A Grim Almanac of the Black Country E-Book

Nicola Sly

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

A Grim Almanac of the Black Country is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the area. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of mysteries, this almanac explores the darker side of the Black Country's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of mining disasters, freak weather, bizarre deaths and tragic accidents, including the gunpowder explosion at a factory in Tipton which claimed nineteen lives in 1922. Also featured is the corpse in West Bromwich that was twice wrongly identified in 1929, the collapse of a concert hall roof in Walsall in 1921, and the two labourers buried in molten glass near Stourbridge in 1893. All these, plus tales of fires, catastrophes, mysteries and executions, are here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of the Black Country's grim past. Read on ... if you dare!

Leseprobe

Winson Green Prison. (Author’s collection)

The Market Place, Dudley. (Author’s collection)

CONTENTS

TITLE

INTRODUCTION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT

INTRODUCTION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first obstacle in writing about the Black Country is determining exactly where it is, since its location is not precisely defined. For example, some would argue that it doesn’t include Wolverhampton, Smethwick or Stourbridge, while others say that it is anywhere within the Metropolitan District Council areas of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. I sincerely hope that I haven’t taken too many liberties with the geography of the area.

All of the stories within this book are true and were sourced entirely from the contemporary newspapers listed in the bibliography at the rear. However, much as today, not everything was reported accurately and there were frequent discrepancies between publications, with differing dates and variations in names and spelling.

As always, there are a number of people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for their assistance. Dennis Neale, who runs a fascinating website called ‘Black Country Muse’, was extremely helpful and knowledgeable and very kindly gave me permission to use one of his illustrations, as did the Wolverhampton Express and Star, who permitted me to use their illustrations pertaining to the ‘Hagley Bella’ case. On a personal level, my husband Richard provided constructive criticism – and countless cups of tea! I would also like to thank Matilda Richards, my editor at The History Press, for her help and encouragement in bringing this book to print.

Every effort has been made to clear copyright; however, my apologies to anyone I may have inadvertently missed. I can assure you it was not deliberate but an oversight on my part.

Nicola Sly, 2013

JANUARY

Dudley police station. (Author’s collection)

1 JANUARY

1869 Schoolmistress Elizabeth Fereday faced magistrates at Wolverhampton Police Court charged with assaulting a pupil. Eight-year-old Nancy Ann Jones’s parents complained that, just before Christmas, Mrs Fereday had struck their daughter in the face with a cane. Nancy was brought into court still sporting a black eye, and the Magistrates’ Clerk testified that the bruising had been much worse when the summons against the teacher was taken out soon after the incident.

Mrs Fereday denied hitting Nancy, saying that the child was injured by falling onto a bench. She claimed that Nancy was impudent and refused to do her school work, prompting her to tell the girl that she would not be spoken to in that way. Mrs Fereday said that she was about to ‘box the child’s ears’ when Nancy accidentally fell and hit her face.

The magistrates found in Nancy’s favour, fining Mrs Fereday £2 plus costs.

2 JANUARY

1889 Richard Walters and Fanny Cornock left home to go for a walk and never returned. The following morning, a walking stick and a woman’s muff were found lying on the towpath of the canal at Nine Locks, Brierley Hill.

When the canal was dragged, the bodies of twenty-six-year-old Walters and his nineteen-year-old fiancée were found a few yards apart. An inquest held by coroner Mr E.B. Thorneycroft on 5 January surmised that the couple had accidentally walked into the canal during a thick fog, and the jury returned two verdicts of ‘accidental death’.

3 JANUARY

1884 Twenty-one-year-old Eliza Cartwright from Bradley felt safe walking to work, until she noticed a man crawling towards her across a field on his hands and knees. She was forced to ask for protection from a couple of men in front of her, and from that day onwards, she changed her route to one that was less isolated.

On 3 January, a postman heard a woman shouting and, moments later, he came across Eliza lying senseless on the ground. She died that evening from a compound fracture of the skull. A search of the area where she was found suggested that a great struggle had taken place and the police found two large pieces of furnace cinder, one covered in clotted blood and hair, the other tied with half of Eliza’s work apron.

