The Circus comes to town- Leek 1860

In October 1925 a wonderfully evocative letter was published in the Leek Times. To the writer it bought back distant memories of an event burned into his mind. And a poster of a forthcoming event in the market had triggered the remembrance. Bostock and Wombwell Menagerie was hitting town and notices were on the hoardings. The Circus was coming to time re-visiting a town that they had strong connections with. When Bostock and Wombwell Menagerie came to town it was opening the casket of memory for one elderly resident who felt compelled to write to the paper chronicling a visit made by the circus to the Leek of his boyhood.
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"I can still remember the old show 60 years ago", the letter from "Old Resident" began his letter. "I had the pleasure of visiting the show as a child of 10. It was a gala day… every one waited patiently for the advance guard of tiny coloured ponies to arrive… The memory revives such happy memories. The great day arrived and we did not want any calling most of the town were up at an early hour forming a procession as the menagerie entered the town. The wagons, some pulled by horses harness all shining others drawn by elephants and camels came into view. What a shout went up when we saw the first wagon. All of us eager to ride in the managers trap pointing out the best way to the showground. The canvas canopies were soon fixed up in the market place. The crowd would be harangued with stories of how dangerous the animals were and the public were begged to look for themselves. The lion tamer was dressed in a red jacket with gold braiding and wearing many medals. He was our hero and our ambition was to be a lion hunter nothing else was sufficiently dangerous when we grew up.

The Band- and what a good band they were- at the front all dressed in top hats and frock coats. The show had opened and my father carried me on his shoulders. I saw the first wild animals I had ever seen: it was an education. What a pleasant recollection the old show brings to my mind! What happy carefree boyhood days!"

"Old Resident" then went on to mention the family connection between the Bostock’s and the area. The original partner in the business James Bostock had been born in 1815 at the Dairy House, Horton and joined Wombwell’s Menagerie in 1830 as a Waggoner and a trainer of horses a skill he acquired on the family farm. He acted as advance agent for 28 years for the company reaching a peak when he took presented the menagerie before the royal family in 1847 and 1854 at Windsor Castle. He died in 1878 in Surrey. One of the Bostocks had run a grocery in Church Street and a relative Frank Bostock lived in Alsop Street.

James Bostock’s son Edward Bostock wrote a very entertaining book called Menageries, Circus and Theatres in 1927, which details the family connections between Bostocks in Leek and the family business. There is a section on how he met his wife after suffering an occupational hazard. Following an attack by a hyena at a show in Stockport Edward recuperates in Leek and is nursed back by his wife to be Elizabeth. They marry at St Edwards Church in Leek in August 1881.
　
　
The account is a marvellous depiction of life at the edges in Victorian Britain. His autobiography has so many stories that there is enough material to make a very interesting book or film. There are instances when animals get out and wander amongst the audience, as a boy on tour with the menagerie in Ireland he mentions a stampede when a Lion gets into a crowd, of extremely risky acts such as a Tiger mounted on the back of an elephant riding around the auditorium in Glasgow in 1892.

He demonstrates the excitement that people in rural communities must have felt and which comes through in Old Resident’s letter as the menagerie came into town. Edward uses the expression " booming the show" to describe the procession. At the front were the bandsman well dressed and playing the popular tunes of the time. Sometimes the circus would arrive at evening and there way would be lighted by naphtha flares. Fires seemed to be a common occurrence and several are detailed in the book and derring do acts of bravery are frequently carried out as Edward and others rescue the animals at one event at the Goose Fair in Nottingham when the canvas catches fire. In 1872 in Hanley an elephant trampled to death a 14 year old boy. It is a terrible event but no blame is attached to the animal, as it seems that the boy was provoking the animal. There does not seem to be much regard for health and safety. Early in his career he goes into a lion cage with a trainer who has had too much to drink and towards the end he rescued a drunken trapeze artist who is tangled up in ropes many feet above the ground.

