Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

[paul stacey]

Very interesting snip its from a recent past , thanks for clearing up "Princes End" mike, (like), the inappropriate removal of night soil.!!!
"Of course in this period of time, without running water in houses, and bad drainage very dangerous for health, I believe a lot of "Typhus outbreaks" caused by doing this.
paul

 

[DavidGrain]

12.8.1862 Not an offence current today, fortunately

But what about the men who have to clean out the Portaloos?

 

[mikejee]

13.8.1862
Because he was a foreigner, the jury was composed of foreigners & Englishmen. Wonder how that was worked, and could any "foreigner " then be on a jury?
What the Earl of Dartmouth wants, the Earl of Darmouth gets. Bit like that now in the Duchy of Cornwall
Tanter St, by Gosta Green, Gosta Green , site now occupied or very close to by Aston University, then site of a dairy with space for 24 cows, which presumably grazed nearby.
I wonder what attributes a smoke room waitress must have, apart from strong lungs

 

[DavidGrain]

Interesting question about a jury made up of foreigners and Englishmen. Until sometime in about 1960 the qualification to be a juror was that you had to have property with a rateable value in excess of £20 but a rating revaluation put every house above that level. Now the qualification is that you have to be on the electoral roll but with a maximum age limit. I am not sure what the qualification to vote was in 1862 but it was almost certainly a property qualification, restricted to men and would almost certainly exclude foreigners.

 

[barrie]

Blimey. My maternal Gt Grandmother was born in Tanter Street in 1864. I had thought it to be a slum area, every day's a school day.

Barrie.

 

[mikejee]

By then it might have become a bit run down Barrie. After the area was rebuilt it became part of Lawrence St, which again was demolished during the building of Aston University

 

[mikejee]

14.8.1862
Arab's proboscis is damaged
"Interesting looking girl" - I think the reporter fancied her
I had better go out and buy one to qualify as a gentleman
Death by Crinoline
Sounds like what happens in too many cemeteries today
What is a blond cap , or a half cap for that matter?

 

[ladylinda]

Wasn't blond a type of lace? So perhaps lace caps/bonnets?

 

[mikejee]

15.8.1862
Report definitely not written by the BNP
Husband responsible for wife's words
Thou shalt not scare birds on a Sunday
What would be the response today if an advert advertised that it was selling looted goods ?

 

[Charlie]

I wish I could have been at that auction....worth a few bob now, I bet!

 

[mikejee]

16.8.1862
Aggrieved ratepayer
Presumably most dissipations in Handsworth were not innocent.
Maybe law & order today isn't too bad !
Your Ibuprufen of the Victorian era
While your MPs are garotted, and your wife takes opium, you are irritated by street boy's whistles.

 

[A Sparks]

Thanks for posting these old articles Mikejee - they are SO interesting and entertaining!

 

[mikejee]

18.8.1862
The Bank of England with it's knichers in a twist, or maybe that ought to be "paper in a twist"
It is the Pic-nic season . Today the hyphen has disappeared
Rantings against free libraries

 

[sheri]

Thanks for posting these Mike - so interesting. Sheri

 

[Stitcher]

Mike, I have read all these posts with great interest, thank you for posting them.

 

[mikejee]

19.8.1862
Only quite recently there has been a fuss about new music licences for pubs etc. 150 yeras ago, guess what - a fuss about music licences . Here are three letters , two for and one very definitely against
As above, things never change. a further letter comcerning how you have to pay the proper price to farmers for milk
Hoist by his own petard, or rather by his own cigarette
One is really intrigued as to what he is accused of.

 

[brummie nick]

I like the idea of an 'Anti Poke-Ya-Nose Society'

There are still people telling us whats good, and not good, for us. ositive:

 

[mikejee]

20.8.1862
The arguments about to tip or not to tip went on even then
Nowadays they ban alcohol from gripe water. tgen they routinely gave opium solutions to them !
To prison because of imjury to fireman. what about the poor hedgehog?
More dangers of crinolines
Named & shamed at his own expense
Scarcely seems worth the cost of the advert (drab & no handle). Sentimental value?

 

[mikejee]

21.8.1862
Sewers to come to parts of Birmingham for the first time
Roughs of Birmingham invade the hallowed grounds of sutton Park
When you worked for yourself, you didn't necessarily hire your own workshop, possibly just rented a grinding stone

 

[Wendy]

Great newspaper snippets Mike. I do so enjoy reading them, thank you for taking the time to post them.

 

[Frothblower]

Just caught up with this thread. Very entertaining. Thanks mike

 

[A Sparks]

I like the one about Sutton Park and the 'roughs' of Birmingham!

If I recall correctly, in the 50's and 60's too I think, you had to pay to go into the Park unless you were a resident of Sutton. One of my father's sisters lived in New Oscott and she used to joke with him about it - them being able to go in for free and us having to pay.

 

[mikejee]

Mrs Cliff is not setting up anew in a very large house, Instead, at 24 Bennetts Hill she has a Registry Office of Servants Nowadays it would be called an employment agency
Twelve children in six years, undoubtably to be congratulated. I wonder, however if she would have appreciated her weight at marriage being listed also.
West Bromwich a black smokey place, with no means of bathing
A Sir Lancelot for what was then the equivalent of a Thai bride
Good twister wanted. Chubby Checker need not apply

 

[paul stacey]

I like the advert for a good "TWISTER", he should have advertised in 1962, would have found thousands.
paul

 

[mikejee]

As I read it, this first cutting says that at that time the Registrar was forbidden to register the birth of a child if over 6 months have passed from the birth. Possibly I am misreading it, or possibly it omits some other procedure necessary after 6 months. Otherwise maybee that si way we have trouble finding births sometimes.
Have come across Hocus Pocus, but not seen someonme described before as hocussing people
Don't think i'd be too kean on having a chemist's junior assistant extracting my teeth, but then i gahter that it was quite common before hte NHS for people to attach a piece of thread to the tooth, the other end to a door, and then slam the door to extract teeth, so maybe the assistant might not be too bad.
I presume the Rogues's March is a dirge

 

[DavidGrain]

There must have been some other procedure for dealing with late registration of births after six months but that probably entalied much more red tape. I have read that the late Queen Mother's father was more than 42 days late registering her birth.

Tying string to a tooth and the other end to a door is something I have only ever seen in comic books when I was younger. I never managed to work out how this could be done if you had other teeth around the bad one.

 

[paul stacey]

Drumming out would have ceased in the early 20th,C. Cutting accoutrements in latter times was destroying, and or failing to wear the Queens Uniform as ordered.
paul

 

[A Sparks]

'Hocussing' (according to my Google search!) means 'to fool or deceive'
I must admit I'd never heard the term before but I can see where the magic term Hocus Pocus must come from now.

Poor ladies - they must have been very naive to fall for that one!

 

[mikejee]

One reader was obviously fed up with continual harpings on the evils of drink and wished to expound on his pet hate
Sounds as if this chap's writing is as bad as mine
Hockley Hill is in one of the largest ale consuming districts of the town- a good selling point for a pub
This could result in an ever decreasing number of customers

 

[paul stacey]

What in heavens name is the the word "ELEEMOSYNARY" mean, in the English language, I have never come across this before.!!?
paul