Dates

• Existence: c1870 - 1998

Biography

The Shufflebottom family business started with William Shufflebottom (1850s-1916), a Buffalo Bill impersonator from Yorkshire, known as 'Texas Bill'. The origins of his first adventures into the fairground are unknown, but according to the family, William went to America with a circus act and saw Buffalo Bill's show.

His double-wagon show-front included a magnificent Varetto organ with three carved figures, which were copied from photos of William and his wife Rosina, on each side holding rifles, and Buffalo Bill in the centre with a whip.

At the time World War I broke in 1914, William was travelling his circus ‘Rifle Bill’s Wild West’ and opened at North Camp, Aldershot for 39 weeks.

The Shufflebottoms employed variety turns from the theatres to change the programme during the winter. When the moving pictures came along they also introduced them into their programme, and are said to be the first to take them into North Wales.

William married Rosina Jane Bishop (1872- 1937), a performer from a showland family with a long history in the travelling entertainment business.William and Rosina had ten children; five sons and five daughters; John Potter, Walter (Wally) (1909-1998), Elizabeth Augustus (Lizzie), Rosina (died 1946), Emmeline, Margaret, William, Richard, Ellen and Fred.

William died in 1916, after sixty years travelling his show and after his death Rosina took over the mangement of the family business with her eldest son, John aka 'Texas Jack'. They continued travelling the Wild West Show in Surrey and Sussex, until the great snowfall of 1917 wrecked their tent. The oldest children continued to parade on the bioscope shows for William Taylor, while Richard, Wally and William travelled their own Wild West Shows under Wild West inspired names such as Colorado's Troupe. All the Shufflebottom daughters followed their mother’s footsteps to become targets for their brothers and later their husbands, who for the most part were sharp shooters and knife-throwers. The family shows were renowned for being some of the most attractive and entertaining on the fairgrounds.

Rosina died in 1937 age 65.Her youngest daughter, Emmeline Shufflebottom, married Robert Andrew Parkins (Boxing Show Proprietor) in 1931. Son Richard married Laura Birch. Ellen married Albert Comer, and twin sisters Rosina and Elizabeth married Bert Lawrence and Albert Rowland respectively. Wally aka ‘Texas Bill Junior’, the youngest son and an accomplished knife-thrower and whip-cracker, married Cecily Irene Rosaire (died 1991), second daughter of the famous Freddy Rose (born 1912) and Florence Arnold (born 1876), the Rosaire Circus proprietors. Just before the First World War, Wally was half of a double act, with his brother Fred, called ‘Fred and Wal Ellis'. He also teamed up with Derrick Rosaire to form 'Shufflebotham's Circus' in 1946 and 1947. Wally was one of the last showmen to present a live Wild West Show on the British fairgrounds in the 1960s, he died in 1998 age 89.

Lizzie paraded on her father's Wild West show, with her twin sister Rosina and eldest brother John 'Texas Jack'. She married Albert Rowland and died at Hyde, on the fairground in 1953. Margaret married twice; first John Willie Waddington, grandson of Abraham Waddington, who died in 1932 and later re-married her foreman Arthur Bird.

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