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GOING TO THE CIRCUS

Radiorails

Radiorails

master brummie
The word CIRCUS crops up many times in BHF threads often with different meanings.
There are quite a few roadways named ' something' circus.
However, references to a circus with animals - as well as fleas - together with performing artists are scattered in threads such as Bingley Hall, Big Top, old street photos and places as well as surname enquiries. Others mentioned are within this Fun Fair thread - which seemed to be the only place I could make this post.
This fragmentation is probably due to their being no specific circus thread.

In 1768, it appears Philip Astley formed the first show, which came to be known as a circus in London. A Blue Plaque can be seen at the location. But Chipperfield (according to wiki) claims a longer period of 300 years in the business. Modern viewpoints have resulted in far less animals being involved today but it is still a great time for youngsters to witness the acts put on for their enjoyment.
http://www.circopedia.org/SHORT_HISTORY_OF_THE_CIRCUS
 
There was a time when a televised circus seemed to be broadcast every bank holiday.

I recall a circus at Bingley Hall where someone poured water into a desk drawer which later proved to be empty. My memory of a proper circus was Chipperfields performing at Hay Mills in the recreation ground. They had a big gun mounted on a lorry.

My Nana lived in a small town in Cumberland and I remember at least two times being there and seeing the circus coming from miles away, the countryside there being very flat. It was small compared to Chipperfields and for me the star act was a pony that could count with his hoof.

We could buy our own Corgi Circus but it never appealed to me.
 
Torbay, being a busy place and holiday resort, has an annual three or four day visit of a circus during the high summer. Well attended it seems, but very zealous poster promotion lets people know, far and wide, with some advertisers getting concessionary tickets.
 
Radiorails said:
Torbay, being a busy place and holiday resort, has an annual three or four day visit of a circus during the high summer. Well attended it seems, but very zealous poster promotion lets people know, far and wide, with some advertisers getting concessionary tickets.
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its the same here.alan the shops that put the advert in the window, get free admin....
 
There was a circus building (long time ago, possibly late 1700/early 1800s) but can’t find the details. Anyone recall it being mentioned on BHF ? The building - not the circus - intrigued me. Think it was somewhere around the Bull Ring area. Viv.
 
1778 seems to be a map that shows the market area and former Shambles area became known as the Bull Ring. It took another two hundred years to alter the name it seems. To avoid unpleasant facts I will not elaborate on the area at the time.
Postie Vivienne mentioned the 1700/early 1800's. The Big Top was later - courtesy of the Luftwaffe. :)
 
After much searching this is the circus I was thinking of in my earlier post. It seems to have been a permanent amphitheatre which later became a church. Info from Showells Dictionary. Viv.
C4142068-B0B3-42E6-B4F7-A3C13EB6538C.jpeg
 
ok folks we have now had a tidy up of this thread and deleted off topic posts...we have also altered the title of thread so that members can recall their visits to the circus and where they were so if members could keep posts on topic please...i myself cant ever remember going to one but somewhere in the back of my mind i am sure mom and dad took me to stand on lichfield road aston to watch the elephants go by...where they were going or coming from i have no idea but maybe some members would know..this would probably be in the late 50s early 60s...thread is now open again

lyn
 
Astoness said:
ok folks we have now had a tidy up of this thread and deleted off topic posts...we have also altered the title of thread so that members can recall their visits to the circus and where they were so if members could keep posts on topic please...i myself cant ever remember going to one but somewhere in the back of my mind i am sure mom and dad took me to stand on lichfield road aston to watch the elephants go by...where they were going or coming from i have no idea but maybe some members would know..this would probably be in the late 50s early 60s...thread is now open again

lyn
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yer you have got my little grey cells working.i think you are right.i vaguely remember that.lyn
 
1580212633106.png.I never new there was a zippo circus.....................2019 swanshurst park
 
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There is one thread already devoted to the circus at Sparkbrook

The Circus Comes to Sparkbrook.

As I cant find a thread on Circus's I have put this enquiry here. If its the wrong place, then by all means move it please. I have just been reading a book "Birmingham the Way We Were" by Mac Joseph. In it are some photo's of a circus setting up on a bomb site in Sparkbrook. The problem is it...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
one of the things I loved when we went to a circus was the huge machines, the Foden trucks. the generators,etc,what mechanics. and sparkies there were.
 
Vivienne14 said:
After much searching this is the circus I was thinking of in my earlier post. It seems to have been a permanent amphitheatre which later became a church. Info from Showells Dictionary. Viv.
View attachment 141049
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Astley, mentioned in the link of one my earlier posts was probably one of a few, if the only one maybe, in the circus business.

A question for those who were young in the 1960's.
What was the name of this tv cartoon and that of the circus owner that featured as the bad guy in it? ;)
1580215414040.png
 
Billy Smarts Circus used to come to the car park of Perry Barr dog track (which was where One Stop is now) every year.
If you were walking past you often saw Billy Smart himself around by the caravans, he was a large man who used to wear a big cowboy type hat!

Some of the children of the circus performers used to attend Birchfield Road Juniors with us while the circus was on site.
 
