Old British News Search And Research 1750-1950

There is no doubt that some Victorians were  a tad mad, unquestionably overzealous and darn-right  eccentric. One such gentleman was Henry Tracey Coxwell (born 2 March 1819, Wouldham, Kent died 5 January 1900, Lewes, Sussex). Mr. Coxwell was an English aeronaut. His obsession with ballooning knew no bounds, although by Victorian standards there is no doubt he bolding went where no other man had ever been (almost killing himself and his passengers in the process) (left: Newspapers recording a terrifying incident involving Henry Coxwell’s balloon at Crystal Palace in 1862 which almost became a tragedy).

Henry was the son of a naval officer, educated for the army, but became a dentist. From a boy he had been greatly interested in ballooning, then in its infancy, but his own first ascent was not made until 1844. In 1848 he became a professional aeronaut, making numerous public ascents in the chief continental cities.

Returning to London, he gave exhibitions from the Cremorne Gardens and subsequently from the Surrey Gardens. By 1861 he had made over 400 ascents.

In 1862 in company with Dr James Glaisher, he attained the greatest height on record, about 11,887 m (39,000 ft) (right: Henry Tracey Coxwell).

His companion became insensible, and he himself, unable to use his frost-bitten hands, opened the gas-valve with his teeth, and made an extremely rapid but safe descent. The result of this and other aerial voyages by Coxwell and Glaisher was the making of some important contributions to the science of meteorology. Coxwell was most pertinacious in urging the practical utility of employing balloons in time of war.

Mr. Coxwell had a balloon factory in Richmond Road Seaford Sussex his last ascent was made in 1885.

Here is an account of events recorded by The Nottinghamshire Guardian on Friday 19 September 1862:

The 23rd October 1880 and one of the leading pen companys are giving good advice to writers whilst promoting their range of products. Macniven and Cameron were a long established company that finally closed in 1964.

Click the image to see the full page of 1880 advertisements in PDF format

Macniven and Cameron Ltd., later known as Waverley Cameron Ltd.,was a printing and stationery company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company is best known for their pen nibs, the “Pickwick”, the “Owl”, and the “Waverley”, which they sold under the advertising doggerel:

They came as a boon and a blessing to men,
the Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley Pen.

In 1770, Nisbet MacNiven established a paper-making business at Balerno, outside Edinburgh. The firm soon diversified into stationery and moved to premises on Blair Street in Edinburgh’s Old Town. In the 1840s, John and Donald Cameron became involved, and the firm became MacNiven and Cameron. The “Waverley” nib was invented by Duncan Cameron, another brother, and was unusual in having an upturned point, making it flow more smoothly on the paper. The “Waverley” was named after the Waverley novels of Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), which were still hugely popular at the time. The new nib was initially manufactured by Gillott and others, until the company bought a factory in Bordesley, Birmingham, in 1900. They then manufactured their own nibs, as well as fountain pens, and printed stationery, until 1964 when the factory closed.

Macniven and Cameron also made pens called the “Phaeton”, “Nile”, “Hindoo” and “Commercial”. The company filed several  in relation to its fountain pens (source: Wikipedia).

The Victorians were famously highly inventive. Many business people were keen to add to the community. In 1851 Hodges Distillery Fire Brigade was founded. In 1862 Mr. Frederick Hodges erected a 125 foot iron lookout for fires in the immediate area. Mr. Hodges’ fire service was in fact so advanced that he had the telegraph installed so he could communicate with other fire stations across London. By 1869 these premises were being sold, so it would be fascinating to know what became of the distillery, the fire service and Frederick Hodges – so stay tuned as this researcher is always keen to search and search!

Click the image to see the fill story in PDF format

Panic at The Bank of England in 1863 - click the image to read the full report in PDF format

The Penny Illustrated Paper on the 17th January 1863 is a reporting a most dreadful matter at The Bank of England.

It appears that there has been forgery undertaken involving £10 paper and “fifties”.

Click the image to see the full 1840 report in PDF format

The mid 1800′s was boom time for railway companys in Great Britain. Just as today with new technologies businesses were fighting to stay ahead of the game despite endless reports in the press of accidents across the railway system.

Travelling between Birmingham and London in 1840 took a staggering eight hours by rail and sixteen hours by horse-coach. A third class ticket in 1840 was 14 shillings, the equivalent of £30.87. Today the rail journey is just under one and half hours with the cheapest fare is about £25.00.  UK railway companies take note!

Shooting accidents on the same day in 1886 - Samuel Churchward lost his life, Lord Aberdare lost a finger. Click the image to see the Birmingham Daily Post 15 Nov 1886

I have been doing some of my own family research and I have just learned that an unrelated  person sharing a family name (Churchward) was found shot dead in a field in Devon in 1886.

This though is not (as far as the press is concerned) a dastardly murder but a terrible accident.