The journeys that the menagerie makes are truly heroic. In the winter of 1875 they walk through a blizzard over the Yorkshire Wolds. The horses are rough shod, as the roads are sheets of ice. The wagons are skidding down the hills and they have no control as cages containing lions and tigers and bears slither into ditches. By the time they get to Sheriff Hutton at night and the racoons have escaped and in the dark are difficult to find. The team have to crawl on their hands and knees in the snow to find the animals. The wagon containing the wolves is lost and by the time it arrives the following day the wolves are fine but the Wagoner known as the Dodger is so cold that he has frozen to the seat and has to be thawed out before an open fire and generous amounts of brandy poured down his throat before he is revived.

But what conditions must the animals have had to put up with. The animals must have had to put up with terribly cramped conditions as well as having to put with great extremes of the British climate. The constant journeying must have been trying for animals and people. Edward details a tour they took in 1883/4 when he visited Burton on Trent, Tutbury Ashbourne, Derby, Nottingham Sunderland, Galashiels, Edinburgh, Stirling, Perth, Dunkeld, Pitlochry, Kingussie, Inverness, Wick, Thurso, Foress, Aberdeen, Forfar, Fife, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, Hull, Beverley, Filey and Scarborough.

One story that is told predates Edward Bostock’s involvement with the menagerie and is an indicator of the cruelty of the menagerie in the very early days. It is also an excellent reflection on the idiocy of mankind. Edward records that Wombwell in 1825 wanted to recreate the Circus Maximus of Ancient Rome. He decided to use mastiff dogs to attack a lion. A large crowd had gathered at the event in Liverpool but the dogs were so cowed and the lion so docile that nothing happened. The enraged crowd, which had been drinking heavily, turned on each other while the animals passively watched the rioting humans.

Bostock and Wombwell finally wound up in 1931 in recognition of the part the town had played in the history of the company Leek was included in the final tour. The animals formed the core of the collection of the newly opened Whipsnade Zoo

WH Hudson on Axe Edge 1913

The years before the First World War saw a renaissance in an interest in the English countryside in every aspect. The Arts and Craft Movement inspired by William Morris and the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded on the desire to return to a pre industrial past including a return to a simpler life attuned to nature and a rejection of mass industrialisation. In architecture houses that were inspired by rural dwellings were being built by Lutyens and Gilbert Scott at the end of the 19^th century. In music composers such as Holst, Vaughn Williams and George Butterworth who died on the Somme in 1916 were collecting folk songs in the West Country and the Sussex Downs. This interest in rural life was probably the result of a reaction against the growth of urban life during the Victorian period. By 1851 more people lived in cities than lived in the country. This love of nature and an awareness of country life is particularly marked in writing. Writers at the times as diverse as Thomas Hardy, Richard Jeffries and Flora Thompson, whose chronicle of country life in Oxfordshire "Lark Rise to Candleford" is still printed.

In May 1913 the Anglo Argentinian writer WH Hudson was in the area. He was at the peak of his powers and had produced many books on bird watching and nature either in Britain or on Latin America. His most well known book "Green Mansions" was published in 1904 and often cited as the first ecological novel subtitled- A romance of the Tropical Forest- it is a mystical novel on the life of a forest child in the Amazonian jungle who is at one with the animals of the jungle. Hudson in May 1913 was collecting material on Axe Edge for a book "Adventures Among Birds". Hudson was not impressed by the locals comparing them unfavourably with the more fiery Lancastrians. He blamed their lack of spirit and energy on Methodism.
"Moorlanders are not a happy looking or a lively people. They have colourless faces and for good looks compare badly with inhabitants of the adjoining districts.

The farming methods were backward. "The farmers depend mainly on their lean ill fed cows for a livelihood: they make butter and feed a pig or two with the skim milk. They live on bacon and buttermilk themselves and bread which they make or buy, but vegetables and fruit are luxuries"

"I asked several farmers why they did not cut bracken which was plentiful enough, to serve as bedding for cows, since they could not get straw. They answered that occasionally a farmer did so, but it was not a custom and they thought the cows did just as well without bedding at all!"