An inquest was opened and adjourned to allow the police time to investigate. However, when the inquest finally concluded, the police were no nearer to finding Eliza’s killer(s) and the jury’s verdict was ‘murder by person or person’s unknown’.

Several arrests were made but everyone was released due to lack of evidence. Eliza had not been robbed, nor sexually assaulted and whoever killed her struck entirely at random, using the first thing that came to hand rather than a specific weapon. A reward of £100 was offered for information leading to the apprehension of her killer(s) but it went unclaimed and Eliza’s murder remains unsolved.

4 JANUARY

1917 Tramcar driver Richard Davies was a few minutes early arriving at the terminus at the top of Tipton Road, Dudley. He left his tram briefly and, while he was away, conductress Maggie Jefferson reversed the pole used to conduct live electricity to the controls and boarded the tram. Unaware that Davies was not in his seat, Miss Jefferson then released the brake. The runaway tram careered down Tipton Road, gathering speed as it went, and when it reached a bend, it jumped the rails and overturned.

Twenty-five passengers were injured, most of them crushed or cut by flying glass. Annie Payne was trapped beneath the rear of the tram and it took some time to free her. She was eventually lifted through a window by a nurse and doctor, but was so badly injured that she died shortly after admission to hospital.

The accident was unusual in that it replicated almost exactly another fatal accident that occurred at the same spot a year earlier – in each case, even the tramcar was the same.

5 JANUARY

1894 Robert and Mary Goodwin appeared at the Guildhall in Walsall charged with neglecting their five children. Magistrates were told that the children came to the attention of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in August 1893, when the society’s inspector had visited their home seven times, each time finding the children dirty, hungry and inadequately clothed.

The chief magistrate called it ‘an abominable case’ but his colleague, former mayor, Mr J. Wheway, seemed fixated on whether the inspector had the right to enter the Goodwins’ house.

‘Even a poor man’s house is his castle, or ought to be,’ insisted Wheway, who seemed unable to grasp the inspector’s repeated assertions that he had permission to go in. ‘It is not right to examine a man’s rooms’ persisted Wheway, adding, ‘I would not allow it in my own house and will not suffer it in anybody else’s.’

Although his colleagues on the Bench voiced their disagreement, Wheway continued to object, even though the society’s solicitor tried to reason with him, reiterating that permission was always obtained and pointing out that it would be very difficult to prove a case of neglect or cruelty if a house was not entered. Eventually, in the face of Wheway’s nit-picking, the case collapsed and all the society could do was to watch the Goodwins carefully, to see how things progressed. The society’s solicitor sarcastically promised that they would endeavour to do so in a manner to which Wheway could not possibly object.

The Guildhall, Walsall, 1867. (Author’s collection)

6 JANUARY

1890 Eighteen-year-old Emma Greaves appeared before magistrates at Dudley charged with assaulting and wounding Elizabeth Darbey with a red hot iron. Elizabeth and her sister Mary rented space in a nail-maker’s workshop in Dudley, from Emma’s mother, but were told to leave after an argument. When they went back to collect their tools, the argument started afresh.

Castle Street, Dudley, 1950s. (Author’s collection)

Elizabeth and Mary threatened Emma with violence and she picked up a piece of red hot iron with which to defend herself. Both sisters were burned, one on the nose, the other on the eye.

Magistrates decided that there was blame on both sides and dismissed the case.

7 JANUARY

1865 Emmanuel Davis and Francis Longmore went to Swan Village Station and while Davis went to purchase their tickets to Wednesbury, Longmore crossed the wooden bridge to the opposite platform.

While walking across the bridge, Longmore slipped and fell head first through the side, landing on the platform 10ft below. Davis asked if he was hurt, to which Longmore replied, ‘I shall die.’ He was taken to a nearby pub, where a surgeon rendered first aid, after which he was sent home in a cab.

Longmore did die the following morning from a broken neck. At the inquest on his death, held by coroner Edwin Hooper, the main question for the jury was whether or not Longmore was sober at the time of the accident.

