Those Were The Days My Friend....
Feb 10, 2018 10:25:53 GMT -5
antb, Dramatwist, and 2 more like this
Post by trailboss on Feb 10, 2018 10:25:53 GMT -5
.......I'm Sad To Have Seen Them End.
www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/history/smokers-went-great-lengths-tobacco-1174313
Smokers went to great lengths for their tobacco fix
North Staffordshire historian Mervyn Edwards recalls the days when people were free to smoke wherever they wanted
www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/history/smokers-went-great-lengths-tobacco-1174313
Smokers went to great lengths for their tobacco fix
North Staffordshire historian Mervyn Edwards recalls the days when people were free to smoke wherever they wanted
The ban on smoking in public places, introduced in 2007, has done much to improve public health, but it was not so very long ago that people smoked at the football match, the pub, the cinema and on public transport.
Smoking was first allowed on railway trains in 1860.
Smoky trains displeased non-smokers, hence the government passed the Railway Bill in 1868 which introduced smoke-free carriages.
The North Staffordshire Railway Company built a magnificent railway station at Stoke in 1848 – but what was it like to travel on the Knotty’s lines?
A letter to the local press in 1870, sent in by Anti-Smoker, complained about smoking in those railway carriages where notices had been put up asking passengers not to smoke.
Smoking had become so normalised that station masters and guards were not enforcing the by-laws.
Another letter was received by The Sentinel in September, 1875.
The reader remarked that winter was approaching, and that: “We must either be content to sit, while riding, with open windows, or breathe an air polluted by tobacco smoke.
“Although separate compartments are provided for smokers, yet in nearly every other carriage is smoking allowed, in opposition to the laws of the company.
“As a regular passenger, I strongly protest against being annoyed by tobacco smoke.”
Even as long ago as the 1880s, there were regulations in regard to smoking on trams, which is why, in 1887, William Walklate, a tipsy collier, went to court for refusing to extinguish his pipe and for swearing on a local tram.
Later, buses suffered the same annoyances.
In 1942, a workers’ bus was taking workers to Chatterley Whitfield Colliery when Wilmott Cotterill, standing in the gangway, took offence to the smell of the pipe being smoked by Percy Jones, who was sitting down.
Cotterill ordered Jones to extinguish his pipe, or he’d knock it down his throat.
He consequently hit him a heavy blow in the face, so that Jones needed treatment in the Haywood Hospital.
It was reported, by the way, that several men were smoking pipes or twist tobacco on the bus, leading to a ‘fuggy’ atmosphere.
People smoked in theatres, and though it was contrary to the regulations of the Theatre Royal in Hanley, it was nevertheless reported in 1860 that Mr Rogers, the lessee, had frequently cautioned several patrons for smoking.
Some even threw burning pieces of paper around, thereby putting other people – and the building – at risk.
Rogers rightly saw this as a dangerous practice and a discomfort to his well-behaved customers.
Over the years, there has been plenty of evidence that tobacco is bad for your health.
In 1867, Mr Sneyd, the High Street grocer, was drinking with friends at the King’s Head pub in Stoke.
He put a fairly large amount of chewing tobacco into his mouth.
Within a few minutes, he became insensible and fell, reportedly having swallowed a portion of it.
He later died – ‘poisoned by tobacco’ according to a press report.
Lastly, some people went to extraordinary lengths for their tobacco fix – or should that be heights?
In 1870, one chap climbed fifteen feet in the air for his.
Samuel Cronlan, a drunken potter, was found by a policeman at two in the morning at the top of a gas-lamp in St John’s Square, Burslem.
He’d prised open the door of the lamp, having scrambling all the way up the lamp-post for a light for his pipe.
Smoking was first allowed on railway trains in 1860.
Smoky trains displeased non-smokers, hence the government passed the Railway Bill in 1868 which introduced smoke-free carriages.
The North Staffordshire Railway Company built a magnificent railway station at Stoke in 1848 – but what was it like to travel on the Knotty’s lines?
A letter to the local press in 1870, sent in by Anti-Smoker, complained about smoking in those railway carriages where notices had been put up asking passengers not to smoke.
Smoking had become so normalised that station masters and guards were not enforcing the by-laws.
Another letter was received by The Sentinel in September, 1875.
The reader remarked that winter was approaching, and that: “We must either be content to sit, while riding, with open windows, or breathe an air polluted by tobacco smoke.
“Although separate compartments are provided for smokers, yet in nearly every other carriage is smoking allowed, in opposition to the laws of the company.
“As a regular passenger, I strongly protest against being annoyed by tobacco smoke.”
Even as long ago as the 1880s, there were regulations in regard to smoking on trams, which is why, in 1887, William Walklate, a tipsy collier, went to court for refusing to extinguish his pipe and for swearing on a local tram.
Later, buses suffered the same annoyances.
In 1942, a workers’ bus was taking workers to Chatterley Whitfield Colliery when Wilmott Cotterill, standing in the gangway, took offence to the smell of the pipe being smoked by Percy Jones, who was sitting down.
Cotterill ordered Jones to extinguish his pipe, or he’d knock it down his throat.
He consequently hit him a heavy blow in the face, so that Jones needed treatment in the Haywood Hospital.
It was reported, by the way, that several men were smoking pipes or twist tobacco on the bus, leading to a ‘fuggy’ atmosphere.
People smoked in theatres, and though it was contrary to the regulations of the Theatre Royal in Hanley, it was nevertheless reported in 1860 that Mr Rogers, the lessee, had frequently cautioned several patrons for smoking.
Some even threw burning pieces of paper around, thereby putting other people – and the building – at risk.
Rogers rightly saw this as a dangerous practice and a discomfort to his well-behaved customers.
Over the years, there has been plenty of evidence that tobacco is bad for your health.
In 1867, Mr Sneyd, the High Street grocer, was drinking with friends at the King’s Head pub in Stoke.
He put a fairly large amount of chewing tobacco into his mouth.
Within a few minutes, he became insensible and fell, reportedly having swallowed a portion of it.
He later died – ‘poisoned by tobacco’ according to a press report.
Lastly, some people went to extraordinary lengths for their tobacco fix – or should that be heights?
In 1870, one chap climbed fifteen feet in the air for his.
Samuel Cronlan, a drunken potter, was found by a policeman at two in the morning at the top of a gas-lamp in St John’s Square, Burslem.
He’d prised open the door of the lamp, having scrambling all the way up the lamp-post for a light for his pipe.
