Description:This Plan of Birmingham, was surveyed by Thomas Hanson and sculpted (engraved) by J.Roe in 1778. It shows the canal from Wolverhampton and the South Staffordshire coalfields that was completed in 1769. This map is the last detailed survey to be published for fifty years. Not only were new estates springing up all around the town but cherry orchards had vanished under streets and houses in the town centre and even some of the gardens were being infilled with homes and workshops.
Plan of Birmingham Thomas Hanson 1778 MAL/14004
The following advertisement first appeared in Aris's Birmingham Gazette on October 5, 1778
This Day is Published, (By PEARSON and ROLLASON, Printers of this Paper; and may be had of the Booksellers within the Circuit of it; and of their Newsmen,) The PLAN of BIRMINGHAM. Price 7s. 6d. PLAIN and 10s. 6d. COLOURED.
The map, ‘survey’d by Thomas Hanson’ and ‘scu[lpted]’ (engraved) by J. Roe was ‘Published according to Act of Parliament.’
Thomas Hanson, land surveyor, of 5, Bath Row died at his home on 22 September, 1796, aged 62, his burial at Edgbaston parish church is marked by a memorial tablet on the outside of the South wall.
The map is aligned with north [more accurately 20 east of north) at the top of the map which covers an area 2.37 kilometres by 1.82 kilometres centred on the west side of High Street between Bull Street and Union Street.
At 7s 6d for an uncoloured copy, this map was a luxury item costing half of the weekly wage of a skilled man, i.e. one of Boulton & Watt’s engine erectors. This was to be the last map printed for 50 years to show sufficient detail to identify individual building plots and the first map to show principal buildings, such as the churches and chapels, in plan view. A careful comparison with Bradford’s 1750 map shows that many of the ornamental gardens and orchards, even in the high town, were replaced with outbuildings as gardens were infilled with workshops or back housing.
At the west end of Colmore Row, Bewdley Street was now called Ann Street, after Ann Colmore, or Mount Pleasant. At the east end of Temple Row where the road narrowed to Temple Alley a grand meeting place for social events was built in 1772. The Hotel, with assembly rooms, was financed on the tontine principle, i.e. each shareholder owned an equal share. The last surviving shareholder inherited all.
In 1769 the cattle or ‘Beast Market’ had moved from the area by St Martin’s church to the south end of Dale End where the road widened. London ‘Prentice Street (abbreviation for apprentice) was the new name given to Westley Row.
The cherry orchard and gardens on the corner of New Street and Pinfold Street had vanished under the extension of Temple Street and of Queen Street, on Inge land, and a new theatre or play house, opened in 1774, stood in New Street.
The map incorrectly shows Inge Street converging on Thorp street and meeting Hurst Street opposite Ladywell Walk
Beyond the river Rea, in Deritend and Bordesley, Henry Bradford had been trying to develop his land since 1767. He initially offered land for free but had no takers. In 1771 his offer of land in Bordesley at 3/4d per square yard, half the price of land on the Colmore’s Newhall estate, succeeded and development began along a new grid of streets.
In 1766, two years after the death of Thomas Sherlock, his successor, Sir Thomas Gooch obtained a private Act of Parliament to enable him to build on his land. His timing was either lucky or prescient as two years later an Act of Parliament authorised the building of the Birmingham canal which would link Birmingham with the Black Country coalfields, with Wolverhampton and to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal at Aldersley. When the canal reached Birmingham in 1769 it terminated on Gooch land opposite the west end of Paradise Row. Gooch laid out a network of streets between Pinfold Street and a new street, Suffolk Street and on the opposite side of Suffolk Street. By 1780, 139 building plots had been leased. At the new canal terminus an octagonal gatehouse, shown on the map, dominated the view down Paradise Row. Iron foundries were established near to the canal wharves.
In 1772 a second branch of the canal was completed which crossed under the road from Dudley (later Summer Lane) to a terminus just short of Newhall Street on Colmore land. The estate had grown significantly with a gridiron street pattern laid out to and beyond the new chapel, part paid for by the Colmore family. St Paul’s, under construction when the map was surveyed was consecrated in the following year. Although housing had spread as far as Lionel Street on the east of the estate progress was impeded on the west side by the Colmore’s decayed Jacobean mansion, Newhall, occupied since before 1777 by Matthew Boulton as a warehouse, which blocked Newhall Street. To the east of the estate a small area between Snow Hill and Livery Street was developed by Benjamin Brettell in 1766 into a new street not labelled on this map, the name of which became corrupted to Brittle Street.
