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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

29.5.1865
Opening of Chapel in Lozells. this would be the church on the corner of Lozells road and George st, which I have only just realised, from looking on google, is no longer there,.


opening_of_methodist_chapel2C_lozells_rd_george_st.jpg



Spring baths on George St Balsall Heath. No sign of any on the c 1889 map, xo no idea where they might have been.

spring_baths_george_st2C_balsall_heath.jpg



An interesting political idea I have never seen before. It would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons in our political class , few of whom (of any party) have ever done any useful work

an_interesting_political_idea.jpg
 
thanks for the snippet about the wesleyan chapel george st mike i shall print it off and add it to my old end folder...just a bit more info...there was a chapel there many years before this new was was built but it was not big enough to hold the growing congregation so they kept it and ajoined the new one to it using the old building as schoolroom... living in villa st i remember it very well and its not that many years ago since it was demolished...i am presuming that villa st was named after the area of aston villa so too was aston villa football club who had its first ground down perry barr and i must check this but im sure that aston villa football club was conceived at the chapel...

lyn
 
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I could not read the news report of a "Spa Swimming Baths", as it had not come out too well Mike, where in Birmingham was this situated?. Paul
 
I could not read the news report of a "Spa Swimming Baths", as it had not come out too well Mike, where in Birmingham was this situated?. Paul

It is a poor print -
The Original Spring Water baths, George St, Balsall Heath.
Opening announced by Mrs Smith
27 May 1865

Hope this helps
Brian
 
I usually look through these a days or so before the date. I note a few days later it is repeated , and the scan id better, See below

spring_water_baths2C_george_st_Balsall_heath_1_6_1865.jpg
 
I found this photo of The Wesleyan Chapel on my computer, sorry I don't know the original source,



Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.jpg
 
thanks for the snippet about the wesleyan chapel george st mike i shall print it off and add it to my old end folder...just a bit more info...there was a chapel there many years before this new was was built but it was not big enough to hold the growing congregation so they kept it and ajoined the new one to it using the old building as schoolroom... living in villa st i remember it very well and its not that many years ago since it was demolished...i am presuming that villa st was named after the area of aston villa so too was aston villa football club who had its first ground down perry barr and i must check this but im sure that aston villa football club was conceived at the chapel...


lyn
Aston Villa FC were founded March 1874 at Wesleyan chapel so just 14 months before the opening of this "New" chapel.
 
31.5.1865
The circus is in town. But what on earth is a Saluctropogoss supposed to be. Not surprised it is the "only specimen caged in Europe". Don't think I'd be too keen on letting my children be handed lion cubs

Circus_in_town.jpg
 
I "Googled" it but they only refer back to the Forum! I can't find mandernetheca either. The wording reminds me of that old time music hall show from the 1970's where everyone dressed up, I can't remember what it was called!!!
rosie.

Correction, it was called "The Good Old Days" and started in the 1950's!
 
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Rosie
The program was meant to reproduce a musical in Victorian times, so not really surprising they are similar
 
1.6.1865

A pub with grounds to take 20,000 people - some pub.

sale_of_Galton_arms.jpg


Women can now have their hair brushed mechanically !! An image comes to mind of an Emmett cartoon with the women's hair caught in the machinery and she being pulled into the device.

mechanical_hair_brushing_for_women.jpg


The Atlantic cable completed.

completion_of_atlantic_telegraph.jpg
 
2.6.1865
Theatrical "Agents" then were as grasping and awkward then as now. Adah Menken was a rather sensational actress who lived her life as she wanted it an dsounds a very interesting women. Sadly she died 3 years later at 33

problems_of_being_a_star.jpg
 
5.6.1865
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Serious fire in Duddwston Mill Road

[/FONT]
Serious_fire_in_duddeston_Mill_Road.jpg
 
Apparently the patented method described in fact was found to be less effective in combating corrosion than other methods, so was abandoned in later cables
 
Hi All,

Would those people who designed and worked on the Atlantic Telegraph Cable have believed that 150 years later people could be sitting at computers in their own home. Write a message to someone anywhere overseas. click on a small instrument (Mouse) and the message arrive at its destination almost immediately?

Old Boy
 
8.6.1865
The great and the good organising a "breakfast" to drum up interest in the plight of the freed american black slaves. Thought a breaffast like this was a rather peculiar modern american habit, but apparently the tradition is an old one, though still peculiar and probably still mainly american #

Freed_mens_aid_association.jpg
 
12.6.1865

Sounds like the legal system in Aston was not very efficient

magistrates_courts_in_aston_not_very_efficient.jpg


The police in Birmingham don't sound much better by this account. they are never there when you want them.

They_are_never_there_when_you_want_them.jpg


While far too much is spent on the undeserving poor !

undeserving_poor.jpg


And the railways are under no obligation to give you what you pay for.

railway_not_under_contarct.jpg
 
Very interesting news items from Victorian Britain, which is often quoted as a time "when everything worked well", obviously did't. Paul
 
14.6.1865
Certainly nowadays it would be a bit peculiar to have an inland revenue office at the premises of , and presumably run by, a publican.

inland_revenue_office_at_dartmouth_arms.jpg
 
A story I read about an Inland Revenue Office in the 1930s was.

One day a solicitor walked into the Inland Revenue office and walked straight in to the Inspector's office. The inspector ignored him and carried on writing. After a while the solicitor say "I represent the Duke of______". The inspector without looking up said "I represent the King and you will remove your hat.".

The Inland Revenue office could have been a Stamp Duty office. If you remember British stamps used to say Postage Revenue and could be used for either postage or stamp duty.
 
Apparently the inland revenue then dealt with lots of taxes, including stamp duty as you mention, but also income tax (which was levied then, though on only a small proportion of people), land tax (1692-1963), inhabited house duty (1692-1924) and assessed taxes on servants, carriages, horses, dogs, etc later replaced by a system of excise licences in 1870,
 
16.6.1865
Here is an unusual case where the Masters & Servants Act, usually used to come down on supposedly wayward servants, is used for the benefit of the servant. That said, nowadays one would think that no complex invented law should have been necessary in this case, merely serious assault

master_and_servants_act_used_for_benefit_of_servant.jpg
 
19.6.1865

If you are a women of under 32 and have 10 shillings to spare (which might be about £400 today) then you can enter a lottery for a 1 in 600 chance of winning a husband


raffle_for_a_husband.jpg
 
I know a few women who'd gladly give £400 to get rid of theirs!
Erm ... no offence to the LOVELY husbands on the Birmingham History Forum!!!
 
20.6.1865

Goffes are going strong and obviously trying to push quality (I wonder if all the machines in the factory are Really plated with silver). Nowadays (and possibly even then) you should not sell a product as Vichy water unless it came from Vichy.

Goffe_mineral_water.jpg
#


This procedure with horses sounds really revolting, and even then it seems to have been a matter very much frowned upon.

horrible_behaviour_with_horses.jpg


There was a chap on TV tonight with similar delusions that he was royalty, in that case Princess Margaret's son

claimant_to_throne.jpg
 
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