The Sheldons - The Inspiration for the Peaky Blinder Shelby family

Steven Knight says he based the Shelby Family in his fictional work "The Peaky Blinders" on his father's maternal uncles, John, Samuel and Joseph Sheldon, , but how close were the real life Sheldons to the fictional Shelbys?

Their Parents, Samuel Sheldon Snr and his wife Rosanna, had moved to Birmingham sometime between 1875 and 1879 from Dudley in the Black Country. They already had four children, John, Samuel, Thomas and Mary, and as the Black Country saw a downturn in trade, the family decided to move to the city of a thousand trades. Samuel Snr found work as a grinder, and the family moved into a back-to-back in Glover Street, Deritend. Therefore, the Sheldons were raised in the Industrial Birmingham, which Charles Dickens described as "a vision of hell." This environment was hard and contributed to these impoverished young men becoming involved with slogging gangs to gain status on the street and survive.

The family grew with the addition of Joseph, Anna, Elizabeth, Arthur and Edith, and many of these names will be familiar to viewers of the TV show written by Knight. By 1891, the family had moved to the corner of Garrison Lane and Witton Street at the opposite end to the Garrison Pub. Only three of the brothers, though, became involved in crime, Samuel, John and Joseph. It was said that despite being the second son, Samuel was very much the leader of the fearsome family. He was only 5'1 and a quarter but had a reputation as a violent man not to be messed with.

Samuel's first conviction in 1886 was when he was only 17. He served three months for stoning a cyclist and a policeman and only a year later got another three months with hard labour for again stoning a policeman. Within a few months of his release, he was again arrested for the same offence and was described as a violent man with over a dozen assault convictions. These offences were in line with the assumption that he was a Peaky Blinder, coming from Blinder territory and having the clothes and Billy Cock hat that made them easily recognisable.

Samuel's first conviction in 1886 was when he was only 17. He served three months for stoning a cyclist and a policeman and only a year later got another three months with hard labour for again stoning a policeman. Within a few months of his release, he was again arrested for the same offence and was described as a violent man with over a dozen assault convictions. These offences were in line with the assumption that he was a Peaky Blinder, coming from Blinder territory and having the clothes and Billy Cock hat that made them easily recognisable.

His violence seems to have escalated, and on October 27th 1889, Sheldon and eight or nine other "roughs" broke into a house on Witton Street. Here they committed what the Birmingham Daily Post described as "a most disgusting assault" on 16-year-old Harriet Davis after chasing her up the stairs. Sheldon was sentenced to six months in jail.

The following year Samuel married Ellen Finnigan in St Laurence Church. With his violent record and numerous convictions for assault, you could be forgiven for thinking that Samuel was not the best catch in Birmingham, but Ellen was cut from the same cloth, having grown up in one of the most violent areas of the city. She already had convictions for theft and shop breaking, and it was not long before she showed that she too, was not opposed to violence as a way of settling scores. When Charlotte Nolan, who lived close to where Samuel and Ellen had a grocer's shop, gave evidence against Samuel, Ellen was ready to wreak her revenge. As Charlotte left court, Ellen and two other women savagely beat her to the ground and kicked her, an offence for which Ellen was fined five shillings.

Ten years later, the marriage had broken down, and their only daughter, also called Ellen, was living with Samuel and his housekeeper Ella Maria Small who he later married after his first wife's death. Like many of his counterparts, Samuel then turned his attention to the racecourses. He picked up more offences for pickpocketing, uttering base coin and theft and, in court, was described as "a most notorious character" who had a hand in most crimes committed in the area. His charge sheet lists numerous scars, including two large ones on his head and several on his stomach, chest and arms.

Joseph, Samuel's younger brother, soon followed into the family crime business. He was a little taller at five foot three and a half and picked up a series of convictions for theft, assault and the family favourite of uttering base coin.

John, the oldest and tallest of the brothers at five feet six and a half inches, was also a violent and dishonest man. By age 15, John had already been jailed for one month with hard labour for stealing timber, and a string of other offences were to follow for theft, vagrancy and assault.

On John’s 1909 arrest sheet, he is listed as a commission agent, which was the term used by racecourse pickpockets and thugs to give themselves legitimacy.

In 1906, his violent nature was evident when he was convicted of trying to murder policeman Thomas Mooney. As Mooney attempted to issue a summons, Sheldon pulled a gun from his pocket and Mooney felt the barrel pressed up against his head. As he heard the hammer click, he also heard Sheldon say, "Take that then," but the chamber was empty. As the two men struggled, Mooney again heard the hammer click, but again the barrel was empty. He managed to apprehend Sheldon and confiscate his gun, but when he checked the barrel, he discovered that if Sheldon had clicked that hammer to fire the gun one more time, he would not have been so lucky as the next chamber contained the gun's only bullet.

