Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/163

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SHOWELL'S DICTIONARY OF BIRMINGHAM.
151

promoting Christianity among the Jews, the Birmingham Auxiliaries in 1883 sent £323. There are also Auxiliaries of the Church of England Zenana, of the South America, and of one or two other Missionary Societies. The Rev. J. B. Barradale, who died in China, early in 1879, while relieving sufferers from famine, was educated at Spring Hill College. He was sent out by the London Missionary Society, and his death was preceded by that of his wife and only child, who died a few weeks before him, all from fever caught while helping poor Chinamen.

Moated Houses.—The Parsonage, as well as the Manor House (as noted elsewhere), were each surrounded by its moat, and, possibly, no portion of the United Kingdom could show more family mansions, and country residences, protected in this manner, than the immediate district surrounding Birmingham. Many more-or-less-preserved specimens of these old-fashioned houses, with their water guards round them, are to be met with by the rambler, as at Astwood Bank, Erdington, Inkberrow, Yardley, Wyrley, &c. Perhaps, the two best are Maxtoke Castle, near Coleshill, and the New Hall, Sutton Coldfield.

Modern Monasteries.—The foundation-stone of St. Thomas's Priory, at Erdington, for the accommodation of the Monks of the Order of St. Benedict, was laid on Aug. 5, 1879, by the Prior, the Rev. Hildebrand de Hemptinne. Alter the date, and the realer might fancy himself living in Mediæval times.

Monument.— The high tower erected near the Reservoir has long borne the name of "The Monument," though it has been said it was built more as a strange kind of pleasure-house, where the owner, a Mr. Perrott, could pass his leisure hours witnessing coursing in the day-time, or making astronomical observations at night. Hence it was often called "Perrot's Folly." It dates from 1758—See also "Statues," &c.

Moody and Sankey.—These American Evangelists, or Revivalists, visited here in Jan. 1870, their first meeting being held in the Town Hill, on the 17th, the remainder of their services (to February 7) being given in Bingley Hall. They came also in February, 1883, when the last-named place again accommodated them.

Moor Street.—Rivalling Edgbaston Street in its antiquity, its name has long given rise to del)ate as to origin, but the most likely solution of the puzzle is this : On the sloping land near here, in the 14th century, and perhaps earlier, there was a mill, probably the Town Mill, and by the contraction of the Latin, Molendinaria, the miller would be called John le Molendin, or John le Moul. The phonetic style of writing by sound was in great measured pectised by the scriveners, and thus we find, as time went on, the street of the mill became Moul, Moule, Mowle, Molle, Moll, More, and Moor Street. A stream crossed the street near the Woolpack, over which was a wooden bridge, and further on was another bridge of more substantial character, called "Carter's Bridge." In flood times, Cars Lane also brought from the higher lands copious streams of water, and

the keeping of Moor Street tidy often gave cause to mention these spots in old records, thus:—
£ s. d.
1637 Paid Walter Taylor for ridding the gutters in Moor Street 0 0 11
1665 Zachary Gisborne 42 loads of mudd out of Moore Street 0 0 7
1676 J. Bridgens keepinge open passage and tourneing water from Cars Lane that it did not runne into More Street for a yeare 0 4 0
1688 Paid mending Carter's Bridge timber and worke 0 5 0
1690 John, for mending Moore Street Bridg 0 0 10

Moor Street, from the earliest date, was the chosen place of residence for many of the old families, the Carless, Smalbroke, Ward, Sheldon, Flavell, Stidman, and other names, continually cropping up in deeds ; some of the