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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

4.11.1863
A result to the case reported 29.11.1863 where it was claimed a newspaper was stolen in a pub
This advert seems to imply that canal carrying firms banded together to get better terms for repairs etc - at least I think that is what it means. Obviously there were a number of groups, two of which are here recruiting new members

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The actions over the alleged stolen newspaper seem a bit excessive! Must have cost Mr Cooke way above the original cost of the newspaper, plus the embarrassment. Either a matter of very poor judgement or maybe he was trying to make an example! Viv.
 
Interesting to see the use of upper case capital letters in the public apology - made sure the message was clear !
 
5.11.1863
A tavern that has been mentioned a lot lately because of The Peaky Blinders. On 2.10.1863, just over a year before it was being sold , with an attached butchery business. apparently the new landlord did not stay , however, as here it is for sale, without butchery business

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6.11.1863
The Ragged schools are started from purely philanthropic purposes to bring education to the poor, and then some bright spark on the council thinks they can save some money in housing criminal youths, at no cost to themselves, by putting some in the the ragged schools.
The last service at the chapel before it is rebuilt as the Church of Immanuel

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I wonder if housing the young criminals in the Schools for the poor worked? Where were the Schools and what are they now - I notice there is a 500 year lease for the purpose of a School.
 
pollypops said:
I wonder if housing the young criminals in the Schools for the poor worked? Where were the Schools and what are they now - I notice there is a 500 year lease for the purpose of a School.
Click to expand...

For a history of one of the schools have a look at https://www.qlhs.org.uk/oracle/2010-martineau/index.htm on the Quinton Local History Society website. The school formerly in Gem Street eventually became the Tennal School, an approved school in Harborne not closing until 1984
 
7.11.1863
An unpleasant method of theft using acid.
Conditions for tramps in the workhouse, obviously written by a cultured man on hard times.

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It just shows how awful conditions were in the workhouse. I remember an elderly lady several years ago who was terrified to go into St Edithas hospital in Tamworth. She was convinced it was still the workhouse. I suppose it is interesting to read an account from someone who could read and write as you say a cultured man on hard times, very sad.
 
As I have mentioned before on this forum, laws were passed by parliament to aid the distressed, and poor, which were then implemented and interpreted, by people in the forefront of the system in such away that beggers belief, as stated most elderly and infirm were PETRIFIED to have to go to the parish workhouses of the period, this fear was still palatable in the late 20th C. paul
 
How horrible to use acid like that - if it burnt material that quickly imagine how painful it would be if it dripped onto their skin!
The conditions in the workhouse 'Tramp room' sound very grim and as usual Mike you have raised questions - who was Charles Walters and why did he find himself with no money on that night when only a few days later he was writing a letter to a newspaper and provided an address? Intriguing!
 
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Surprisingly Pollypops, on searching in the 1861 census on Ancestry only one Charles Walters emerged living in Birmingham. Of course there is no reason to be certain he came from Birmingham, but the one listed was 41, married to Sarah, and he was a Hardwood Turner Master employing 1 boy and 2 girls at 21 Severn St.
However it is in fact unlikely to be him, as he is still married to Srah and a wood turner , in sheepcote st, in 1871. So the one writing th eletter probably wasnjust passing through, and there are 119 listed in 1861 in England as a whole
 
That is surprising Mike - I would have thought there would be more. I was so intrigued I had a look in the papers to see if Charles Walters was mentioned again - I found one mention on 1 November 1865 of a Charles Walters appearing as a witness in a manslaughter inquest held at the Old Stone Cross Inn Dale End.
It gave his address as 8 Court, Dudley Street and said he was a tailor - although he said in October (when the crime took place) he was living at 23 Chapel Street.
I wonder if this is 'our' man.
 
Possibly. The 1862 directory gives 22 chapel st as John Pepper , and it seems to be a private house. theb 1867 directory does not list that address.
 
9.11.1863
Bridge St West nothing but a puddle
Horses disappear into the ground at dudley
A pub bank, but does not seem to have been very successful, as the company was removed from the register in 1885.

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Hopefully in Bridge Street it was just mud that was up to their ankles and not horse manure.
Terrible accident at Cadman's bank - poor horses being buried alive and how horrible for the man that his dream came true.
I would imagine the Pub bank didn't do any good because most of the money that was meant to be paid into the bank ended up being spent in the bar.
 
How awful to loose two horses in such a way! There are still places opening up today due to mining!!
 
11.11.1863

This Walsall man shows that it can be dangerous to fall asleep while driving , even in a horse and cart.
I suppose butchers and medical practitioners were similar then, so that's how they got together.

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I became good friends with a couple from Dumolos Lane in Tamworth. They were once a farming family. He told me his father would take the produce early in the morning to Birmingham Market, in his words his father would drink a fair amount of the proffit. His horse would bring him home every week as he slept it off! I am glad he didn't fall like Joseph Green. Can you imagine that trip now!
 
Re: The Aldridge incident, that could be from yesterday's Mail!!!?
Not much changes, does it? Always some dozy s*ds around.
My grandfather was a drayman, could have been him 'drunk in charge' from what I've heard.
 
12.11.1863
Claims that Boulton was an early pioneer of photography. This is a cut-down version of the original piece.
The 19th century equivalent of the QVC TV channel - I wonder if the goods were rubbish then as well.
The probity of some stamp collectors questioned.

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If in fact evidence could be provided that a "photograph" was taken by the "silverplate" method as early as 1791this would be a revelation, I thought the first actual photos dated no earlier than the 1850's and had neverheard of earlier ones.?paul
 
I gather that it is now considered mostly that this was not a true photographic process, but a form of !mechanical painting. This is discussed in several Boulton books,, but refs online are at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/onlinelists/GB 0069 MS2117(vA2544791).pdf , https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/1545/1/Fogarty_11_MPhil1.pdf , https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...=matthew boulton photographic process&f=false . However
( https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/interview-rewriting-the-history-of-photography ) I don't think the matter is necessarily cut and dried
 
Don't know if it's a similar process, but I remember an early 'photocopier' turning up on the Antiques Roadshow. Think it was claimed to have belonged to James Watt. All the the Lunar Men dabbled in all sorts, so I guess it's very possible photography was one of those processes they tried to explore. Viv.
 
13.11.1863
A new estate where the price of the land increases the closer, depending on how near the station is. Today people would probably expect the price to increase the further the house was from the railway line !

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14.11.1863
Replacement for dangerous water slide chandeliers.
The dubious method of selling described on the 12th Nov. seems to have problems for its perpetrators. If they employed such a ramshackle system then I would say they were hoist with their own petard.

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