Another "Waterloo man," George
Taylor, died here, November 6, 1880, aged 98.
~Water Pipes.~--In 1810 Mr. Murdoch started a Company for manufacturing
stone pipes for water-works, and they made a large quantity, which were
laid down in London and Manchester, but they had to come up again, as
the pipes split--and the Company burst.
~Waterspouts and Whirlwinds~ are not of common occurrence hereabouts.
One of the former burst over the Lickey Hills, April 13, 1792, the
resulting flood reaching to Bromsgrove. A whirlwind at Coleshill, April
4, 1877, played havoc with some hay-ricks, hedges, trees, &c.
~Water Street~, formerly Water Lane, had a brook running down one side
of it when houses were first built there.
~Weather Cocks.~--Mention is made of Weather Cocks as early as the ninth
century, and it has been supposed that the Cock was intended as an
emblem of the vigilance of the clergy, who irreverently styled
themselves the Cocks of the Almighty, their duty being, like the cock
which roused Peter, to call the people to repentance, or at any rate to
church. These are the longest-lived birds we know of. The one which had
been perched on the old spire of St.
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