Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

[Wendy]

Does it deal with split ends? Come on ladies, surely one of you know the answer to the singeing (is that how it's spelt?) question? Viv.

Viv singeing was originally done because it was believed the hair was a living thing and it sealed it after it was cut. It was found it was a great method for removing stray hairs. It is still used today in some barbers. I saw it used very professionally in a barbers in Turkey. I still prefer to use a razor, also the smell is horrid.

Thanks Mike a great thread.

 

[paul stacey]

I would have been very interested to read 1&2 of #210, but am unable to do so as the print is too small, I have tried to blow up to 110%, but it is so distorted and blurred that I cannot decipher it, sad!!!!
paul

 

[BernardR]

Paul I managed to read them by depressing the Ctrl Button whilst using the scroll wheel on the mouse. Might be a smoother transition?

 

[DavidGrain]

Fined 2/6 for allowing mixed sexes in sleeping accommodation! I have slept in mixed sex wards in hospital.

 

[mikejee]

Paul
This was due to the forum software resizing larger files. I have split each of those posts into two parts and reposted on the original post

 

[carolina]

I used to watch other boys having a singe in the barbers. Never understood it either

Is this where barber shop sing(e)ing came from?? :adoration:

 

[paul stacey]

Thank you Bernie, Mike, managed to read them now thanks for the advice.
paul

 

[mikejee]

13.9.1862
Vale Road Ragged School opens
Irregularities at the workhouse (in two parts to help reading)
Outing for the inmates of Saltley Reformatory
A strange accident
I thought the USA revolted to get lower taxes than under the British !

 

[mikejee]

15.9.1862
Not much of interest takes my eye on this day
I hope this is not the same fat pig that was being rented out, else the owner will be unhappy it is not returned.
Work is obviously going on to repair Worcester Cathedral. James Bennett & Son is, an remains for many years , one of the major masons in the area

 

[paul stacey]

Now I thought this was a purely American custom? (shooting contest with a porker as the prize) looks like with a lot of American customs, it originated this side of the water.
paul

 

[willmott]

Hi mikejee, velocipede - I'm sure I've seen a drawing somewhere, re - about the time cycles, including the penny farthing & others were manufactured, a failure like many many of them were. But - I think the mechanics involved for powering the cycle preceded the bicycle chain.

 

[willmott]

Velocipede Clubs - Liverpool (held races), Lancashire & Wolverhampton. Preceded the manufacture of the penny farthing, bone shaker etc. Graces Guide to Industrial British History - from the industrial revolution to the present day, website gracesguide.co.uk - loads of information.

 

[sheri]

I was so interested in the reports about the 'ragged schools' in Vale St as my great grandparents lived there and other relatives in Hill St - I wonder if any of the children went to those schools? A bit of history.
Many thanks Mike
Sheri

 

[carolina]

Willmot great site for Gracesguide - thanks. I have found a company my mother worked for Thomas Wasdell.

 

[DavidGrain]

So from Gr5acesguide I discovered that the safety bicycle was invented in 1885. I often wondered about when that happend. Actually I know a decendant of John Kemp Starley who produced the first reliable safety. I saw a gentleman riding an ordinary at Quainton Road Railway Centre on August Bank Holiday Monday.

 

[mikejee]

16.9.1862
No 77 got out of bed the wrong side that morning
Elijah Atkins, Black jewellery manufacturer, dealer and chapman, whatever a chapman is .
Circus Chapel. I wonder how it got that name
A slop is presumably some garment

 

[Wendy]

From Wickipedia....A chapman was an itinerant seller in medieval Britain .

 

[Vivienne14]

Here's some background to Circus Chapel in Bradford St from "Deep Roots, Living Branches: A History of Baptists .... by Alan Betteridge" The chapel was built on a former amphitheatre for equestrian or circus events. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

I think "slop" refers to ready-made garments as opposed to bespoke. Here's an extract from 'Dictionary of Victorian London - Publications - Social Investigation/Journalism - The Morning Chronicle : Labour and Poor, 1849-50; Henry Mayhew - Letter VI"
This comes from the following link - a very useful and interesting site

https://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm

Viv.

