Erdington
was booked for 27, and Sutton Coldfield for 67, of which 23 were in two
houses belonging to the Willoughby family. Coleshill would appear to
have been a rather warmer place of abode, as there are 125 hearths
charged for duty, 30 being in the house of Dame Mary Digby.
~Heathfield.~--Prior to 1790 the whole of this neighbourhood was open
common-land, the celebrated engineer and inventor, James Watt, after the
passing of the Enclosure Act being the first to erect a residence
thereon, in 1791. By 1794 he had acquired rather more than 40 acres,
which, he then planted and laid out as a park. Heathfield House may be
called the cradle of many scores of inventions, which, though novel when
first introduced, are now but as household words in our everyday life.
Watt's workshop was in the garret of the south-east corner of the
building, and may be said to be even now in exactly the same state as
when his master-hand last touched the tools, but as the estate was
lotted out for building purposes in May, 1874, and houses and streets
have been built and formed all round it, it is most likely that the
"House" itself will soon lose all its historic interest, and the
contents of the workshop be distributed among the curiosity mongers, or
hidden away on the shelves of some museum.
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