In the Weaman estate, north-west of Steelhouse Lane the site for a new chapel, St Mary’s, had been established in 1772 by Act of Parliament. Building plots had been sold to developers in the 1760s but from the following decade all plots were leased. From 1770 trade directories show workers in the gun trade settled in the Weaman estate in what was to become Birmingham’s Gun Quarter. On Summer Lane, beyond the plot occupied by the Salutation Inn and bowling greens, the General Hospital, first proposed in 1765 by Dr John Ash, was finally under construction.
On the north side of Summer Lane Hospital Street is incorrectly shown too close to Hampton Street.
On Colmore land, between Aston Street and Coleshill Street, many of the building plots had been developed and new, as yet undeveloped, streets reached out towards Duke Street. Beyond it Woodcock Street, had been leased by the Holtes of Aston Hall, in 1744, for clay extraction but could not yet be built upon.
On Jennens land, between Coleshill Street and Duddeston Row most of the building plots had been developed and a new area, north of the orchards on Duddeston Row included Newmarket Street, Hicks Square, Nova Scotia Street, Doe Street and Grosvenor Street. The Jennens family’s litigation over inheritance formed the model for the ‘Jarndyce’ family in Charles Dickens Bleak House.
A text box in the top left hand corner of the map is principally copied from that of Samuel Bradford’s Plan of Birmingham 1750 but adds (bold text) information on the current population and housing, changes to the Fairs, the two new chapels, the two theatres and the Birmingham Canal.
BIRMINGHAM is a Market Town situated in the North West part of the County of WARWICK 52o.33’ North Latitude, distant from London 88 computed and 116 measured miles, the present number of Houses are 7200 and Inhabitants 42550
This Town has been suppos’d to derive its Name from one Birming whose dwelling house formerly stood here; the termination Ham in the Saxon Language signifies home or dwelling place. In the Reign of Ed: the Confessor it was the Freehold of one Ulwine. And in that of William the Conqueror was in possession of William Fitz Anculf who then resided at Dudley Castle. Hen:II by a Grant allowed them to hold a Market every Thursday in the Year. in the 35th . of Hen:III. A Charter was granted for two Fairs to be held annually. one to be held on the Eve of Holy Thursday, & the other on the Eve of St. John the Baptiste, but these Fairs are now held on Thursday in the Whitsun week, and the other on Michaelmas day.
King Edwd. 6th. In the 5th. Year of his Reign erected a Free Grammar School for Boys, which is little inferior to any School in England as to its Revenues.
St. Philip’s Church was erected in the Reign of King George I. who gave 600 L. towards finishing it, St. Bartholomew’s Chappel was lately built and consecrated in the Year 1750.
This Town tho’ very large and populous had only two Churches, and two Chappels.viz. St.Martin’s and St. Philip’s Churches. , St. Bartholomew’s Chappel belonging to St.Martin’s Parish and. St.John’s Chappel in Deretend belonging to the Parish of Aston, but in the Year 1773, an Act was obtained to erect two more Chappels, one to be called . St.Mary’s, and the other. St.Paul’s, the former of which was built and consecrated in the Year 1774. there are also Meeting houses for dissenters of almost all denominations, A Charity School for Boys and Girls, a large handsome Workhouse, and two Theatres.
This place has been for a long series of Years increasing in its Buildings and is superior to most Towns in the Kingdom for its Elegance and regularity as well as number and wealth of the Inhabitants, its Popularity is owing chiefly to the Industry of the People, who have for many Years carried on an extensive Trade in Iron and other Wares, especially in the Toy business which has gained the place a name and great esteem all over the World.
In the Year 1768 an Act was obtained to make a Navigable Cut or Canal from this Town to the Collieries and from thence to join the Wolverhampton Canal at Autherley which Canal was begun in 1768 & completed in 1772