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Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

As I understand it, a journeyman is one who has finished his apprenticeship, but is not yet considered a master craftsman, and does not have his own business.
 
9.3.1864

An explosion at the Barracks in which the quartermaster survived , amazingly. Also amazing was that more ordinance had not exploded.
This gives an idea as to the enormous quantities of coal used by the railways, in particular the GWR.
This requirement that for a pub to be prosecuted for out of hours drinking the doors must be open when the police visited seems somewhat obtuse, and must have been "remedied" at a later date.

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Interesting that there was a debate about the position of the old Post Office in the 1860s. It seems odd,as surely many would have remembered it. These two views were posted in an earlier post, plus the modern Streetview. Obviously we can no longer see St. Phillip's due to buildings obscuring the view. The old Post Office looks nothing like a Post Office, the smallest building left of the gates. Compare it with the General PO built 1891 on Victoria Sq (or whatever it's called today). There must have been a PO on Bennett's Hill to replace the little, old New St one prior to the General PO built on Victoria Sq. Viv.

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Later revision. The Post Office is at the second doorway of the Georgian building on the left of the drawing and the Paul Braddon painting.
 
I cannot remember the last time I walked down New St, or Bennetts Hill, must be all of 50 years ago, my it dos look so different Viv.
 
Viv
The item above, and an earlier item on the old post office , were from what would now be called a regular column called Local Notes & Queries. There were several other entries on the post offcie site also, but they did not seem to add much, so i have not posted them
 
Thanks Mike. In your cutting #1355 about the New St/Bennett's Hill post office it uses the word 'opened up' to describe Bennett's Hill. This is what caught my eye because that seems to tell us of it's earlier existence i e not cut through as a new road.And as talked about in the Bennett's Hill thread, the Hill probably goes way back in time. But won't harp on about it as we have the other thread for discussion! Viv.
 
14.3.1864
Out to shame the women. I'm sure here must be a good story behind this, but we will never know.
It sounds to me as if they are objecting to the rich being able to purchase their own pews in church, and not let others use them.

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I have never understood how it came about that people could have their own pews in church. If you go into St Paul's Church in the Jewellery Quarter you will find a note that Matthew Boulton had a pew near the front but James Watt was relegated to somewhere near the back.
 
I wondered if they were tied into families. With Watt coming from Scotland maybe he didn't have enough family clout to get a front pew. I think when Watt first met Boulton, Watt was short of cash too. So maybe by the time he had money, there were no pews to be had. Viv.
 
#1363, all to do with the Victorian idea of social status, in fact it goes back further, the richer you were the nearer the high altar you were buried.
 
15.3.1864
Plans for a new railway. Well the length to Kings norton went ahead, but not the branch through Harborne.

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The library clip contains the first suggestion I've ever seen that books could be circulated between libraries so that other readers in different places could get the benefit of more books. I suppose early libraries weren't organised to do that, or maybe they were just unwilling if they were set up using completely private funds.and contributions. Viv.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
17.3.1864
The sultan divan prosecuted for licensing (or lack of) offences. Later it would be accused of offences of a somewhat more serious character, that caused it to be closed down. This is an edited version of a rather long report.

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The Grand Sultan Divan was a notorious dancing saloon at one time and later was transformed by the YMCA "from a source of untold evil into one of great blessing for young men". Joseph Bandano was a cigar merchant from Algeria, and his wife was from Nottingham. There are references to it in the weekly newspaper "Brum" which appeared for a few months in 1869, which also carried a sketch of the outside (I have a poor copy of this from the Barber Institute's catalogue). It states in "Brum" that The Great Sultan Divan in Needless Alley ... has the appearance of a neglected teetotal lecture room .... In these apartments are congregated nightly all the women of ill-frame in Birmingham whose faces are sufficiently well preserved to stand the light .... etc.etc. I did make contact some years ago with a descendant of the Bandano family who gave me some information.

When Joseph Bandano left these premises it was taken over by Henry Hicken from Nottingham who is listed as a Refreshment House Keeper in the 1871 census, and my gt.grandfather's sister worked as a nursemaid in the premises in this year - for how long I don't know, but she wasn't working there in 1881.

Mikejee gave a link to the YMCA building in the Sultan Divan thread some years ago.
https://www.2.special-coll.bham.ac.uk/...0022 (1).jpg

Judy
 
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18.3.1864
Obviously the paper is getting quite worked up, and rightly, about the churchwardens of Broseley. this is only the beginning of a piece about four times the length.
Presumably this is the beginnings of the boatman's mission, a more christian organisation than the church at Broseley.

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19.3.1864
Two things come to my mind when I read this. First that the inhabitants seem to be acting a little like Luddites, but on the other hand I cannot see why on earrth the street commissioners put in lamp posts before even ballotting the inhabitants whether they wanted them. the phrase "more money than sense" springs to mind.

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Of course the original "Luddites", were in fact fighting for their very existence, they went from well paid tradesmen, paupers literally overnight, many of whom became destitute and broken. At these times I believe the "Rotten Borough", political system was still in operation, and the wealthy minority would have been the gas owners etc, and would be able to pass these through council with very little backing.
 
I have heard many complaints about the new street lights being erected in Birmingham with people saying that it is like living next to a floodlit football stadium.
 
21.3.1864
Seems like not all the inhabitants of Broseley were as Scroogelike (see report on 18th ) as the church authorities.
I wonder how many people believed this letter.

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22.3.1864
The Victorians could be very ingenious. Who would of thought of using a kite to carry a line to the top of the chimney.

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Very clever - I expect everyone thought it would end in failure which is why it drew a huge daily crowd.

It reminds me of a time my sister needed to get an ariel cable from the back of her house to the front without going on the roof - after giving it some thought she fastened the end to a tennis ball and started throwing - it took quite a few throws but eventually it 'flew" straight over the roof - job done and fun too!
 
It's what I'd call a 'wire coat hanger' job. Use it for anything other than the use it was originally intended for. Viv.
 
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