PUBLIC DISORDER ON CHAPEL STREET: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 08:29, 4 September 2026

LIVELY FRACAS AT LUDDENDEN

Ellen Barrett, of Providence, Midgley, was charged with assaulting Mary A. Armstrong, of Pepper Hill, Luddenden, and Mary Sharkey, of Chapel-street, Luddenden, was charged with using abusive language to Armstrong. The offences were committed at the same time. Mr. J. H. Mackrell represented complainant; both charges being taken together.

He said complainant was passing along Chapel Street on the 25th of October, when she was called into the house of Ellen Barrett, and followed into the house by Ellen Barrett, and Mary Barrett immediately left. Ellen Barrett then turned to complainant and asked her what she had been saying about her (defendant’s) father and mother. Defendant used most filthy language, and struck his client several blows in the face, knocking her to the floor. Not content with that, Ellen Barrett dragged Armstrong out of the house, and Mary Sharkey came upon the scene.

Obscene language was then used by both defendants, and between them they knocked complainant on to the ground and kicked her severely. Not content with this, defendant Barrett went to the house of Armstrong’s sister and abused her.

She said she had left complainant “laid out” in the road, and if she (Mrs. Murray) would go out, “she would do the same for her”.

Complainant appeared in Court with her face bruised in several places. She said defendants were both in a drunken condition when the offences were committed. A boy named John Murray spoke to the assault and bad language in the street. He said the complainant was deliberately kicked in the face and jumped on whilst on the ground. Mrs. Murray, of Chapel-street, complainant’s sister, said the expression Ellen Barrett used to her on Saturday night was: “I have laid your sister out, she is dying, and if you will come out I will lay you out as well.”

Witness added that defendants were drunk. Barrett denied hitting Armstrong in the street, but admitted striking her twice in the house, giving as her reason for doing so that complainant first struck her with a poker.

Sharkey pleaded not guilty, and for some reason not apparent produced her marriage lines. The Chairman characterised the language repeated in court as being most disgraceful. Barrett was fined 10s. and 5s. 6d. costs, and Sharkey 5s. and 5s. 6d. costs.

Halifax Evening Courier - Friday 05 July 1901

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-'''LIVELY FRACAS AT LUDDENDEN'''[[File:Csi-4.png|thumb]]Ellen Barrett, of Providence, Midgley, was charged with assaulting Mary A. Armstrong, of Pepper Hill, Luddenden, and Mary Sharkey, of Chapel-street, Luddenden, was charged with using abusive language to Armstrong. The offences were committed at the same time. Mr. J. H. Mackrell represented complainant; both charges being taken together.
+'''LIVELY FRACAS AT LUDDENDEN'''[[File:Csi-4.png|thumb]]
+[[File:Heat and tension in 1901.png|thumb]]
+Ellen Barrett, of Providence, Midgley, was charged with assaulting Mary A. Armstrong, of Pepper Hill, Luddenden, and Mary Sharkey, of Chapel-street, Luddenden, was charged with using abusive language to Armstrong. The offences were committed at the same time. Mr. J. H. Mackrell represented complainant; both charges being taken together.
 He said complainant was passing along Chapel Street on the 25th of October, when she was called into the house of Ellen Barrett, and followed into the house by Ellen Barrett, and Mary Barrett immediately left. Ellen Barrett then turned to complainant and asked her what she had been saying about her (defendant’s) father and mother. Defendant used most filthy language, and struck his client several blows in the face, knocking her to the floor. Not content with that, Ellen Barrett dragged Armstrong out of the house, and Mary Sharkey came upon the scene.