Wigan Album
Hallgate
16 CommentsPhoto: RON HUNT
Item #: 30956
Bring them back....
This is hilarious - if only for the wrestlers in their socks and drawers! What about the men on the buildings and dogs on the loose to be shot! What would they think of Kng St on a Friday night?!
Time they brought Toad elevating back.
Rat worrying match. Had me in stitches that!
What is it? I'll settle for a leg of mutton though in the singing contest!
Weight limit for the wrestling "6 score 10lb" must be 130lb (6x20+10) which equals 9 stone 4. Not many would make that weight these days.
If I could pick a day to go back in time. This would be it What a great day of entertainment for the people of the town.
Ian. I remember my grandad telling us about a dog that had just worried a neighbour's cat - The dog had probably shook almost all life out of the poor thing in the process. Wicked, Wicked.
Rat Worrying: Sheffield 1864
"A nail was driven into the middle of a large table, and a string tied to the nail and to the tail of the rat — the string just being long enough to prevent the rat from getting off the table. Pinder, with his hands tied behind him, caught the rats and worried them with his mouth, for sixpence each; and the spectators had to give three-pence each for the gratification of witnessing this exhibition, — all profits, of course, going to the publican."
Ian - rat worrying or rat killing used to be a popuar sport in Victorian times.
Rats which had been caught would be put in a secure enclosure, and a terrier put in with them. The winning dog was the one that either killed the most rats, or the one that killed them all in the least time.
Pub landlords would advertise, asking for live rats, offering to pay so much per dozen, or per hundred, so they could hold these competitions.
It also wasn't unknown for men with their hands secured behind their back, to try and catch and kill rats using just their mouth.
Perfectly true - press accounts from the 19th century refer to this.
My mother who was born and brought up in the Black Bull pub in Hardybutts relates the stories about men in the vault for bets tieing the bottom of the pants legs up, then putting a rat down their trousers and a ferret and see how long it would be before the ferret caught and killed the rat.
I'm just the same as thousands more in the fact that rats are unsavory animals,and should be dealt with..but there are less brutal ways..I cannot stand any kind of animal cruelty no matter how big or small..it is I agree..wicked.
Very popular in Nelson's navy. Such a scene involving men with tied hands was portrayed in an episode of 'Hornblower'.
A few pubs there no longer with us. Was muffin eating a forerunner of pie eating?
Thanks Philip and Mick for the explanations.
Next question is, what is "Grinning through a collar"!
That tickled me that. I'll have a do at that for a leg of mutton!
Ian - Grinning or 'gurning' through a collar is puuuling grotesque faces while wearing a horse collar.
Still goes on at Egremont Crab Fair, and some other traditional events.
See link below . . .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-41299102
If the original 'yellow paper a yard long' could be copied and made into a poster it would sell by the thousands, I'm sure. It is wonderful and a real window in time.