John Sheldon's next victim would not be so lucky. Billy Beach was, in his day-to-day life, a polite, kind man. He was 5 foot 8 and heavily built, with a neck that was described as wide as his head. Despite his generally easygoing demeanour, Billy Beach could be a vicious man and had a reputation as a man you would not want to cross. The Sheldons also had a similar reputation, so when a feud broke out between John and Billy over a gambling debt, it was never going to end well. What became known in the press as the “Garrison Lane Vendetta” began in 1908 when Joseph and Samuel Sheldon were still in prison for uttering base coin. Beach and John Sheldon got into a fight in which Beach was the victor. However, Sheldon could not let his hardman reputation be dented. On June 21st of that year, Beach was shot on Watery Lane and needed to receive hospital treatment for a bullet wound to the neck. Choosing to take the law into his own hands, he refused to name his attacker to the police. Beach was known to be more violent after a drink, but also more vulnerable as he often walked home alone worse the ware. A week after the initial attack, Beach was walking down Montague Street and had had a few more drinks than he should have done. Coaly Jones, James Thorne and Joseph Gannon, known associates of Sheldon, again tried to attack Beach with a firearm but escaped the scene. Beach was arrested for drunkenness, and later, when the other three were finally apprehended, Beach and Jones were both convicted on July 9th of trying to murder each other and bound over to keep the peace for six months. The police superintendent at the time noted that the use of a firearm was a worrying escalation in the slogging gang violence in the area.

Not surprisingly, the peace was not kept for the required six months, and the following January, on New Years when Beach went into his yard to empty tea leaves from the pot, he was confronted by several men led by John Sheldon. A shot was fired at Beach, who threw a paraffin lamp at the men who again fired the gun. This time the bullet went through an upstairs window, grazed the side of the head of Beach's ten-year-old daughter and was found lodged in the bed with one of her hairs still stuck to it. Beach, a man renowned for his fist-fighting skills and someone who was not afraid to take a mob on single-handed, laid into the Sheldon Gang. Beach's wife called for the police, and when they arrived, Sheldon and his men had left, leaving a revolver, pickaxe, two hammers and broken bottles all covered with blood. Beach had been hit in the hand by the first shot, and one of his attackers, Charles Loone, was found unconscious lying on the snow-covered ground. Both Beech and Sheldon, at various times, expressed their wish that they would be allowed to settle this dispute themselves without the intervention of the police. Between the assault and the trial Beech and his men violently entered the home of Edward Pankhurst, a friend of Sheldon's, but finding him not to be home, went on to Glover Street, where Sheldon and Jones lived. They hammered violently on Sheldon's door, but when nobody answered went across the street to Jones's house. They broke open a lock box and went inside where they broke up every bit of furniture before running upstairs. Here a fight broke out, and shots were fired. Mrs Jones said she could not identify the man who fired the shot because his hat was pulled down over his eyes, Peaky Blinder style. However, Mrs Sheldon, who was watching through her bedroom window identified him as a bricklayer and hardened criminal, Nugget Morris who was arrested along with Beach and his associate Thomas Lane. Coaly Jones and Sheldon were arrested for the original assault in Beach's yard, but a local newspaper tells of how, while out on bail, Jones had met Beach in the Crown Pub and thrown a heavy jug at him. In court, Beach stood on the witness stand wrapped in bandages from the assault, but again Beach had refused to give information to the police. Sheldon and Jones were sentenced to twelve months and Loone to eight. Beach was sentenced to eight months, but it was noted that although he had convictions for assault, he did not have any for theft or loitering and worked as a tube worker rather than being a career criminal.

An incident followed in which Beach and his men broke into one of Sheldon's houses and set fire to it, but then Beach was attacked as he walked with his cousin on Lawley Street by a gang armed with a knife and gun. When John and Joseph Sheldon, Coaly Jones and Edward Collins were sentenced for the assault, the judge came down hard on them, describing them as dangerous and violent men. The Sheldon brothers were each sentenced to five years of hard labour, a move that would severely weaken the Sheldon Gang as they were in prison for such a long time.

While the Sheldons were in prison, Beach was convicted of wounding two drunken sisters in a pub with a pen knife during a disagreement over a drink. Beach protested his innocence, saying he only ever fought with his fists and never used a weapon, which was backed up by his previous convictions. However, the judge did not believe him, and he was sentenced to fourteen months of hard labour.

When both men were released, there was yet another assault but then an extraordinary thing happened. The local police had a great deal of respect for Beach because he did not use weapons, fought fairly and often fought on his own against numerous attackers, unlike the Sheldons, who fought dirty in large groups. However, the police wanted to see an end to this vendetta as much as anyone, so they clubbed together to pay for Beach to emigrate to Canada, which he did.

