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My
Visit to Staffs and Birmingham
TP Garlick - December 24th 1875
(From
the pages of a long-forgotten exercise book comes this graphic
account of a visit made to the Black Country at Christmas 1875,
bringing, as no contemporary document could hope to do, the very
essence of those times nearly a hundred years ago).
This
article first appeared in The Blackcountryman in Volume 2, Issue
3
Started from Greens Norton (Northants) at 7.15am,
arriving at Blissworth via Towcester and reached Wednesbury, the
end of the journey at 1.30pm, where we were met by Mrs Garlick
who took us up through the market place; rather a large amount
of business being done at the time. We then went with Mrs Garlick
(to what I will for convenience call home) and dined, after which
we went with R to see the market place at Great Bridge, which
was rather dull.
On the road we saw several houses that were sunk
several feet; we passed two chapels, the Methodist New Connexion
and the Primitive Methodist. We saw also drunken people in abundance.
We then returned to Wednesbury, going by the local post office,
town hall and the Liberal Club, into the market place where sad
to say the liqour shops glared most prominently. Men and women
were going in and out very fast to partake of the cup that drowns
their reason and destroys their virtue and leaves them not, except
by a miracle, this side of eternity. There, men and women were
passing almost helplessly drunk; men were passing us with a glass
of grog in their hands and a ragged coat on their backs.
Alas is not that always the case? The more drink
the more misery. Misery and vice are always in its wake. I would
that it were banished from our land. I have felt my responsibility
more since I have been here than ever I did before; I am determined
to be an avowed enemy to the drinking customs. My heart has really
ached and I almost shudder to think of the evil which may result
from its use in our own family. When I think of it I hate it;
I detest it. The Lord preserve me and all our family from tasting
of the bitter cup which is the certain result of its persistent
use.
We left the market for home about 10.30pm where
we arrived in safety and retired for the night.
Dec 25 Came down to breakfast at 9.00am,
after which we went to sing with Mr Hindsley, which I enjoyed
very much. Afterwards we received a visit from George Flowers,
and after dinner we started for Birmingham, which we felt a slight
difficulty in reaching, for we were too late for the train at
Great Bridge. One of the porters then directed us to Dudley Port
to go from there, forgetting that the trains were running as on
Sundays. There were no trains for nearly three hours, so we came
back to Swan Village where we waited for an hour before we started
for Birmingham, where we arrived in safety and called to see Mrs
Liddington.
From there we went to take tea and supper at lawyer
Tyndals, going there from Snow Hill station by the Great Western
hotel down Bull Street along High Street by the market hall and
Nelson's monument and several other places of minor importance,
to the residence of our host in Paradise Street, where we spent
a very pleasant evening, after which we came home down Broad Street
and New Street, Edmund Street to Snow Hill. From there after a
few minutes delay we came home by Hockley, Soho, West Bromwich
and Swan Village. There was not so many drunken people in our
route as on the previous day, it being the same as Sunday: I might
mention that we passed the Good Templars offices in Birmingham
and the Temperance Hall at Wednesbury. We were quite tired when
we got home and some of us were soon asleep while the others,
George Flowers and William and another young man had a bit of
supper before they returned to Darlaston.
Dec 26 We were very lazy this morning and
di not get up till late. We intended to go to Ocker Hill Wesleyan
Chapel but the breakfast was so long being prepared that we had
scarcely began to have it, when it was time to go. William did
not want to go and time was wasted, so we went for a walk instead
to Princes End and Gospel Oak, then home to dinner, afterwards
we went to chapel but there was no service, so we came back home
again and while Robert slept, I went to Mr Hindsley's to sing
some of Sankey's music and after tea we went to the Wesleyan Chapel
and enjoyed the service much.
After supper we took a walk to Wednesbury and back
by the blast furnaces to Gospel Oak (Gospel Oak took its name
from an oak tree under which John Wesley used to preach the Gospel
to the colliers), where we saw a number of people about the public
houses, which are very plentiful here. Some were drunk, others
were fetching the drink, others were commenting upon this drink
(which they call a good creature of God, but what I call a creature
of the devil). I saw women with scarecly anything to cover them,
they were scant of clothing but plentiful of drink and profane
language, it was disgusting to see its degrading influence on
its victims: it is a cursed thing, is drink. It is the parent
of crime and everything bad; nearly all the evils by which we
are surrounded may be attibuted to the drink. Will any right-minded
person have reason to thank God that their children or their friends
are drinkers? No! Will anybody have reason to thank Him they are
not? Yes! Hundreds have had abundant reasons to thank Him for
that blessing already. Looking at it in that light, I am still
resolved to do all I can to banish it from the land.
Dec 27 Rose early to go to breakfast with
George Flowers at Darlaston, where we arrived about 8.30am, after
breakfast we went to look at Darlaston Old Church, a fine old
building. From there we went to the coal pits where I went into
the bed of coal, this was 12 to 14 feet thick, I bought a sample
away. We then came by the Old Park Wheel works up to Wednesbury,
and saw the Catholic Church and Wednesbury Old Church, a very
fine building, then by a large dissenting Place of Worship and
the Church of St. John, then the Great Western Railway Station
and the police station, several of which I have seen around here;
then to the racing ground where we saw a foot race, and then home
to lunch, after which we started for Dudley to take dinner.
On the road we saw Tipton church and the cemetary,
which covers 150 acres of land, and the Wesleyan Chapel, a fine
large building with a spire, then Dudley Hospital by the L and
NW station and GWR station, then up by the castle and the fountain,
passing up a fine wide street into Dudley market where we saw
another fountain and a monument, also a cab stand. We then went
to Voctoria Terrace where we took dinner and then to look at Dudley
Castle; passing another large chapel, the Methodist New Connexion,
up into the castle grounds to examine the watch tower; then we
ascended the hill, which was very steep, into the castle, and
paid a penny to go to the top of the highest tower, where we had
a fine view of the surrounding country. From the top I brought
a small stone; then we came down into the grounds and looked through
the ancient halls, etc., looking into all the places of importance
that we could find; then out down the hill to the first level
to the moat and the caverns - one of which we entered and emerged
from the other side after a very rough journey.
