Continuing on with our rambles, our walk takes us on to our fourth destination from Hanley Street into Cliveland Street. It's six-thirty in the morning on the 19th January 1881, the sun starts to rise, dawn of the day begins and we can see the bright sky above.
We enter Cliveland Street at the lower end, to the left is Northwest, the road slightly bends to the right towards Newtown Row and looking right is South west to Lower Loveday Street. Our first impression is that we are immediately drawn to a mixture of private dwellings and a larger number of commercial buildings that we see in front of us. This is not so unsurprising as the street is situated next to the Birmingham and Fazeley canal.
Factories That Back onto or close to the Canal.
Martineau F.E & Co - Hinge Manufacturers
Edward Cartwright - Malsters
Robert Evans & Son - Flour Mill (Millers)
Whitmore & Wright - Manufacturers in Brass & Steel
George Haynes - Gun Barrel Manufacturers
Thomas Bullock & Sons - Button Manufacturers
Colour coding of houses explained in Methodology
Cliveland Street Household Poverty Rating here
Joining the other early risers, Henry King, the coal dealer at Number 35, is closing his front door and walking the short distance to his yard. His workmen are already on site offloading the coal from the barge that arrived earlier. The early morning routine sounds are being greeted by the tap, tap tapping of the "knocker-uppers." They would walk the streets at a pre-arranged time acting as a manual alarm clock, their long sticks rapping against windows to rouse the sleeping workers. Typically this is a job done by working-class men but often in the poorer areas of the city, children who could be as young as seven or eight were often employed.
The morning is fresh and the air is cold, the Birmingham Daily Post reports yesterday's terrible gale force winds and the bad weather.
In the morning there was a cold wind blowing from the north-east. which drifted in every direction the snow which had slightly fallen a few hours before, In some places in the outskirts of the town the roads appeared perfectly clean, as though they had been carefully swept - whilst in others the snow drifted in little fleecy banks on the roadside. The wind was inexpressibly piercing, and blew with relentless fury, so furiously indeed, that walking was difficult, for the dust from the streets and footpaths was blown in blinding clouds into ones face. Foot passengers who were healthy and strong could scarcely withstand its force as it came sweeping along in every direction; the poor and weak went shivering in entries and corners or anywhere where shelter could be obtained.
James and Son's liquor vaults in Cliveland Street the wind hurled down a chimney to the personal injury of a gunmaker named Weekes who was passing by at the time (37)
The street gradually stirs to life, Henry hears the clanking of gates being opened and the machinery and the blast furnaces coming to life. Coal fires are being lit in the homes and the factories, the morning fresh air is being filled with smoke, pumping out of the chimneys. Your senses are overloaded with the smell and the taste of the air, the noise and It's not too long before the blue sky is quickly enveloped with the city smog.
We are confronted by the manifestations of Industrialisation that brought prosperity and wealth to some but to others, misery and a profound human cost caused by an unchecked housing development where ruthless, unscrupulous and shameless landlords took advantage.
Affordable housing underscores many of the problems faced by central Birmingham residents in the 1880's. The working-class population were dependent on living close to the factories in order to support their families, a large number of whom grappled with the challenges of poverty and overcrowding.
At No.33 , Henry Willow's has a staggering fifteen individuals under one roof. With five children, Henry shoulders much of the financial responsibility, his eldest son fourteen-year-old Peter, also has the burden to help support the family resting on his young shoulders. Despite this, Henry though still requires extra income from lodgers to supplement the household income.
The lodgers themselves are a group of five separate families who all must be facing their own individual problems. Some in seemingly better paid employment, such as sixty-year old gun-maker Hugh Bates and his wife Mary, a charwomen. When children are younger, they work to help their parents in being able to pay rent and food, this though comes to an end when they leave the nest. The loss of the extra money can make the rent of a house unaffordable and impossible to pay.
The passage further below on the Birmingham Dwellings Committee report explains families being evicted "bummed" by Landlords if they are late in payments of their rent. Similarly, at No.3 back of 41, Alfred Shaw faces a similar situation, with eleven people living in already cramped dwelling. The overcrowding highlights the harsh realities faced by a great number of residents.
