ERDINGTON - St Barnabas

Built 1819-20. Consecrated 1824.

Parts of parish taken to form All Saints, Gravelly Hill (1929) and St Mary, Pype Hayes (1930)

Sutton Coldfield, Curdworth, Castle Bromwich, Ashted, Handsworth

ERDINGTON is an ancient hamlet, on the high road from Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield in Aston parish and union, Hemlingford hundred, Birmingham county court district and division, county of Warwick. The church St. Barnabas was erected in 1819-20 by the Commissioners appointed for building churches, at a cost of £6,000, £1,000 of which was raised by subscriptions of the inhabitants. The register dates from the year 1820. The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £80 per annum out of the tithes of the hamlet, with residence, in the gift of the vicar of Aston and field by the Rev. Hyla Holden Rose, M.A., of Clare College, Cambridge. The school-rooms were built in 1822: the land, including the churchyard, the site of schools, and parsonage-house, was the gift of Earl Howe, the Rev. G. Peake, and the Rev. J. H. Harrison. In 1850 a Roman Catholic chapel was erected here, at a cost exceeding £10,000. The Roman Catholic College, dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious building, erected in 1837-8 and affords accommodation for 200 students. There is also a suite of apartments for the bishop, a handsome chapel, and a museum containing some ancient and curious relics. The Independent meeting-house is a neat building, with commodious schoolrooms attached. The Orphan Asylum was erected by Josiah Mason, Esq. (by whom it is supported), for 50 girls, who are clothed and educated for domestic servant; adjoining the asylum are almshouses for 20 women, furnished with firing and lighting, at the sole expense of J. Mason, Esq. : they were built in 1860 : a new asylum is being built by the same gentleman to accommodate 250 boys and girls, who are to be selected irrespective of country or creed. Here is the Aston Union Workhouse. Erdington Hall was a mansion of very early date.. some remains may still be traced near the present edifice. A magistrates’ meeting is held every alternate Wednesday. -Bracebridge, Esq., is lord of the manor. The principal landowners are - Bracebridge, Esq., and Josiah Mason Esq. The soil is a light loam ; subsoil. Gravel. The chief crops are. turnips and wheat. The population in 1861 was 3,906.

Parish Clerk Henry Jeffs.

POST & MONEY ORDER OFFICE & Post Office Savings Bank & Government Annuity & Insurance Office. — Joseph Holyoak, subpostmaster. Letters(via Birmingham) are delivered at 7 a.m. & 3 p.m.; dispatched at 10.45 a.m. & 7.53 p. m

Workhouse, Rev. G. W. Robinson, chaplain; Enoch Pearson, clerk to guardians. Edward Spooner Machin medical officer; William Moon Nuth, master; Mrs Harriett Nuth, matron; Miss Caroline Lawes, schoolmistress; John Lumby, relieving officer

Railway Stations.—Erdington, Thomas Baldry, station master; Gravelly Hill, James Bradford, station master

PUBLIC OFFICERS:

Registrar of Births & Deaths, George Hill

Assessors of Taxes Isaac Smith & William Bach

SCHOOLS:

British (boys & girls) , Miss Mary Ann Bullock, mistress

National, Robert Milnes master; Mrs. Milnes mistress; Miss Mary Ann Twist, infants' mistress

Oscott College (Roman Catholic), Very Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, D.D. president; Mr. Charles Knight, vice-president.