Park

1857 21 1 13 Lease by Lord Calthorpe at a nominal rent. Aston Park and Hall 1864 43 0 0 Purchased for £26,000, of which £7,000 was raised by subscriptions. Aston Park and Hall 1873 6 2 8 Purchased for £4,750. Cannon Hill Park 1873 57 1 9 Gift by Miss Ryland. Highgate Park 1876 8 0 28 Land purchased for £8,000 and £7,000 expended in laying out. Summerfield Park 1876 12 0 20 Land purchased for £8,000
£3,857 expended in laying out. Burbury St. Recreation Ground 1877 4 1 3 Gift by Mr. William Middlemore. Small Heath Park 1879 41 3 34 Gift by Miss Ryland. Park St. Gardens 1880 4 1 35 }Disused burial grounds laid out at cost of £12,099. St. Mary’s Gardens 1882 2 2 0 221 3 12

In 1860 the Free Libraries Act was adopted, and the first branch library was opened in Constitution Hill, on the 3rd of April, 1861. The first Central Lending Library and Art Gallery were opened on the 6th Sept., 1865, on the occasion of the meeting of the British Association. (See for the subsequent history of the Free Libraries p. 69 et seq.)

In 1863 the Borough Cemetery at Witton was completed. (See p. 117.)

In 1874, a Fire Brigade was established, which now consists of thirty well-trained men, with six engines, and all suitable apparatus.

From the year 1851 to 1873 was a period of steady progress in our municipal affairs; but the mayoralty of the Right Hon. (then Mr.) Joseph Chamberlain, 1873-6, was signalised by the building of the Council House; the acquisition of the undertakings of the two Gas Companies of the Borough, as well as that of the Waterworks Company, and the authorisation of a great scheme of street improvement of which the formation of Corporation Street is the principal feature. Curiously enough, the acquisition of the gas supply of the Borough had a consequence, apparently as far removed as Tenterden steeple from the Goodwin Sands, viz., the provision of the present commodious Art Gallery (p. 123.) The explanation is, that under the Free Libraries Act, the Town Council had the power to appropriate the site for the purpose of an Art Gallery, but no power to raise money to erect the building otherwise than by the penny rate, which was then hardly sufficient for the annual cost of the Free Libraries. The Gas department of the Corporation requiring to build larger offices, the Council, at the request of the Free Libraries Committee, granted the land to the Gas Committee, on condition that they should build over their offices the new Art Gallery, which they have done at an estimated cost of £40,000. By this means a difficulty which seemed insuperable was overcome. In addition to this benefit to the town, the Gas Committee have earned for the Corporation a profit of more than £25,000 a year.

Thirty years of municipal activity, such as has been described, commencing with the Act of 1851, of course involved repeated applications to Parliament, and in 1882 the mass of legislation was found to be enormous, and a consolidation of twenty separate Acts was effected by the Birmingham (Corporation) Consolidation Act, 1883, which removed the limit of the Free Library rate, and enabled the Corporation to establish the Municipal School of Art (see p. xviii.), and to provide adequate funds for the maintenance of the Corporation Art Gallery.

Thus the same Corporation which, in 1839, had no revenue, nor means of obtaining any, and required to be assisted by the Government with a loan of £10,000 for police purposes, in the year 1885, levied rates for municipal purposes (exclusive of poor’s rate and the School Board rate) to the amount of £318,882, being 4s. 5d. in the pound on the annual value of the rateable property of the borough, and now borrows money readily at three-and-a-quarter per cent. Its revenue, and the income received from some of the Committees, sufficed to keep the operations of the Corporation in working order, and to pay the interest on £7,606,269—the aggregate amount of the liabilities on capital account on 31st December, 1885. With reference to this large amount of indebtedness it should be noted that £2,720,061 is the capitalized value at twenty-five years’ purchase of the annuities granted as the purchase moneys of the Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas Company, and the Water Works Company, and that £450,000 was paid in cash for the purchase of The Birmingham Gas Company, and also that £1,520,567 has been expended on the Improvement Scheme. This reduces the sum still due for the debts of the former governing bodies and all the public works executed by the Corporation since 1839, to £2,915,630, and there can be no doubt that the whole of the indebtedness is more than balanced by the value of the property belonging to the Corporation.

It remains to be noticed that the Corporation is the largest landowner in the Borough, owning more than 2,000 acres of land (including its share of the sewage farm) and is the largest employer of labour, employing upwards of 4,000 persons. Also that in July, 1884, Birmingham was made an assize town; whereupon the Town Council took into immediate consideration the necessity of building Courts for Assizes, Quarter Sessions and Petty Sessions, and in July, 1886, approved of plans for the purpose. The “New Law Courts” as they are termed, will be erected in Corporation Street.

Population.—In the year 1839 the population of the Borough was estimated at 180,000. The following is the result of each subsequent census, namely:—

YEAR.	HOUSES.	POPULATION.	INCREASE PER CENT.
1841	40,000	182,894	28·57
1851	48,894	232,841	27·30
1861	59,200	296,076	27·11
1871	74,416	343,787	16·10