The darkness of the daytime due to the fog - Tragedies of Life "Scenes in Slumland"
Fog was caused by the floating matter in the air, when you rise in the morning to see a lovely sky, within an hour after fires have been lit, brightness dimmed and the sky disappeared black fog descends turning into layer of thick yellowish-green smog
There is a stench from the gasworks at the bottom of Richard Street, and a pungent odour from the slimy canal. The Chimneys of the works dotted about give stinks and smoke and smut in abundance-I saw from Dartmouth Street in the middle of the day a dozen chimneys belching forth smoke as black as night, and other works send out an acid vapour that eats away the glass in the windows, ironwork of buildings, and even stone itself. It is at times so strong that it wellnigh strangles the people, who, when they wake after a nights sleep, find the taste of acid on their lips. The awful pollution of the air gives perpetual headache. (38)
Dr. Russell's experiments showed that the air in fog contained four times as much carbonic acid as ordinary air revealing the pollution and insidious acid-vapour that hangs in the atmosphere. The stench is not just of smoke but a combination of horse manure and of horses being slaughtered and boiled down in the 'Knackers Yard' but of the gas works and of the pollution poured into the canals that covers the area in smut. It is impossible for fresh air to enter the courts of the back-house's, and if it does it mixes with the polluted smog. This in addition to privies that have been built directly next to or very close to rear of the back-houses, where the smell also lingers in the air. Drains were left un-repaired, the court itself partly unpaved that leads to the accumulation of solid and liquid filth.
The left-side is No.33 house of Henry Willows and fifteen occupants that fronts onto Cliveland Street.
Looking closely at the photograph, The condition of the court can be seen. Walls whitewashed over dirt, small poorly fitted windows, and broken cobbles around the drain.
31-33 Cliveland Street Image provided by Birmingham History Forum link here
Inspector of Nuisances Mr T.H Dale had reported to Birmingham's Health office Dr. Alfred Hill in1882 and calculated there were 17,643 'nuisances and other matters' of which 2,341 were defective drains, 1,454 drains not efficiently trapped and 1,735 ashpits and privies that required repairing. (39)
Birmingham Town Council Investigates Poor Living Conditions
In response to growing concerns about the living conditions of artisans dwellings, the council appointed a committee to investigate and report their findings through a number of ongoing meetings. The Birmingham Post covered and reported on these meetings, the third meeting held on January 29, 1894, focussed on discussions regarding Duddeston and St. Mary's.
The meeting was attended by prominent figures, the Mayor Alderman Cook, Town Clerk Mr E.O Smith, Dr. Foster, Dr. Hill of the Health Department and Messrs Middlemore, Fallows, and Brinley.
During the proceedings, attention was drawn to the deplorable state of numerous houses, with rents ranging from 2s to 6s per week. It was common practice for landlords or agents to patch up the house with the minimum of repair. Despite obvious appalling conditions, residents were determined to live respectably.
When Dr. Hill applied pressure to landlords to improve their properties under the Public Health Act, landlords simply lime washed over the walls without cleaning or removing dirt or grime, which only caused damp from mounds of earth piled against the walls
Instances of landlords who evicted tenants who had not paid their rent on the second request, were "bummed" or when the rent was so low, they never bothered to make repairs and just left the house to deterioration.
Duddeston Ward housing conditions were described as poor, with dilapidated and filthy houses prevalent. St Mary's Ward faced similar challenges, with over 400 vacant houses out of a total of 5000, of which, the Corporation owned 709 small houses. The council wanted to clear the tenants that kept brothels or were noted as being of an odious character and replace them with a better class of people.
Dr. Hill explained that there were cases of ten people sleeping in one room, equating to 215 cubic feet of space. (6 cubic meters). Dr. Foster replied by suggesting that if that was the condition, then they should just move. It was pointed out that if it were not for the poverty and being poor, they would.
A case was brought to the committee of No.s 36 to 41, Cliveland Street of being unsatisfactory. In one house there were two adults and six children who all occupied one bedroom, which gave them 131 cubic feet only of air per person (3 cubic meter). The back yards were very narrow, with privies only 3 feet from the back door. Nos. 38 and 48 had two families living in each house
A suggestion was proffered that maybe the landlords would be willing to sell their properties as the Secretary of the Improvement Scheme, Mr Davis, pointed out that sometimes it was necessary to pull down houses before the tenants had left.