 

[maypolebaz]

Reading books from the "Hornblower" era there is often mention of the Slops Chest. I think in that case it's a store of second hand clothing gathered from the ship's crew.

 

[mikejee]

17.9.1862
From the report of the Birmingham Water Co it can be seen that piped water has reached a larger area of the city in the last six months.
Fete at Crystal Palace, presumably Days Musical Hall , as the Sutton Crystal Palace had, I understand, not then been built
I am not sure why country people would require a late evening performance , whereas locals could go to the regular performances, unless , of course, the special performance has a "special " price, and it is "rook the yokels time"
This was after Oliver Twist was written. Maybe Dickens gave them the idea
A wonder of the modern age - a milking machine. Must have been very impressive at the time
Never heard of a doucour before, but it sounds better than a bribe.
FOUR in a bed. As the women says she does not keep a lodging house (but presumably a bawdy house)!

 

[A Sparks]

Maybe the performance was later for the country folk so as to give them time to travel in to the city after finishing work?

Re the slops - presumably that is where the term 'sloppy', as in someone a bit untidily dressed, comes from?

 

[planetearthisblue]

Blondin and Leotard, what a great Double Bill.

Leotard was the original " daring young man on the flying trapeze " about whom the song was written and what did he wear ? of course his own self designed "leotard" .

 

[paul stacey]

What an exciting time the mid 1800's were in Birmingham, and such innovation, unhappily they did't speak the same English "what we speak to-day".
paul

 

[mikejee]

18.9.1862

Prosecution for refusing smallpox vaccination
Stone throwing in Calthorpe Park
Complaints about lack of cover at the old Snow hill station

 

[DavidGrain]

My mother was always very much anti-vacination and she told me that when I was a baby she had to go to a commissioner for oaths to get some papers signed to prevent me being vacinated.

 

[Dennis Williams]

My mother was always very much anti-vacination and she told me that when I was a baby she had to go to a commissioner for oaths to get some papers signed to prevent me being vacinated.

Great for you David maybe, but I am rather glad fo millions of children and adults across the globe that vaccination has successfully eliminated quite a few fatal diseases such as smallpox. On a Birmingham history note, you may be interested in this link

https://nonsequitur.freeforums.org/post3993.html?hilit=Parker#p3993

 

[Shortie]

My mother and her siblings were not vaccinated against smallpox either, my gran hid them in the loft. The reason for this is at that time (1920's) many people died from the vaccination and perhaps my gran was not prepared to risk this. I can understand that. I was not vaccinated either, but my husband was, many times - all up his trunk on either side to be perfectly honest. He has a natural imunity to smallpox, hence the need to continually try it to get the reaction - which never occurred! He has been left with these very small marks rather than one on his arm.

 

[DavidGrain]

My mother who is now in her nineties still has massive scars on her upper arm from when she was vacinated as a child and this is the reason that neither I or my sister were vacinated. I have the flu jab now because I went through four consecutive Christmases in bed with the flu.

 

[Dennis Williams]

My mother who is now in her nineties still has massive scars on her upper arm from when she was vacinated as a child and this is the reason that neither I or my sister were vacinated. I have the flu jab now because I went through four consecutive Christmases in bed with the flu.

Well how perverse of me David! I wouldn't have vaccination for flu now, as the year I tried it, I immediately felt bally awful with flu like symptoms!! Never trusted it again...

As for Shilrley's comment, I don't blame her mom or gran for a second for that, in those times, but the World Health Vaccination programme didn't commence until 1967. I do remember also, as a nipper in the late 40s, having quite a few friends in my primary school partially paralysed after poliomyelitis. Thank God we had a successful vaccination programme that has nearly eliminated THAT horrible and very contagious disease too.