He and Davis had been conducting some business in the pub and Davis was quite prepared to admit that they had been drinking but insisted that they were both sober. Other witnesses gave varying accounts, and Longmore was said to have been ‘drunk but able to walk straight and take care of himself’, ‘slightly tipsy’, ‘perfectly sober’ and ‘drunk and incapable’.

The inquest jury ruled that death was caused by a fall from the bridge, and expressed an opinion that Longmore was capable of taking care of himself, and that the bridge needed better fencing. Longmore left thirteen children, six of whom were too young to work, and his widow later sued the Great Western Railway Company for damages at the Staffordshire Assizes. She was awarded £500.

8 JANUARY

1864 An inquest was opened at Tipton into the death of thirteen-year-old Minnie Smart. When Minnie was taken ill while visiting Tabitha Cambridge, her married sister at Netherton, Mrs Cambridge gave her some ‘surfeit water’ and took her back to their parents’ home, where Minnie subsequently died.

Rumours began to circulate that Minnie had been poisoned, so coroner Edwin Hooper adjourned the proceedings for a post-mortem examination.

When the inquest reopened, surgeon Thomas Underhill reported that although Minnie was emaciated, there were no marks of violence on her body and no trace of poison. In Underhill’s opinion, Minnie died from scarlet fever and Mrs Cambridge confirmed that there was fever in the house when Minnie visited – two of her brother’s children had recently died and a third child was currently at death’s door.

The ‘surfeit water’ she gave her sister was a traditional Black Country recipe used for ‘bringing out eruptions’ and curing indigestion. It was made from water, sugar, spirits and cinnamon, and Underhill confirmed that he had tested a sample taken from the same batch given to Minnie and found it perfectly harmless.

The inquest jury returned a verdict of ‘death from natural causes’ and Underhill begged the coroner to direct the attention of the public to two very important points. Firstly, he pointed out the folly of taking an infected child among those who hadn’t yet succumbed to the illness, and secondly, had Minnie been kept warm and not taken home in the cold, her life would probably have been spared. Sensitive to Mrs Cambridge’s feelings, the coroner agreed with Underhill’s opinions but added that he did not believe that Mrs Cambridge was aware that Minnie had caught the fever when she took her home.

9 JANUARY

1878 After courting for two years, twenty-one-year-old William Henry Griffiths and Elizabeth Beeston were engaged to be married.

On 9 January, Griffiths called for his fiancée at her home in Wolverhampton, and the couple went out for a walk together. When they reached Goldthorn Hill, Griffiths suddenly cried ‘Stop!’

Elizabeth asked him what he wanted but Griffiths didn’t reply. Instead, he threw his left arm around her neck, covering her mouth with his left hand and cut her throat with his right hand. Elizabeth bit the fingers covering her mouth and Griffiths let her go, but before she could run away he stooped down, grabbed her ankles and tipped her over. As she lay on her back, he tried to cut her throat a second time.

Goldthorn Hill, Wolverhampton. (Author’s collection)

Elizabeth screamed ‘Murder!’ and several people ran to her. ‘Here’s somebody coming,’ she said loudly, hoping that Griffiths would stop what he was doing.

‘Is there, Betsy?’ he asked calmly, before getting up and walking away.

Fortunately, Elizabeth survived the attempt on her life but Griffiths was found dead in a gateway, having cut his throat.

An inquest was opened and adjourned for a month in the hope that Elizabeth Beeston would be able to attend. When it reopened, she was unable to explain her fiancé’s actions. It was assumed that the motive for the attack was jealousy but Elizabeth swore that she had never given Griffiths any cause, nor had there been any quarrel between them on that or any other occasion. The only unusual thing that Elizabeth noted was that, when her fiancée called for her on 9 January, he was wearing his work clothes and no collar.

With no ready explanation for Griffiths’s behaviour, the inquest jury returned a verdict of suicide while temporarily insane.

