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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

Thanks Mike. It's interesting how the role of 'druggists' and chemists etc has changed with regard to the more non-medicinal side. When I had a Saturday job with Boots the Chemist, we sold small bottles of olive oil. It was intended for medicinal use such as ear cleaning and came in very small bottles. You couldn't get the large bottles as you do in supermarkets today. We also sold poisonous products such as rat poison, ant killer etc. This was all available on the 'Drug Counter' as it was called then (this gave it a clear distinction between that and the Cosmetic counter. You had to be a trusted member of staff to work on the 'Drug Counter'). So it's possible to imagine 'druggists' in the 1860s selling other refined oils, dyes etc. It's not until more recent times that the counters came to be called Pharmacies - maybe an American term (?) - or one to separate it from the later negative association of handling medicines. Viv.
 
I can remember the small bottles of olive oil. In fact, when my mother moved in the 1980s. I can remember disposing of one that must have been at least 25 years old. Many products sold by chemists off-prescription were poisonous then. You used to be able to get large tins of caustic soda flakes at a very reasonable price compared to the exorbitant price for solutions of the same thing today sold for drain cleaning. Similarly Golden Eye ointment, now a relatively harmless product and still available, then contained mercury. So it was understandable that they were careful who they employed selling it. Don't think they sold Arsenic like in Victorian times though !
 
25.10.1865
Advertisement for the first tenant of what must be the Samson & Lion pub on the corner of Blakeland St and what was then Yardley Road

Samson___Lion__advertising_for_first_tenant.jpg
 
hi mike
as far as i know its always been yardley road and as you travel along it changes to thee names heading back to bordesly green way
but there agai if you have the maps stating you must be correct as you say from the 1800s birmingham did change street names didnt they
and phil our barber knows all the pubs along there and most publicans he tells me he as joined our forum or he just looks in
and i recall him about eight years or five years ago that they finaly closed down the sampson then
i beleive the custard house pub is in blakeland street
as you come from the yew tree and up hobmoor road to the very top as you just look to your right which is virtualy yards from the corner is the pub
as i say you come to the corner of hobmoor road junction you go straight over into blakeland street and i would imagine the person whom advertised th sampsom may have had his own house arond the corner in blakeland street as gathers of pubs we all had our own pubs and with living quarters
but you always kept your own family home for security reasons when in cheltam i used to travel back to worc to see if every think was all okay
as the neibours would phone us up an tell the dammed burgerlar alarm was ringing all night
but yes thats the thing you always keep your own home we have had many pubsand clubs in our time and it always depended on the owners of inns and pubs
so the fact of the advert stating apply to blakeland street may be it was his personal home as i said the samsom building was very old even today
as so the custard house was is and still is it was well known for dancin and a great social pub and people came from all across brum at week ends and mid wek
my good old friend used to run the cross guns in kings heath high street and he took it over but before the cross guns he ran the old yew tree pub
for donkey years and in his later years now well upto afew years agoyou hve heard the story of the brookhill alum rock years ago he got robbed by an arm gang
he as also ran the falon and castle on moseley rd just along from the swimming baths and as recently a year a two he tryed to save the cross guns on washwood heath by the old bus garage hes an old guy like myself nd we was in the same management team for that part of brum
i am due to see phil and we comunecate about all the local gaffers of which he knows i know and at some point during the years we mee up us oldens
i will get him to comfirm the date when the sampson closed down thanks mike for putting up about the pubs i look foreward to all these pubs as i have said
my wife and myself have been in the licence trade of pubs across the countys walsall bristol london brum best wishes Alan;; Astonian;;;
 
Thank you for your interesting contribution Alan. I realise that it is normally probably referred to as Yardley road by most local people, and it is referred to as that on early maps. However it now seems (on Google) that at this point it is named Yardley Green Road, and it was to this I was referring
 
26.10.1865
Request for people to close for Palmerston's funeral. Would not happen today. Don't think they even did it for Churchill

funeral_of_lord_palmerston.jpg
 
28.10.1865
Luxurious decorations produced in Birmingham. I assume from the description of the firm that they are based on papier mache
The well known publishers Cornish appear to be going in for a bit of dubious practice, though letters by them in later editions of the paper deny it/

papier_mache_art_for_egypt_viceroys_yacht.jpg
Cornish_directory_arguments_in_court.jpg
 
30.10.1865
Big fire in Great Hampton St
Servants certainly had it hard then, restrictions on behaviour, wages and the fact that they sometimes did not get their wages for months, yet were still expected to conform to contract.

Fire_in_Gt_hampton_st.jpg
servants_had_it_hard_then.jpg
 
J. Bettridge & Co, were the leading 19thC, exponant's of Japaning or Paper-mashe furniture in the world, and some of their surviving works still command high prices today, "Buhl", I believe referes to inlaid brass fretwork. Makes you wonder if leaving your masters house to visit your dying mother, is grounds for instant dismissal with total loss of earnings, in a Christian country as blatant fraud. The amount of fires within Birmingham City boundery's in the 19th C seems huge, the Insurance premiums must also have been huge as well.Paul
 
paul stacey said:
The amount of fires within Birmingham City boundery's in the 19th C seems huge, the Insurance premiums must also have been huge as well.Paul
Click to expand...