Hudson encountered the innate deep rooted conservatism of the area. This entirely coincides with an account from a farmer Tom Mullins born in 1863 whose autobiography is included in a collection of autobiographies of working people called "Useful Toil" published by Penguin in the 70s. Mullins whose autobiography was collected when he was an old man recounts walking to Leek market as 10 year old from his parent’s farm at Rushton Spencer with a basket containing two hundred eggs on one arm and another basket with twelve pounds of butter on the other. In the 1870s Mullins records that the reaction of the locals when the first steam powered farm machines arrived in the area was one of laughter! The farming methods described are not far removed from the medieval with Mullins quoting a farmer who was far opposed to anything modern that he even refused to use horses.
　
Hudson details the life of the amateur biologist at the beginning of the 20^th century who must be fit and must have money enough to exist without work. He was in that category having inherited wealth from family interests in Argentina. On Axe Edge he found what he was seeking the companionship of birds and nature. He is captivated by the song of the curlew as it is breeding season and birds trill to each other as they fly over the bracken. He describes with great pleasure hearing the plaintive song of the ring ouzel while walking near Flash while decrying the absence of larger birds

"Not a buzzard, not a harrier, not a raven which when soaring would seem an appropriate object and part of the scenery in these high wild places".

I wondered in the intervening 90 years since Hudson wrote his observations on Moorland birds how the species he describes are coping in the early years of the 21^st century. I am indebted to Rhodri Thomas, Ecology Manager of the peak District national park Authority for a very full response to my questions about bird populations on Axe Edge.

The Curlew, which is included on Staffs Moorlands District Councils coat of arms, did well between the 20s and 50s but has declined steeply in the local area since the 80s. In 1985 there were 421 pairs which fell to 173 pairs in 1996 changes in land management may lay behind this decline.

The Ring Ouzel the sound of which so enchanted Hudson has suffered a sharp decline in the Southern Pennines. The RSPB have suggested that there is evidence that climate change might be implicated. It is not completely gloomy news the Buzzard population was all but extinct in the early years of the 20^th century probably as a result of persecution. I have noticed myself the rapid rise in population around the area. Again with the Harrier the news looks favourable. There were two successful nests last year producing 10 chicks. The Goyt Valley saw the first nesting of Hen Harriers in over 130 years in 1997. The species had been common once in the area but had become very rare by 1863. The signs are that the bird is about to make a return in numbers to the area. The Raven a bird which had been common in the 18^th century had virtually died out by 1905 but they have recolonised during the 1990s and are maintaining a consistent and significant increase.

1913 was the last full year of peace. There is evidence that Hudson was accompanied for part of his time on the North Staffordshire Moors by the poet and nature writer Edward Thomas who was recovering from a nervous breakdown. Thomas was to be killed in the First World War four years later. I wonder how many of the listless young men Hudson and Thomas met on their travels in the district or were friends of Tom Mullins escaped their isolation when the opportunity presented itself after August 1914 never to return to their remote farmsteads?

What is clear about the writings of Hudson, Thomas and Jefferies are expressions of wonderment at the natural world. These are feelings that many people today share: a sentiment testified by the growing interest in wildlife. This is a world under threat with 60% of the ecosystem services that support life on earth being degraded or rendered untenable. We need to drastically heighten our sense of the first principle of ecology- that everything is connected to everything else.
　
　
　

Missouri after Jesse James and a Leek Woman 1884

This is an episode from the bloody aftermath of the American Civil War, which catches in its snares a Leek woman who had moved to the United States with the intention of starting a new life in a community with people of like mind. The story is carried in a Leek paper of May 1885 with the eye-catching headlines