10 JANUARY

1870 Samuel Tonks appeared before magistrates at Dudley charged with manslaughter. On a visit to his aunt at Brockmoor on New Years’ Day, Samuel picked up a gun and, as a joke, pointed it at his six-year-old cousin, Louisa Heath. Unbeknown to Samuel the gun was loaded and he accidentally shot the little girl, blowing away most of her face and killing her almost instantly.

Tonks was arrested but magistrates recognised that the shooting was a terrible accident and discharged him with a caution to be more careful when handling firearms in the future.

11 JANUARY

1864 At the Bridge End Colliery in Bromley, six men began their descent to the coal face in a skip. Meanwhile, on the surface, Thomas Jones was about to bridle one of the pit horses.

As Jones entered the stable, something spooked the horse, which spun round, knocking Jones over, before bolting through the stable door. As it neared the mouth of the pit, it slipped on a metal plate and plummeted down the shaft. Halfway down, the horse landed on the skip and the supporting chain snapped, sending the men crashing 400ft to the bottom of the shaft.

Joseph Baker (29), Job Round (26), Zachariah Barker (53), George Terry (33), Thomas Bate (40) and John Page (27) were killed instantly, their bodies terribly mutilated, while the horse was said to be ‘smashed to atoms.’ Bate lived in Worcestershire, so there was a separate inquest on his death, but Staffordshire coroner Mr T.M. Phillips opened an inquest on 14 January and adjourned it to permit the Mine Inspector to visit the scene of the accident. When the inquests concluded, the juries returned six verdicts of accidental death.

At the time of the accident, the banksman was not at his post at the top of the shaft, and the juries wondered if he might have been able to stop or turn the horse had he been there. Although regulations stated that pit shafts should be fenced, one side of the iron rail surrounding the shaft had been removed to allow the men to board the skip.

The luckiest man of all was collier Richard Aston, who got off the skip because he thought there were too many men on board.

12 JANUARY

1888 Seventeen-year-old Kate James of Wednesfield returned home from her job in London and was collected by her father, Henry, at High Level Station, Wolverhampton. It was a foggy night and, by the side of the canal bridge at Wood End, there was an open gate leading to the towpath. Instead of crossing the bridge, the horse turned through the gate and pulled the trap straight into the canal.

Kate’s father managed to get out of the water and shouted until help arrived. He was found on the bank in a state of exhaustion, but sadly Kate drowned and an inquest later returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’.

Canal at New Bridge, Wolverhampton, 1913. (Author’s collection)

13 JANUARY

1864 Jane Glover saw a group of small boys at Bagnall’s Pool, Tipton. The pond was frozen and one boy was testing the strength of the ice at the edge with his clog. The ice broke and Mrs Glover advised the boy to stay well away from the pool, but eleven-year-old Reuben Clifton told her that he thought that it would be fine for sliding.

As soon as Reuben ventured onto the ice it gave way, sending him into the water. Unable to reach him, Mrs Glover ran to raise the alarm and Harry Jukes hurried to the pond with drags. Reuben’s body had drifted almost 10 yards from the bank and sunk in 12ft of water and, by the time it was recovered, he was beyond any medical help. An inquest held by coroner Edwin Hooper returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’.

14 JANUARY

1854 Coroner Mr T.M. Phillips held an inquest at the Shinglers’ Arms Tavern at Brierley Hill into the death of fourteen-year-old James Rowley.

The boy was killed by a fall of coal while working underground at a pit owned by Lord Ward, Earl of Dudley, and the verdict of ‘accidental death’ was a relatively straightforward decision for the jury.

It was revealed at the inquest that both of Rowley’s brothers were tragically killed in almost identical mining accidents, when they were roughly the same age as James.

High Street, Brierley Hill, 1911. (Author’s collection)

15 JANUARY

1864 Coroner Edwin Hooper held an inquest into the death of sixteen-year-old miner John Whitehouse, who drowned in the canal at West Bromwich on 13 January – an exceptionally foggy day. Lock keeper Richard Parks recalled the arrival of two boys at his cottage, informing him that someone had fallen into the water. Parks went to fetch the drags but was unable to find them and so grabbed a rake, with which he retrieved Whitehouse’s body.

