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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

HANDSWORTH
Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer

HANDSWORTH, (or Handsworth with Soho) a parish and post-town in the S. division of the hundred of Offlow, county Stafford, 2 miles N.W. of Birmingham. The parish, which is very extensive, is situated near the Grand Junction railway, on which it has a station near the end of Booth-street. It contains the townships of Handsworth and Perry Bar, which are separated from each other by the river Tame.

It is a polling-place for the borough of Birmingham, of which it forms a large suburb. The most important feature of this place is the Soho manufactory, established about the middle of the 18th century by Mr. Boulton, and afterwards joined by Mr. Watt, the inventor of the rotatory steam-engine, for the manufacture of machinery and wares of every description.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield, value £1,500. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a handsome structure, the greater part, with the exception of the tower, having recently been rebuilt. It contains monuments of the Boultons, Wyrleys, and Murdochs, also Chantrey's marble statue of Watts, erected at a cost of 2,000 guineas.

St. James's church, erected in 1840, has lately had a district assigned to it by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The church of St. Michael's is situated on Soho Hill. The charities produce about £199, of which £156 goes to the Bridge trustees.

There are National schools for both sexes, and the Independents and Wesleyans have places of worship. The Roman Catholics have a convent in Hunter's Lane, and a college at Oscott. Perry Hall is the principal residence.

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]