A terrible adventure

A Leek woman and her husband shot

The shooters lynched

The Leek woman who was subject to this assassination attempt was Mrs Dickenson whose maiden name was Bromley. She had one point lived in Church Street before marrying and moving to the States arriving in New York in 1882. The Dickenson’s were one of twelve English families who set out west with the idea of forming a socialist commune in Texas. Throughout the 19^th century there were many attempts to found communities such as New Harmony in Connecticut by Robert Owen or the fictitious community that appears in "Martin Chuzzlewit" by Dickens. And of course there exists today religious communities such as the Amish who live in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The party of settlers arrived in Springfield Missouri where four of the group amongst them the Dickenson’s were tempted by the offer of land in South West Missouri close to the border with Arkansas in the area of the Ozark Mountains. They arrived in 1883 and settle in the Tanney County area to grow tobacco and coffee living in a community according to their deeply held principles of cooperation. Unfortunately they arrive into an area devastated by the Civil War, which despite ending 20 years before was still blighting the area. In truth, that part of the United States had been in a lawless state for many years prior to the war of 1861-5. The states of Kansas and Missouri were notorious for maundering banditti, some favourable to the continuation of slavery and others not. In the 1870s and 80s their numbers were swollen by discharged soldiers of both north and south with scores to settle and harbouring grievances. The most famous being that of the James- Younger gang of fervent confederate sympathies who fought a ferocious guerrilla war with the authorities and northern sympathisers with a tendency to rob banks. However, the gang had broken up after the disastrous Northfield Raid and Jesse James had been shot dead by Bob Ford in St Joseph, Missouri in April 1883.
　
The downfall of that gang did not put an end to the lawlessness and this was especially true of Southern Missouri. In Tanney County between 1865 and 1885 despite their being 40 murders no one was bought to justice: it is believed that many of the juries were packed with relatives or Confederate sympathisers. Some residents of the state resolved to tackle the anarchy amongst them Mr Dickenson, by use of violence if required. A group lead by the imposing Nat Kinney who was 6 foot 6 inches tall formed a vigilante posse, which were called the Bald Knobbers. They met secretly on the mountaintops of the Ozark Mountains posting sentries on the rocky outcrops of the peaks from whence they acquired their nickname.
It was a violent crime against the Dickenson that lead to the first bloodshed. The Dickenson ran a store and post office that Mr Dickenson who was a great fan of the writer would later name Dickens. The store was based at the isolated community of Eglington. The Dickenson’s got into a dispute with a pair of vicious young hoodlums called Frank and Tubal Taylor who were supported in their crime wave by Elijah Sublet. The row was over credit for a pair of boots. The young men reached for their guns as explained in a letter published in the Leek Times of the 25^th May 1885. Mr Dickenson described what happened.

"Just after 7 pm, Frank Taylor entered the Post Office. I was sitting on a bench by the fireplace outside the counter…. He took hold of me by the throat and said that he had come to settle with me. I got up intending to reach for my pistol, which was just behind the counter. I just got one step and said, "Loose me" when he put his pistol straight in front of my face and fired. Elijah Sublet and Tubal Taylor were then in the room, and Frank and Tubal tried to drag me out. My wife came to my assistance as soon as she heard the first shot, and as soon as she appeared Frank pointed a pistol at her head and fired. After a little struggle I got released. During the whole of the struggle I heard 4 or 5 shots. The whole affair last a few minutes.

The first shot entered my upper lip, taking a portion of left jaw and three or four upper teeth; one shot went through Mrs Dickenson’s head straightaway, about two inches behind the right ear; another ball went into my right shoulder, steering its way into the right side of my neck; another went through Mrs D’s thumb; another went through my coat sleeve, another grazed Mrs D’s cheek and eyebrow. Our wounds are not serious.
The account ended with the information that the young men were intent on murdering the couple as they had fired at their heads. A Hue and Cry was raised for the Taylor’s. They quickly made their escape and hide in local caves before surrendering to the sheriff on the promise of protection. The Taylor’s were placed in jail in the principle town of the area Forsyth. However was in store for these unfortunate young men was an invitation to what in the Old West was called a " Neck Tie Party".

The New York Times then takes up the story in an article, which is dated 10^th December 1885

At about 10 o clock the following night a band of men, estimated about 150, rode into the town and posted their guards at different points and with sledge hammers, forced open the jail doors. The two Taylor’s begged piteously for their lives, but all to no purpose. They were quickly marched out and taken away. The next morning their bodies were found hanging to the limb of a scrub oak tree two and a half miles west of town. It was generally believed that the Bald Knobbers did the lynching.
After that incident the violence and the numbers of vigilantes grew although

others dropped out of the "Bald Knobbers" sickened by the lynching of the Taylor’s. The gang’s became more harsh and sought to impose their own will on the community seeking to correct such " lawlessness" as gamblers, couples who lived in sin or "loose" women into changing their ways. Sometimes they intimidated those who spoke out against the vigilantes or who were considered "ornery" About 18 people were killed for speaking against the gang. The gang swaggered around the local counties and began to act as despots themselves. They began to alienate former supporters. Many people in Southern Missouri began to see them as tyrants and felt the call to resist.

