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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

24.9.1866
Never heard of the shoe black brigade. sounds like even the magistrates thought it was being a bit harsh to take away the clothes after he had been paying for them.

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I agree - one would have thought that payment would entitle them to the clothes after a period of time. However, it is called a uniform and perhaps that is why they were not allowed to wear it if they left. According to this site (actually London Shoe Blacks but I suspect others were similar) https://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/Shoeblack/ they were called the Shoe Black brigade because they were provided with the means to become shoe cleaners to earn money.
 
25.9.1866
A crocodile accidentally on the loose for a while in the agricultural Hall (I think that was part of the Bingley Hall site)
Bankruptcy blamed on unsuccessful employment of a ventriloquist and a giant !
Not sure what a shaking barrel is.
 

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never heard of a shaking barrel mike...if it was for a flour mill i guess it could have been a sort of flour sifter....just guessing really

lyn
 
A shaking barrel. The term was also applied to one that rotated, and would be used in the metal/iron trade. Nuts/Bolts/Screws and any small cast parts were normally a dark grey, or black when completed. Pour some sand or grit in the barrel, add the metal parts, set it off, and a few hours later, the parts would be extracted in a nice shiny condition. Simple really, very noisey, but very effective, even today.
 
welcome to the forum blackcountrymus and thanks very much for the explanation of the shaking barrel...enjoy

lyn
 
26.9.1866
Fire at Humpage's 270-1 Newtown Row
 

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27.9.1866
Fraud in which man followed his own coffin to the grave.
Collapse of stand at walsall racecourse.
Man claims libel because of apology placed in newspaper
Blue horse exhibited in city during onion fair

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28.9.1866
A time when the Onion Fair did have something to do with onions.
Claimed to be the last visit of Wombwell's menagerie
Crocodile on display from the mysterious White Nile. Africa was still a very unknown place, and David Livingstone had only just set out to try and find the source of the Nile.

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A smashing account of the Onion Fair. The article tells us a lot. Surprised red onions were on sale, thought they were more recently introduced. Sounds like onions were strung in this country similar to those in France. And all those onions on sale at one point in the year. I suppose people bought them in bulk at the fair and stored them for use over the rest of the year. Or was it a wholesale market for onions? Viv.
 
I've read that in the 1920s onion sellers used to come over from France to southern England and travel round selling onions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny), , though , according to the website https://untappedcities.com/2013/06/03/brittanys-onion-museum-history-of-the-french-onion-johnny/ it was all over the country
Hi All,
I see that the fair (swings,roundabouts etc) was on the Smithfield Market ground. I wonder when it moved te the Serpentine Fairground? Certainly not during my lifetime.
Old Boy
 
Apparently in 1876, by which time onions were only a very small part of the festivities, the council banned Whirligigs etc from the central site, although the fair proper did continue there for a few years. But the banned items erected themselves (metaphorically speaking) on "spare land on each side of the Aston Road, near to the Aston Brook"
 
29.9.1866
Death of Jimmy the Rockman, obviously a bit of a character
Some people are opposed to Mops, though am not sure whether the people wanting to reintroduce them in Alvechurch weree no mostly interested in the idea of the Fair and enjoyment aspect, rather than the original purpose of hiring people.

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Traditionally "Hiring Fairs" were held at Michaelmas (29th September). I have not previously heard of "statute" fairs as I thought ancient fairs were permitted by charter rather than statute. Banbury still holds a Michaelmas Fair but usually sometime in October.
 
A few days later the Post published a long review of the Kings Norton Statute Fair, which seemed to imply that it attracted all the drunks and layabouts in the city to it. It is too long to put in readable form here though unless it was split into several parts.
 
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