In my own poverty line methodology, 38.52 % of residents live in a grading of 'E' and 43.52% live in a 'D' . E being below the poverty line and the family only being able to afford a meal equivalent to a workhouse meal. Cliveland Street poverty-line ranking is 36th out of 101, that includes 15 uninhabited houses. A street with a high level of unoccupied houses suggests property rental is unaffordable for many.
Green Snow
Birmingham was characterised as "Blackest Birmingham" due to the soot from the chimneys but another factor affecting the health of the citizens who lived amongst the factories and the larger Industries, is the unique experience known as 'Green Snow'. Instead of white or black snow, residents would see green flakes falling from the sky and accumulating onto the windows and the walls. The green snow was a result of acid in the air, of which a contributing factor was caused by the effects of galvanising. (40)
Developed in the 1840's, galvanising is the process of using Zinc as a protective coating for iron and steel. This process was widely adopted across various Industries, including not only iron and steel factories but also all types of metal fabrication, roofing and household appliance manufacturing. These Industries incorporated galvanising and used this technique to enhance the appearance and protect the durability of their products. (41)
Factories often discharged waste directly into the canals, the acidic nature of galvanising would have contaminated the water and caused corrosion to the canal infrastructure, including embankments and the lock gates. In the map below, I have coloured in brown the factories on a short stretch of the Birmingham and Fazeley canal, to highlight just how many factories, manufacturers and foundries that were located directly next to the canal. You could only imagine how much pollution was being poured into the canal water.
Click on Map to Zoom in
In this ongoing exploration of my rambles blogs, my research takes me on a journey where I am encountering a diverse array of individuals. I enjoy delving further into their professions, working conditions and their daily struggles. Selecting individuals for my studies is quite straightforward with the majority prone to be working-class families. Much like society today, when confronted with instances of 'anti-social' behaviour, the tendency is to either; remove the problem altogether, turn a blind eye to it, or simply ignore and sweep it under the carpet, rather than address the underlying root causes that may be the contributing factors that cause such behaviour.
The articles and books of J. Cummings entitled "Scenes in Slumland" and T.J. Bass's "Tragedies of Life", as well as reading numerous letters that were sent to the Newspapers, consistently depict the grim facts of everyday life faced by the innocent victims of slum-life, and the suffering they endured. These are individuals at the bottom of society, of a society that offers no help and fails to provide suitable and comfortable homes or equal opportunities for them to escape from their dire living conditions. The polluted air resulting resulting from the smog emitted by chimneys and the waste from the galavanising process of the factories, takes a physical toll on the residents, prematurely ageing the men and women whose exhausted and pale faces reflect the harshness of their environment.
The death-rate in the slum streets is twice the rate of mortality of the entire city and the average population density was staggeringly high, 272 persons per acre compared to 41 for the city as a whole.
Malnourished children are forced into labour at a very young age, exposed to and experienced in the hardships of life before they even reach their teens. Is it any wonder that article after article reports of wanton behaviour, drunkenness and of petty crimes, reflecting the desperate circumstances faced by those living in the depths of poverty. I have yet to see any mention of schools, playgrounds or any green area for children to play in. There are plenty of public houses and beer retailers to encourage the working man to spend back their wages already earned that day. (42)
The following article "Innocent Martyrs" published in the Daily Gazette on March 18 1901
from the "Scenes in Slumland" series illustrates eloquently the extreme hardship faced by children, who endured long hours of work in exchange for a poultry amount of wage. Examples include a 12-year old boy working 67 hours a week, a 11-year old girl juggling school with the responsibilities of looking after a neighbours baby.