A reaction set in and groups of armed men called "anti bald knobbers" were formed to oppose the vigilantes. In 1887 the Bald Knobbers attacked families of men who were critical of them. Shotgun blasts and explosions were directed at family cabins. The cries of the women and children bought neighbours to the scene of carnage as two men were shot gunned to death and others including children injured. This caused a national outrage and action to cause the vigilantly bands roaming the state 20 members of the gang were arrested. Four were sentenced to death and clumsily executed.

A member of the anti bald knobbers murdered the leader of the Bald Knobbers Kinney in August 1888 and was found not guilty at a subsequent trial on the grounds of self-defence. The bloodshed and the intimidation petered out by the end of the century although the events left much bitterness in local communities.
The story however did achieve a national prominence with the publication in 1907 of a novel depicting the events. The book by Harold Bell Wright " The Shepherd of the Hills" became a best seller. In fact it was the first American novel to sell 1 million copies. A silent film was also made of the book in 1919. Southern Missouri became a tourist attraction on the strength of the history attracting 5 million Americans a year to theme parks that play out the events in a family friendly way.

As for the Dickenson’s they opened a bigger store by the end of the 1880s about a mile from their close brush with death. The Post Office Dickens remained open till 1952. Mr Dickenson became a successful businessman and later judge and a prominent local member of the Republican Party in Missouri.

Sir Philip Brocklehurst Edwardian Adventurer

Most people celebrate their 21^st birthday with family and friends in some comfortable place, a pub, a restaurant or on holiday. Sir Philip Brocklehurst of Swythamley Park near Leek was somewhat different, he chose to celebrate his 21st on March 5^th 1908 in a party that was attempting to climb Mount Erebus at 12,448 feet the world’s most southerly active volcano. On that day, he was sheltering in a sleeping bag with two others. Photographs taken show the 4000-foot column of smoke and steam billowing around the volcano. He was one of a party of 6 pulling a sledge that weighed 600 pounds. How the young man found himself in this situation and what happened to the 1907-9 expedition is an adventure worthy of being described as a ripping yarn.

Brocklehurst’s fate, he was born on the 5^th March 1887, was linked with one of the country’s greatest polar explorer’s Ernest Shackleton, 13 years older than the baronet. Along with Robert Falcon Scott, the Norwegian’s Amundsen and Nansen and the American Peary, he is one of the greats in the Golden Age of Polar Exploration. When they first met, the Irishman had achieved fame as being part of an expedition who got nearest to the South Pole. Known to the people who worked with him as "the Boss" Shackleton displayed throughout his life excellent leadership abilities; which were tested in the extreme conditions of polar exploration. He also combined the characteristics of man of action and meditative man, as he was a voracious reader: He loved poetry. At his welcoming dinner in June 1909 Shackleton quoted lines from Keats, wholly in keeping with the occasion to illustrate the courage and the doggedness that the men under his command had exhibited.

His early life at sea equipped him to be accepted on the Discovery expedition to the South Pole in 1902 led by Robert Falcon Scott. There was a personality clash between the two men, and while the Discovery expedition was successful in that they got further south than anyone before, they were still 533 miles short of their objective. After returning to Britain, Shackleton began to raise funds in an attempt to reach the South Pole. He had maintained good connections with the Royal Geographic Society which enabled him to be successful when a competition to reach the South Pole was opened by the society in early 1907. Shackleton, however, had been making contacts to raise money. However, lack of funding was to remain a constant problem right up to the start of the expedition.

