Why Cambridge Street Works, which once employed so
many hands, should have so completely collapsed is,
as I have hinted, a bit of a mystery. I can only
guess, and as tracking conundrums is not my purpose
in these chapters, I will leave others to unravel
the riddle if they can. It is, however, a matter
of local business history that some thirty years or
more ago the Cambridge Street concern shewed signs
of tottering to its fall, and when Mr. Atkins went
into the business as a proprietor, he had to make
some sweeping reforms that naturally created some resentment
and criticism. Possibly the business was “eating
its head off,” and the process of deglutition
had to be rigorously curtailed. This having been
done, the business thrived and prospered once more,
and continued to do so for some years. I will
not follow its fortunes to its ultimate fall.
It became a public company, and now it is no more.
Winfields’ is not the only important local business
that has gone under during the past fifty years, yet
it is satisfactory to find that many of our old-established
manufactories and businesses have survived, and still
exist in some form or other. Elkington’s,
Gillott’s, and Hardman’s still flourish,
and among the brassfounders Pemberton and Son’s,
Tonks and Son’s, Cartland’s, and others,
go on their way rejoicing, casting, stamping, lacquering,
and polishing, and pushing brassfoundry into more
ornamental and utilitarian use.
Some of our old-established merchants and factors
are still with us. The trade of Messrs. Keep
and Hinckley, whose place of business was for years
near St. Mary’s Square, is now carried on by
Keep Bros., in Broad Street. The establishment
of Rabone Bros., merchants, also in Broad Street,
still stands where it did. The businesses of Rock
and Blakemore, Moilett and Gem, and others, are still
carried on by survivors of the old firms.
As for the new industries, the new firms and companies
that have been created in our midst during the past
half-century, their enumeration and description would
be a big story, and would require a large volume to
tell it. That volume I do not propose to begin.
I desire to close my present little chapter, and perhaps
I shall not be the only one who will be glad to come
to the end of it.
XVI.
THE MUSICAL FESTIVALS.
Though it can hardly be said that the Birmingham Musical
Festivals have had any direct bearing upon the progress
and development of town and city, the world-renowned
musical gatherings associated with the name of Birmingham
have had something to do with the fame and fortunes
of the Midland capital. Established more than
a century and a quarter ago, they attained a pitch
of musical excellence and importance that attracted
the attention of the civilised world. Birmingham,
indeed, was for a time, and is still to some extent,
the Mecca of musicians, and the Birmingham Musical
Festival is generally regarded as the premier musical
meeting of the country.
