Author Topic: Peaky Blinders  (Read 12731 times)

Phil

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #33 on: June 13, 2016, 02:14:13 PM »
I can remember when Teddy Boys sewed razor blades into the lapels of their coats thus preventing them from being grabbed by the lapel and head butted. Was this something they learnt from the idea of the peaky blinders sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps?
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

Steve

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #34 on: June 13, 2016, 02:19:17 PM »
Some put razor blades or pieces of them into the front of their 'chisel toe' shoes and brothel creepers.
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JudithM

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #35 on: June 14, 2016, 12:51:46 PM »
I'd not heard of the Teddy Boy thing with the razors.  Maybe they did get the idea from the past.  Interesting thought.
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jenherron1

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #36 on: June 16, 2016, 08:04:07 PM »
As little children in small heath, late 40s early 50s i remember being told if you don't  behave the peaky blinders will get you .  Never understood what they meant til tge series started

townie

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #37 on: June 16, 2016, 08:18:59 PM »
If these Peaky Blinders were such a force how come not many people had heard of them until the television programme? I lived in Brum from the 50s and I never heard of them and never heard anyone mention them, Fewtrells yes, Peaky Blinders no.
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Akatarawa

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #38 on: June 17, 2016, 05:27:51 AM »
If these Peaky Blinders were such a force how come not many people had heard of them until the television programme? I lived in Brum from the 50s and I never heard of them and never heard anyone mention them, Fewtrells yes, Peaky Blinders no.

Because the real Peaky Blinders were a small gang of youth crims in the 1890s.  My older brother when we were talking about the PB program, said my Gran born in the 1870s told him about them once, but by the end of WW1 they were AFAIK largely forgotten.

Neither did they sew razor blades into their caps.  Safety razors did not become common until many years after the real PBs.

Edit:  Incidentally when were naughty children we were often called "yo little blinders, yo'll cop it"

josylvia

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #39 on: June 17, 2016, 09:30:47 AM »
Because the real Peaky Blinders were a small gang of youth crims in the 1890s.  My older brother when we were talking about the PB program, said my Gran born in the 1870s told him about them once, but by the end of WW1 they were AFAIK largely forgotten.

Neither did they sew razor blades into their caps.  Safety razors did not become common until many years after the real PBs.

Edit:  Incidentally when were naughty children we were often called "yo little blinders, yo'll cop it"



A lot of this I suspect came from an original idea for a story called "The Garrison Lane Vendetta"
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pat11

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #40 on: June 17, 2016, 12:30:52 PM »
Because the real Peaky Blinders were a small gang of youth crims in the 1890s.  My older brother when we were talking about the PB program, said my Gran born in the 1870s told him about them once, but by the end of WW1 they were AFAIK largely forgotten.

Neither did they sew razor blades into their caps.  Safety razors did not become common until many years after the real PBs.

Edit:  Incidentally when were naughty children we were often called "yo little blinders, yo'll cop it"




Makes me wonder if this is where the saying 'cheeky blinder' came from.
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JudithM

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #41 on: June 17, 2016, 01:15:27 PM »
I had heard of them before in connection with their race racketeering.

The cheeky blinders possible connection is interesting.
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Steve

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #42 on: June 17, 2016, 01:19:50 PM »
Peaky Blinders is a fiction based upon a little bit of Brummy history.
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Phil

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Re: Peaky Blinders
« Reply #43 on: June 17, 2016, 02:11:09 PM »
Steve

As you say the peaky blinders on television are a fictional account of a well known at the time Birmingham gang, they were not the only notorious gang of the time the Sloggers were another among others.

As has been stated the practice of sewing razor blades into the peak of their caps is in doubt, but it is a well spread rumour because I was aware of it in my early teens. I suppose that coming from the slum areas where these gangs originated might have been the reason why these rumours still persisted in the area.

It must have been a dangerous practice if true and you would have had to have been careful when putting your cap on or taking it off. I was in my early teens at the end of the Teddy Boy era and has a mate who carried a cut throat razor one of the top pockets of his drape jacket. It was more for show than use as a weapon and he was always getting it out and waving it about. I remember one day when he reached into his pocket to impress some girls and stupidly when putting it away previously he had put it in upside down and it had opened slightly in his pocket. When he pulled out his hand his finger had been sliced right down to the bone. He spent the rest of the evening in A&E having his finger sewn back up.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.


 

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