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Soap Box Preachers - Bull Ring

mw0njm.

mw0njm.

A Brummie Dude
i loved to go down the bullring with mom in the 50s.we would
watch the preachers who stood on boxes shouting......
home on the 43 bus.what a great day out.we had together bless her
 
Hello Peter,

I remember those hand puppets, I will sort some photos of Bull Ring orators perhaps one might be the soap box orator you used to see when your mother used to take you to town? I used to get the 56 bus home when I lived in Nechells.

Phil
 
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re brum 60s

hello.phil.they fasinated me.the poor man got some stick off the people
standin around him,but he carried on he did not care. pete:D
 
Wasn't there a "preacher" man who wore a sandwich board that proclaimed "THE WAGES OF SIN ARE DEATH". This would be in the l950's. The "Chain" man was very talented and I would watch him when I could. Wonder who he was? He is a character that most us remember but I have never seen a name put to him.
 
does any one remember the speakers in the Bull Ring Sunday mornings standing on boxes ranting and raving about all subjects under the sun, including religion, and the hecklers in the audience, free entertainment
 
cookie273uk said:
does any one remember the speakers in the Bull Ring Sunday mornings standing on boxes ranting and raving about all subjects under the sun, including religion, and the hecklers in the audience, free entertainment
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Hi there

I remember my dad taking me to the Bull Ring in the early 50s and
seeing a preacher outside St Martins' . I believe he was known as
Jimmy Jesus.

I wonder if anyone has a picture.


Kind regards

Dave
 
Hi, any information regarding Soap Box Preachers in the Bull Ring 1915 onwards?
 
Not as such sadly other than my Mom used to talk about one of her Uncles (Surname would be Brown or Gill) who used to be there every week. He would be well into his oratory (about the virtues of the Catholic Church) when the same heckler each week would shout out "What about Pope Liberius then"? I do not know the story behind it or what he answered to this question.

Sadly I am probably the only member of the family now to know of this character scant as it is.
 
Bernie D'Boult said:
Not as such sadly other than my Mom used to talk about one of her Uncles (Surname would be Brown or Gill) who used to be there every week. He would be well into his oratory (about the virtues of the Catholic Church) when the same heckler each week would shout out "What about Pope Liberius then"? I do not know the story behind it or what he answered to this question.

Sadly I am probably the only member of the family now to know of this character scant as it is.
Click to expand...


I think Liberius was quite an enlightened Pope; I wonder what the heckler meant?
 
There used to be this bloke with a sandwich board walking about with Jesus Saves... and we used to say to him AND Moses Scores lol
 
If they had lived today they would have their own TV channel on Sky making millions from donations from the gullible public.
The last public preacher I saw was in Shrewsbury by the new market hall in 1967. My girlfriend and I were trying to pass by him without attracting his attention. No such luck. He pointed at me and shouted words to the effect that he could see sin hiding behind my eyes. What did he expect of a teenage boy full of over active hormones. He may have been a preacher but was certainly no seer of the future. I made no headway with that girl. The Swinging Sixties never really made it to Shrewsbury.
 
Ernie McCulloch (not sure of the spelling) was up on his soap box every Sunday evening back in the 50's talking a lot of garbled nonsense, but mainly political rather than religious. I heckled him to "get to the point" once and he was most put out. Another regular was Little Jackie Win, a diminutive figure dressed in jockey's silks and riding boots, selling tips for, I think, sixpence. These comprised the race and the name of a horse on a screwed up bit of paper. You had to promise not to open it until you got home.
 
A couple of Bull Ring soap box orators from 1947 & 1949

Phil

City Bull Ring Orator 1949 .jpg City Bull Ring Preacher 1947.jpg
 
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my dad, John Orr, [of Park Lane Gospel Hall, Aston], used to preach in the Bull Ring in the 50's [probably with other blokes from Park Lane].
Apparently someone wrote to the B'ham Evening Mail a few years ago [mom told me as she buys it], and wrote about witnessing an incident where someone was heckling him violently and went up and punched him in the face - dad got up and turned the other cheek to him - the bloke ran off..
plus I have also done it in the 80's when I was with the B'ham City Mission [it can be quite scary]
 
I may well have seen your dad in action (or should I say "in full flow") - as a youngster I thought it great to wander amongst the crowds in the Bullring of a Saturday and Sunday afternoon in those long-gone days. The escapologist with his assistant, the strong man, the horse race tipster and of course the preachers. At times it was like a medieval scene from a Pieter Bruegel painting.
 
I can remember there being the soap-box preachers and being hurried past them but have no idea what they were preaching, will ask mom later!!
In the 80s I can remember the Jesus saves people being around - maz-beth, that could have been you I guess,but they were not threatening at all.
Sue
 
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