Scenes in Slumland. The Innocent Martyrs
Bad air. offensive smells, insufficient light, inadequate breathing-space—these are life evils and defects from which the slum-dwellers suffer. Look at the wan, drawn faces of the women, and the thin, haggard faces of the children ; notice the number of poor little funerals ; observe the men prematurely aged ; record the frequency of early collapse; get statistics of cases of fever caused by bad drainage and house poison; reckon up the number of mere infants with wasted limbs, weak vision. and sore bodies —and then you will begin to understand what life in the overcrowded slums means for one and all, the just and the unjust, the young and the old. Imagine what existence means in that disgusting court in Price Street (we invite the public go and see it for themselves, especially in wet weather)—where the houses are the poorest and grimiest, where the yards are the sloppiest. and where the "petrified kidneys" over which the people must walk in their thin and worn shoes, are calculated to hold the greatest amount of water between the interstices. Or imagine it in some of the stinking courts in Oxygen Street, or Cheapside, or in those houses whose backs open straight upon the odorous canal into whose green-black water, children can, and do, tumble with the utmost facility.
These poor, emaciated, hungry-eyed, unkempt children are a subject in themselves. They dwindle, peek, and pine in the unclean courts and wither away in the unfreshing air. We have seen babies of twelve months no bigger than wax dolls, lads of nine with legs scarcely thicker than a man's thumb , girls of ten with arms like laths. What is their lite in these overcrowded houses! Often they do not know what a bed is. When they do they share it with half-a-dozen others. Their food stale crusts and other odds and ends. Their clothes are rags and remnants. These poor little mites look at you with the dumb pathos of their big glistening eyes, more eloquent than any words they could utter.
The lads, and the girls, too, very often, must go to work early, and long before they reach their teens they are old in the experience of hardship. Kicks and blows and semi-starvation at home ; long hours of toilsome labour abroad. Is it marvellous that they take to bad ways- that lads become thieves, and that girls "go wrong," especially when exposed from the very first to the contaminating influences of vicious companions!
We select a few cases of these child-workers from our long list. There is a lad of twelve in Proctor Street who lives with seven others in a two-roomed house, and for some time has been thus regularly engaged—From 9 to 12 and from 2 to 4:30 he is at school; from 6 to 12 every night he is engaged at the monotonous and ill-paid task of " sticking pins" on Saturdays he spends nine-and-a-half hours (2:30 to 12) in a bowling alley. Think of it, 67 hours weekly of steady work for a lad of 12! This is not the worst. Another lad, only 11, begins work as an errand boy at 7 o'clock in the morning (he rises at 6 all the year round) and works until 9; then he goes to school until 12, and from 12 to 2 (no interval for a meal) continues running errands: at 2 he returns to school and remains until 4:30 and from 4:30 until 10 (and later on Saturdays) he runs errands again. A lad of 11, up 16 hours every day, and working the whole timeI Or, to take the case of a little girl. not quite 11. her two-roomed house lives 14 persons, members of her own family and lodgers. She regularly puts in 5½ hours at school, and is a well conducted and intelligent child. For 2½ hours every night she minds a neighbours' baby, and on Saturday is engaged at that drudgery from 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. She earns 4d. a week.
Now the point is this —these things cannot be stopped, butt when hard toil and long hours begin so early for the children they need to live under the healthiest possible condition, or death must soon claim them. They must have fresh air or die. They must have clean homes and proper breathing-space. And they must be removed from the haunts of depravity and vice, or the temptation will prove irresistible. They can be saved, and they should be saved; but the present system leaves them to perish. Oh, the respectable poor we have seen, who wish to Heaven, if only for the sake of their little ones, that they could get out of their present surroundings! If they could only find cheap houses, not too far from their work, where the wind blew and the sun shone—two blessings supposed to be free. but excluded most rigorously from half the walled in courts in Slum-Land. If, too, they could only find houses properly tiled, and where a landlord would not mind executing necessary repairs without putting up the rent. We saw a poor woman with bandaged and swollen face, with nerve-twitching eyes and mouth, who was the tenant of a house with gaps in the roof, and with a rain-spout so ingeniously contrived that half the water poured in at the window of the lower room. "Never without neuralgia, never without bad eyes, me and my husband," we were told. " It's the state of the house, but we dare not speak to the landlord. My husband has to be at his work at five in the morning and this is the handiest place we can get." The rent was 4s. 6d.
