I have lived near Bishop’s Tachbrook, for many years and have been researching my house’s history for a considerable time. When studying the 1887 25” Ordnance Survey map for the ...
Henry Hewitt owned Clifton Mill from 1848 to 1869. During that time he may have poisoned his wife, himself and a large number of the local villagers. This was done ...
With its pretty thatched cottages, ancient church and walls of warm Cotswold stone, it seems an idyllic spot. Yet in 1875 the picturesque village of Long Compton made national headlines as ...
(continued from part one)
The trial of James Hayward for the murder of Ann Tennant was held three months after the inquest, at Warwick Crown Court on Tuesday 14th and Wednesday ...
On Christmas Eve 1998, I took delivery of a large brown envelope postmarked Southport. Inside was a copy of the death certificate of my great-great grandmother Ann Tennant. I knew ...
(continued from part one)
It is not just the word ‘witch’ that is still stigmatised, black cats have been tainted too. They are often depicted in popular culture as being a ...
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 14th April 1865. A tumultuous event in world affairs, this act also reached Warwick, and excited much talk and reflection amongst the councillors, media, and ...
The Michaelmas Quarter Sessions of 1855 saw charges of passing on counterfeit coins against Richard Broome and Robert Kent. The depositions from the archives reveal what appears to be a ...
On the evening of 15 February 1886, PC William Hine left home in Fenny Compton for duty on patrol around the “George and Dragon Inn” where a cattle auction was ...
We thought you might like this article from the Parish Magazine in July 1884. You can imagine the writer getting more and more incensed as he wrote!
Incendiary Fires
We have only ...
A resident of Rugby, George Day appeared before the circuit judge at the Coventry Courts quarter sessions twice in 1854, both times accused of thefts linked to pigs. George was ...
As a resident of the small village of Weston Under Wetherley, near Leamington Spa, I became fascinated by the historical accounts of its reported ‘goings on’ in the historical pages ...
The Warwick House of Correction or Bridewell stood on the corner between Saltisford Rock (now Theatre Street) and Bridewell Lane (formerly Wallditch and now Barrack Street); the site is roughly where ...
From the 17th century up until the mid 19th century people were being hanged for stealing as little as 5 shillings in value, this law was later referred to as ...
Crimes were originally divided into less serious ‘misdemeanours’ and more serious ‘felonies’. Felonies included murder, treason, rape, assault, and stealing anything worth more than a shilling. (This was raised to ...
The age of criminal responsibility in England has always been low. In the 18th century it was seven years old (and even today it is only 10, whilst in almost ...
The sentence of transportation was passed on a very great number of people found guilty of a wide variety of crimes during the 18th and 19th centuries. Periods of 7, ...
William Booth was born on Hall End Farm near Beaudesert, Warwickshire in 1776. Son of a church warden and farmer, he was one of eight children. In around 1799, he ...
This striking sculpture, at the time of writing, stands outside Coventry Cathedral. The British Ironwork Centre started a campaign ‘Save a Life, Surrender your Knife’ in 2014 and commissioned this ...
Browsing the Calendar of Prisoners Index, as you do, I came across an entry which intrigued me. The crime was listed as ‘Assault and Rescue of a Prisoner’.1 Now, I ...
Henry Smith of Kenilworth was accused, in 1827, of stealing a chicken. Ultimately, for this crime, he received a sentence of two months hard labour – not a small amount. ...
Opening
Come the mid 19th century there were repeated complaints by visiting justices, who remarked that the Warwick gaol on Barrack Street, and the Bridewell were unfit for purpose, suffering from ...
Imagine the scene: it was midnight on 1st August 1876 and Hugh Glover, a boatman from Gloucester, was busy getting through a lock on the canal at Aston. He was ...
There is a variety of crimes detailed in the Warwickshire County Record Office Quarter Session records. Quarter Session documents can provide a rich source of information. For example, the judicial ...
