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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

In post 2236 I noted a report of women fighting. On of our members sometimes feels interested enough on the entries in this thread to copy them to Facebook. I certainly do not object to that, indeed am glad that they find the items interesting, though an acknowledgment of the forum would be polite and a reference to the original source and date ( not usually given) very useful for those reading it.
For him and others interested the original source of this story seems to be a report of the "local correspondent" of the national Pall Mall gazette of the 10th October 1865, which was then repeated virtually verbatim in papers all over the country. It does not say very much more, but is given below with the repeated report of one of the other papers , the Bridport News

pall_mall_gazette_10_10_1865.jpg
Bridport_news_14_10_1865.jpg

quite agree mike...like you say we do not mind sharing but please acknoweledge the birmingham history forum as its source...its also good advertising for those who may not know we are here and really it is just good old fashioned common courtesy to say thank you which costs nothing...

lyn
 
20.10.1865
Woman killed by her paramour. After this initial report many column inches were produced on the sunject, obviouly of great interest, even in less scandalous papers such as the Birmingham Post.

women_killed_by_paramour_in_chapel_st.jpg
 
Mike, I posted your article on the face book Wednesbury site, sorry for not mentioning the source of the story.

will certainly do so on any others I post, and apologise for not doing so this time.


Nick
 
Thanks Nick. In fact I did not see your post, it was another person on another Facebook thread that I was referring to. I would emphasise that I am all for items of history to be posted wherever they may be of interest to others, but would also wish people to acknowledge the source.
 
Thanks Nick. In fact I did not see your post, it was another person on another Facebook thread that I was referring to. I would emphasise that I am all for items of history to be posted wherever they may be of interest to others, but would also wish people to acknowledge the source.
Thanks Mike, could I just ask you, do you mean Birmingham Post 150 years ago or the Birmingham history site.?
 
I meant the BHF site. No need to list the thread. Quoting the site might increase the number of visitors to it.
 
21.10.1865

Gas explosion in Coventry Road.

Dyeing recommendations for the household user

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dyeing_recommendations.jpg


I do like this letter, which shows a true christian attitude of the curate, in instructing the poorer members of the church to take the best seats, and let the more affluent fend for themselves.

a_church_with_a_true_christian_attitude.jpg
 
The advert for Judson's Simple Dyes makes interesting reading. And how comprehensive. I can't imagine why a person should want to dye willow shavings and seaweed. Dyeing book edges - never heard of that being done before. And a new occupation to me "oilman". I suppose dyeing was fairly typical in many households. If you wanted something new, just dye it and you have a 'new' dress, hat, feathers etc. From personal experience however, it's a tricky process. Things often don't turn out the way you expect them to, the result can be very patchy especially when dyeing large items. Viv.
 
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Viv
there was a separate section in the trades section of Kellys, in the 19th century for "Oils and colour men". I have always assumed the oil was possibly linseed, and possibly other similar, for paints etc
 
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

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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.

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