Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

[mikejee]

8.12.1862
The electric telegraph is coming to Birmingham
Slander of a butcher. Later issues of the Post repeat this advert and also include one issued by the inspector of meat to say that he has regularly inspected the premises over several years and never seized any meat.
Not sure what aluminium gold is.

 

[mikejee]

9.12.1862
A new populist movement (populist amongst businessmen anyway) to prosecute felons
The precursor of Boxing Day
Floor covered by Diaper floor cloth for the Ball - bit difficult to dance on I would have thought
William Blood invites custom

 

[DavidGrain]

Definition of Diaper

noun

• 1North American a baby’s nappy.

• 2 [mass noun] a linen or cotton fabric woven in a repeating pattern of small diamonds.
• a repeating geometrical or floral pattern used to decorate a surface.
  
  
  The above is from Oxford Dictionaries Website
  
  A Floor Cloth was a floor covering to protect a carpet or wooden floor. Soho House have floorcloths on their floors for historical accuracy.

 

[mikejee]

Thanks for the infp David. I would have thought any naterial on the floor would have inhibited dancing, even if it was pulled tight

 

[mikejee]

10.12.1862
Some in Birmingham follow Wolverhampton in giving a holiday on 26th Dec.
Fox hunting then sounds even worse than in recent times

 

[barrie]

That foxhunt has more than a hint of Monty Python. Would have loved to have seen that.

 

[mikejee]

11.12.1862
A florid praise of the council repaving the pavements of the town, though I am not clear with what they were repaved
Sweep's Tea Party sounds like something from a pantomime
A postal complaint that could have been written today, though thye probably took more notice of it then
Loss of a spring reminds us that piped water has not always been accessable
An interesting document . I wonder if it exists today
Marrow pomade - i hate to think what people using it would smell like in hot weather

 

[Vivienne14]

The material for pavements gets a mention in 'A Ramble Around Old Birmingham". It says there was an experimental patch of the material near St. Phillip's Church: " Look down and you'll notice that we're standing on cement flags, a small experimental patch only, to be sure, but one that bodes well for the eventual wholesale disappearance of those lousy petrified kidneys".

According to Wikipedia, Rowley Rag was a volcanic dolerite stone quarried in the stone quarries (known locally as the 'Quacks') of the Rowley Hills in the West Midlands.

Allotment holders note the pomade article - a novel solution for using up those excess marrows we get every year!! Viv.

 

[mikejee]

Viv
Must be the carnivore in me, but I was thinking about marrow from bones ! I think your version is much more likely
Mike

 

[Vivienne14]

We could both have been barking up the wrong tree Mike! Found this Scottish recipe for Marrow Pomade. No mention of marrow except in the title. Viv.

 

[paul stacey]

I remember the poorer boys at school using margarine or butter for their "Tony Curtis DA" hair in the late 50's.
paul

 

[mikejee]

12.12.1862
Trial of the landlord of The Duke of Wellington, New St, Aston for manslaughter.
Complicated fraud. I thought at first they had been remanded so that whatever they had swallowed ( a sovereign?) could pass out of their system
Unknown family member. Would not have wanted to be a part of that family.
Gaslight introduced for lighting trains.

 

[Astoness]

great snippits mike...love the one about the gower st resident complaining about the post arriving after 8.30...wonder what he would make of todays postal service mine can arrive after 1 pm lol..

lyn

 

[mikejee]

13.12.1862
Accident at New St station
Another explosion at factory utilizing explosive material
Attitude of Relieving officer to his charges !
Selling of scrap metal to scrap merchant (marine store dealer) strictly illegal. From storiesi;ve heard this has been forgotten in the years after WW2

 

[mikejee]

15.12.1862

Heard of a quart in a pint pot, b ut here we have a pint in a quart pot
I suppose Harmonic meeting is a singing practice, or some such
Unusual name for a pub , Horse Birmingham. I have six unnamed beerhouses in Bromsgrove st in 1862, no idea which
Can't imagine 150 animals on display off Gloucester St today. Not clear if they were normally kept there though
At a time when there were many destitute in Lancashire because of problems in the cotton trade (which was the cause of this offer being made) on does wonder as to the meaning of the phrase "worth so much per head" in days when aid fronm the parish was far from generous.

