1872

   A HISTORY OF FEATHERSTONE

1872

DOG WORRYING

  Three Featherstone colliers, Squire Burnell, Isaac Bacon and Thomas Bennett, were in court in June charged with assaulting John and Martin Featon, Warmfield farmers. John Featon said he was told two dogs belonging to four men had entered one of his fields and worried a lamb. He went after the party and one of them knocked him down. He got up and and attempted to get away but he was attacked again. His brother came to his assistance and he was attacked also. 

  They got away and followed their assailants to Crofton where they saw Police Constable Smith. He managed to arrest three of them but the fourth escaped. The Bench sentenced the three to two months in jail each plus another month if they did not pay the costs.

IN A POT VALIANT MOOD

   At 1am on a June morning George Sherwood of Purston was woken up by his dog barking and loud knocking on his door. He was dressing to go and see what was the matter when the door was forced open. He kept the intruder at bay with a pitchfork and then went to a neighbouring farm for assistance. On his return with two men he found Sherwood in his bed. They dare not molest him but went for Police Sergeant Grimshaw who arrested him and took him to Pontefract. 

  Sherwood told the magistrates he had had too much to drink and as he was passing the cottage he heard a woman calling out "murder". He determined to rescue her and went to the house for that purpose, but whether he was deceived by the drink or not he could not tell. He was fined 30s including the damage, and £2 costs.

EXPLOSION AT FEATHERSTONE MAIN COLLIERY

  In December William Phoenox, a deputy at Featherstone Main Colliery age 43, John Cawthorne age 13 and Thomas Livesy age 14 were killed by a gas explosion. They had gone down the first thing on Monday morning to examine the workings and should have signalled to the surface that all was well at 4am.

  No signal was received so a small party went down and found all three dead and badly burnt. The top of Phoenox's lamp had been taken off, and it was assumed this had lighted gas. The pit ventilation was measured and found to be 8,000 cubic feet per minute (a low amount for a mine).

  Thomas Livesy lived with his father in South Featherstone and the other two lodged with him. All three bodies were taken there, and in a combined funeral were all buried in the same grave in the churchyard at North Featherstone. Cawthorne's widowed mother was going to marry Phoenox, and Cawthorne had left Wakefield only the day before to commence work at Featherstone Main. He was to take the place of Livesy who was to be a driver the next day.

  Before they went down Cawthorne was heard to say: I am going down a dark hole, we might never see daylight anymore. Livesy replied: It's my last night, I shall never work again at night in this pit.

  The inquest jury's verdict was the two boys, John Cawthorne and Thomas Livesy, were accidentally killed by an explosion of gas at the Featherstone Main Colliery, through the carelessness of William Phoenox who also met his death by taking the top off his safety lamp.
 The photo below of Featherstone Main Colliery is from the Tony Lumb Collection. 

1872 NEWS ITEMS

FEBRUARY  A Post Office advertisement showed there was only one postbox in the district, in Purston. The Post Office messenger was George Stanley and he left Pontefract at 6.20am to deliver letters at Monkroyd, Park View, Purston, Streethouse, Snydale, Featherstone Common, Ackton and Featherstone. He returned from Featherstone at 4.40pm in the summer and 4pm in the winter.

  Fifteen plots of land off Willow Lane and Featherstone Lane were to be put up for auction as building sites, "supposed to contain the well known beds of coal called the Stanley Main, Warren House, Haigh Moor and Silkstone". Lot 16 was 25 acres in Ackton and Ackton Wood that were supposed to contain a valuable bed of fireclay.

MARCH  Officials elected for the coming year were:

       Featherstone   Overseers    J B Fearnley and John North

                              Constables   Amos Hepworth and John Hewitt

       Purston           Overseers     John Hepworth and George Chappel

                              Constables    Matthew Spink and William Goodworth

  David Hyett, age three and son of a miner, was fatally burned. His mother left him with another child while she went to a neighbour for some milk. When she returned after about three minutes he ran out of the house with his clothing on fire. She put out the flames and sent for Dr Buncle, but the boy died the same day. The inquest was held at the Heywood Arms and a verdict of accidental death was returned.

  Richard McKern was summonsed for peddling with a donkey and cart at Featherstone without a licence and he was fined six shillings.

APRIL  There was only one nomination for each of the local seats on the Board of Guardians. George Bradley senior (for Ackton), George Bradley junior (for Featherstone) and John Hepworth (for Purston) were all elected without a contest.

  Pontefract Red Rose cricket club scored 64 runs to beat Featherstone who could only manage 39. This is probably the first mention of a cricket club in Featherstone.