However, the vendetta did not end immediately, as Beach had left men to defend his turf. A fight broke out between these men and Sheldon's men in the Kings Arms, the pub frequented by the Sheldons. During the fight, a bullet passed through John Sheldon's Billy Cock hat and lodged in the wall behind him and he was then hit over the head with a metal cosh and received wounds that meant he needed to be hospitalised. When the men were brought to trial, the judge made it clear that enough was enough and sentenced the Sheldons to long sentences, which basically ended the Vendetta and relative peace returned to the city.

When the First World War began, Beach joined the Royal Highlanders of Canada but was injured during the second battle of Ypres and medically discharged. He returned to Birmingham, where he lived happily and peacefully in Palmer Street, Birmingham with his wife before dying, aged only 56.

John Sheldon lived on Glover Street with his wife, Ada, until he passed away in 1941 and described himself as a retired gun polisher. Samuel died two years later and was described as a hawker living on Charles Henry Street. Joseph died in 1950 in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, aged 70.

The Sheldon's made the streets of Birmingham a more dangerous place and contributed nothing to the city other than terror and violence. They were violent thugs intent on satisfying their own needs at the expense of their neighbours, not the charismatic men portrayed in Knight's TV show who looked after their local community.

THINGS TO DO IN BIRMINGHAM CONNECTED TO THE SHELDON FAMILY

Back-to-Back Houses

Address: 55-63 Hurst Street/50-54 Inge Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B5 4TE

Telephone: 0121 622 2442

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/birmingham-west-midlands/birmingham-back-to-backs

On Hurst Street and Inge Street, you will find a little bit of the old Birmingham and be transported back into the kind of home on Glover Street that the Sheldons would have lived in. As you step back in time on a guided tour of Birmingham's last surviving court of back-to-backs, houses built literally back-to-back around a communal courtyard, you will see how these homes would have been starting in the 1840s. The hour-and-a-half tour shows you the living conditions of the real people who lived and often worked in these homes, be it George Saunders' Tailor's shop or Mr Levi's bedroom, which also acted as his workshop.

Black Country Museum

Address: Discovery Wy, Dudley DY1 4AL

Telephone: 0121 557 9643

https://bclm.com

The Sheldon family was originally from the Black Country town of Dudley. The Black country Museum is an immersive museum gives you a real feel for living in the Midlands during the Industrial Revolution.

Did you know that much of the Peaky Blinders TV series was filmed at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley? Their Chain Making Shop, Rolling Mill and canals all played vital roles in the filming of the show. Walk around and see the back alleys and The Workers Institute, where many key scenes from the series were filmed in the dimly lit, smoky rooms enhanced by CGI. In addition, many of the canal scenes were filmed at the museum, and you can take a trip on a canal boat and see what it was like to float through the darkly lit tunnels.

The museum also has a coal mine where visitors can descend into the dark depths of the mine much as the Sheldon’s grandfather, Joe, had done when he worked as a coal miner before setting up as a green grocer.

We recommend you allow a whole day to visit this museum.

West Midlands Police Museum

Address: The Lock-up 

Steelhouse Lane 

Birmingham 

B4 6BJ  

Telephone: 0121 609 1700

Website: museum.west-midlands.police.uk

Although we pass by the West Midlands Police Museum when we do our daytime walking tour, time does not allow us to go inside. It is, however, well worth a visit as it is where you can see the original mugshots of the Sheldons and other members of the Peaky Blinders.  

The Grade II listed Lock-up is located on Steelhouse Lane and opened in 1891, operating until 2016. Many a Peaky Blinder arrived at the doors of the Lock-up, typically transported there in the Prison Van. They would spend less than 24 hours there before being taken through a tunnel that goes under Colebridge Passage and into the courthouse. This passage allowed prisoners to be sent to the courts directly from the cells. The museum will enable you to see the cells and have many items connected to policing in the city. They also do regular events and talks, which are well worth the average of £15 the cost to attend. We would recommend that you purchase your ticket online before visiting the museum.

Library of Birmingham

Address: Centenary Sq, Broad St, Birmingham B1 2EA

Telephone: 0121 242 4242

Website: https://birmingham.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/WPAC/HOME

Library of Birmingham contains many documents which list the Sheldon family including censuses, trade directories and criminal records. The library is a building in itself which is worth visiting. Known by the locals as the wedding cake, and you will see why if you visit, the library was opened on 3 September 2013 by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban attack and now lives in Birmingham. As she unveiled the plaque she said "Let us not forget that even one book, one pen, one teacher can change the world” and you can’t help but wonder if an education would have allowed the illiterate Sheldon brothers to choose an alternative path.