Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

[paul stacey]

Thanks for all the info Viv, when you think of what our great city has given to the world, in, innovation, production, and generation in nearly all the sciences, and mass production of all types materials from jewellery, and precious metals, steam machinery, architecture, food stuffs , motor vehicles, ad any other medium you can name, makes me very proud to call myself a Brummie anyway.
paul.

 

[mikejee]

23.12.1862

Appeal for lighting in courts

 

[mikejee]

24.12.1862

Can't find mention of an Attwood's passage, but in the c 1889 map there is a Baskerville passage leading to Baskervile place, and with a Baskerville House in it, while Pigott Smith's c1828 map shows a large area between Broad st and Easy row as Baskerville Wharf.The 1855 directories gives Attwoods an address in Baskerville place, so i would guess Attwood's passage was renamed Baskerville passage.
Linnet shooting for a pig
Seems like they shoot linnetts , but show sparrows.
A show of toy dogs in a pub seems a bit surreal, though maybe they don't mean the same by toy dogs as I would, it being just small ones
The advert says it all - "fortune preferred" !
Child selling still occurred, though did cause comment.
I think today police might take exception to the idea of shooting at least one burgler so as to help trace the others

.

 

[mikejee]

25.12.1862
Surprisingly, although there was no sunday edition of the Birmingham Post, there was one on Christmas Day, which included several pages of christmas stories. Apart from that the stories and adverts went on as usual:
New Witton cemetery arrangements, including an omnibus twice a day to take people to view grave sites. Wonder if it continued for people who wanted to visit graves with people in them.
Court had its nose put out of joint as, although it was illegal to sell alcohol outside hours, possibly not to drink it.
A jury whose antics would not be out of place in a Keystone Kops film
Good description of a couple of houses in Soho hill. the occupants were both commercial travellers. Haven't identified position of house
Woman died from swallowing her false teeth

 

[Astoness]

some great snippits there mike..what a thing though to die from swallowing your false teeth..pretty sure that the unfortunate mary harrington is not one of my lot as so far ive not found any living in london..earliest i can can find is my 3x gt grandad henry harrington b 1812 in dudley and then he arrives in nechells by the 1830s.. but of course we can never be certain...

thanks mike

lyn

 

[mikejee]

26.12.1862
Christmas in the workhouse, possibly slightly embellished for public consumption
A very good comparison of how animals could be considered more important than humans !
The next snippet adds the reservation to the previous of "unless the human is a solicitor or in the legal profession. This concerns a rather violent burglery in Edgebaston of a solicitor's house in which a servant was badly hurt. There is a great deal of fuss in the papers before this notice, including requests to ask the home Secretary tohelp, and long reports of the trial later. if however it had been an ordinary person's house then I doubt if much would have been made of it. Certainly it received far more column inches than any other violent offence in the 5 months i have been surveying the papers.
A previous letter had recommended the employment of watchmen by inhabitants of areas in addition to police, citing snow hill in particular. This is a response.
Not a pantomime I have come across before . I should think a harlequin Oliver Cromwell should not be missed.

 

[Astoness]

thanks for the snippets mike....do you know if that would have been the birmingham workhouse...


lyn

 

[mikejee]

My assumption was tha it was Birmingham, but it doesn't actually say. On looking at it further, Dr alfred hill was one of the guardians of the birmimgham workhouse, so i think it reasonable to say it was Birmingham

 

[mikejee]

27.12.1862
And people today complain about not having pounds/oz.
Looks like a citizen at that time agrees with my comments about the Edgbaston burglery
This not good reproduction, but it looks like some problems are forever with us

 

[Astoness]

My assumption was tha it was Birmingham, but it doesn't actually say. On looking at it further, Dr alfred hill was one of the guardians of the birmimgham workhouse, so i think it reasonable to say it was Birmingham

thanks mike...

lyn

 

[mikejee]

29.12.1862
Mayhem in Spiceal St. Should think the writer of the letter is William Griffiths, a bootmaker with premises at 19 Spiceal St, but who lived at 360 Bristol road
Not sure of the meaning of this, unless the writer meant Billetted rather than the Ballotted written here.

