It’s that time of year for reflection when we bring you an account of the new additions to our printed resource collections. We have several: the Birmingham Collection which chronicles the culture and history of the city; the Black & South Asian History Collection which records the histories of Britain’s Black and South Asian communities; our Genealogy Collection for those investigating family history; and the British Topography Collection looking at the histories of towns and cities and their surrounding landscapes.
Additions come to us either as donations made by you, our patrons or as materials purchased from the annual library book fund.
Each week we promote a new title on our socials, so why not check out @TheIronRoom #SundayShowcase
Hold tight … here we go!
A selection of new additions to the Birmingham/Local Studies Collection in 2023
Pupils from the Royal School for Deaf Children performing highland dancing, 1924 – 1925[Ref. No. MS 1060/54]
To mark this year’s Disability History Month, we thought we’d highlight material from our collections which can be used to research the history of disability and disabled people in Birmingham. We’re using the term disability to cover physical and sensory disabilities (including blindness and deafness) as well as learning difficulties and mental health conditions. In the past these were grouped together and this is reflected in the records. If you want to skip to the source guides, see the links towards the end of this post.
Joseph Hodgson (1788–1869) was a Quaker and the son of a Birmingham merchant. He was born in Cumberland but spent his early years in Birmingham, attending King Edward VI’s Grammar School and then later as apprentice to George Freer, the Birmingham General Hospital surgeon. He moved to London in 1811 and completed his training in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He returned to Birmingham in 1818 and was elected Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital.
In the autumn of 1823, he started a movement to establish an Eye Infirmary in Birmingham. It was successful and the charity was opened for the reception of patients on the 13th of April 1824. Birmingham Archives and Collections holds the archives for this hospital. The oldest volume in the collection (HC/EY/1/1/2/1) predates the opening of the Eye Infirmary and starts with the period where the founder and other like-minded colleagues were finalising funds and plans for the infirmary; it contains information about the opening, first patients and developing the system of works.
Richard Middlemore and 19th Century Eye Medicine
Richard Middlemore, Image Credit: British Journal of Ophthalmology, February 1920
Hodgson acted as sole Surgeon until May 1828, when at his request Richard Middlemore (1804-1891) was elected as his colleague. Richard was part of a wealthy Birmingham family who had land in Northfield. He was uncle to John Middlemore (1844-1924) who would become MP for Birmingham North in 1899 and founded the Middlemore Children’s Emigrations homes. Unlike his brothers, Richard chose not to enter the family saddle and leather business. Instead, he apprenticed to a surgeon in Lichfield and then trained in medicine at St. Bartholomew’s, London before returning to work in Birmingham. Throughout his life he specialised in ophthalmology and was considered to be the chief authority in England at this time. He published lectures and reports including a comprehensive two volume work “A Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye and its Appendages” (1835). In later life he supported national prizes and post-graduate lectures in ophthalmology as well as contributing to the establishment and maintenance of the Birmingham Asylum for the Blind.
The need for a larger premises
In 1853-4, the Eye Infirmary moved to premises with room for 15 beds in Steelhouse Lane and changed its name to ‘The Birmingham and Midland Eye Institution’. It was renamed in 1862 as the ‘Birmingham & Midland Eye Hospital’ and relocated again to Temple Row in the premises of Dee’s Royal Hotel, which had been purchased for £1,900 in 1862 and adapted at a cost of £8,217 for the reception of 45 patients. These premises proving still inadequate, a new Hospital was designed.
Front cover of the 1900 Annual Report for the Birmingham Eye Hospital showing the 1884 Church Street building. Reference Number L 46.314
The entirely new Hospital was erected in 1884 in Church Street, with frontages to Edmund Street and Barwick Street, at a cost including fittings of about £20,000, and suitable for 70 patients. The Hospital was opened on Thursday 24 July 1884 by Lady Leigh. The building, designed by Payne & Talbot in the Franco-Italian style, is four storeys high, with ornamental dormers above the cornice, a spacious rusticated portico, a lofty gable, and slightly projecting towers. The Hospital buildings in Church Street were extended in 1895, by the erection of a new wing on a site acquired for that purpose in 1884; this addition includes children’s wards, day room, bath room, and a nurses room. Discussions about this are documented in the committee minutes of the time.