In the whole course of our rounds we have seldom found the city authorities moving on behalf of these oppressed people. We could take—say the chairman of the Health Committee or Dr. Alfred Hill—to a court with a very sounding name, where in the smallest possible area he shall find two rows of houses, the outhouses bang up against a door, a big rubbish heap (topped, when we last saw it, with rotten fish) in the opposite corner, a pool of stagnant water over the one (useless) drain, and a crowd of children playing with cockle-shells in the middle of it aIl But what is the use of complaining! Are we not the best-governed city in the world, and are not letters of complaint looked upon in certain official quarters as a rank impertinence, and forthwith pigeon-holed, and forgotten!
Once more the moral is—(it has been the moral of all these articles)—Rescue the deserving poor. Provide for them. They will work out their destiny upward if you give them proper conditions. They are working downward now. They ask for suitable homes, for pure air, for sober and honest neighbours. Why should they be denied!
Henry King - A life as a coal dealer
Structure of Coal Supply
There were two primary channels in the supply of coal, seaborne or inland divisions. Usually the large merchants controlled the trade of both, with the owners of the collieries, invariably holding an agreement with the coal mines as to what price the coal was to be supplied.
Smaller sized dealers purchased coal from the merchants by the barge or truck load, with a price set by the weigher of the coal via an official certificate given. Prices were controlled by a group of the largest merchants with the smaller merchants selling onto coal dealers. Coal dealers like Henry often sold either direct or via a combination of a greengrocery store or even hawked directly in the streets.
Seaborne trade, predominately dealt with 'steamcoal' imported from Newcastle and Wales, and was used for manufacturing purposes.
Angelsey Basin - (44)
Inland work primarily supplied coal for household use, but did include some steam-coal. The coal came by rail from the Midland Counties. The larger networks transferred the coal from a vessel into barges and hoppers, and is anchored in front of high buildings. Attached to the building facing the river are sturdy hydraulic cranes. Each crane is operated by a skilled worker stationed in a small office directly above, lifting and lowering large iron buckets or tanks.
Addlery Street - Coal Supply - (45)
The buckets are then lowered into the barges. A man positioned at the waterside simply tips the coal into the barge and taken onto a larger steam-ship.
Alternatively the railway collected the coal in pit tubs from the colliery and transported it to a loading wharf. At the canal side, the coal was transferred from the carriages of the train and poured into the waiting barges. Once fully laden the barge is controlled by a 'lighterman' who takes the load via the canal to its wharf destination.
On entering Birmingham, the canals get more and more hemmed in by the factories located on the canal side. On arrival to its destination, the barge is moored to the wharf, the coal is then unloaded by up to six men; two fillers, one screener, and three backers.
A plank of wood is laid between the barge and the wharf, a filler puts the larger lumps into a sack, while a second filler shovels the smaller coal into a sieve, held by a screener, who gives it a shake and deposits the coal into another sack. A backer then holds the sack upright and rests it on two "heaving sticks" placed on top of a weighing machine. The heaving sticks are made of two stout pieces of wood and handles, joined together by iron crossbars, and so forming a sort of hollow tray. Adjustments are calculated to allow for the weight of the sacks and the sticks. Once weighed the coal is picked up by two fillers onto the back of a third man who carries it to a waiting vehicle or cart. (43, 44)
The working day at the Wharf
Work at the wharf starts punctually at 6 o'clock. If any person found not present at that time could potentially loose their days pay. At 7:30 the men go to "Mug" for a fifteen minutes break. Breakfast is taken at 08:30 and a second mug at 11:30. The mornings work continues until 1pm, with a dinner break for one hour. Another mug at 4pm, finishing the days work at 5pm or later whether it is Summer or Winter. The men work six days per week but Saturdays are half day.
Carmen deliver the coal to the end user and paid for delivering and watering the horse and extra if the horse is well looked after. Sometimes a coal dealer employs the services of a 'Trolleyman', who hawk the coal through the streets.
The work of a coal man from the loading to the unloading, all the way to the end consumer, is dirty, filthy and exhausting. Language is coarse, but they eat well and indulge in frequent drinking, which is exploitatively taken advantage of. It is common for the men to receive subsistence allowances against future earnings. This is usually because the men could not afford the days breakfast or lunch due to spending their wages in the local pub, where they maintain 'tabs' with the publican.
Despite this, the men though are resilient and independent and supportive of each other within a tight-knit community and will always stand by each other. The combination of dust, the exhaustive and strenuous work, in the polluted acid air and smog leads to the men finishing the days work in the local bar exacerbating excessive drinking habits. (46)
Born in Randwick, Gloucestershire in 1839, Henry King's early life was characterised by humble beginnings. His father, John worked tirelessly as a handloom weaver to support the family. At the time of Henry's birth, the traditional trade of weaving of cloth at home was being severely affected by the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution.
His mother, Quilla struggled to make ends meet. In 1851, with four siblings and two cousins and a lodger all under one roof, the king family lived modestly in a hand-to-hand existence. Their home would have had no running water, food would have been mainly vegetables grown from the garden. To help with the family's financial struggles, it was expected for the children to assist with their fathers work, bringing in additional much needed money. Fifteen year old Eliza and twelve year old Henry, both working as winders were already contributing, ensuring their fathers work projects were finished on time.
Sadly John, Henry's father dies just four years later leaving Quilla to look after her family and the financial responsibilities alone. However, the path that took Henry to living in Cliveland Street and becoming a coal dealer was not just a journey for him alone, but also one for his mother, brother and sister.
Weather Henry at that time could read, we are unsure. However news of a new and industrialised world
with the many opportunities available to young man did not escape young Henry. Venturing to Aston, leaving Randwick and his family behind, we find Henry in the 1851 census records, living in digs as a lodger in St James Place, working as a Railway Porter. Meanwhile his siblings embarked on their own journey. Older sisters are soon wed, Eliza to James Smith and Selina finding happiness with her husband and living in the local pub "The Rising Sun" initially the landlord was her father-in-law but ownership eventually passed on to her Husband James.
In 1864, Henry married Ann Smallman, daughter of a prominent coal dealer, Walter Smallman who lived in Lawley Street. With Ann's family connections, Henry entered the coal business. Probably at first working for Walter but eventually establishing himself as a coal dealer in Aston in his own right. Over the following fifteen years, he and Ann built a family of their own, welcoming a rather spectacular eight children into the household.
Business flourished, Henry and family moved to Belgrave Street and then onto 35 Cliveland Street where we join him in 1881, walking to his coal yard. With his life appearing to be increasingly rewarding, Henry may have encouraged his siblings to join him in Birmingham. Sister, Eliza and her family came to Lower Windsor Street, his younger brother George by now married to Harriet and five children of his own were living in Heneage Street Wharf.
The two brothers established and created "King Brothers Coal merchants" marking the beginning of growth and prosperity for both Henry and George, culminating in the brothers owing land and property. Certainly by reading closely the 1881 census, it would appear he is considerably more wealthy than his neighbours. All of Henry and Ann's eight children were not listed as working, a very rare situation where the only income brought into the household, especially for a family of ten, is that of only the head of the family.
Using my poverty-line methodology calculations, Henry's salary would have been for a stand-alone coal dealer 55.84 shillings per week, certainly one of the higher earners in the district. However, his poverty rating is graded as 'C' . This is determined by considering the total household income, which is then divided by the average expenditure for each person that will adequately feed a family to the minimum requirements according to and outlined by Peter Shergold and Seebhom Rowntree books.
It does seem though, Henry's poverty-line 'C' rating seems inaccurate, it fails to consider the additional sources of income, such as profits from the coal merchants business shared with his brother George, or rental income as a property landlord.
Also relocating to Cliveland Street to No.42, was Henry's mother Quilla. She had remarried to a Mr William Chandler, which is the same surname as that of the two cousins that lived with the King family in Randwick back in 1851. We can only speculate as to the reasons why Quilla married a Chandler and why she came to Birmingham. It may have been to help with the raising of her sixteen grandchildren, we now know though that he owned property in Cliveland Street and was a landlord. It could be Henry did not charge rent for No.42 and helped his Mother financially.
One year later, tragedy struck once more, with the untimely death of Ann, leaving Henry to navigate his busy home and work life. He also faced a rather unpleasant situation that occurred in one of the back houses at 42 Cliveland Street, the house where his mother lived.
