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Soho Park, from Hockley Bridge, for about a mile on the road to West
Bromwich, was entirely walled in. The old factory built by Boulton and
Watt was still in operation. I saw there at work the original engine
which was put up by James Watt. It had a massive oak beam, and it
seemed strange to me that it did not communicate its power direct, but
was employed in pumping water from the brook that flowed hard by, to
a reservoir on higher ground. From this reservoir the water, as it
descended, turned a water-wheel, which moved all the machinery in the
place. It is not, perhaps, generally known that the same machine
which was employed here in 1797 in making the old broad-rimmed copper
pennies of George the Third is still at work at Messrs. Heaton's,
coining the bronze money which has superseded the clumsy "coppers" of
our forefathers.
Coming towards the town, from Hockley Bridge to the corner of Livery
Street, many of the houses had a pretty bit of garden in front, and
the houses were mostly inhabited by jewellers.


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