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AB House, so called from the initials inscribed thereon to show the division of the parishes of Aston and Birmingham near to Deritend Bridge.  Early in 1883 part of the foundations were uncovered, showing that the old building was raised on wooden piles, when the neighbourhood was little better than a swamp.

ABC Time Table was first issued in July, 1853.  A rival, called the “XYZ Time Table,” on a system that was to make all the puzzles of Bradshaw as plain as pikestaves, was brought out in August, 1877, but it required such extra wise heads to understand its simplicity that before one could be found the whole thing was lost, the old Alpha being preferred to the new Omega.

Accidents and Accidental Deaths are of constant occurrence.  Those here noted are but a few which, from their peculiar nature, have been placed on record for reference.

A woman fell in Pudding Brook, June 3, 1794, and was drowned in the puddle.

In 1789, a Mr. Wright, a patten-maker, of Digbeth, attempted to cross the old bridge over the Rea, fell in and was “smothered in the mud.”

The Bridge in Wheeley’s Road was burst up by flood waters, November 26, 1853.

Five men were killed by the fall of a scaffold in New Street Station, Oct. 11, 1862.

A lady was accidently shot in Cheapside, Nov. 5, 1866.

Pratt, a marker at Bournebrook Rifle Range, was shot April 12, 1873.

The body of a man named Thomas Bishop who had fallen in a midden in
Oxford Street, was found Oct. 3, 1873.

Charles Henry Porter, surgeon, Aug. 10, 1876, died from an overdose of prussic acid taken as a remedy.

Richard Riley was killed by the bursting of a sodawater bottle, June 19, 1877.

Alfred Mills drowned in a vinegar vat at the Brewery in Glover Street, March 7, 1878.

Two gentlemen (Messrs. W. Arnold and G. Barker), while on a visit of inspection at Sandwell Park Colliery, Nov. 6, 1878, were killed by falling from the cage.  Two miners, father and son, were killed by a fall of coal in the following week.

A water main, 30 inches diameter, burst in Wheeler Street, June 17, 1879.

On the night of Sep. 5, 1880, Mrs. Kingham, landlady of the “Hen and Chickens,” fell through a doorway on the third storey landing into the yard, dying a few hours after.  The doorway was originally intended to lead to a gallery of the Aquarium then proposed to be built at the back of the hotel.

January 12th, 1881.—­A helper in the menagerie at Sanger’s Exhibition, then at Bingley Hall, was attacked and seriously injured by a lion, whose den he was cleaning out.  The animal was beaten off by the keeper, the said keeper, Alicamoosa (?) himself being attacked and injured a few days after by the same animal.

A child of 17 months fell on to a sewer grating in River Street, May 28th, 1881, and died from the effects of hot steam arising therefrom, neighbouring manufacturers pouring their waste boiler water into the sewers.