There was no public road or path at the point where the body was found but people often went that way as a short cut. There was little doubt that John had wandered into the canal in the dense fog, and the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

After the inquest, Hooper and Parks immediately moved to another pub for the inquest on the death of foundry labourer Richard Bradley, whose body was found just a few yards from that of Whitehouse. As soon as he began giving evidence, Parks apologised to the coroner, saying that he was confused and that the evidence he had just given at the first inquest actually applied to Bradley, whose was the first body found. The mix-up made no difference to the jury’s verdict of ‘accidental death’, since it was obvious that Bradley had also drowned on his way to work after losing his bearings in the fog and walking into the canal.

16 JANUARY

1864 The case of Green v Smith was heard at the Wolverhampton County Court, in which the Misses Green, who kept a boarding school, tried to recoup outstanding fees of £26 7s 6d.

In 1857, Mr Smith sent three of his children to the school, at a cost of £8 17s 6d a quarter for their board and education. The children were withdrawn from the school in late 1863, and the sum claimed by the Greens was for three quarters, during the first of which the children attended the school and during the second of which they left. The third quarter was charged in lieu of notice of intent to remove the children.

Mr Smith, whose allegations were corroborated by the school maid, claimed that for breakfast his children each received one slice of dry bread with broth or porridge, seasoned with nettles or onions. Meat was only provided for dinner three or four times a week, and then only around an ounce of mutton, pig face or bacon per child, with vegetables. Pudding was served only twice a week and soup made from rice, sheep’s lungs or nettles – which the children had to pick themselves – was served at least three days every week.

The judge pointed out that the cost per child, including education, broke down to 5s 10d a week and he considered the diet good enough for the price. There was nothing wrong with nettle soup, insisted the judge, who seemed to be under the impression that Smith was exaggerating and that the testimony of his daughter, fourteen-year-old former pupil Eliza Smith, was largely a figment of her imagination.

The judge ordered Smith to pay for the two quarters during which his children had attended the school, waiving the third quarter’s payment in lieu of notice.

17 JANUARY

1934 The Wolverhampton Monster’s reign of terror was ended by seventeen-year-old George Goodhead, who threw a brick at it and then kicked it to death, after it sprang for his throat when he disturbed it while it was attacking a child.

A coatimundi.

The dead animal on wasteland at Brickkiln Croft was final proof of the existence of the strange, mythical creature that roamed the streets of Wolverhampton, terrorising the population and savaging children. Described as ‘like a monstrous rat’, it was said to be the size of a full-grown cat, with a shaggy coat, an upturned snout, a rat-like tail and fearsome protruding teeth.

The ‘monster’ was finally identified as a coatimundi by Dr S.C. Dyke, the pathologist at the Royal Hospital in Wolverhampton. Dyke explained that the animals came from Mexico and were imported to England as pets or kept in zoos.

When a second coatimundi was found dead at Brickkiln Croft it sparked fears that there was a colony of the animals in the area, particularly since this one was a female, while the one killed was male. However, the mystery of the dead female was quickly solved when an attendant at a travelling fair came forward to say that they had passed through the locality at Christmas and thrown away the body of a dead coatimundi. Even so, the council decided to err on the safe side and arranged for the official rat catcher to scour the area. In spite of being hampered in his work by crowds of sightseers, he found no more ‘monsters’.

18 JANUARY

1893 As an underground fire burned at Heath End Colliery near Walsall, sixty-four-year-old John Holt was contracted to supervise the diversion of a brook into the pit, in the hope of extinguishing the blaze.

As Holt dug, a large hole suddenly opened up in his excavations. Holt began filling the hole but, as he did, the earth suddenly shifted again and he was buried alive. His workmates immediately dug down to try and rescue him but it took four hours before they reached him, by which time he was long dead. An inquest held by coroner Mr T.H. Stanley returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’.

19 JANUARY

1877 Fifty-two-year-old Pardoe Hyde died in Lower Gornal, and was to be the subject of a controversial inquest held by coroner Mr W.H. Phillips.

