Newspaper Reports continued 19:-
Some things never change (1853 report)
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 18:-
Punishment for criminal offences was very harsh. In Shoreham stocks were still being used for lesser offences well into the 19th century. The thief who stole goosebarries from Barruch Blaker’s garden was ordered to receive ‘a good whipping through Shoreham’ administered by the parish constable (1819); a number of months’ hard labour was the sentence for minor theft and other misdemeanours; John Hindess received six months hard labour for keeping a brothel (1842); John Banks was found guilty of stealing a cow (1823) and after attempting to escape across the river near the Pad was re-arrested and later executed; John Baldock of Shoreham also received the death penalty for burglary 1838; Charles Packett was convicted of stealing one of John Glazebrook’s sheep (1838) and sentenced to be transported to one of Australia’s harshly run penitentiaries for ten years – all this at the time an increasing number of emigrants had been voluntarily sailing from Shoreham for a new life in that country and Canada (1832).
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 17:-
Hotmail is nothing new – this from the 1780’s
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 16:-
Crime seems to have been a particular problem for Shoreham. With a population then of just 1,000 it seems a disproportionate number of crimes were being committed prompting the correspondent of one report to suggest that the fortnightly Petty Sessions at Steyning should be held on alternate weeks at Shoreham – and they were!
Continue reading “Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham”Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 15:-
The first ever Shoreham regatta took place in 1854 but only the second one seems to have been reported (August 1855). An occasion involving sailing and rowing boat races only (the associated carnivals didn’t happen until later) the events starting at the Custom House quay then down to Kingston and back. The occasion drew 3,000 spectators and was followed by a fancy dress ball at Swiss Gardens.
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 14:-
21st June 1858 two travelling showmen exhibiting a fat woman and a peep show were prosecuted for erecting their booths in the High Street thereby obstructing the footway. In 1854 on the Ham a portable theatre was put up for sale consisting of three carriages, a wardrobe, raised stage and scenery – £30!
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 13:-
Ideas that never happened:- John Vallance with Mr. Ricardo submitted proposals, and received approval for, an atmospheric, cylinder railway ‘for the conveyance of passengers and parcels’ to be constructed between Shoreham and Brighton (1827).
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 12:-
The Morning Post of 12th May 1856 reported that at the Court of the Exchequer a local farmer named Akehurst amongst others was prosecuted for smuggling seven tons of tobacco totaling in value £2,686. The schooner ‘Navigator’ had arrived in Shoreham during August of the previous year with a supposed cargo of cement stone and tied up at the Custom House quay. Bales of tobacco had also been secreted amongst the stones, offloaded into a barge and taken up river to the chalk pit at Beeding where the cement works are now and dispersed onwards up country. You have to wonder how all this was possible under the noses of the twenty or so customs men in Shoreham until you realise this was the very occasion that historian Henry Cheal described when complimentary tickets for a visiting circus had been given to the customs men to ensure their attention was occupied elsewhere!
(photo – visiting circus elephants at Star Gap circa 1900, courtesy Michael J Fox)
Life in 18th and 19th Century Shoreham
Newspaper Reports continued 11:-
Don’t go in the water …. in April of 1856 Captain Guy of the ‘Imogen’ arrived at Shoreham from a voyage that took them through the Azores where, he stated, he and his crew saw a large sea serpent – “The creature was in view for a full 35 minutes …. and had the same appearance that I have before seen represented in drawings but without the hairy mane and more like a large conger eel. It was a full forty feet long above water and from the wake it left I would say sixty feet would not be an exaggeration.”
Rare Photo of Early Telephone Kiosk
First time I’ve seen a K1 circa 1900 telephone kiosk by the footbridge (and a particularly high tide).