The gate in Deritend was removed in
August, 1828; the one at Five Ways July 5, 1841; those at Small Heath,
at Sparkbrook, in the Moseley Road, and in the Hagley Road were all
"free'd" in 1851, and the sites of the toll houses sold in 1853. In the
"good old coaching days" the turnpike tolls paid on a coach running
daily from here to London amounted to L1,428 per year.
~Union Passage~, at first but a field path out of the yard of the Crown
Tavern to the Cherry Orchard, afterwards a narrow entry as far as
Crooked Lane, with a house only at each end, was opened up and widened
in 1823 by Mr. Jones, who built the Pantechnetheca. Near the Ball Street
end was the Old Bear Yard, the premises of a dealer in dogs, rabbits,
pigeons, and other pets, who kept a big brown bear, which was taken out
whenever the Black Country boys wanted a bear-baiting. The game was put
a stop to in 1835, but the "cage" was there in 1841, about which time
the Passage became built up on both sides throughout.
~Vaughton's Hole.~--An unfortunate soldier fell into a deep clay pit
here, in July, 1857, and was drowned; and about a month after (August 6)
a horse and cart, laden with street sweepings, was backed too near the
edge, over-turned, and sank to the bottom of sixty feet deep of water.
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