Dudley surgeon Mr A. Jones had ordered a post-mortem examination, without first gaining the coroner’s permission. Phillips accused Jones of ‘improper interference’ since, on death, the body became the property of the Crown and must not be meddled with, to avoid perverting the course of public justice.

Hyde broke his thigh on 28 November 1876 and the bone was set by Jones. The patient was progressing well until he died and, not knowing the cause of death, Jones felt unable to issue a death certificate without further investigation.

Mrs Hyde gave her permission for the post-mortem, which was carried out by Jones and another surgeon. The cause of death was found to be a twisted bowel and, although the inquest returned a verdict of ‘death from natural causes’, Phillips was still not happy, saying that the doctors had overstepped the bounds of their authority. After some grovelling apologies, the coroner eventually accepted that the doctors concerned had acted with the best intentions and stated that he did not intend to take the matter any further.

20 JANUARY

1858 Twelve-year-old Maria Powell died at Tipton. Among her chores was the collection of pieces of unburned coal from the ash mounds created by the Park Lane Furnaces and on 12 January, as Maria concentrated on her task, she failed to notice her petticoats trailing across some live embers.

Although the garments were quickly extinguished, Maria was badly burned. An inquest held by deputy coroner Edwin Hooper returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’ before warning parents in the strongest terms about the dangers of sending children onto the ash heaps.

21 JANUARY

1882 Susannah Jones took her father’s supper to the Swan Village Gasworks near West Bromwich, then was seen at about 9.30 p.m. walking along the canal towards Dudley Port with her sweetheart William Fryer, who had his arm around her waist. The couple seemed to be on good terms but two hours later, Fryer met a policeman and told him that he wished to give himself up for murdering his girlfriend.

Fryer, who was dripping wet, explained to PC Davis that he had pushed a woman into the canal and thought she was drowned. The police went to the spot indicated by Fryer and found a woman’s hat floating on the water and at first light Susannah’s body was recovered.

Fryer had been courting Susannah for about eighteen months and, according to her father, they had not quarrelled prior to her death. Doctors who examined Fryer suggested that he was suffering from ‘impulsive mania’, the first manifestations of ‘homicidal mania’. He had delusions, coupled with a tendency to destroy those he loved or commit suicide and, at the time of Susannah’s death, would have been incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

Fryer, who tried to commit suicide three times while incarcerated, told the doctors that the devil had ordered him to drown Susannah, saying that he loved her and would far rather have drowned himself. At his trial at the Staffordshire Assizes in May 1882, his defence counsel called several witnesses to describe Fryer’s strange behaviour before the murder and he was acquitted due to insanity and ordered to be detained during Her Majesty’s pleasure. He was sent to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

22 JANUARY

1925 More than 4,000 people attended the funeral of twenty-five-year-old PC Albert Willitts at St Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton. On 17 January, Willitts was patrolling his beat near Bilston Road police station when he saw three youths behaving suspiciously. Having spoken to them, he decided to follow them and the young men got as far as Vicarage Road before they realised that the policeman was behind them.

St Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton. (Author’s collection)

They began to run and Willitts chased them, managing to grab one boy. As he did, three gun shots rang out and Willitts fell to the ground mortally wounded.

Several other policemen had spoken to the three youths that night, having observed them loitering in the area, and the police quickly arrested George James Dixon (14), Edward Patrick Heggerty (17) and William Crossley (19). All three had absconded from a probation home for young offenders in Hertfordshire and, when the two older boys were jointly charged with the murder of PC Willitts, both blamed the other. ‘It was Crossley who shot him,’ insisted Heggerty, adding, ‘I saw the flash from the other side of the road.’

‘I never had the revolver. I don’t know how to fire one,’ countered Crossley.

Both youths were tried at the Stafford Assizes on 27 February, where each was still blaming the other. Dixon appeared as a witness for the prosecution, after all charges against him were dropped, and stated that it was Crossley who fired the fatal shots. However, whether the trigger was pulled by Crossley or Heggerty, each was equally responsible in the eyes of the law and, when both were found guilty, they were sentenced to death.

