Pershore Road was laid out in 1825.

Perry Barr.—­Three miles from Birmingham, on the road to Lichfield, is one of the ancient places that can claim a note in Domesday.  Prior to the eighteenth century there had been a wooden bridge over the Tame, the present curiously-built stone erection, with its recesses to protect the wayfarers from contact with crossing vehicles, being put up in 1711-12 by Sir Henry Gough, who received L200 from the county, and contributions from the neighbouring parishes, towards the cost.  The date of the early church is unknown, the present one being built and endowed by Squire Gough in 1832.  Like other suburbs Perry Barr bids fair to become little more than an offshoot to Birmingham, the road thereto fast filling up with villa and other residences, while churches, chapels, and schools may be seen on all hands.  The Literary Institute, built in 1874, at a cost of L2,000, contains reading and class rooms, lecture hall, &c., while not far off is a station on the L. and N.W. line.  Ferry Hall, the seat of the Hon. A.C.G.  Calthorpe, has been the home of the Lords of the Manor for many generations.

Pest and Plague.—­The year 1665 is generally given as the date of “the great plague” being here; but the register of St. Martin’s Church does not record any extraordinary mortality in that year.  In some of the “news sheets” of the 17th century a note has been met with (dated Sept. 28, 1631), in which the Justices of the Peace inform the Sheriff that “the plague had broken out in Deritend, in the parish of Aston, and spread far more dangerously into Birmingham, a great market town.”  St. Martin’s registers of burials are missing from 1631 to 1655, and those of Aston are not get-at-able, and as the latter would record the deaths in Deritend, there does not appear any certain data to go upon, except that the plague was not a casual visitor, having visited Coventry in 1603 and 1625, Tamworth in 1606 and 1625, and Worcester in 1825 and 1645, the date generally given (1665) being that of the year when the most deaths 68,596, occurred in London.  The tradition is that the plague contagion was brought here in a box of clothes conveyed by a carrier from London.  It is said that so many persons died in this town that the churchyard would not hold the bodies, and the dead were taken to a one-acre piece of waste land at Ladywood Green, hence known for many generations as the “Pest Ground.”  The site has long been built over, but no traces of any kind of sepulture were found when house foundations were being laid.

Pewter.—­To have bright pewter plates and dishes ranged on their kitchen shelves was once the delight and the pride of all well-to-do housewives, and even the tables of royalty did not disdain the pewter.  At the grand dinner on George IV.’s Coronation-day, though gold and silver plate was there in abundance for the most noble of the noble guests, the majority were served on brightly-burnished pewter, supplied from Thomason’s of Birmingham.  The metal is seldom seen now except in the shape of cups and measures used by publicans.