The boy, the wagon and the level crossing.

The safety of unmanned level crossings is frequently in the news. 1863 has thrown up a case of a young man of 12 years being charged with negligently driving 2 horses and a wagon across a level crossing on the Leicester & Hitchin Railway.

Joseph Eckersley was a locomotive engine driver in the service of the Midland Railway Company. On 24 August he left London for Leicester with the 7.20am passenger train. The train as a government train and stopped at all stations on the Midland line between Hitchin and Leicester.

The journey was made without interruption to Sharnbrook. Irchester was the next station from Sharnbrook. It was a distance of about 6 miles and there was a rise in the line from Sharnbrook for about 3 miles and then the gradient went in the other direction. About 2 miles before Irchester station, he saw 2 horses, drawing an empty wagon, coming upon the railway at a distance of about 200 yards from the engine. The team came from the right or East of the line on which they were travelling. He could see the team was in the charge of a boy who appeared to be on the wrong side of the horses. There was private occupation crossing on the level where the wagon was going. The train was running at about 30 miles an hour and he used all his endeavours by reversing the engine and getting breaks put on to stop the train. He whistled. They were unable to stop the train before reaching the place over which the wagon was passing and the wagon was not through the gate posts when the engine came abreast of it. The hind wheels of the wagon were about half way through then gateway. However a collison was just avoided. This was tale of events was supported by his fireman, William Needham, who had been riding on the footplate of the engine. Eckersley stated that if it had been a fast train nothing would have prevented a collision.

 The travelling inspector for the south district of the Midland railway, John Jeffery, ascertained that an engine chimney could be seen a mile from the spot and the engine clearly seen from the gate for half a mile. Therefore, the young accused, James Mackness, would have know a train was approaching.

Charles Gilbert also worked for the Midland Company on the railway as a labourer in a local gang. On 24 August he was working about quarter of a mile to the North of the crossing. He saw a wagon and 2 horses crossing the level before a government train came down and heard the train whistle. He witnesses the near miss. On going back to the crossing he met Gilbert Church, a lad in the employment of Mr Lathom, owner of the land on qhich the level crossing was placed. Church was driving a cart and a horse to the same crossing. He stopped Church and asked if he was the boy with the wagon and the 2 horses. Church said it had been young Jem Mackness. He saw Mackness afterwards and asked if he was the boy who had gone through the line with an empty wagon and 2 horses and Mackness replied he was. Church asked Mackness if he went to see if there was a train coming and Mackness replied “No I never thought nothing about it”.

Mackness was lucky on this occasion, both to save his own life and to be found not guilty by the court.

QSR1863/4/5/14

from Bicycles to Tricycles

Maybe unsurprisingly we’ve come across yet more Bedfordshire bicycle, or in this instance, tricycle crime.  This time in the Epiphany session of 1889.

Luton Detective William Chamberlain was perusing the Police Gazette one evening when he read details of Jacob Josh wanted in Kings Lynn for the theft of a piano.  The same man was also wanted in Huddersfield, Rugby, Portsmouth and other places for stealing tricycles.  Chamberlain went round to warn the local cycle agents and ascertained that the prisoner had visited 2 other cycle agents before being allowed to borrow a tricycle from Albert Trott, a jeweller and cycle agent of Waller Street Luton. 

Chamberlain hired a horse and trap and went to St Albans with Trott where they came across the tricycle in the yard of The Cock public house.  They watched the prisoner go into the bar and Chamberlain followed and entered into a discussion with Trott about purchasing the machine for £2.  An arrest was made, although the prisoner became violent and said he refused to be taken to prison alive.  Interesting he confessed to the crime at this stage, although later pleaded not guilty to the charge.  He was tried at the General Quarter Session of the Peace at Wakefield, West Riding, York and sentenced to 6 months hard labour.

Another interesting element to the case was that Josh was described in the Calendar of Prisoners (QSR1889/1/3/1) as an Engine Driver.  In fact the 1881 census described him, at just 16 years, as an Engine Driver.  However, records available via Ancetsry.co.uk suggest although he did once work for the railways, it was for a period of 2 months as a labourer.  It would be fascinating to know if he did have a further career as a driver; it would certainly explain his travelling tricycle crimes.  However in the October of 1890 Jacob Josh is again convicted of larceny, this time in Warwick.  He was considered insane and confined to the County Lunatic Asylum.  So possibly his interest in tricycles and trains were all part of his psychosis.

QSR1889/1/5/2
QSR1889/1/6/2

The harsh reality of a childhood prank.

Once again we’ve come across some very young boys imprisoned in the House of Correction. Reuben Spring and George Edwards were just 9 and 10 years of age. Evidence in their case was based on the statement of just one man, William Bradshaw, a plate layer for the Great Northern Railway. He had witnessed the boys kneeling along side the outside up line of the Great Northern railway near Sandy. On going over to investigate he found 4 walnut sized stone on the rail. This occurred on an unspecified day in July. It was some 2 months later that the statement was taken from the witness. He stated that his employers considered in an offence which should not escape punishment. Reuben Spring, later described on the gaol register as 4ft 5” and blind in one eye, denied laying the stones on the line, in his statement. A month later at the Michaelmas Quarter Session, both boys were sentenced to 3 months hard labour in the House of Correction.

On previous occasions, we have seen young boys sent off to the newly established Reformatory Schools. However, it appears that on this occasion the boys served their sentence in the House of Correction. On a more positive note, Reuben Spring can be found in later censuses. He is a married man with a family, still living in the Sandy area, and he had become a General Dealer. This possibly suggests his time in the House of Correction was more of a deterrent than a learning ground towards a criminal life.

QSR1853/4/5/9,10