News of the Week
"News of the Week" - taken from The Wigan Observer And District Advertiser, 1860. Material kindly loaned by Paul Byrne.
News not relating to Wigan was covered by the local press at the time, but usually by means of a single line or small paragraph. Here are some odd ones.
Friday, March 2, 1860.
An express train came in collision with a goods train on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, on Monday. Some thirteen or fourteen of the passengers were bruised.
A shoemaker's apprentice, 17 years of age, came by his death on Thursday week through hanging himself upon a cord which was suspended from a nail in the wall, to frighten a fellow-apprentice.
On Monday, a young man received at the Manchester police court a sentence of three months' imprisonment for cutting the leaves out of "Blackwood's Magazine," in the Campfield Free Library.
Friday, March 9, 1860.
The inhabitants of Irwell have resolved to use no more butter till it is cheaper.
A sow, belonging to Mr. Thomas James, of Stainton, has produced forty-nine pigs within the short period of eleven months.
A thief at Liverpool, who had wrapped a quantity of copper around his body, was pursued by a policeman. He jumped into the dock and was drowned.
The body of a female, in a state of putrefaction, and presenting a most horrible spectacle on consequence of the flesh having, to a great extent, been eaten away by rats, was found under a dust heap in a cellar in Nottingham-court, Short's-garden, St. Gile's, London, on the 2nd inst.
Friday, March 16, 1860.
A Frenchman, at Halifax, in less than two hours ate twenty score of oysters.
Janet Jardine, of Maxweltown, missing since Jan. 27, has been discovered buried in the snow.
A horse belonging to Mr. T. Moore, Manchester, died last week, and in the carcase were found two stones, 9¼lbs and 12½lbs.
Mary, the wife of William Kiteley, shoemaker, Wednesfield, on Saturday night murdered her child, aged three years, by almost severing its head from its body with a razor.
At Barnsley, a young lady who had several false teeth affixed to a plate in the upper part of the mouth, swallowed them during a fit of coughing in bed. She has been unable to obtain relief.
A woman in Liverpool, finding the door of her house locked, attempted to enter through the window. Whilst doing so the sash fell upon her neck, and she was found thus suspended quite dead.
Friday, March 23, 1860.
John Dennis and Thomas Thacker quarrelled whilst in drink, and Dennis knocked out the eye of Thacker.
A poor woman, confined in a dungeon at Brighton, gave birth to a child on Tuesday night before assistance could be rendered her.
At a London ball a cinder shot from the fire, and ignited a lady's dress. She rolled herself over on the floor, and extinguished the flames.
The period of communication with India has been reduced to six days, and shortly a telegraphic message can be sent from London to Calcutta in two days.
Friday, March 30, 1860.
A newly-formed railway arch, at Lambeth, fell on Saturday. Fortunately the two hundred labourers were at dinner.
A bricklayer, aged 48 years, in Bethnal-green, died from "ossification of the heart, accelerated by drinking, fretting, and hard living."
An Irishwoman, on entering her cabin on Friday, was horrified to find her child was attacked by a pig. A minute more and it would have been torn to pieces.
A horse, standing in a carriage at Greenwich, became frightened without apparent reason. On examination, a mouse was found in the nose bag out of which it was feeding.
On Tuesday, at Southwark, Catherine Wallace was charged with attempting to murder her husband, by stabbing him in the head. The case was adjourned on account of the husband's weakness.
William Rowlands, a farmer, was returning from Carlisle, drunk, when he turned his horse's head down a river. The cart was upset and the horse drowned; and the inebriated farmer was found sitting on a tree in the stream, with the reins in his hand, as if he thought he was still on the road.