Samuel Churchward was out shooting before dinner one evening. When he didn’t return home a search ensued and my relative was found dead near a hedge with his head blown off. It seems Samuel had climbed over a fence to go to the next field, placed his gun over first and as it landed it went off killing the poor man.

But interestingly on the very same day Lord Aberdare who merely blew off a finger received a lot more press coverage than my poor lowly relative who lost his life.

Victorian journalism at it’s best!

The original Victorian Opera House in Malta’s capital, Valletta was constructed in the 1860′s. These are extracts from The Builder, 2nd May 1863. The New Opera House, Malta was designed by the British architect, Edward Middleton Barry (7 June 1830 – 27 January 1880).

Barry’s portfolio to date up to the mid 1860′s was already quite impressive:

• St Saviour’s Church Hampstead, London (1856)
• Birmingham and Midland Institute (1857, this later became Birmingham Reference Library but was demolished in the 1960s)
• Leeds Grammar School (1857 – now part of the University of Leeds’ Business School)
• Henham Hall, Suffolk; tomb of Alexander Berens in West Norwood cemetery (1858) (photograph in the gallery of West Norwood Cemetery)
• Duxbury Hall, Lancashire (1859)
• St. Giles’s Schools, Endell Street (1860)
• Burnley Grammar School (1860)
• Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire (additions) (1861)
• Birmingham Free Public Library (1861)
• Pyrgo Park, Romford (additions) (1862)
• Stabling at Millbank for the Speaker (1862)
• Halifax Town Hall, West Yorkshire (designed by Charles Barry, 1860; completed by E.M. Barry, 1863)
• Barbon Park Lodge, Westmorland (1863)
• Royal Opera House, Valletta, Malta (1864)
• the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond Hill, London (additions) (1865)
• Schools, Canford, Dorset (1865)
• Charing Cross Hotel and the nearby Eleanor cross (a Victorian replica erected in 1863 by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company – the original cross was erected by King Edward I in 1291, but removed in 1647), London (1865)

Edward Barry was the third son of Sir Charles Barry, born in his father’s house, 27 Foley Place, London. In infancy he was delicate, and was placed under the care of a confidential servant at Blackheath. At an early age he was sent to school in that neighbourhood, and then to a private school at Walthamstow, where he remained until he became a student at King’s College London.

He was apprenticed to Thomas Henry Wyatt for a short time, after which he joined his father’s practice. He continued to assist his father until the latter’s sudden death in 1860, but he had already made considerable progress in working on his own account. In 1848 he had become a student at the Royal Academy, and even while assisting his father found time to devote to works of his own. The first of these was St. Saviour’s Church, Haverstock Hill, in 1855–56. His designs for St. Giles’s schools, Endell Street, which were carried out under his own superintendence in 1859–60, gave him a recognised position. It was to the originality displayed in these works that he owed his admission, in 1861, as an associate to the Royal Academy.

The reconstruction, in 1857, in the short space of eight months, of the theatre at Covent Garden, which had been destroyed by fire, and the erection in the following year of the Floral Hall adjoining, afford examples of his energy, constructive skill, and artistic ability. These works were executed for his own private clients, and without diminishing the assistance which he was then rendering to his father. In 1860 Sir Charles Barry died suddenly, and upon Edward devolved the duty of completing his father’s works. Foremost of these was the new Palace of Westminster, which was at length entrusted to him by the government; and Halifax Town Hall.

On 29 March 1862 he married Lucy, daughter of Thomas Kettlewell. The remaining years of his life record a long series of works designed by him, many of them of national magnitude and importance. In 1869 he was elected an academician, and in 1873, on the retirement of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and then again in 1878 he was elected professorship of architecture in the Royal Academy. In 1874, on the resignation of Sydney Smirke, he was appointed treasurer of the academy.

Among his most significant contributions to London’s architectural scene is the Theatre of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The previous theatre (built by Robert Smirke in 1809) was destroyed in a fire in 1857. Edward Barry was commissioned to design the new “Royal Italian Opera” as it was then known, completing it for its official opening on 15 May 1858. He also designed the adjacent Floral Hall, a stunning glass and cast iron structure, heavily influenced by the Crystal Palace used in the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Covent Garden work was hugely influential in Barry’s appointment to design the Royal Opera House in Valletta, Malta (1866), bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Barry often favoured a very classical style (source: Wikipedia).

After Barry’s death the following lecture was published in 1882 marking his significant contribution to achitecture:

These past few weeks have been the busiest for Old British News with the redevelopment of the site, the transcribing and uploading of a massive new database.

I have processed thousands of lines of searchable archive consisting of the names, dates and places of those sentenced to death in the 1800′s.

As you can imagine the numbers are greater at the beginning of the century in the late Georgian era then gradually dropping during Queen Victoria’s reign towards the 1890′s.

Although this is not a definitive list (especially from the 1880′s onwards), it does prove a further useful tool for researchers.