Notice of an appeal was immediately given on the grounds that the proper verdict should have been guilty of manslaughter. Crossley was said to have the mental age of a nine-year-old and a petition was raised in his hometown to try and save him from the gallows. The appeal took place on 23 March but was unsuccessful and the date of the double execution was set for 7 April. In the event, the Home Secretary commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment.

23 JANUARY

1861 Coroner Edwin Hooper held an inquest at Crookhay, West Bromwich, into the death of twenty-one-year-old Thomas Morgan.

Morgan worked at a forge and happened to notice that a large crank wheel attached to a steam engine was loose. Without stopping the engine, he tried to fix the wheel by driving wedges behind it, and the crank handle hit his head, knocking him onto the revolving wheel.

Although the engine was quickly stopped, Morgan was literally cut to pieces by the machinery and died instantly. He was known as a sober, steady man, who was due to be married a few days after his fatal accident.

24 JANUARY

1900 At Bent’s Brewery in Bilston, one of the heavy horses took fright and bolted. Still pulling its dray, it galloped out of the yard, through an orchard and into the main street, where it crashed through the enormous plate glass window of Messrs Leeke, Provision Merchants.

At the time, Mr Lawson was idling away a few minutes while waiting for a train to Wolverhampton by doing some windowshopping. The horse collided with Lawson, driving him through the window, through the wood partition at the back of the window and onto the shop floor.

By a miracle, Lawson escaped with cuts and bruises and, after being treated by a local surgeon, was able to continue his homeward journey. The fate of the horse is not recorded.

25 JANUARY

1848 An inquest held at The Royal Oak, Portobello, Willenhall, into the death of Elizabeth Wootton returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’. Elizabeth’s father was a butty collier (mining subcontractor) at the Bull Pleck Coal Pit and, like most butties, he regularly employed members of his own family.

On 24 January, Elizabeth was working with him and overbalanced as she was pushing a skip. Feeling herself falling down the shaft, she grabbed another girl’s skirt to save herself but the girl quickly shook Elizabeth off, for fear of being dragged down herself. Elizabeth plunged right to the pit bottom and was literally dashed to pieces.

26 JANUARY

1929 The funeral of Harry Park Temple took place at St Matthew’s Church, Wolverhampton, and the crowds who turned out were so large that 40 yards of railings surrounding the churchyard collapsed, injuring two women. More than 5,000 people later watched Temple’s interment in Bilston Cemetery.

Temple died on 20 January, after a heroic attempt to rescue two youths from drowning. Joseph Elmore, Harold Heath and Reginald Bond were playing football on a frozen pool in Wolverhampton when the ice beneath them gave way and all three fell through. Reginald managed to haul himself back onto the ice and pulled Joseph out after him. Together, the boys were pulling Harold out when the ice broke again and Harold and Joseph went back into the water.

By now, several people had come to help and Thomas Whittingham and Temple began to inch their way across the ice. It cracked loudly and Whittingham slipped over, but Temple continued to crawl towards the hole in the ice and got into the water. Suddenly, he disappeared beneath the surface and the men, who had by now formed a human chain to the bank of the pool, believed that he was either seized with violent cramp, or that one of the two boys in the water grabbed him and pulled him down. His body was recovered later, as were the bodies of sixteen-year-old Joseph and fifteen-year-old Harold.

At the inquest, coroner Mr A.C. Skidmore hailed twenty-seven-year-old Temple as a hero, saying that he had forwarded his name for consideration for a bravery award.

Queen Square, Wolverhampton. (Author’s collection)

27 JANUARY

1859 Shoemaker Mr Hands rented an upper-storey room from milliner Mr Paling at his premises in Queen Street, Wolverhampton. The room was occupied by three young women, who did the stitching on the shoes and boots.

During the day, the girls often had occasion to visit what the newspapers of the time referred to as ‘the one storey house’ in Mr Paling’s back yard. However, Paling maintained that this was not part of the rental agreement and the girls in his employ resented sharing their facilities.

