Also known as Gibb Heath, Hockley, Soho, Winson Green
OS Grid Reference: 52°29'N 1°55'W
Name Origin: Hockley: Middle English HokeloweHucca's mound or hill.
In the 16th century, two small groups of cottages at Winson Green and Hockley
constituted the “foreign” of the village of Birmingham. Birmingham Heath was
wasteland, with a small lake known as Hockley Pool.
In 1764, Matthew Boulton built his Soho Manufactory on the site a small mill built
some years earlier for the manufacture of toys. This was one of several mills along
the course of the Hockley Brook, which marked the boundary between Birmingham and
its then independent neighbours, Aston
and Handsworth. The mill stood where Factory Road crossed the brook, with a pool
to the north. Boulton chose the site as it provided a large open space close to
a source of water power. He later experimented with steam power; and, following
his partnership with James Watt, the design of steam engines became a significant
part of the business. The manufactory concentrated on the production of a wide
range of finished metal articles, including coins, whilst the components for
Watt's steam engines were made at the Soho Foundry in nearby Smethwick.
Soho Manufactory closed after the death of James Watt the younger in 1848, and
was demolished some 15 years later. The Great Hockley Pool, by then renamed
Soho Pool, was drained, and its site used for railway sidings. The minting of coins
continued in Soho; Boulton's steam presses were brought by Ralph Heaton and Son
in 1850, and installed at their workshops in Bath Street. The business moved
in 1860 to a site in Icknield Street, on the fringe of the jewellery quarter,
becoming the Birmingham Mint.
The invention of electro-plating in 1839 led to a great increase in the
jewellery trade in the 1840s. Some fine gold and silver articles were produced,
but the bulk was plated jewellery and toys: “Brummagem” (from Bromachem, an
old version of Birmingham) became a byword for
cheap and tawdry goods. Although a number of large factories were built, much
of the work was done in small workshops: often a single sub-let room in
residential accomodation. The use of outworkers was common in the trade, and
remained so long after it had died out elsewhere.
James Brindley's Birmingham Canal opened in 1772, and a number of factories
appeared along its banks, the largest being in Smethwick. In the 1820s, Thomas
Telford, engaged to improve the canal, thought it “little better than a
crooked ditch”. He cut a new canal, keeping the bends of the old as branches.
Birmingham Heath was enclosed by an act of Parliament in 1798.
The Street CommissionersMap of 1810
showed Winson Green Road, Lodge Road and Bacchus Road, but no prominent buildings
apart from the Park Glasshouse and two large houses called Nineveh (the residence of
William Murdoch) and Bellefield. The only hamlet as such was
Winson Green, at the junction of the Winson Green Road and the future
Wellington Street. There were also a few houses along the top end of Lodge Road.
The residential development of Winson Green and Hockley began about the time
that Birmingham was granted its Charter as a Municipal Borough in 1838. The
houses were mostly back-to-back two-up-two-down dwellings, and later terraces of
through houses. The inhabitants were the impoverished labourers and their families,
the more well-to-do preferring the nearby urban districts, such as Handsworth
(then in Staffordshire, and not incorporated into the city until 1911).
Joseph Chamberlain's improvement scheme of 1875/6 introduced short terraces at
right angles to the streets. Sanitation was largely by means of the pan closet system,
until the city's sewerage works on the river Tame came into operation in the
early 20th century.
All Saint's Church was consecrated in 1838, a red-brick gothic edifice later to be
sandwiched between the Great Western main line, and Hockley goods yard. A number
of missions and churches were built within the Parish boundaries, and as the
population rose some were in time provided with parishes created out of All Saints:
St Cuthbert's in 1872; St Chrysostom's in 1890; and St Peter's was formed out of
All Saints and St Mark's in 1902.
The area was the site of several public institutions.
Winson Green Gaol was brought into
use in 1849, and extended in the mid 1850s. The first governer was dismissed after complaints
of lack of discipline within the prison. His replacement was imprisoned after a Home
Office Commission confirmed complaints of brutality.
The Lunatic Asylum, next door to the Gaol (and with the same architect, Daniel Hill)
was opened shortly after the prison, and was continually extended between 1851 and 1878.
The Fever Hospital, opened in 1874, later became All Saint's Hospital.
The Union Workhouse was built between 1850 and 1852, replacing the original buildings
near the city centre. An infirmary was added in 1889, and from this developed Dudley
Road Hospital.
The area was served by two railway companies: the Stour Valley line of the LNWR opened
in 1852, and the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley railway (part of GWR) in 1854. This
coincided with the opening of stations in the city centre, thus allowing suburban rail
travel, and encouraging the opening of local stations. A cable-car system connecting Colmore
Row (in the City Centre) to Hockley was opened in 1888, and extended to New Inns in
Handsworth in 1889. This continued in use until replaced by electric trams in 1911.
Showell's “Dictionary of Birmingham” says
Bullbaiting was prohibited in 1773 by Order in Council, and an Act was passed in 1835,
to put a stop to all baiting of bulls, badgers, and bears. At Chapel Wake, 1798, some
law-defying reprobates started a bullbaiting on Snow Hill, but the Loyal Association of
Volunteers turned out, and with drums beating and colours flying soon put the rebels to
flight, pursuing them as far as Birmingham Heath, where the baiters got a beating, the
Loyals returning home in triumph with the bull as a trophy. The last time this ‘sport’
was indulged in in this neighbourhood appears to have been early in October, 1838, at Gib Heath,
better known now as Nineveh Road.
Maps:
1810 click for a map of the same area on a larger scale, rotated so North is at the top
1895 click for a map of a larger area on the same scale
1903 click for a map of the same area on a larger scale
In 1764, Matthew Boulton built his Soho Manufactory on the site a small mill built
some years earlier for the manufacture of toys. This was one of several mills along
the course of the Hockley Brook, which marked the boundary between Birmingham and
its then independent neighbours, Aston
and Handsworth. The mill stood where Factory Road crossed the brook, with a pool
to the north. Boulton chose the site as it provided a large open space close to
a source of water power. He later experimented with steam power; and, following
his partnership with James Watt, the design of steam engines became a significant
part of the business. The manufactory concentrated on the production of a wide
range of finished metal articles, including coins, whilst the components for
Watt's steam engines were made at the Soho Foundry in nearby Smethwick.