It was said that in its day the Fire Station in Albion St in the Jewelry Quarter (now a children's nursery) was the busiest fire station in Europe.
 
Hi Nick and David,
Firstly Nick Many Thanks For Correcting My Senior Moment Regarding The Custard House Yes It Was Blake Lane
Just Of Late It Occuring Often
David Yes It Was A bUSY Fire Station In Its HEY Day As I Recall iN Those Days As I lIVED local To It
It Was Quite Often There Was Big Fire In Fact There Was Two Huge FIRES within the Boundries of the Fire Station
One Was At Clissold Passage Just UP from spring hill dudley rd along side of the cannal
It was a Bed making Manfacting Company IT litt up the sky and you could see it for miles away and the city centre summer row
The other one was on paradise street as it was then and yards from the king edward pub as it was then
Its the road that takes you up to the jewerly quarter clock only at the bottom end
You could see that from across ladywood and it was in the days of big peter snow the BBC news caster took to a programe
out and about with the west midlads fire service he went out on the job with them and filmed this particular fire and reported it on the news
I Actualy spoke to hime i was only a youngster at that time I was surprized to see how tall he was in hight that day i was running around telling other
how i seen and spoke to the man on the tele news and it was my surprize to see them close it down and changed it to a day nursery
I don,t know whether you can recall this subject about the fire stations on here some nine years ago but we did speak and talk about as i did a thread about it all those years ago on here thanks guys take care best wishes Alan;; ASTONIAN
 
31.10.1865
Fire in Stafford St. With reference to Paul's comment yesterday, not everyone had insurance, and it must have been very difficult, if not complete ruin to the tobacconist in this account.

fire_in_stafford_st.jpg
 
2.11.1865

Perhaps the performance ought to be renamed "The Death of Nelson and his resurrection". I do like the comment at the end about other members of the cast being "moderately clever".

death_of_nelson_and_his_revival.jpg




Judging by the strictness of the workhouse one might think that "without encumbrance" might be a euphemism for a eunoch.

corridor_keeper_wihout_encumbrance.jpg


I knew that having a business could entitle you to a second vote, but not that there were occasions when one share gave you a vote in two different constituencies.

two_votes_for_one_share.jpg
 
Last edited:
mikejee said:
I knew that having a business could entitle you to a second vote, but not that there were occasions when one share gave you a vote in two different constituencies.

two_votes_for_one_share.jpg
Click to expand...

It was within living memory that the business vote was abolished except in the City of London. The entitlement to vote in two areas would have come about by the canal crossing two wards.
 
4.11.1865
Victorian firework toys. Shows Alfred Bird did not just invent custard powder. The Pharaoh's serpent can be seen on U tube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dhHpHOgrUI (amongst other places. Apparently production of the serpent was eventually banned because of the poisonous nature of the chemicals and the resultant by-product. I think the Stromboli was based on ammonium dichromate and reaction is shown at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ula2NWi3Q34

stromboli_toy.jpg
Alfred_bird_did_not_just_invent_custard_powder.jpg
 
devonjim said:
Mike when were these banned? I am sure we could buy something similar in 1940's as indoor fireworks.
Click to expand...
I remember a small cone shaped firework which produced a long worm. Don't remember if it was an indoor firework but there was no flame or sparks from it.
 
No date was given as to when they were banned. It is possible that a substitute reaction was later used that was not so toxic.
 
Fire at Hide , skin and wool merchant in Coventry st

fire_in_hide2C_skin_and_wool_merchant_coventry_st.jpg


Query about Birmingham judges at poultry show.

query_about_judges_at_poultry_show.jpg
 
At one time Nossiter was in business with my gt gt gt grandfather - Thomas Taylor.

A sale of Meadow Land, Lady Meadow, The Hagglebottom, Lyndon Meadow, Lyndon Field and Fordrought plus messsuage, barn, stable, malthouse and other buildings, garden, tile sheds and kiln, 6 cottages and gardens, superior mine of clay etc due to insolvency 1835 - 1849. King v Taylor and King v Nossiter
 
15.11.1865
I find this a little difficult to understand. The police are stated to consider the public house closing act, which restricted licensing hours, to have been a great success in that the streets were more orderly, yet drunkenness had gone up by nearly 25%. Seems like things never change and authorities then also saw what they wanted, irrespective of the facts.

public_house_closing_act.jpg
 
16.11.1865
Further comments on Pharaoh's serpents (see item on 4.11.1865) being poisonous, and especially dangerous to children

Dangers_of_Pharaohs_serpent.jpg



Apparently the Irish were so scared of Rindepest, then raging through England, that thye are trying to prevent irish cattle drovers returning to Ireland after coming to England . I suspect their efforts were a little futile

restriction_on_irish_cattle_men_returning_to_Treland.jpg
 
https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/Disease/rinderpest.aspx
I had never heard of rinderpest so looked it up on google, thought this report would be of interest.

 
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