 

[DavidGrain]

According to Merriam-Webster an alternative meaning of Ballot is the drawing of lots. Could this have been a raffle?

 

[mikejee]

That seems reasonable, though it seems an unusual prize

 

[mikejee]

There were two Sanfords listed in the 1862 directory. a merhcant Henry in lionel st and David Sanford , pump maker and retail brewer at the Pump Tavern, spring hill. so maybee he had a christmas grotto set up in th epub

 

[paul stacey]

I don't know about the word "balloted", but what in the name of anything is a "Grotto", I always understood it was a small cave.!! confused.!!!
paul

 

[Astoness]

hi folks just going back to my post 452 when i was telling you about time team uncovering the soho manufactory in south road hockley and as part of the dig they dug up my first boyfiend dylon close.s back garden and patio and he did play a major part in helping with the dig..anyhow mike bought a book the other day and it gives a very good account of the dig so he very kindly forwarded the pages to me...im sure mike wont mind me posting them here as they make very interesting reading...gosh i do wish i could have been involved in this one..

 

[DavidGrain]

A grotto is a cave or any artificial structure resembling a cave. At Christnas time in the shops Santa can be found in his grotto.

 

[DavidGrain]

I was given the chance to take part in the dig but was told that we could do the work but that when the cameras came we would have to disappear to let the "stars" jump into the trenches and scrape away with their trowels so I said no thank you.

 

[mikejee]

Paul
The full OED gives a second meaning , first use 1625 (though it says it has not been updated since 1900):
An excavation or structure made to imitate a rocky cave, often adorned with shell-work, etc., and serving as a place of recreation or a cool retreat.
The onlin eoxford dictionary lists Santa's grotto, but does not give a first use

 

[Astoness]

I was given the chance to take part in the dig but was told that we could do the work but that when the cameras came we would have to disappear to let the "stars" jump into the trenches and scrape away with their trowels so I said no thank you.

have to say david that whatever ground rules were laid down there is no way i would have turned down the offer and it would have suited me not to be in the limelight......just to be anywhere near a dig such as this one was would be a once in a life time experience...you dont get a second chance...

lyn

 

[Charlie]

I'd have been right behind you Lyn.!

 

[Astoness]

I'd have been right behind you Lyn.!

oh i know you would have charlie..remember the winfield brass co dig and we came away with all those blue bricks thanks to david fowler and key hill bri loading up their cars lol....like i said chances like this dont come round very often and should be taken...sorry mike im waffling on again..cant help it i just get carried away lol

lyn

 

[mikejee]

30.12.1862
Another mention of Wendy's jennings ancestor, though only for selling tickets to a social evening
Obituary for J.F.Ledsam
Proof, if needed, that candles and gas don't mix
Can't find any reference to St Helena Gardens

 

[paul stacey]

Thanks Mike,#499, but why have a lotto for a grotto???? I may be a little hung over from Chrimble but still do not understand the artical!!
paul

 

[mikejee]

Paul
If it had been perfectly clear, I likely would not have included it !

 

[Wendy]

Thank you so much Mike this mentions the previous cutting about the meeting they had to discuss the 1d return on the flower sacks. Brilliant I love to follow any info on my great grandfather.

 

[mikejee]

31.12.1862

Tricklebank is like a name from Dickens. According to the 1862 directory he was a gun barrell filer. I cannot find him in the c 1862 census, and it is a differeent person at no 31. There are only 22 Tricklebanks listed in all of England, and they seem to congregate round Lichfield. There is a Mary E Tricklebank, in Cardigan St, but she is married to a Richard Tricklebank

 

[mikejee]

1.1.1863
A reminder that slavery was officially abolished in the US 150 years ago today.
A new hotel, The Royal, is coming to Sutton.
Today we would say he is looking for a personal shopper. (there were a lot of lazy people who wanted to impress then as well as now)

 

[mikejee]

2.1.1863
Prospectus of new Royal Sutton hotel
Ducks reared by cat. guess hte landlord of the pub was a bit of a showman

 

[mikejee]

3.1.1863
Announcing opening of Queens Hotel
Big fire in Whittall st
Fatal affray. I think the dead man was asking for money, but "asked the landlady, Mrs Rose, to relieve him" is a rahter pecul;iar way of putting it