Millwall brick explained

Millwall brick
Origin:England
Type:Blunt hand-held weapon, Improvised weapon
Is Bladed:yes
Used By:hooligans, prisoners and martial artists
Head Type:Rolled and folded paper
Haft Type:Rolled paper

A Millwall brick or bat is an improvised weapon made of a manipulated newspaper, used as a small club. It was named after supporters of Millwall F.C., who have a reputation for football hooliganism. The Millwall brick was allegedly used as a stealth weapon at football matches in England during the 1960s and 1970s. The weapon's popularity appears to have been due to the wide availability of newspapers, the difficulty in restricting newspapers being brought into football grounds, and the ease of its construction.

History

In the late 1960s – in response to football hooliganism at matches in England – police began confiscating any objects that could be used as weapons. These items included steel combs, pens, beermats, horse brasses, Polo mints, shoelaces and boots.[1] However, fans were still permitted to bring in newspapers. Larger broadsheet newspapers work best for a Millwall brick, and the police looked with suspicion at working class football fans who carried such newspapers. Because of their more innocent appearance, tabloid newspapers became the preferred choice for Millwall bricks.[2] The book Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible describes the use of Millwall bricks by British football hooligans in the late 1960s: "Newspapers were rolled up tightly to form the so-called Millwall Brick and another trick was to make a knuckleduster out of pennies held in place by a wrapped around paper. You could hardly be pulled up for having a bit of loose change in your pocket and a Daily Mirror under your arm."[1] The book Skinhead says, "The Millwall brick, for example, was a newspaper folded again and again and squashed together to form a cosh."[2]

In 1978 the weapon gained wider recognition when the Daily Mirror ran a story on its use by Chelsea FC hooligans in the then notorious Shed End of Stamford Bridge. An editorial in a 1978 Brentford FC matchday programme, bemoaning the impact of football hooliganism on the game, noted that Stoke City FC "had banned young supporters carrying newspapers into the Victoria Ground after fighting on the terraces during which the Millwall Brick was seen in action".[3]

Design

A Millwall brick is constructed from several newspaper sheets stacked and tightly rolled lengthwise. The resulting tube is then bent in half to create a handle (a haft) and a rounded head at the fold.[4]

Cultural references

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: Marshall, George . Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible . S.T. . 1991 . 0-9518497-0-0 .
  2. Book: Knight, Nick . Skinhead . registration . October 1982. Omnibus. 978-0-7119-0052-3.
  3. News: Haynes. Graham. Graham's Gas. Brentford Official Matchday Magazine. 23 September 1978.
  4. Web site: Fifty rules of fighting . Samboboy . 15 March 2000 . Stickgrappler's Martial Arts Archives . https://web.archive.org/web/20061113042812/http://stickgrappler.tripod.com/ug/50rules.html . 13 November 2006 . Take about two sections of a newspaper (thirty pages or so) lay [them] flat out, start rolling from one corner to the other making sure the roll is really tight, when done you should have a tube shape, bend it in half..
  5. [Mick Hume|Hume, Mick.]
  6. Web site: Knife culture? Cut the crap: There is little evidence for a 'rising tide of knife crime' in Britain. . O'Neill . Brendan . 16 December 2004 . Spiked . https://web.archive.org/web/20070927184030/http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA825.htm . 27 September 2007 . Why not newspapers, which as every football hooligan knows can be folded up to form the 'Millwall brick', hard-edged enough to smash anybody's face in? . dead .
  7. Web site: New York Sports Express. 8 April 2004. Millwall-Cardiff Yobs Prep for FA Cup Fun. https://web.archive.org/web/20061119220359/http://www.nysportsexpress.com/2/15/departments/hooligan.cfm . 19 November 2006.
  8. Web site: Out Knocked. Millwall Brick #2.
  9. Web site: Out Knocked. Millwall Brick #3.
  10. Web site: Sneeze, Mr.. 3 June 2001. Sneeze's Blink Page. Blink discography. https://web.archive.org/web/20061127010407/http://www.mrsneeze.com/blink/disc.html . 27 November 2006.
  11. Web site: Bad Moon Rising discography - RYM/Sonemic . 2023-08-14 . Rate Your Music . en.
  12. Web site: How to Make the Deadly Millwall Brick in Seconds. . 1 September 2016.