Newspapers : From Birmingham Post 150 years ago

[MichaelPatrick]

Thanks pollypops I'll get on to the British newspaper site...I do go home 2 or 3 times a year and have a Birmingham library card so this summer I'll be using the reference library. Im actually researching Erdington in the 70s so hello to anyone who can help to that end....once again thanks very much pollypops

 

[Astoness]

thanks everyone for the info on round hill...very interesting reading...

lyn

 

[leslam]

Michael, if you have a library card, you can access their newspaper archive by entering the digits from the barcode into the entry box on https://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/bclib?db=SP00
Note you won't be able to access resources in the actual (physical) library until September due to the move to the new library

 

[clarkie]

Hi,Mike, Ive tried to find Birmingham Post archives with no success...can you help me out?

You can also access the following from find my past, which is a pay to view site:

Birmingham Daily Post 1857 - 1900
Birmingham Gazette 1741 - 1871
Birmingham Journal 1859 - 1869

Clarkie

 

[MichaelPatrick]

Thanks Leslam and Clarkie..I appreciate the help

 

[mikejee]

26.3.1863
The hairless horse again, exhibited next to the woolpack. Not sure where that was -it is not listed in McKenna's books
Suggested formation of a working man's club. Looks like they were invading the business area of the city, though there were plenty of working men nearby

 

[Vivienne14]

Our hairless horse appears to have come from South Africa. It started out as a grey colour but can't find a picture of the darling creature. There also appears to be no record of what eventually happened to it, but here's a picture of Wild Nell, also a hairless horse. Can you tell Wild Nell is hairless? I can't. Maybe you have to touch it to detect its hairlessness. Viv.

 

[mikejee]

27.3.1863
Wondered what sort of hoops he made, but in the 1862 Corporation directory Gurney is listed as a timber merchant, and Joseph Scott as a hoop maker or cooper (depending on which directory you look at), so probably barrel hoops. Interestingly Eli Bell, also on worcester wharf is also listed as a hoop, riddle & sieve ring maker.
Your hobby is not necessarily good for your job. Pedestrianism is a craze for competitive walking over long distances; often bet on in a big way

 

[mikejee]

28.3.1863
Attempt to derail train. Am not sure where the edgebaston station was.
A somewhat dangerous "invention"

 

[DavidGrain]

The question about Edgbaston Station has been asked before, am not sure wheter on this thread or another. Monument Lane Station was know as Edgbaston from 1854 to 1874

 

[mikejee]

30.3.1863
Today people worry about unequal electorates in different constituences of 6-10%. In 1863 there were much biggere differences, as seen here with a constituency containing inly 221 electors

 

[paul stacey]

The "Rotten Boroughs" election system in the UK was helped along with the 1832 "Reform Act", but still leaving a few anomalies, where 7 electors would send 2 candidates to Parliment, this was finaly abolished in the"Ballot Act 1872", but full voting rights for all men had to wait till te "coupon election 1918", and for women "The Equal Franchise Act 1928", not really that long ago!!
paul

 

[mikejee]

Not so long ago indeed Paul. My mother, who is still around, would have been 14 when full rights came in 1928

 

[paul stacey]

Yes mike, my mom was just 9 yrs old in 1928!!
paul

 

[mikejee]

31.3.1863
Presumably the birmingham brewery mentioned would have incorporated what is now known as the Brewmasters House
Advert for an abortive railway route which would have gone from Dudley to Craven Arms
Prices charged in new London restaurants which had just started supplying the working poor with a good meal at reasonable prices

 

[paul stacey]

Funny what a 150 years does to a language, what ever are, "soldiers, Indian pudding, honey back,poullented (sweet), and cohlcannon. ??
paul

 

[mikejee]

Paul
Colcannon originated in Ireland, and is mashed potato with additions, traditionalIy kale or cabbage, but have heard of spring onions, but soldiers left me floundering, though I wondered whether, considering recent events, it might be horse

 

[rosie]

"Mrs. Beeton" has an Indian Trifle with rice and custard? Can't find soldiers though. I wonder if poullented is polenta.
rosie.

 

[paul stacey]

Mike, I remember now, my Irish Nanna, used to make it, "like bubble and squeek". !!!, could very well be Rosie, but now thinking, my dad would fry thin slices of bread dipped in egg and call them "soldiers"
paul

 

[sheri]

Bread dipped in egg and fried were called egg pieces in my family and still are - very popular.
Sheri

 

[josietrue]

my dad who was a dublin man used to make a dublin coddle and i hated it just bacon sausage onion and potatos and maybe some corrots
just boiled that was it to this day i feel sick when i think of it i used to sneak it to my sister who loved it dad used to say it will put hairs on your chest
that ok if you were a boy but i was a girl

 

[mikejee]

1.4.1863
Beating the bounds of Northfield .
Newspaper onjections as City Council make it more difficult to hear proceedings the same day as debate giving rise to great controversy (concerning payment of large fees to religious participants at funerals ) is held
New Weslyan chapel in acocks Green

 

[DavidGrain]

Paul
Colcannon originated in Ireland, and is mashed potato with additions, traditionalIy kale or cabbage, but have heard of spring onions, but soldiers left me floundering, though I wondered whether, considering recent events, it might be horse

Irish recipe for mashed potato and spring onion is call "champ"

 

[mikejee]

2.4.1863
Fire in The Crescent, and one of the engines has accident . At least one of the horses was blind, which did not cause accident, but gave rise to other problems
Am rather amused by the turn of phrase - Man goes to brothel "and, as a natural consequence, got robbed".
The advert makes a big thing of "breaking up the monopoly in the flour trade" . Presumably this is because they are members of the cooperative movement.
Thank goodness the likes of this person were ignored . He would probably have built factories in sutton Park.

 

[mikejee]

3.4.1863
I know that the victorians used arsenic green in wallpaper and it caused the death of some people, and that some people took very small doses of arsenic as a "tonic", but not that they used arsenic green to colour clothes !

 

[mikejee]

4.4.1863
Apparently eating houses providing a nourishing meal at a good price for the working poor are palnned for Birmingham
Four horse omnibus to the lickeys -sounds good.
Even those who lived in the streets at the time apparently found thenumbering a bit difficult, so heaven help poor us.

 

[Vivienne14]

The cooking house looks like an excellent idea. The Birmingham branch seems to have adopted a no frills style of cooking with 'food as the plainest of plain cooks can prepare'. It could still have been very wholesome food, but I notice a distinct lack of greens. The London branch offers 'curried tripe' - no, still can't be tempted!

The 4 horse omnibus from Bull Street to the Lickeys on a Sunday afternoon must have been a lovely journey on a summer's day. Viv.

 

[mikejee]

6.4.1863
Another lobbing alley. As has been suggested it is probably some sort of skittles
One hears that the fact that smoking was bad for you has only been realised in more modern times, but it was certainly realised here 150 years ago.

 

[paul stacey]

Seems the medical fraternity quite understood the dangers of smoking 150 years ago, yet not till the 1970's was really relayed to the general public. paul

 

[Old Brummy]

Somewhere in the cuttings from the B,Ham Poast is a reference to houses being numbered up to 6 or 8 and then starting again This may not be the place to put in my Twopennyth and I think I did raise thequestion some yeras ag. I lived in a block of houses called Norwood Villas and the numbers ran fras follows 1 2 3 4 4A and 6 The road was Waterworks Rd Edgbaston. I have always wondered why ,what should have been No.5 was called 4 A If I amin the wrong place here will some one tell me where I should place the requestOld brummy