuildings in the following month. So perfect was the clearance, that not even any of the foundations have been turned up during the alterations lately effected in Smithfield Market. In 1746, the "manorial rights" were purchased by Thomas Archer, of Umberslade, from whose descendants they were acquired by the Commissioners, in 1812, under an Act of Parliament obtained for the purpose, the price given for the Manor House, meat, and ground, being £5,672, in addition to £12,500, for "market tolls," &c.
Manufactures.—For a few notes respecting the manufactures carried on in Birmingham, see "[Trades]."