20th Century developments
Cataract Ward, Image from the 1913 Annual Report, L 46.314
Over the next 100 years the hospital continued to develop its scope for treatment with a variety of advances in technology and specialised clinics and as a training centre. During the First World War the hospital offered the War Office up to 40 beds for the use of military personnel. In October 1914 the hospital authorities stated that they would be willing to treat Belgian refugees suffering from disease or injury to the eye, and two months later a house in Sparkbrook which had been donated to the hospital was loaned for use as a home for the Belgian refugees. In 1940 the Hospital closed and patients were evacuated to Burcot Grange and to Blackwell Convalescent Home; the Hospital reopened in 1944, and the records indicate that Burcot Grange was operational between 1924-1958.
A new home for the hospital and for the archives
X-Ray Dept. from the 1939 Annual Report L 46.314
The hospital was finally relocated to City Hospital, Dudley Road and part-integrated into that hospital’s management structure in 1996. From 1994 it has been known as Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre. The iconic old hospital building was eventually refurbished as a luxury hotel, still carrying the bold plaque on the corner of the building celebrating the legacy of it as a key part of the history of Birmingham Medicine. The archive of the Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital was deposited with us in the 1990s during this move and is available for historical research. It contains over 200 items ranging from committee minutes, staffing and financial records to statistics and case records.
The full catalogue can be found online here. Items under 100 years old containing personal or medical information will be restricted for general use to protect personal information.
Further items including a full run of reports can be found in our Local Studies Collections at L46.314.
After several months sorting and listing the material gathered over the years by Bournville Amnesty International members, it seemed timely for some of today’s members of Bournville Amnesty to look through their and their predecessors’ historic activity and actions in support of the unforgivably oppressed and unjustly abused people around the world.
The material spans the period from the formation of the Bournville group of Amnesty International to the 2020s. These are all paper archives; yet to come, is several years of digital material.
A tree is planted in memory of Agnes Finnegan (1905-1995) lifelong peacemaker and member of South-West Birmingham Women’s Peace Group while members of Amnesty International West Midlands planted a tree to recognise the plight of refugees, 22nd November 1997. [Ref. No. MS 2184 (2022/077) Box 1/5 Item 4]
Eight members visited Archives & Collections on 4th September 2023. None had been archives users; few had any idea of the quantity, range or excellence of the material in the archives held in the Library of Birmingham. Excitement grew with advance information about the controlled atmosphere in the special store which we were invited to penetrate.
As always, it’s best if the account draws on their own words using the views they shared after the visit. About the archives and that concept of conservation and preservation for future access: “What I would say impressed me the most is the opportunity for a private organization to have its archive protected and safeguarded in the “treasure tower” on top of the library. It’s a wonderful representation of public history, where history is really for and by individuals and society according to their own characteristics and needs.” (Claudia)
There are always those records that you’ve known have existed for a long time, but you’re not entirely sure what they are. For me, these are the Licensing Justices plans which are found amongst the licensing records of the Petty Sessions. Sometimes, the only way to learn is by doing, so I set about investigating.
First of all, let’s settle the important issue…is it licence or license?! Strictly speaking, licence is the noun, and license is the verb, although the American use of the word has license as a noun and a verb. Now that’s settled, let’s look at the records.
In the Petty Sessions records are a series of Licensing Justices Plans arranged alphabetically by name of premises. They are building plans, so why are they with the licensing records? We’ll look at that shortly.
We don’t have a separate series of registers, as such, for the Licensing Justices, but we do have minute books. The earliest minute books are draft minutes which start in 1872, and the earliest ones are very difficult to read. They record very little information beyond names, the amount of rent paid, whether this includes rates, and if they live on the premises. They’re not indexed and don’t record the name of the premises. The more recent books do record more detail.
Entries from the earliest Draft Licensing Committee Minute Book [PS B/3/1/2/1]
Did you know that in central Birmingham there is a network of tunnels 30 metres beneath the surface? They were built during the 1950s for the Post Office to route their telephone cables and designated ‘Birmingham Anchor Emergency Telephone Trunk Exchange’.
