Vivien Teasdale - Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in the West Riding of Yorkshire

TRUE CRIME FROM WHARNCLIFFE

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First published in Great Britain in 2009 by

Wharncliffe Local History

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Vivien Teasdale 2009

ISBN 978-1-84563-095-9

eISBN 978-1-78303-768-1

The right of Vivien Teasdale to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Introduction and Acknowledgements

W e all consider that the times we live in must be worse than previous times. We worry now about the number of feral children, about the increase in knife crimes, the drunkenness on our streets and wonder what causes it and what to do about it. We use name and shame to identify criminals, who once would have been put in the pillory. In the past, criminals were hanged in public on the Tyburn tree at York, now marked by a stone near the racecourse. Later the hangings became private, carried out inside the prisons. The police force was developed from its inception in 1829 in London, throughout the country, its blue uniform and blue police station lamps gradually becoming part of society.

Tybur n Stone, York. The author

Yet looking back through newspapers over the past century, the same types of stories appear time and time again. Lawlessness and threats to society were of major concern. Their causes were considered to be the availability of cheap alcohol and a lack of moral fibre on the part of the lower classes . Modern newspapers reflect these same concerns albeit expressed in less arrogant terms than the Victorian patriarchs.

The stories here cover a variety of incidents and outcomes, though the connecting themes are knives and alcohol. This was not intentional. It only became clear after I began to put all the stories together. It has been said that those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it, so perhaps now is the time for greater study of Victorian murder and mayhem . It is certainly a subject of great fascination for most people, and perhaps we can learn something from it too.

Victorian police station lamp . The author

Many thanks to the staff at many libraries and archives: Kirklees Library and Archives Services, Wakefield Library and Archives Services, Skipton Library, Leeds Library, Goole Library and Archive Service, Knaresborough Library, and Bradford Library and Archive Service for their unfailing willingness to help and offer advice on sources available.

Brian Elliott at Pen & Sword Books Limited has, as always, given invaluable assistance from initial idea to completed manuscript. My thanks also go to Bill Mathie at the School of Medicine, University of Leeds for his help in obtaining permission from the University of Leeds for the use of the Thomas Scattergood photograph on page 6 and Paul Stevenson and Richard Wade for their help in obtaining permission from the The British Postal Museum & Archive to use their photograph of a mail coach on page 151. All other photographs are from the author s collection. Maps are courtesy of the Ordnance Survey.

Family and friends have, as always, encouraged and supported me in bringing these stories to light, and I cannot thank them sufficiently.

C HAPTER 1

A Decade of Disturbances: The Yorkshire Chartists

I t is not quite a hundred years since the principle of universal suffrage became the norm in British politics. Prior to this, those with no voice in the running of the country had only one means of being heard. They rioted.

Early agitation for voting rights resulted in the Reform Act of 1832, but this had only been partially successful. The introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 brought greater hardship to those too ill to work and those simply unable to find a job. Poor harvests, economic downturns resulting in closure of many businesses, particularly in the north, brought many working families to the brink of starvation. It also seems to have brought about a new bout of political awareness.

By 1838 a national movement developed which became known as Chartism. It had six main aims, put together in the form of a Charter to which millions added their signature. The Chartists demands were: