RIOT!!
On the afternoon of Thursday 6th November 1862, a serious riot broke out following the conviction of a number of men for poaching rabbits. At that time, the Police Courts were located within the Town Hall.
The land on which the men were allegedly caught was part of the Pleasington Hall estate, owned by John Butler Bowden. He was also one of the town’s magistrates. Although he did not actually sit ‘on the Bench’ that day, he was present in the Police Court, which caused hissing from many of the ordinary people who had crammed into the public gallery. The fact that he had even prosecuted the case, at a time when thousands in the time were practically starving, was thought to be bad enough; but he bombastically wagged his finger at the waiting crowd, which incensed them further.
A senior lawyer, hired for the defence by hundreds of working-class people giving an odd penny, argued that the case should have been referred to another court. To cap it all, just as the trial was about to begin, it was moved from the large court to the small one, meaning that hundreds of the already agitated public were denied access.
The prosecution evidence was questionable, the various witnesses unable to agree on what the weather was like at the time, let alone on the identities of the poachers. However, the magistrates decided the men were guilty and sentenced them to short terms in prison.
Once the news reached the ears of the large crowds in the market place – remember that thousands of people were unemployed, with little else to do – frustration turned to anger. Bowden’s gamekeepers, the main witnesses, were kept inside the Town Hall, until it was thought safe to leave. The people were in no hurry to move, however. So, the gamekeepers, wielding sticks, were escorted by the police towards Preston New Road.
Immediately, a large crowd began to tail them, shouting abuse. With the mob pressing ever closer, and stones flying, the police ushered the keepers into the premises of an engraver and silversmith at the corner of Strawberry Bank. Finally, a police carriage arrived, and an increased cordon of policemen covered their walk from the shop to the vehicle, which sped away.
Dissatisfied, many of the crowd headed back towards the Town Hall. Tempers were high, and there was a ready supply of stones from the building site of the Exchange, on the opposite side of King William Street. Within less than an hour, every single window on the ground and first floors of the Town Hall had been smashed.
The angry mob followed the gamekeepers, who hid inside Dugdale’s jewellery and engraving shop at the corner of Strawberry Bank. Read how Jason became caught up in the riot in Chapter 39. (Illustration by , by Cheryl Bilocca)
Although many of the older people left the scene after Alderman Baynes had addressed the crowd, two groups of young men set off to cause further mayhem. One group headed north-west along Preston New Road, destroying every window for about half a mile, and heading up towards the newly-built homes of some of the millowners; the other mob smashed everything that was not shuttered along Northgate, Astley Gate and King Street, the old route out of town towards Preston. Their ultimate target was, of course, Pleasington Hall, where Butler Bowden was entertaining guests.
With a tense situation still threatening the peace and safety of the town centre, at about eight o’clock the new mayor, Mr J. Sturdy, read the Riot Act from the steps of the Town Hall. This meant that any group of more than twelve people who did not disperse could be shot. At the same time, a detachment of the 16th Lancers was dispatched from Fulwood Barracks, Preston, arriving a little after 9.30. By then, however, the town centre had become much calmer.
The leading men of the town, who had been actively seeking financial assistance from London and other major cities, were anxious that the incident be reported in the national press as a one-off reaction to a badly handled court case. That, of course, was only partly true. The anger had been building up, like a volcano, through months of deprivation and increasing poverty.
Sporadic outbursts of violence occurred over the following days; but by Friday 14th, the town was peaceful enough for the Lancers to stand down and return to Preston.
Cutting, east of Blackburn Tunnel
It was while working on this cutting in 1846 that a man was killed by a barrow and a heavy rock falling on him. John West tells Jason the story (page 17)
Yates’s Foundry, Birley Street
Part of this was used as an Industrial School during the Cotton Famine. The soup kitchen, see page 375) was at the far end.
Hoghton Viaduct, 2018. On 30th September 1862, a train from Preston derailed on here in the dark. The guard had to stop people climbing over the railing, thinking that they were entering a field. The drop to the rocky bed of the River Darwen would have been about 35 metres. Read Jason’s adventure here in Chapter 25.
TOM KELLY’S JOURNEY FOR WORK
On Saturday 24th May 1862, twenty Blackburn men were sent to Lincolnshire to be employed, at between 3s and 3s4d per day. They were to work on the new Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway, built to connect Doncaster and Great Grimsby. The greatest engineering challenge was to cross the wide River Trent. Opened in 1866, the line transformed Scunthorpe from a village into an important steel-making town.
The men’s train fares were paid by the Mayor of Blackburn, Mr R.H. Hutchinson; and the railway companies had agreed to take distressed workers any distance at one halfpenny per mile. “Many of those sent, however, leave wives and families dependent on the rates for support.” [Bury Times, 31st May 1862]
This is the only incident in Jason’s Magic Railway that did not occur between the end of September and early November.