8 September 1900
You may remember a Mr GICHERO from last
week's extra posting about the MESCHIA ice cream
family of Hyde. By pure coincidence, it seems
he or one of his family appeared in the Reporter
again 100 years ago this week, involved in the
trial of a fellow Italian, charged with cheating
a woman out of half a sovereign. Sarah
WOODHEAD of 20 Travis Street Hyde had finished
work on Friday evening and was making her
way home at Green Croft Mill with her 12s
11d pay packet. She had spent 2s 10d, leaving
her with half a sovereign and a penny, when
she stopped at a market stall run by Louis
BOGGIANO. She ordered half a penny worth of
ice cream and put the half a sovereign on
the counter. Sarah turned away for a moment
and when she looked back, the coin had gone
and the ice cream seller claimed she had only
given him a ha'penny.
Eliza ASHTON, 50, of High Street,
Denton gave evidence, saying that BOGGIANO
had just laughed when WOODHEAD demanded her
change and motioned her to go away. Passers-by
asked to check his pockets, but although he
allowed them to look in the pocket where he
kept his silver, he refused to let them check
the pocket where he kept his coppers. Then
BAGGIANO picked up his apron and ran across
the market to his sister.
The police were called and could
find no sign of the coin until it was handed
in by a boy who had found it nearby. BOGGIANO
was said to have been in the country for only
a few weeks and Mr GICHERO was called in to
interpret for him. At the trial, it was established
that BOGGIANO was familiar with the currency.
WOODHEAD was quizzed about why she had paid
for the ice cream with a half sovereign, rather
than the penny she had in her purse. She claimed
it was because she wanted change. BOGGIANO
was fined 5s and costs. |
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8 September 1900
James ASPINALL was summoned for assault on Mary DAVIES of
Waterloo: "She was washing on Oldham Wakes Monday morning.
Her clothes were hanging in the yard to dry. She went into
the yard and heard a noise in the washhouse and saw the
defendant and a 'dirty' man inside. She watched them, frightened
they would dirty her clothes and saw ASPINALL put a hosepipe
out of the window.
The witness said: 'Mind my clothes'. Defendant
wet half her clothes then turned the hosepipe onto her,
and wet her from head to foot, and she had to take all
her clothes." (I wonder if her husband bought this story?!
- ed) "The defendant said he did not did not do it intentionally.
The complainant jumped up at the washhouse window and
fired a pot at him and he 'ducked' (laughter). 'He wanted
to make me into a laughing stock,' said the complainant.
The defendant was fined 10s 6d and costs or 14 days."
And the court cases get stranger. John
EVANS and John TAYLOR failed to appear at Ashton County
Police Court to answer a charge of obstruction on Sunday,
24 August. A police constable gave evidence: "At 10.35 am
on the morning in question, he saw the defendants running
on a public footpath in Knott Lane, Bardsley. TAYLOR was
dressed in costume and EVANS had a pair of pumps on. There
had been several complaints." They were fined 2s 6d and
costs, but what on earth were they supposed to have done?
Disorderly jogging? Perhaps the pumps were all that
EVANS wore? A very odd report that begs more questions than
it answered!
There was a large congregation at St
Michael's to witness the marriage of William CORDWELL of
Cleveleys, near Blackpool and formerly of Ashton and Henrietta,
the eldest daughter of John HOBSON of Plantation Street,
Whitelands Road. CORDWELL had been an employee of Garside's
Wellington Mills "but by his industry and perseverance,
he has risen to the post of electrician at the large new
hydro at Cleveleys."
There was a jolly evening at the rooms of
Mr BLACKER on Stamford Street, the singing, games and
dancing brought to an end at half past ten. The couple
honeymooned in Morecambe and were to live in Bispham.
"Recruiting at the Ashton Depot is very
brisk at the present time, more particularly in connection
with the line battalions. There are now at Ashton undergoing
training, 100 line recruits and 60 militia recruits. The
recruits, we are informed, nearly all belong to Lancashire
and they are a fine stamp of men."
But if local men were keen to serve in the
Boar War, others were never to return. "On Monday evening,
Mrs K COMMERFORD of 75 Wellington Street was advised by
the authorities that her husband, No 938 Private COMMERFORD,
5th Manchester Regiment, died of wounds on 25th August.
This is a very sad case as the widow is left to face the
future with the care of three young children."
Meanwhile, Miss G HOLMES of Crawford Terrace,
Cockbrook, received 'an official memorandum' telling her
that her brother, James HOLMES had been severely wounded
in Geluk, along with many others of the Manchesters
William Thomas SINGLETON, "a young man
well known in the neighbourhood of Marple a few years ago,
now residing in Lytham was in Manchester Bankruptcy Court
on Monday." He was managing director of Vendors Limited
and had apparently gone belly up through the failure to
float various companies, including the wonderfully named
'Natural Epsom Salts Syndicate Limited'.
Dukinfield Old Chapel Sunday School
was advertising its imminent centenary celebrations to take
place later in the month with a Scholars' Procession and
party and special services. Hopefully more about this in
a few weeks time. Also, the second Hyde Eisteddfod was to
be held at Union Street Congregational Church.
The following were found in the public notices,
applying for licences to sell intoxicating liquor: John
Clayton CROMPTON of 169 Whitelands Road, Ashton; Mary
TATTERSALL of High Street, Lees; William GREENWOOD of
Pelham Street, Bardsley and Mary BRENNAN of Old Street,
Ashton.
And finally, John BRIERLEY, the very
proud proprietor of the George and Dragon Hotel, Market
Square, Ashton proclaimed it: "The finest hotel in the North
of England, lighted throughout by electricite" (sic) |
