Newspapers : Birmingham Papers (usually BhamPost) 150 Years Ago 1867-

[mikejee]

25.10.1867
Accident at Saltley junction.
New site for fish market. The opening of the fish market is normally given as 1869, it moving from a site in the street, But it looks like the market was held on that site for a short time before the building was built.

 

[mikejee]

28.10.1867
It would seem, if the contents of the letter are true, that Birmingham was the home of the steam roller.

 

[mikejee]

29.10.1867
Old station at Moseley to be renamed Kings Heath, and new Moseley station opened
New St Nicholas church to be open to everyone. i presume this means all pews are free and open and none bought.

 

[mikejee]

31.10.1867
Never heard of christmas boxes being given by tradesman to customers before. The letter inplies that some who do not deserve it (meaning who do not spend enough money at the shop) can get them, which seems surprising.
Manufacturing fog signals without licence, adn woman injured in expolsion, yet lenient sentence. Sounds like the defendant was friend of magistrate, or had paid him off.
Report of the opening of the new Moseley station (mention previously on 29th)described.
A time gun to help residents. Don't think it was instituted.
No chenge then. Politicians were fiddling their expenses at the cost to the public then as now.

 

[mikejee]

5.11.1867
More Aston streets to be lit at night.
Two cuttings which emphasise that , then, guns were far more common that today. The letter writer does not seem to be an enthusiastic churchgoer.

 

[Lady Penelope]

Mike, seeing your post #332 reminded me that Mom always used to tell the story of my brother and his love of steam rollers. She would walk miles pushing him in the 'big pram' looking for 'umber-diggers' which is what he called them. This would have been in the mid 1940's. They were quite a part of our growing up as the roads were frequently being mended.

 

[mikejee]

9.11.1867
A somewhat different view of police to guns than that present today.

 

[mikejee]

11.11.1867
Report on conditions in Walsall Workhouse. Even then they thought it was pretty awful
Fog descends on Birmingham, and train drivers could not see signals.

 

[mikejee]

13.11.1867
Gun worker accidently shot at work

 

[mikejee]

14.11.1867
Former occupant of Packwood house, John Fetherston (listed as head in 1861 census), at present in prison for debt. to be given discharge from bankruptcy.

 

[mikejee]

16.11.1867
Looks like workers didhave a little protection against dubious empoloyers at this time thanks to the master & Servants Act.

 

[Pedrocut]

16.11.1867
Looks like workers didhave a little protection against dubious empoloyers at this time thanks to the master & Servants Act.
View attachment 121445

The employers were much more liable to be able to afford the costs if they lost the case.

“During the 1860s, punitive provisions were extended by judicial interpretation, leading to the imprisonment of union officials who led strikes or issued verbal calls challenging an employer's hiring practices such as only using non-union workers. A revised Master and Servant Act was passed in 1867, which supposedly limited imprisonment to "aggravated" breaches of contract (where injury to persons or property was likely to result), but it was clear that only workers were subject to its provisions. Imprisonment, even for non-aggravated breaches of contract, continued when working people failed to comply with court orders for specific performance or for non-payment of monetary damages and fines.[1]

Between 1858 and 1875 on average 10,000 prosecutions a year took place under the Act in Britain. Ernest Jones, a barrister, estimated that, "n one year alone, 1864, the last return given, under the Master and Servants Act, 10,246 working men were imprisoned at the suit of their masters — not one master at the suit of the men!"[2] There is some evidence, however, that this may not universally have been the case; at least one scholar has shown that local courts enforced causes of action in the early-to-mid-19th century against masters as well, in at least some instances, albeit in Canada.[3]”

 

[Eric Gibson]

"The employers were much more liable to be able to afford the costs if they lost the case."

That Pedro is a widespread misconception, many employers were just as poor and often poorer than their workers and that's still the case, an owner of a small business can be working for long hours for just a few pennies an hour to keep the business going.
Ebenezer Scrooge was sitting in the cold at midnight doing his books for the tax man and to see if the business could survive another year whilst Cratchet was in the pub boozing away his pay.

