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Birmingham Pub Blacklist (a few years back)

Aidan

Aidan

master brummie
Might be worth checking this before you go out Saturday night to see if there are any relatives there! :D

I noticed that Ancestry have published the first of hopefully a series of Pub Blacklists - https://search.ancestry.co.uk/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=1651&path=Birmingham+Black+List

It was compiled by The Birmingham Police Watch Committee (although the binder is marked as The Holt Brewery Co Ltd ) and is well worth stepping through the 82 records

The description given:

If Eliza Doolittle had followed in her father’s more intemperate footsteps (and if the family had lived in Birmingham), she might have been the “flower seller” who found her way into Birmingham’s Black List of habitual drunkards.
In order to enforce the 1902 Sale of Liquor to Habitual Drunkard’s Licensing Act, the Watch Committee of the City of Birmingham provided licensed liquor sellers and clubs with photos and descriptions of people deemed “habitual drunkards,” who were not to be sold liquor. The 82 persons in the book were convicted of drunkenness between 1903 and 1906, typically at the Birmingham City Police Court.
Each entry includes both a picture (usually with a front and profile view) and a description with such details as:
Name and alias
Residence
Place of Employment
Age
Physical description, including hair, eyes, complexion, shape of face, and scars or marks
Profession
Date and nature of conviction and sentence
The pages are populated with the likes of Richard Flemming, known as “Dirty Dick” and “Dick the Devil,” and Alice Tatlow, whose tattoos included “Prince of Wales Feathers back right hand; heart, clasped hands, true love K.B. back left arm.” They work at professions ranging from bedstead polishers and hawkers to grease merchant and tube drawer, as well as one street performer who “plays tin whistle outside Licensed Houses.”
If you find a member of your family here, you’ll discover a marvelous snapshot of an individual at a moment in time — albeit a difficult moment. If not, you’ll still find a compelling portrait of a segment of society that rarely takes center stage.
 
As i understand it Aidan, this particular list went only to Holte brewery pub landlords. Of course other breweries likely had similar lists
Mike
 
Fascinating find, I did notice scimming through the first 20-30 pages that it was obligatory for the women to have some sort of 'cut scar' on their face or arm. The first one that I found without a scar had an eye missing. I wonder if they could do the same for the Saturday Night 'binge drinkers' on Broad Street :)
 
Hello Dashers You will no doubt come across a picture of an ancester of mine in there. He was blacklisted from most pubs in birmingham in the early 1900s, he was known as Tommy Tank due to the amount of beer he could drink. His real name was Thomas Larvin he was my Great Grandmothers brother. I have some great stories of him passed down through the family. My aunt who is 100 years old and still going strong went to his funeral in 1935 she was 25 then and remembers him well. All the best formula t.
 
Here are a couple of little stories regarding Tommy Tank. In his younger days Tommy was a hawker in the market selling fish, on one occasion he had some herrings on his cart and was disappointed that a lady customer refused to buy any, about a week later the same lady did purchase some herring from Tommy, but came back later complaining that they were not fresh. Ah said Tommy you should have bought them last week when they were fresh, you had the chance. In later years Tommy was institutionalised and one day happened to catch sight of a well known magistrate, who was visiting the place and had fined Tommy many times for being drunk, bloomin hell said Tommy have they got you in here as well, the place is going downhill. Both of these little stories were taken from Tommys obitury which was printed in the Birmingham Gazette (Friday 20th December 1935) All the best formula t .
 
My Mother & Father often talked about Tommy Tank, one story I remember is about Tommy throwing the weights from his scales through a pub window after being refused a drink, the other I think was when some of the locals in another pub took the wheels of his cart and carried it up the entry sideways to the gardens at the back, and then replaced them, he was drunk and couldn't work out how to get it back on the road.

Nick
 
Hello Brummie Nick. Tommy often threw stuff through pub windows, the story of dismantling his cart is quite true, i think it was the bulls head in digbeth. The Mail did a story on Tommy in the 70s with stories and pictures. i have it somewhere i will have to dig it out and check. All the best formula t .
 
Great story, pity we don't have any more characters like tommy anymore, this country has always been known for its excentric characters, but political correctness and the change in balance of the nation through mass emigration has changed all this enjoyed the one about the wagon though.
paul
 
Another snippet from the Birmingham Gazette(Friday 20th December 1935) ALDERMANS ANECDOTE Did i know Tommy ? Who didnt ? said Alderman W. E. Lovsey (chairman of the Birmingham Watch Committee ) to the Gazett last night, Why i claimed Tommy as my oldest peculiar friend. I remember many amusing things about him. There was the time he accepted a wager in a hostelry in Deritend to walk to the Stonebridge Hotel on the Coventry Rd with a weight on his head. He did it. His reward was copious draughts of beer, and he was satisfied. Quite often Tommy would call in at my office,just for old time sake. He was a real character . All the best formula t .
 
My father (b. 1905) told me some tales about Tommy Tank. I did wonder if he was mythical. It seem not.

Aparently Tommy would do anything for a bet. Once he walked backwards from Coventry to Birmingham with a brick on his head.

Another time he was in a pub (near the Bull Ring). The gaffer and his dog went down into the cellar and caught a sackful of rats. The bet was how many rats' head Tommy could bite off in a given time!

Though I now live down sarf I dont use much rhyming slang. However I do use 'Tommy Tank' = 'bank.' as Lloyds Bank. I also say that a 'cut' (ie a canal) has a 'bonk'. Make of that what you will.
 
JohnWish said:
My father (b. 1905) told me some tales about Tommy Tank. I did wonder if he was mythical. It seem not.

Aparently Tommy would do anything for a bet. Once he walked backwards from Coventry to Birmingham with a brick on his head.

Another time he was in a pub (near the Bull Ring). The gaffer and his dog went down into the cellar and caught a sackful of rats. The bet was how many rats' head Tommy could bite off in a given time!

Though I now live down sarf I dont use much rhyming slang. However I do use 'Tommy Tank' = 'bank.' as Lloyds Bank. I also say that a 'cut' (ie a canal) has a 'bonk'. Make of that what you will.
Click to expand...
Another story is told here in Carl Chinns Old Brum no 5

Tommy tank. carl chinns Old Brum no 5.jpg
 
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