However, the tunnels also had an alternative use: they were also designed to be used to house the regional seat of government and maintain telecommunications in the event of a nuclear strike against this country.
Construction of the tunnels began in 1953 and they opened in 1957. Their code name was ‘Anchor’ after the hallmark used for jewellery in Birmingham. You can see the extent of the network in the Ordnance Survey map below from 1954:
Ordnance Survey map SP 065872 from 1954
The tunnels were an official secret for many years. The tunnel system housed the telecommunication equipment, as well as generators and equipment to provide power, fresh air, and water, which could keep the facility operational for several months. During construction the public were told that Birmingham was to have an underground railway system like London, but this had been abandoned due to costs.
Located in Telephone House, the Exchange was in the upper-most level and on the lower levels were a canteen and a mess room, which contained pool tables. The facility also had its own electricity sub-station, positive air pressure to keep out fallout and a well to provide water for cooling and drinking. The Post Office tower (BT Tower) was later constructed in nearby Lionel Street which served as a Microwave telecommunications link.
The new Automatic Central Telephone Exchange, telephone House, 18/3/1938 [Ref. WPS/Newhall Street/48]
The Anchor Exchange opened on 9th November 1957. The main entrance was via a lift at the rear of Telephone House; a second entrance was via a staircase in Newhall Street. At the bottom of the lift there was a heavy blast proof door weighing about two tonnes, which could be used to seal the entrance if needed. Many of the tunnels also had airtight doors to protect against fallout. The main tunnel was approximately the same diameter as the London Underground tunnel, and ran from Anchor to Hill Street. From there the tunnel continued under New Street Station and on to the exchange in Essex Street.
The complex consisted of two main tunnel chambers for the telephone equipment, smaller chambers for office accommodation, interconnecting tunnels and small tunnels for the outgoing telephone lines. Seven vertical shafts were constructed and the main access was via lift shafts located in buildings in Newhall Street, Lionel Street and Church Street.
The Cable Chamber under Telephone House, New Telephone Exchange, 8th January 1937 [Ref. WPS/Newhall St/46]
The tunnels were designed to withstand a Hiroshima sized atomic bomb which would destroy the city above. Due to advances in weaponry such as bomb yields, the tunnel complex was already becoming obsolete by the time it was completed. The only time Anchor was put on standby was during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Even so, the tunnels remained an important part of the communications network and are still in use as cable runs. In recent years the rising water table in Birmingham means that continuous pumping is required to prevent the tunnels flooding, limiting access due to safety concerns.
The tunnels were accessible to the public in more recent times as part of the Hidden Spaces project. You can see a gallery of photos from the present day as well as archive photos of the construction of the tunnels in the Birmingham Mail’s gallery from the project.
Further reading:
Campbell, Duncan, War Plan UK: The Truth about Civil Defence in Britain, Burnett Books, 1982.
Carvell, Steve, Twentieth Century Defences in Warwickshire, Tempus Publishing Ltd., 2007.
As it’s South Asian Heritage Month 18 July-17 August, we thought it an opportune time to highlight an individual from Birmingham’s South Asian communities who blazed a trail for cultural and ethnic representation in politics and the wider society. One such figure was Dr Dhani Ram Prem (1904-1979).
Poster showing a portrait photograph of Dhani Prem, Birmingham Black History Profiles, produced somewhere between 2008 – 2012by Archives & Heritage (now Archives & Collections) Birmingham City Council
Who was the man?
Before Birmingham
It could be argued with some validation that Prem lived a varied and full life wherever he set up home. He was born in Aligarh, India in 1904. In a revealing article in the Birmingham Post on 22 October 1974 to mark a dinner held in Prem’s honour at the Grand Hotel in Birmingham, Wendy Hughes records his early life which was just as action packed as his time spent in Birmingham. Orphaned before the age of ten, he ran away from home to live in a library. The library inspired him to read the works of Mahatma Gandhi amongst others and he subsequently went on to meet Gandhi. His time in the library also prompted Prem to take up public speaking. He was arrested for sedition at a meeting of over 80,000 people and this was at the ripe old age of 14! His sentence was 12 months. When he started to give speeches to the other inmates on the call for Indian independence, he was removed from the prison.
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