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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

Didn't know that the householder was liable too. Took a lot of legislation to stop the practice and only by licensing sweeps in the 1870s did it get things under control. There was even a machine that could do the job, but householders preferred their chimney's swept by a human being and I suppose the person employing the sweeps would lose work. Viv.
 
22.2.1864
Conditions in some workhouses were even worse than those described by Dickens.

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25.2.1864

Somehow I don't think a juror today would be able to be a character witness for someone in a case he was trying.
Steam power for heavy loads. Sounds like some form of tracked vehicle.
A not very successful submarine.

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Workhouse: No wonder people feared the workhouse so much. I can't imagine that many people crammed into such a small place. The final comment reminds me of recent headlines when hospital staff have to be reminded to give patients drinks!
Stealing Gas: How odd a member of the jury was allowed to give a character reference for the person in the dock - didn't do any good though did it!
Submarine: This model definitely needed 'some improvements'.
 
26.2.1864

To us it might sound pretty hideous, but presumably there was a good market for this sort of thing then.

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There was a massive chandelier at the Chrystal Palace made by Chance Glass I think. I have a picture somewhere.
 
Although to our modern eyes "The Workhouse", seems more akin to a medievil prison, if you were poor and had no relatives to look after you in old age, there was no where else to go. Hospitals or care homes for the poor did not exist, and the only alternative for many thousands was to die in the street. You were at least fed after a fashion, had a bed of sorts, if very old, a ration of tobacco, and if ill a doctor, then when you died a burial with a priest. It does seem very horrific to our modern society but what else could they do.
 
Absolutely Paul. The workhouses were way over stretched, an inadequate solution to a dire situation. When compared with the expense of the ridiculous chandeliers in post # 1325 it puts in context the extreme social differences, especially for the children. I had wealthy relations on my grandfather's side of the family, but at least they put some money and effort into industrial schools for the poor. Not very much, though I expect it helped their consciences, and more importantly, gave the less fortunate kids a bit more of a chance in life. Viv
 
Chandeliers: These chandeliers sound very ornate - the workmanship involved in creating them must have been tremendous.
I would imagine colour photographs were quite scarce at that time so that would have added to their novelty value.
 
Polly
The piece says coloured photographs. I think this would have been B & W photographs that had been coloured. I can remember around the early 1960s you colud still get kits at the photographic shop to do the colouring.
 
27.2.1864
The Birmingham Post looks quite liberal in its views in the first snippet here !
Bull faces train and rams it

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Interesting piece on punishment, the use of the "Cat", in the Army and Navy disappeared by the 1870's, the birch however continued until the 1960's, never a follower of this type of punishment including "Capital", but various crimes in the press lately may have changed my mind.
 
29.2.1864
The 28th was a Sunday, so no paper, but , conveniently, 1864 was a leap year,

One thinks of the american civil war being just an american affair, but Britain supplied material to both sides, which annoyed the other side in both cases. Apparently soem Britons also served in the war, in this case for the confederates.

Fire in New St

I gather a maiding tub was a tub where you thumped the dirt out of cloths. I presume a maid was what I have heard called a dolly.

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Viv "
The reference you give has a link to a free e-book on internet archive written by James Morgan, Recollections of a rebel raider".
It states that at cape town (where letter above is from) ..."Several of the British sailors who had joined us at Ushant Island, sailor-like, discharged themselves and left behind the pay due them. With three or four exceptions our ship's company was now composed entirely of Americans.". so maybe william left here, or maybe he was one of the exceptions. One thing surprised me. On one occasion the ship "broke down" because a wooden cog broke. I had not realised that on these ships, wooden cogs would be used. Sounds a bit risky to me
 
Thanks Mike. I thought at first how it all sounded like a badly organised pirate operation. But not at all. In Liverpool, blockade running and supplying ammunition seems to have been fairly well organised. Bullock (Cap'n) mentioned in the letter gets a mention here under the section on Liverpool's role in the War. He organised operations to supply Confederate armies. William must have known Bullock, so maybe he originally went up to the Southern Club's uLiverpool offices to sign up (if that's what they called it in these circumstances).
https://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/Sesquicentennial.html

Viv.
 