On 27 January, Mary Ann Gee went to use the toilet but found her way barred by Henry Riddle, a boy in Paling’s employ, who was waving a large stick. Miss Gee was not about to be thwarted and she and one of the other girls boxed Henry’s ears and disarmed him, before barging past him into the lavatory.

Hearing Henry’s shouts, Paling left his breakfast and rushed into the yard. By that time, Miss Gee was enthroned in the outhouse with the door locked and resolutely ignored Paling’s orders to come out. In a rage, Paling broke down the door and seized Miss Gee by the shoulders, forcing her out into the yard in a state of partial undress. He swore at her, called her a ‘street walker’ and threatened to knock her head off.

Miss Gee summoned Paling for assault and he was fined 1s plus costs.

28 JANUARY

1861 Sarah Neal of Rowley Regis was the daughter of a nail maker who forced the girl to make nails alongside him, and on 28 January 1861 her father beat her dreadfully because she wasn’t working fast enough, leaving her with a black eye.

William Neal physically chastised his daughter again on 23 February, this time hitting her twice over the head with an iron bar, and on 27 February she stayed out all night, too afraid to go home because her father had threatened to kill her.

She was found by an old friend, who took her home with him and, appalled by her physical condition, began to ask questions. Sarah revealed that she worked every day from seven o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock at night, apart from Saturdays, when she was permitted to finish work at noon.

When William Neal appeared at the Petty Sessions on 6 March charged with assaulting Sarah on 28 January, the girl was so weak and exhausted that she had to be carried in and out of court. She was emaciated to the point of being skeletal and bore numerous marks of violence all over her body.

William Neal insisted that he had always been a good father to Sarah but the Bench didn’t believe him. He was fined £1 plus costs and cautioned that any repeat offence would be dealt with much more severely.

29 JANUARY

1827 As five miners worked below ground at Mr Wightwick’s Colliery in Tividale, Rowley Regis, there was a sudden fall of coal. Miraculously, one miner escaped with only a slight injury to his hip, but Daniel Sowden, Thomas Jones, William Paine and John Corbet Brookes died instantly, crushed beneath 25 tons of coal. All but one of the deceased left a wife and children.

There was no warning whatsoever that the roof was about to fall, and the jury at the inquest, held by coroner Henry Smith, returned four verdicts of ‘accidental death’ on the victims.

30 JANUARY

1860 Twenty-nine-year-old Henry Draper climbed into a brewer’s vat at Ettingshall to clean it. He was soon in difficulties and although he was pulled out of the vat as quickly as possible, he emerged unconscious. A doctor was summoned and attempted to bleed him but to no avail – Draper had suffocated to death.

An inquest was held the next day at The Builder’s Arms in Wolverhampton, and, on hearing that Draper went into the vat against the express orders of his employer, the inquest jury ruled that he alone was responsible for his death.

31 JANUARY

1916 During the First World War, on the night of 31 January/1 February, the Black Country suffered a heavy air raid. Attracted by the glow of the industrial furnaces, Zeppelins made two bombing raids on Tipton, Bradley, Wednesbury and Walsall, which resulted in the deaths of thirty-five people.

Among them were the Lady Mayoress of Walsall, Julia Slater, who died from septicaemia three weeks after the tramcar in which she had been travelling was hit by flying fragments of a bomb. In Tipton, Thomas Morris lost his wife, two children and his mother and father-in-law when a bomb fell on their house in Union Street, while a courting couple died on the banks of the Wolverhampton Union Canal at Lower Bradley.

Hearing the sound of explosions in Wednesbury, Mrs Smith went out into King Street to see what the noise was. Her house suffered a direct hit, killing her husband and three children.

Thirteen-year-old William Hyman Jones, who lost a leg in the air raid. (Author’s collection)

Spring Vale furnaces by night, 1905. (Author’s collection)

FEBRUARY

Wednesbury Art Gallery & Municipal Buildings, 1900s. (Author’s collection)

1 FEBRUARY