When I was a nipper I used to go to Chipperfield's Circus for about five years on the trot . I used to enjoy watching the young Dickie Chipperfield with the big cats he'd be all dressed up for the act . Then on Saturday morning I'd normally see him up Broad St shopping with his mother looking nothing out of the ordinary , I more or less watched him grow up from a young boy to a young man . When the circus finished on your way out you were walking past the enclosures for the camels etc . Chipperfield's claim 300 yrs in circus . What about the Romans with their Circus Maximus ? I don't think there were many clowns in that circus though .
 
I loved Circuses I sort of feel sorry for them now. I think the people are a race apart. I too didn't like the caged animals. And Big cats and bears performing tricks. The circus had a special smell, and I liked looking down under the slatted seats. Mum and Nan always took me for my birthday in November. They wore skirts and were frozen. Grandad used to fetch us home. I recall Zippo's Jerry Cottle Chipperfields and Billy Smarts. One of them started Coventry Zoo. Which wasn't very good. It has a massive Zulu you could see for miles. I remember a circus at the theatre in Rhyll they made a half circle for the ring on the stage which extended. I felt cheated. Half a ring! They had big cats in cramped cages outside and their urine stank, reeked of ammonia. Like Coventry Zoo. I recall a boxing kangaroo which tried to kick his human opponent. Grandad thought that act cruel. Various sizes of horse, a zebra a donkey a camel and a bull, being dragged round the ring by young lads and jumping over a bar. A mature lady in a tutu skipping on a big white horse's rump. Grandad said she needed a cart horse. Horses with pink plumes. A cart horse opening a big box with a ribbon with his teeth and a shetland pony jumps out. Spotted ponies lying down to Irene Goodnight and Nan singing it, loud!. Nan's story of her sitting at the ring side and the horses putting their feet up, so we could never sit in the stalls. Her and grandad taking me to Blackpool circus with water and seals at the end. Getting splashed by them. Visiting the elephants chained up they looked so sad. Dragging aunty to see the elephants come off the train at Cheltenham. The clowns always frightened me. Even the sensible one. I remember Nicholas Parsons and Arthur Haines at the Circus on TV fooling about. The obilgatery candy floss. A fox on a lead pushing a pram on his hind legs, with a goose strapped in it. Chimpananzees' tea party.. A goose that did card tricks. Budgies. Dogs. They looked happy at least. Thanks for this topic.
 
A Sparks said:
Most circuses in Europe don't use animals anymore I'm glad to say, they just focus on the acrobatic performance side.
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A Sparks I appreciate the cruelty side of it only too well , when I was a kid I used to love to see the animals , I thought in a way that it was a form of education , I mean how many times nowadays have you heard kids say I've never seen a cow ,till they go out in the country . If I had stayed away from the circus , I would never have got to see a lion/tiger /elephant up close so it was a form of education to me
 
robert said:
Nico you really bought that to life.
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Well, queue the music, did did diddle diddle dar dar dara, you know the one! I loved the band and the ring master. The music for the elephants. My partner said some of the French Circus music was the same as ours. We were only saying to a piece I loathed on the radio this week, this is where some mature lady balances on a ball for hours or they spin plates to it.

I do like Le Cirque du Soleil.

My ex girllfriend travelled with a circus in the 70s. She was dating the owner's son. In their winter quarters she cared for the animals and exercised them. A leopard was so arthritic he could not jump up in to his sleeping chamber, so they shot him. She said he was very gentle. An elephant died of pneumonia so it was fed to the big cats. So she left and went to work for a private collection where she was mauled by a leopard. They settled out of court as they would have had to close, which they did eventually. The leopard was only playing......she said, it was her fault!......... and she should not have gone in alone, true...... not at all in my book...... but she was permanently scarred.

Remember there was a beautiful lady with long wavy hair dressed as cowgirl in a mini skirt or shorts. And her Palomino horse Goldie who performed tricks.? They appeared at the circus in Rhyll and on TV. A parody act followed her, another lady with the long wavy hair, miniskirted but maturer with a pantomime horse. It brought the house down. That was Circus class. Reel em in an make em laugh.

One of the funniest books I have ever read is Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter. A besotted young reporter falls in love with the winged, allegedly half human half Valkyrie trapeze act, who loves eel pies. They end up snowbound on a Circus train like the orient Express in the baltic.
 
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Two other good books featuring circus horses that I read as a child. I can't remember their titles though. One was about a stables, who 'find' a small black stallion. It becomes apparent when music is played, sets him off dancing and cavorting. Which lands them in big trouble. One of the grooms uses this skill to perform with him. The book's cover had a pretty girl in a white long ballet dress standing on a red platform cum saddle, on a black horse. Maybe it will ring some bells? The other book is bittersweet. It's set in London. Young boys working for peanuts driving horse drawn work carts. Some of the boys are runaways. One desperate novice lad ends up paired with the horse that is left. A pretty white ex circus horse unbeknown to him. He is doing well and he is transporting some china to an address. The ice cream van plays and up she goes on her hind legs. So does the cargo! I was besotted with animals. I still am.
 
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