In 1998 the statue was in Post Office storage in Paradise Street. Maybe it went there when the Exchange was demolished, that is if it ever did stand in the Exchange. Viv.

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2.3.1864

Big fire in Newhall St
Fakes are not just a modern thing, but a fake gun that might explode if not properly made would be a bit more serious than a pair of overpriced Dolce & Gabbana jeans that wore a hole in the behind after a week.

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It sounds as if it was very awkward for the fire engines to reach Mr Lilly's premises. Would the naval and military ornaments have been badges/buttons etc?
A fake, poor quality gun would definitely be a safety worry and a huge embarrassment for the real William Greener. I don't know what the average wage was in 1864 but £10 sounds a lot of money.
 
3.3.1864
Can't imagine anyone giving a stationmaster today a bag of sovereigns in gratitude for his services.
Comments about the position of the old post office, but also noticed the phrase "turned off" meaning hanged - a somewhat unusual, to me, use of the phrase.
I would have thought someone might have noticed 11 barrows trundling down the street in the middle of the night.
This Sutton coal merchant was obviously aggrieved, but the phrase "cutting off his nose...." springs to mind.

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Re: Fire - so at the time of the fire the premises were occupied by a button manufacturer and not Mr Lilly military ornament maker - but possibly Mr Lilly had also made buttons - military ones - at the premises. On seeing a fuller description of the position of the property it is amazing that the fire didn't spread to the adjoining buildings.
Re: Philip Matael - Well he certainly had a lot of time to think about what was going to happen to him in Birmingham - I wonder why they didn't just 'turn him off' in Warwick?
Do you think someone wanted his coat - or was it too bulky for the coffin? That article certainly raises some questions!
Re: Ten Barrows - do you think they were put on a boat and taken down the canal?
Re: Coal dealer - was he stubborn or did he know there was not enough money to be made by selling coal in honest weights? I would love to know what he did after that.

Great articles - thanks Mike.
 
4.3.1864
Discussion as to proposed Northfield station.
The Maori group has gone, so now we have the Aztecs. Except I am am not sure if any 100% Aztecs exist now or then, and wonder if this lot even come from Mexico. If so, and they are on their way to the States, then they are going by a circuitous route -Mexico-Europe-UK-America.

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The regular display of humans of other cultures (as in the Holder's Concert Hall ad -and others mentioned in earlier articles) seems pretty distasteful today. Can't see the fascination personally, but I suppose the Victorians enjoyed examining people of these unfamiliar tribes etc and saw them as curiosities. You do wonder if it was in any way helpful to better understand others. The adverts always seem to present it as some weird sort of 'entertainment' . Viv.
 
I think one of the things we forget in this Era, is just how large the Victorian world still was , in 1864 the whole of central Africa was still unexplored, India was still one third virgin forest, Australia was still virtually unknown 60 miles from the coast, and South America was virtually unexplored, no one really knew about Antarctica, This world is very small now, within a day you can be anywhere on the planet give or take a few hours, Victorians were very curious about other peoples, and places. They were also very religious and had a zeal for aiding and helping the (as they saw it), untamed populations to become civilised. This of course to our understanding is dreadful and very un-pc, but it was THEIR, world, it should never be re written or airbrushed just for the sensibilities of our time.
 
8.3.1864
More Fires in Birmingham
Duddeston Hall was then an asylum, though presumably for the better-off members of society. I am sure thta such entertainments would not have been provided for the more normal members of society.
That must have been quite unusual at that time for the masters to give in so easily to wage demands.
Looks like big business was trying to edge into Sutton park, kicking out the locals. That sounds familiar.

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