 

[Pedrocut]

The Master and Servant Act of 1823 described its purpose as "the better regulations of servants, labourers and work people." It was heavily biased in favour of the Master. The Master could take the worker to the Criminal Court and sentences were very harsh. Off to Van Diemens Land.

The worker could not take the Master to the Criminal Court he had to be satisfied with the Civil Court. There was no legal aid. Many of the Master were also Magistrates, but none of the workers. The fines meted out on the employer were normally small, even in 1913 the value of a Senghenydd miner’s life was only worth 13 and a 1/2 pence.

I don’t think we can compare to the present day, or to fictional characters. However I am sure I will come across a Master who is poorer than his servant if it is a widespread misconception!

 

[mikejee]

18.11.1867
A possible end to over-long sermons?
Mr Holder's music hall, later the gaiety, underdoes a refurbishment.
I wonder whether the volunteers were military or volunteers for social or some other purpose.

 

[mikejee]

20.11.1867
Not everyone was enthusiastic at the application of the Factory Act with relation to employment of children.
Christmas boxes to be discouraged from tradesmen to customers. Later, of course certain tradesmen would encouage this practice in the reverse direction.

 

[mikejee]

21.11.1867
Religious rioting in Birmingham.

 

[mikejee]

22.11.1867
Rioting in Birmingham against Catholic churches.

 

[mikejee]

23.11.1867
Disagreement over new Birmingham seal

 

[DavidGrain]

In the dispute over the City Seal and the way it depicts the City's coat of arms, the writer seems to think that the quarterings have been reversed and the colours changed. The fact is that the arms would have to be as they were granted by the College of Arms. The College of Arms would not have allowed the city to copy exactly the arms previous granted to the Lords de Bermingham and Sir Henry Birmingham but would have allowed them to be used as a pattern from which differences would be allowed. This would explain the differences that the letter writer is complaining about.

Incidentally the first quarter 'Azure a Lozengy Bend Or' means blue (azure) with a diagonal line (bend) made up of lozenges (diamond shapes) coloured gold (Or). The diagonal line should run from top left to bottom right as you look at it. Sometimes in old representations the diagonal has gone the wrong way. For an example of this go to the Old Joint Stock pub and go through to what was the manager's office in the former bank and look at the engraving on the window glass.

I have edited this post to add that Or means gold

 

[mikejee]

Thank you for the explanation David. I'm afraid heraldry , to me, is a bit like witches spells and not very comprehensible

 

[mikejee]

25.11.1867
Apparently kite flying and pitch and toss are "ruffianism", especially on a Sunday. What would he think about football games on a sunday today?
Arthur Lloyd toappear at Town Hall

 

[Ray T]

25.11.1867
Apparently kite flying and pitch and toss are "ruffianism", especially on a Sunday. What would he think about football games on a sunday today?
Arthur Lloyd toappear at Town Hall
View attachment 122422
View attachment 122423

The hang-em and flog-em spokesman, looks like.

 

[Pedrocut]

And what would A Townsman think of the Riots of 2005!

 

[Eric Gibson]

The comment about France was a bit daft, it's always better somewhere else.
That's still the same today though, their hospitals are better, they spend more on this and that than our government does, their grass is greener.

 

[Lady Penelope]

Mike, your comment about football on a Sunday reminded me of the year Aston Villa held a game at the same time as the church service on Easter Sunday and prevented worshippers from actually getting there.

 

[Smudger]

The comment about France was a bit daft, it's always better somewhere else.
That's still the same today though, their hospitals are better, they spend more on this and that than our government does, their grass is greener.

It`s not always better in France if you like Nutella. According to BBC news, there has been rioting in certain supermarkets after the price of Nutella was greatly reduced, & shoppers were keen to get their hands on as many jars as possible. In the land of haute cuisine, the French eating stuff out of a jar! Whatever next, they`ll be eating beans on toast.

What`s got a hazelnut in every bite? Squirrel poo.

 

[Radiorails]

 

[mikejee]

28.11.1867
St Phillips is a cold church

 

[mikejee]

29.11.1867
Redecoration of Holders Music Hall in Coleshill St described
Not associated with Birmingham, but no doubt much talked about at the time, though I have never heard of it before. Bet the coachman did not work for the Queen again after this.