We then visited the entrances to the other caverns
and the subterranean passage to the Castle, after which we left
for Wolverhampton where we arrived at 4.15pm, and started at once
for the city where we saw the market place, which is covered in,
and the Town Hall. We also passed the exchange, the library, the
Agricultural Hall, the post office, the theatre and the bank and
several places of worship of different denominations, the like
of which I have never seen before. Then we went into Queen Square
where we saw the monument erected to the memory of Prince Consort;
from there we went by the cab-stand and town hall about a mile
in search of a fountain, but it was dry. We then started for the
station going by some large buildings to the L and NWR through
to the GWR, from which we took tickets for Bilston, getting there
about 6.30pm, and started at once for the market, going through
it and by the town hall to look for another fountain, for I was
very thirsty. But when we got there that was dry, so I had to
wait till we got to George Flowers. The others quenched their
thirst at the dram shop.
From the fountain we went back through the market
again and from thence we came by St. Johns Church, the post office
and the Primitive and Wesleyan Methodist Chapels, the last is
a splendid large building. The people here seem determined to
have good places for worship down here; we then came up Moxley
by the Unitarian Free Church and the Wesleyan Chapel and the old
church at Darlaston in the vicinity of which there are a great
many Irish, some of whom it is saide once threw some barley down
to entice the weather-cock from the spire (a disturbance may soon
be created by repeating the trick in front of an Irishman's house).
When at Darlaston, we went to see George Flowers
and had our tea after which we started home, leaving one of the
party to stay all night (he being quite used up, having had to
lean on me for support for the last mile or two). He had boasted
in the morning of his great abilities for walking.
There are one or two things I might mention which
I forgot at Wolverhampton; it has a large station with a large
arched glass roof, spacious platforms with a crossing under and
over the line to each platform, the ticket office is like a square
box with first, second and third class apartments and a space
all round; tickets could be obtained either side. Also up in the
town we saw a very strong church, remarkably so, it had buttresses
four feet thick and five feet apart all round. At Dudley Castle
we saw two cannons that were taken at Sevastapol: also when we
got to Darlaston there was a woman who drank three quarts of ale
and a pint of neat brandy one night: and another she drank one
gallon of small beer for her supper. She is a dreadful fighter
and alsways drunk, at times taking lauunum to satisfy her craving
for drink.
O drink thou fiend of Hell, what will not thou do;
This woman came of a respectable family and was once the pride
and joy of her father's house, bright, handsome and intelligent.
Now she is the pest of the neighbourhood. Her husband earns £3
a week and it is spent chiefly in drink. Alas, what will not the
drink do; it seems to have magical power over the people and they
go blindly on to destruction.
I saw a great many drunken people today, men and
women degraded, lower than the beasts. The women have not the
least modesty, I have just heard of a family, the father of which
gets £7 a week, and before Wednesday it is all gone in drink
and extravagance, and they have to go to 'My Uncles' to get a
bit of bread by pledging something. I am very sorry to see my
brothers make such free use of it as they do; I have warned them
but they won't give it up, although they confess it is a great
evil killing in its thousands, God preserve them from the misery
which awaits so many. There was a Good Templar fete at Darlaston
today; I did not know till too late or i should have liked to
have went.
Dec 28 Got up at daybreak and went a distance
with John before breakfast; not expecting to see him again at
present, bid him goodbye as we think of going to Birmingham, Aston
Hall, etc., today and home tomorrow, expecting George Flowers
to be our guide. But he came down after breakfast to say he could
not go today, but will be at liberty tomorrow so we postponed
it and stayed in the house all day, going out towards night to
see the iron run at the furnaces, but were too late. I intended
to have gone to the Temperance Hall but it is not open, so we
went to the theatre where we saw a play and a pantomime; I liked
the first part best but I felt very uneasy, we came home by the
forges and saw them heating large lumps of iron and hammer them
flat with a large steam hammer, then roll them into plates and
bars, after which we came home. We arrived about half past twelve.
Dec 29 Did not get up till late; went down
to the chemical works and saw them making soda acid and brimstone,
then came home again and started for Birmingham getting there
about 1.30pm. We got on the bus and went straight to Aston Hall,
where we saw hundreds of birds of all descriptions; two of a sort
and a great many other things too many to mention here. I bought
a handbook away with me to refer to.
We left there for the Bull Ring going back in the
same way we came. We then went to see the waxworks, St Martins
Church and several other places, going down Steelhouse Lane -
a noted place for guns, swords etc., then by Bingley Hall to the
free library into which place we went and sat a while. From there
we went to the show room of the Royal Society of Arts and saw
400 beautiful pictures. We then came home, having spent a very
pleasant day seeing the chief sights of Birmingham. We took dinner
in the market hall and we got home between ten and eleven.
Dec 30 Got up and prepared for the journey
home, starting at 2.30pm from Wednesbury Station, came up through
Warwick and Leamington to Banbury arriving there at 4.40pm and
staying till 6.10pm, when I left William and came to Towcester,
at which place I went to see mother and sister; then home which
I reached about 9.50pm. and found the door locked. But I soon
got in and went to bed, so good night.
(Editors Note - I am looking for photos of the places
mentioned in this article. If you have any and would be willing
for them to appear on this page, please email me at the address
below.
Mick Pearson)
email the web master Mick Pearson:
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