A Grim Almanac of Staffordshire by Karen Evans

Author:Karen Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750955430
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

View of Stowe Pool towards St Chad’s church, 1847.

16JULY 1876 William Louis Ward ran the Ashwood Hotel in Wood Street, Longton with his wife. On this Sunday afternoon William had been partaking rather liberally of stock from the bar and consequently was rather drunk. Mrs Ward, seeing the state of her husband, made some comments to him about his drunken behaviour which made Ward extremely angry. After shouting at his wife, William hit her several times then threw her to the floor and proceeded to kick at her back and legs. After the attack Mrs Ward reported her husband and he was brought before a special borough court on the following Wednesday on the charge of aggravated assault. William pleaded guilty, expressing his deep sorrow and blaming it on drink. Mayor Hawley, acting as magistrate, wished to commit William to prison but Mrs Ward pleaded that her husband be given another chance – William was therefore fined £10 and ordered to pay costs.

17JULY 1879 When his wife left him, James Fryer was obviously distraught. After trying to persuade her to return to him at their house in Hanley, James went home, took some vermin killer from a shelf in the pantry and swallowed it. Realising what he had done, James immediately sought medical attention and was given a purgative which prevented the poison causing any serious damage. James, however, was then taken into custody and charged with attempting to commit suicide. Being brought before Hanley magistrates, he was severely cautioned by the bench and discharged on entering into his own recognisances to be of good behaviour for six months.

18JULY 1881 Seventy-three-year-old gardener John Tomlinson had been acting strangely for the last few weeks, telling family and friends that he was tired of living and muttering to himself. In early July he had disappeared from his home at Lichfield Street, Tamworth and been found by his daughters, sitting in a hovel complaining of pains in his head and a heat all over him. At about five o’clock on this Monday morning John got up early and told his wife Ann he was going into the garden but an hour later Ann was woken by a neighbour, who said John was very ill. Concerned, Ann rushed to the garden to find John being cut down from a damson tree, a rope around his neck. The inquest jury returned a verdict of suicide during a fit of temporary insanity.

19JULY 1873 Puddler Henry Marsh of Etruria Road, Hanley was walking past The Leopard beerhouse on Well Street at about ten o’clock when he was stopped by widow Ann Barlow, who suddenly and without warning accused him of assaulting her and struck him over the head with a glass bottle. Henry, bleeding profusely, staggered to the local police station and Ann was arrested. Ann was taken before Hanley Borough Court where she pleaded guilty to common assault; the bench, after sentencing her to twenty-eight days’ imprisonment with hard labour, remarked that though the case was a bad one, her character was worse.

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