Baby Suffocation - Birmingham Mail 1st Nov 1882
An Insanitary Dwelling.—An enquiry was held yesterday afternoon, by the Borough Coroner (Mr Hawkes) at his Court, Public Office, Moor Street, respecting the death of Henry James, aged 15 weeks, whose parents reside at the back of 42, Cliveland Street. The child went to bed with its parents on Saturday night. Early the following morning it was found to be in a distressed condition, and shortly afterwards died. The medical evidence showed the death had been caused by suffocation. In the course of the enquiry, the mother of the deceased baby stated that 2s. 6d. week was the rent of the house in which the family lived. One of witness’s children was cripple, and lay downstairs on the sofa. About two months ago she sold one of their bedsteads, in order to obtain money to get something eat. Her husband had been able bring but very little money home in consequence of being out of work. Witness then went on to describe the place where the child lay during tho time it was suffocated, when the Coroner remarked to the jury that they did not go upstairs, they were afraid that the floor would fall in. A neighbour named Emma Green, who saw the child shortly previous to its death, said she would not reside in such a house as the last witness lived in. The Coroner, in addressing the jury, said they heard the pathetic tale which the wife told them. They saw the place-he could not call it a house-in which the family's misfortune had caused them to live. The jury returned verdict of Accidental death.” One the jurymen asked for name of tho landlord of the house, and was informed by the mother of the deceased that he was Henry King, coal dealer, Cliveland Street.— The Coroner said it was not likely that landlords would lay out money on houses when they found that houses were being knocked down, and none being erected for people to go into. The jury at the close of the inquest made a collection, and handed the proceeds to the mother of the deceased.
Henry relocated to 86 Talbort Street, where he possibly sought comfort in his neighbour, Emily Manning, herself a widow, who lived next door at No.85. Their friendship and companionship evolved into romance, leading to the marriage on January 1st 1884, of now 45-year old Henry and 32-year old Emily.
"King Brothers" became more and more successful propelling Henry and George to greater wealth in terms of property and economically. George's property on Heneage Street was 1,800 square yards (1,213 sq.m) it consisted of the front house, office and the spacious wharf known as "the Heneage Street Wharf" that included three boats and arm to the canal and a 10-ton weighing machine that yielded an annual rent of £85.
Henry a landlord of several dwelling houses, himself also amassing considerable wealth. In 1895, The Birmingham Daily Post reported his acquisition of a 25% partnership in "Stephen Cox" a business of metal refinery, brass casting & foundry and general merchandise, injecting a capital of £5000 alongside three other directors. (47)
Three of Henry's sons; John, Arthur, and Robert, followed in his footsteps into the coal industry. The outcome and what happened to King Brothers Coal Merchants and whether it was passed down or shared among the brothers children. However, Henry's grandchildren Eric and Leonard, sons of Robert, were found to be Directors and partners of King Brothers. Despite facing a significant fine for false accounting in 1944, Eric rose to become President of the Birmingham Coal Merchants Association. (48)
Over the years, Henry and Emily moved to various residences, including 53 James Street in Aston Manor, 104 Wellhead Lane in Handsworth, and 89 Great Brook Street back in Aston. Notably, Henry's eldest son resided in Lawley Street, the same street where Henry first met and married Emily.
A curious coincidence with the family history of marriages, with Henry, his brother George, and his sons
Robert and Arthur all marrying women that were named Emily. Christmas family meals must have been quite fun, "Emily was speaking with Emily who was speaking with Emily who was speaking with Emily"
Henry's life from humble beginnings to affluence reflects his hard work and dedication to providing for his family, mother, siblings, grandchildren and future generations was without doubt deserving of his wealth. The Birmingham Daily Mail in 1907 ran a Christmas appeal, King Brothers were recorded as donating £1 & 3 shillings.
Weather Henry became part of the wealthy elite and another landlord who exploited the less well off as suggested in the suffocation case in 1892, as well as the matter of the 1884 dwellings committee highlighting the poor condition of houses in Cliveland Street, which we now know Henry was the Landlord. Is a matter of interpretation, it may be that the true facts are unknown and that he remained a compassionate, hardworking individual.
Above there are two images of meal times reflecting the disparities between the rich and the poor. It is fair to say that Henry started his life eating on the right hand-side and finished his life eating at the table on the left hand side. (49)