Some of the local
antiquaries strongly advocated the adoption of the name "Guildhall" for
the block of municipal buildings and Council House, if only in
remembrance of the ancient building on whose site, in New Street, the
Grammar School now stands.

~Guild of the Holy Cross.~--Founded in the year 1392 by the "Bailiffs
and Commonalty" of the town of Birmingham (answering to our aldermen and
councillors), and licensed by the Crown, for which the town paid L50,
the purpose being to "make and found a gild and perpetual fraternity of
brethren and sustern (sisters), in honour of the Holy Cross," and "to
undertake all works of charity, &c., according to the appointment and
pleasure of the said bailiffs and commonalty." In course of time the
Guild became possessed of all the powers then exercised by the local
corporate authorities, taking upon themselves the building of
almshouses, the relief and maintenance of the poor, the making and
keeping in repair of the highways used by "the King's Majestie's
subjects passing to and from the marches of Wales," looking to the
preservation of sundry bridges and lords, as well as repair of "two
greate stone brydges," &c., &c. The Guild owned considerable portion of
the land on which the present town is built, when Henry VIII., after
confiscating the revenues and possessions of the monastic institutions,
laid hands on the property of such semi-religious establishments as the
Guild of the Holy Cross. It has never appeared that our local Guild had
done anything to offend the King, and possibly it was but the name that
he disliked. Be that as it may, his son, Edward VI., in 1552, at the
petition of the inhabitants, returned somewhat more than half of the
property, then valued at L21 per annum, for the support and maintenance
of a Free Grammar School, and it is this property from which the income
of the present King Edward VI.'s Grammar Schools is now derived,
amounting to nearly twice as many thousands as pounds were first
granted. The Guild Hall or Town's Hall in New Street (then only a bye
street), was not _quite_ so large as either our present Town Hall or the
Council House, but was doubtless considered at the time a very fine
building, with its antique carvings and stained glass windows emblazoned
with figures and armorial bearings of the Lords right Ferrers and
others. As the Guild had an organist in its pay, it may be presumed that
such an instrument was also there, and that alone goes f