MAY  Robert Gibson, landlord of the Travellers' Inn was summonsed for permitting drunkenness in his public house. PS Grimshaw and PC Green saw a man called Hodgson very drunk in the Travellers' and told Gibson to send him out, but it was 15 minutes before he came out. It was said a sick club had been formed at the house and on the night in question a meeting had been held. Gibson was fined 40 shillings and costs.

  Three men were found guilty of leaving lighted candles underground at Featherstone Colliery where if an accumulation of gas had occurred there would have been an explosion. Another miner, William Whittaker, was fined one shilling for taking his light into an unused part of the mine. Ernest Andrew, the manager, said this was against the colliery rules which were given to every workman when he signed on.

  Whittaker had pleaded guilty but said he could not read and he had not heard the rules read over. The chairman said the rules should be read over and then a man could be dealt with as having wilfully committed the offence, but if a man could not read and the rules were not read over then it was impossible to take it in that light.

JUNE  Edward Channely, a collier, was charged with trespassing in pursuit of game. PC Norton and PC Green caught him on Mr Bradley's property with a ferret on a line and a spade. He said he was only going to catch a rabbit for his supper, and he was fined 40 shillings and costs.

  Joseph King, a collier living in South Featherstone, was charged with assaulting Ben Bean by allowing his dog to bite him. Police Sergeant Grimshaw said the neighbourhood was teeming with dogs, and several complaints had been made to him respecting the danger. The Bench ordered the dog to be muzzled.

  Joe Lambert and Henry Cook, two Featherstone boys, were charged with stealing £5 from the bedroom of George Butterfield, a Featherstone shopkeeper. Lambert had taken the money and shared it with Cooke, and they went on a spending spree at Castleford feast. Lambert was sent to jail for 14 days and then to a reformatory for three years, and Cooke was sent to jail for six months.

  Ernest Andrew, manager of Featherstone Colliery, was summonsed by Arthur Dibb, a carpenter, for refusing to pay £2 12s 6d wages. Dibb said he was engaged as a carpenter but Andrew told him to fire up for the rest of the afternoon which he refused. Andrew then dismissed him and refused to pay him a fortnight's pay in lieu of notice. Andrew said Dibb had been a fireman for two years at another colliery and had done so previously, once for a week, at Featherstone. The case was dismissed.

JULY  George Bradley was charged with assaulting Thomas Lakin, a collier, between Purston and Featherstone. Lakin was walking home from Featherstone Colliery across Bradley's fields when he was accosted by Bradley and two gamekeepers. Bradley lifted his stick and told him to go back, and upon Lakin insisting he was on the right road Bradley pushed him into some water and he was dragged and kicked by Bradley and the gamekeepers.

  Bradley said Lakin was on property on which there was no footpath or public road, and the Bench could not determine a charge of assault or unlawful battery where the title to land is asserted. The chairman dismissed the case saying they had no jurisdiction.

  William Crossley, an underground steward at Featherstone Colliery, accused Henry Newall with assaulting him down the pit. It was a rule anyone away from work for two days should not go back to the same part of the pit. When this was pointed out to Newall they got to words and Newall struck Crossley on the head with some tickets (probably metal tallies on a string). He was fined 40 shillings or two months in jail.

  Francis Jones was charged with hawking without a licence. PC Walton saw him offer a watch for sale and he took him into custody. He was found to have a quantity of watch guards and some obscene books. The chairman reprimanded him for carrying such books about and fined him five shillings or seven days in Wakefield Jail.

  In the three months ending in June three people had died from smallpox in Featherstone and one in Purston.

AUGUST  A "respectable looking man" called Frank Gardner was charged with obtaining money under false pretences by selling what he called a medicine, but which in reality was little better then water. One witness was Mr Tasker, a grocer and draper in Purston, who said Gardner sold him a bottle for six shillings which he alleged contained a valuable medicine calculated to cure nearly all complaints known to man. Tasker intended to retail it but discovering it to be worthless told his wife to throw it out. Gardner was fined ten shillings.

SEPTEMBER  Jonah Barratt was charged by Charles George Wood, the rates collector, with not paying his poor rates. Barratt collected and paid all his tenants rates and considered he was entitled to a 30% deduction instead of 15%. He was ordered to pay.

OCTOBER  Friends, pupils and parents met in Purston National School to give acknowledgements to Mr and Mrs Theaker who were moving to Leeds after ten years at the school. Dr Buncle made the presentations which were an elegant and valuable timepiece, a plated silver tea and coffee service, a cruet stand and table spoons etc, all suitably engraved.

NOVEMBER  Featherstone Church graveyard was full and there had to be somewhere else for funerals so Featherstone Burial Board was formed. They borrowed the money to buy land in North Featherstone and lay out a cemetery. The foundation stones for the chapels were laid by Mr J W Lake of The Mount. One half of the cemetery was for Church of England members and the other half for Nonconformists.