 

[mikejee]

16.12.1862
Chance to bid for supplying Winson Green prison

 

[mikejee]

17.12.1862
Judging by it being Adderley St, the complainent was probably James Aston, blacksmith, from 44 Heath Mill Lane.

 

[mikejee]

18.12.1862
Christmas Festivities at Aston Hall
Trains as a sunday on Christmas Day
The Grand Sultan Divan was a house of ill repute and discussed at https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=6305 . It seems a bit at odds with an American bowling alley !
I have some sympathy with Cocksparrow in Darlaston
Sounds like an enormous pig.
Defamed by a Prigg !
I like the name Dandy gig. Not sure if it is slang for a velocipede or a trade name

 

[DavidGrain]

My first thought was that a Dandy Gig was a two-wheeled horse drawn carriage but a velocipede is any human powered vehicle eg a bicycle.

 

[mikejee]

I realised it was probably a sort of bicycle. i have just looked it up in the online OED and it did not find it, so perhaps it is not surprising that we had not come accross it before

 

[Vivienne14]

In the first clipping it mentions Terpsichoreans. Never come across this word before either. All it means is dancer. But my, how grand does Terpsichorean sound?!! Apparently, Terpsichore was the Greek muse of dance. Lovely. Viv.

 

[Radiorails]

In that case. Vivienne, you are either too young or never watched the BBC tv programme called "The Good Old Days".
Leonard Sachs, who introduced the artistes, regularly used that word. Of course those were the times when watching tv could be a family affair and was less violent.

 

[Vivienne14]

Hi Radiorails. I remember "The Good Old Days" but only vaguely. Remember he used to fill his sentences with very long words that I didn't understand! Then he used to bang a gavel (?) on the rostrum. Was more interested in his dramatic gesturing! So the words tended to pass me by. Viv.

 

[mikejee]

19.12.1862
Bakers versus Millers
Complaint in a (not very good) poem
Not sure what the final one is about, but think it must be a plea to the council to improve the pavements.

 

[mikejee]

20.12.1862
Regrets on the demolition of the Soho Manufactory - could have been written, though perhaps in less florid terms, by one of our forum members today.

 

[paul stacey]

Was "Soho", Mathew Boltons house,factory, or both???, and did the "Soho district" come from the demolition?, is the "Mr Baskerville", mentioned the very same buried upright and in his own garden?.
paul

 

[mikejee]

Paul
The article is referring to the manufactory , or factory, which is shown on the map and the pictures below, one before and the other during demolition:

Yes, he is referring to that Mr Baskerville. I am not sure if the area was called Soho before the manufactory was built, or whether it gained the name from the manufactory, though, if i had to guess, I would guess the former.

 

[paul stacey]

Thanks very much for the info Mike, I understand perfectly now.
paul

 

[Charlie]

Makes you want to weep!

 

[Astoness]

Makes you want to weep!

dont it just charlie...cracking pics and very interesting map there mike...turnpike road is now soho hill and road...the dotted line to the right of that is now hunters road obviously after hunters nursery...under wills and gimbett became nursery terrace then changed to nursery road..i would imagine that wills st was named after wills and gimbett and i also note on the map george barker esq and so barker st was born..then we have colonel vyse and we all know of vyse st...fascinating...just as an aside time team were in south road a few years back uncovering the soho manufactory and an old friend of mine played quite a part in the programme..the team even dug up his parents back garden and patio(he used to live there and as a teenager i visited the house)...they could have gone further back but the back living room would have had to go...amazing to think that all those years back i had no idea was what under that house and still is of course.

lyn