The Circus comes to town in 1901

Details taken from West Bromwich census (RG13/2721)

Lord John Sanger’s Circus was one of several late Victorian and Edwardian travelling circuses. The return enumerates no less than 126 individuals, including the families of the four circus proprietors.

From the details recorded, a clear picture emerges of Lord John Sanger’s Circus. Here was a large, labour intensive and cosmopolitan organisation, including a troupe of eight Chinese acrobats, a lion tamer, and a trapeze and equestrian artists, supported by 35 tent erectors, 31 grooms, two harness cleaners, seven cooks, an elephant keeper, saddler blacksmith, trapeze fixer and night watchman. This was an age when sheer brawn had to take the place of mechanical lifting equipment, hence the large number of tent erectors. The comparable number of grooms suggests the care of a large number of horses for freight and carriage, as well as for performance in the ring. Even more striking is the geographical origin of the circus proprietors and their employees. Almost every region of England is reflected in the places of birth, no doubt also, reflecting the places to which Sanger’s Circus had travelled, taking on workers as it moved around the country. No two children of the four proprietors were born in the same place. In addition, France, Sweden, Belgium, the West Indies, Ireland, Scotland, the United States, Sierra Leone and Australia are listed among places of birth of employees, the USA alone having produced half a dozen tent erectors. Within six pages of an Edwardian enumerator’s handbook we find a snapshot of circus life, officially recorded for social historians of the future.

John Sanger senior and his brother George started touring the country with a circus sometime after 1845. His son John continued the business after his death in 1889.