Holliday Wharf is now the site of smart, modern flats. In the 19th century it had a very different function, serving for many years as the town’s cleansing department. In the first half of the century, the Street Commissioners (predecessors to the corporation) had two sites; in addition to the main premises at Holliday Street, there was another in Shadwell Street. The corporation moved to dispense with the Holliday Street site when the lease came up for renewal in 1858.
The site at Holliday Wharf was substantial. There were offices, storage for the mechanical cleansing machines and stables. A public works’ committee report of 1852 shows that the town employed 84 street cleansers, with an average total weekly wage of a little under £80 (around £6000 in today’s money). There was also a porter at the wharf, an inspector of the cleansing machines and someone to attend to the horses.
There is no information in the committee reports on what the horses were used for, but it is likely that they did heavy work, pulling carts, sweeping machines and the devices used for watering the streets. This latter was an important job, preventing drying out and fracturing of the road surfaces.
In 1851, the Commissioners of the Birmingham Street Act was dissolved, and their responsibilities and assets amalgamated with the corporation. As part of this change, a ‘Final Arrangements’ report was presented, listing the assets (and debts!) to be transferred. Amongst those assets, were the contents of Holliday Street, including the horses, who are named. And so, rather brilliantly, we know that the horses helping keep Birmingham’s streets clean and in condition during the first part of the 19th century, were the following:
In stable no. 4, there was Lion, Billy and Plumper – these horses were each valued at £45 (a considerable sum)
The residents of stable no. 5 were Dragon and Blackbird (£20 each), Short (£15, maybe a descriptive name), along with Boxer and Sorrel (£30 each)
Stable no. 6 was home to Punch and Bob (£40 each), Poppit (£30), Captain (£40) and Miller (£20)
Finally, in stable no. 7, a further 6 horses, making 19 in total for the cleansing department: Tinker, Peacock, Badger, Bonny and Turpin (£40 each) and Boxer (£30). Total value of the cleansing horses – £650!!
There were also 5 horses listed as belonging to the Ash Hole (careful how you say that!) department. These are not named and have a much lower, or more realistic, value, at a total of £63. The Ash Hole department also owned a boat, valued at £25.
Would be interested to know why such a high value was placed on those horses.
For this post, I used notes taken from the minutes of the Street Commissioners before lockdown. These original minute books are held by Birmingham Museum Archive, Heritage and Photography, series MS 2818. Obviously it is not possible to access these at the current time, but please show support for the archives where you can – they have a wonderful WP site: https://theironroom.wordpress.com/
I believe that the Final Arrangements document is also available in the archives, but I have my own copy which I used here. It’s a great document, and happy to answer any queries.
Notes from 19th Century Birmingham 