My Home Town

My Home Town, not My Home City or Village. That might be because the single beat of a word town rolls off the tongue better than the two of City or Village, or more likely the concept of the size of a town is more comfortable than the large and small numbers of people in the other two. I’m from Birmingham and I’ll say it’s my home town.

early Victorian Birmingham

What I won’t say is that I’m from Brummagem, which appeared in the Middle Ages as a variant on the older form of Bermingeham, which is in the Domesday Book, and was in widespread use by the time of the Civil War.

I didn’t know until today that Brummagem was a pejorative term in the 17th Century. It had a brief reputation for counterfeiting groats. The word passed into political slang in the 1680s. The Protestant supporters of the Exclusion Bill were called by their opponents Birminghams or Brummagems (a slur, in allusion to counterfeiting, implying hypocrisy). Their Tory opponents were known as anti-Birminghams or anti-Brummagems.

By the 18th century times had definitely changed and it is of this part of the story of Birmingham that I’m most fond. The Lunar Society, or Lunar Circle met in and around Birmingham between 1765 and 1813. They were very particular about who was allowed to become a member. An exclusive club, it never had more than fourteen core members, and each member was noted for their special area of expertise including the greatest engineers, scientists and thinkers of the day. 

the Lunar Society

Their preferred venue was Soho House in Handsworth, the home of Mathew Boulton who was the heart of the Lunar Society. It is said that this group would bring about the ultimate fusion of science and social change that would fuel the fires and ignite the Industrial Revolution.

The society gained its name as its monthly meetings were always scheduled for the Monday nearest to the full moon, the better light helping to ensure the members a safer journey home along the dangerous, unlit streets. They actually called themselves the lunarticks.

For a terrific read about the group I’d recommend ‘The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future’ by Jenny Uglow.

Here are a few of them:

Mathew Boulton. The leading industrialist of his day, he developed modern-day industrial practice and introduced the first workers’ insurance schemes and sick pay.

James Watt. Developed the world beating steam engines that provided the power for the new factories that were springing up across the country.

Erasmus Darwin. Poet, inventor and botanist. He published a theory of evolution 60 years before his grandson Charles. He developed a steering system that was used by Henry Ford and a mechanical copying machine. A visionary, who predicted the use of steam powered propulsion.

Josiah Wedgwood. The father of English pottery, who was also Charles Darwin’s other grandfather. As an industrialist, he was dedicated to improving everyday life and brought affordable tableware to the masses.

Joseph Priestley. The cleric and scientist, famous for isolating oxygen, discovering carbon dioxide and carbonated (fizzy) drinks.

The meetings were not dry and pompous. When Darwin was unable to attend due to a fever he wrote a letter of lament for his absence:

“Lord! What inventions, what wit, what rhetoric, metaphysical, mechanical and pyrotechnical, will be on the wing, bandy’d like a shuttlecock fro, one to another of your troop of philosophers!”

I’m thinking that the following covers the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Gas Street Basin, Birmingham

Bridge 88

(for Anne)

There are more canals in Birmingham
than there are in Venice
and who would deny
that the Gas Street Basin
has more of an atmosphere
than the Ponte de Rialto

although as you pointed out
over tea at the old café
it’s actually more miles of canal
which, surprisingly, didn’t annoy me
as you picked up your keys
keen to explore the path

past bars and posh restaurants
past apartments with balconies
places where the cut
was really from the past

until we went under
the old brick road bridge
and you stopped suddenly
as I thought you might

it’s what towpaths are for
that look of surprise
you pointing to the other side
where a screen of trees
stretched beyond distance

you were telling me all the names
while I was keeping an eye
on the railway tracks this side
wishing I still had my Ian Allan

the spell wasn’t broken
by a narrow boat passing
we waved back to the couple

you asked if we could walk to Worcester
water has that effect on folk.

First published in Acumen, May 2025

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.