Mary Bodfish
15 Apr 2019
Smethwick, Wednesbury and Dudley like many others in the late 18th century were Staffordshire hamlets, but great changes were beginning. Harborne was an extensive district partly in Staffs and partly in Warwickshire: its large map of 1828 is most interesting.
Small beer (made in the Black Country from Worcestershire hops and Staffordshire barley) had been brewed for centuries. Everybody, including children, drank it as it was safer than water. The 1267 Assize of Ale made parish constables responsible for reporting defaulters in its production and sale. Inns (offering accommodation) and particularly alehouses were numerous, and were the hubs of social life. Drunkenness was common in every century. With the development of iron and glass works, where men worked in hot conditions, the demand for beer soared and inebriation increased. In the late 18th century seamen brought back Dutch gin: between 1807 and 1827 its consumption doubled. The Government was worried, as beer sales – and the taxes levied on its production – fell. It therefore passed the Beerhouse Act of 1820 which abolished the taxes but introduced a two guinea Licence for premises to sell beer on and off the site, but not wine or spirits. Sales were not to be made before 4am or after 10pm, and there were restrictions on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day. Ale sellers were delighted and 20,000 Licences were issued.
A wake is a fair on the day before a saint’s festival, eg the dedication of the parish church. They began to decline in the late 16th century and finally ended under Cromwell. But they were revived in the 18th century ‘for the benefit of victuallers’. They were times for the autumn when less labour was needed on the land, so country dwellers could join townsfolk, where market places could provide space. There were races, competitions and gurning (pulling faces through a horse collar), but also many cruel sports involving animals whom the ignorant did not realise suffered pain. The baiting of a bear or bull by specially bred fierce dogs, cock fights and dog fights were common; there was also wrestling and bare-knuckle boxing. All involved betting. Men would sell household items, even their domestic pig, to raise money which they would soon lose or drink away. Respectable people avoided the noisy crowds where pickpockets flourished.
Usually the alehouse keeper supplied the bull which was chained to a floor bolt and could move about 15 yards. Each dog owner would pay a fee for his Bull Mastiff, English Bulldog or Staffordshire Terrier to attack the bull for a set period of time. At the end the bull would be butchered and the meat sold to the onlookers. The popularity of the ‘sport’ is recalled in the names of streets today. Occasionally the bull escaped, eg at Bilston where it overturned stalls, injured many people and finally escaped into the fields where it was shot. In Harborne a man was tossed by the bull through an upstairs window and did not emerge from the house for two days. But public opinion started to turn against baiting: Birmingham banned it in 1773 (whereupon it moved to Handsworth) and Wolverhampton in 1815 (by refusing to licence publicans who provided bulls). In 1800 a Bill had been introduced into the House of Commons to ban the practice because the Government was frightened of crowds following the French Revolution, but it failed by two votes. In 1822 an Act prevented the ill-treatment of cattle, but the High Court decided when six Dudley men appealed against their conviction that ‘cattle’ did not include bulls. Bull-baiting now tended to be on private land and only in 1835 did the Cruelty to Animals Act finally forbid the ‘sport’.
Cockfighting usually involved seven fights, each taking about ten minutes especially after the cockerel’s claws had been fitted by a metal spur at the back. There was plenty of time between fights for bets to be placed. Wednesbury Parish Church has a 14th century wooden cockerel as its lectern. Boxing has inherited Featherweight and Bantamweight levels from cockfighting. Cockfights were outlawed in 1849. Dogfighting still continues illicitly with the West Midlands being a hotspot. Boxing, regulated by the Queensbury Rules of 1867, and wrestling continue as sports, with much betting on the professionals. Other sports and pastimes grew in popularity helped by the development of railways and the Saturday half-day holiday.