9-1/2

Adding to ye Communion Plate of ye said Church
275 ounces of new silver 80 16 06

Repairing ye high ways leading to ye town
wth in these 9 years 898 00 01

Subscribed by ye inhabitants towards erecting
a New Church, now consecrated, and Parsonage house 2234 13 11
------------
In all L5132 12 3-12

In the matter of architectural taste the ideas of the church wardens
seem curiously mixed, for while disfiguring the old church they
evidently did their best to secure the erection of the splendid new
church of St. Philip's, as among other entries there were several like
these:--

"28pds. 2s. wch Mr. Jno. Holte has collected in Oxford towards
building ye New Church."

"Revd. L30 from Sir Charles Holte, Baronet, for the use of the Com.e
of the New Church."

From time to time other alterations were made, such as new roofing,
shutting up the clerestory windows, piercing the walls of the chancel
and the body of the church for fresh windows attaching a vestry, &c. The
churchyard was partly surrounded by houses, and in 1781 "iron
pallisadoes" were affixed to the wall. In this year also 33ft. of the
spire was taken down and rebuilt. In 1807 the churchyard was enlarged by
the purchase of five tenements fronting Spiceal Street, belonging to the
Governors of the Free Grammar School, for L423, and the Commissioners
having cleared the Bull Ring of the many erections formerly existing
there the old church in its hideous brick dress was fully exposed to
view. Noble and handsome places of worship were erected in other parts
of the town, but the old mother church was left in all its shabbiness
until it became almost unsafe to hold services therein at all. The
bitter feelings engendered by the old church-rate wars had doubtless
much to do with this neglect of the "parish" church, but it was not
exactly creditable to the Birmingham men of '49, when attention was
drawn to the dangerous condition of the spire, and a general restoration
was proposed, that what one gentleman has been pleased to call "the lack
of public interest" should be made so manifest that not even enough
could be got to rebuild the tower. Another attempt was made in 1853, and
on April 25th, 1854, the work of restoring the tower and rebuilding the
spire, at a cost of