Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/237

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SHOWELL'S DICTIONARY OF BIRMINGHAM.
225

To the above total of £228,336 expended on churches in or close to the borough, there should be added £57,640 expended in the erection, &c., of churches close at hand in the adjoining diocese of Lichfield; £25,000 laid out at Coleshill, Northfield, and Solihull (the principal residents being from Birmingham); and a still further sum of £150,000 spent on Church-school buildings. These figures even do not include the vast amounts invested for the endowments of the several churches and schools, nor is aught reckoned for the value of the land or building materials where given, nor for the ornamental decorations, fonts, pulpits, windows, and furnishings so munificently lavished on our local churches. Since the year 1875 it has been calculated that more than £100,000 has been devoted to similar local church-building purposes, so that in less than fifty years much more than half-a-million sterling has been voluntarily subscribed by the Churchmen of the neighbourhood for the religious welfare and benefit of their fellow men. Still there is room for more churches and for more preachers, and the Church Extension Society are hoping that others will follow the example of the "Landowner," who, in the early part of the year (1884) placed £10,000 in the hands of the Bishop towards meeting the urgent need of additional provision fur the spiritual wants of the inhabitants.—Short notes of the several churches can alone be given.

All Saints', in the street of that name, leading out of Lodge Road, is a brick erection of fifty years' date, being consecrated September 28, 1833. It was built to accommodate about 700 and cost £3,850, but in 1881 it was enlarged and otherwise improved at an outlay of over £1,500, and now finds sittings for 1,760, a thousand of the seats being free. The Rev. P.E. Wilson, M.A., is the Rector and Surrogate, and the living (value £400) is in the gift of the Birmingham Trust, The Nineveh schoolroom is used for services on Sunday and Thursday evenings in connection with All Saints.

All Saints', King's Heath, is built of stone in the perpendicular Gothic style, and cost £3,200, the consecration taking place on Apiil 27ih, 1860. There are sittings for 620, one half being free. The Rev. J. Webster, M.A., is the Vicar; the living (value £220) being in the gift of the Vicar of Moseley, King's Heath ecclesiastical parish being formed out of Mossley parish in 1863.

All Saints', Small Heath.—Rev. G.F.B. Cross, M.A., Vicar. Soon after the death of the Rev. J. Oldknow, D.D., of Holy Trinity, in 1874, it was resolved to carry out his dying wishes by erecting a church in the fast-filling district of^ Small Heath. At first the iron building formerly used as a place of worship in Cannon Hill Park was put up, and the Vicar was instituted in October, 1875. The foundation-stone of a permanent building was laid Sept. 8, 1882, which accommodates over 1,000 worshippers. That part of the future "Oldknow Memorial Church" at present finished, comprising the nave^ north aisle, and north transept, with seating for nearly 700 (all free), was consecrated July 28, 1883. The patronage is vested in trustees, the incumbent's stipend being £150.

All Saints', Stechford.—A temporary