Ernest Shackleton met Brocklehurst in the London flat of an American acquaintance Miss Haveymeyer in 1906. Shackleton was rather vague about the details of the expedition to the South Pole however the young baronet was enthusiastic and volunteered his services at once. At that time Brocklehurst had just left Cambridge he was in the language of the time regarded as a "hearty" interested in sport. He was a good boxer and at Cambridge acquired a Half Blue. After leaving University, he failed to take his degree; he continued to box ultimately sparring with Champions Jimmy Wilde and Bombardier Billy Wells. Both Brocklehurst and Shackleton would express their great interest in the sport and at the end of the voyage the younger man noted the excitement he felt on discovering the outcome of the heavyweight boxing championship fight between Jack Johnson- the black American challenger and Canadian Tommy Burns. (In later life Brocklehurst was a patron of a boxing club in Macclesfield).
　
Shackleton was doubly impressed by Brocklehurst's wealth and his physical prowess. Sir Philip by Shackleton on the grounds that he was "one for the ladies", "Bohemian" and "extravagant with taxis". The meeting was a great success and Shackleton and Brocklehurst remained life long friends. I have the impression that the older man was a father figure to Sir Philip: He was also influenced by Shackleton's leadership style. The expedition leader was a good communicator. He had the ability to treat the men as if they were all individually important. His spirit of optimism and transparent honesty made him a natural and personable "Boss".

Brocklehurst offered to help pay for the expedition although as he was only 19 and had no control over the family finances. His mother held the purse strings. Shackleton met with Lady Brocklehurst and so charmed her that money was found to assist in funding the expedition. He was keen that the young man assisted the expedition in a practical way as well as offering the undoubted drive and stamina.

"take up a course of practical surveying; learn to take your latitudes and longitudes with a theodolite. Learn to take your bearings with a compass. Learn to take a survey with a planer table. Take up a course in field geology. Learn to recognise the particular formations of rocks... Learn the particular sedimentary, volcanic and igneous rocks."More importantly, when the fitting out of the Nimrod- a Dundee built whaler- was proving to be a financial burden on Shackleton was able to call on Brocklehurst’s financial support to guarantee £2,000. Later on Brocklehurst’s contacts with the Scottish author Campbell Mackellar would prove equally beneficial to the outcome of the expedition. His cousin also had useful social connections. John Fielden Shackleton was equerry to Queen Alexandria and was able to gain royal patronage for the voyage. King Edward VII visited the Nimrod before they embarked.

Sir Philip joined the expedition late and was unhurried spending some time in Australia watching an Ashes Test match in Sydney during Christmas 1907. He saw George Gunn of Nottinghamshire make 119 in his first Test match although Australia went on to win the match by two wickets. Brocklehurst joined the party in Christchurch.

The voyage took several weeks to reach South Victoria Land. The expedition had to endure mountainous seas shortly after they left New Zealand on New Years Day 1908. They sighted their first iceberg on January 14^th and the following day the ship encountered pack ice. Shackleton feared that they would become trapped altered course for the McMurdo Sound; they landed at the end of the month at Cape Royds. The weather was atrocious and stores were buried under several feet of snow and ice. The first task that the expedition decided on was the conquest of the unclimbed Mount Erebus in early March 1908.
　
Brocklehurst was to take part in the ascent despite having little experience of climbing. Blizzards blew and the snow was described by one of the expedition members as being very fine and gritty like whipping into the faces of the mountaineers. The temperature dropped in the final stage of the ascent to -34 degrees.
The final party to attempt the summit was made up of 3 of Brocklehurst’s comrades Edgeworth David, Mawson and Mackay with Brocklehurst and two others as support. The group were provisioned with ten days supply. Below the volcano a fierce blizzard blew up and the men sheltered in three man sleeping bags, much criticised by David as being very uncomfortable and affording little protection or comfort. Brocklehurst complained that often on waking he would find his mouth full of fibres.

 "Everything is covered with these little hairs about an inch long out of our Reindeer sleeping bags. The other night I turned the bag outside out and shook it, but it is every bit as bad if not worse"
 Sleep deprivation was something that all the participants on the expedition complained about especially as men were snoring and moving about trying to get comfortable. At some point Brocklehurst emerged from the sleeping bag to answer a call of nature. It was an action that nearly proved calamitous. The force of the wind was strong enough to blow him half way down a chasm. Another of the party was also swept down the mountain and after a struggle was able to reach the safety of the group. The blizzard lasted for a day after it had subsided Brocklehurst complained that his feet felt cold. His feet were examined and it was discovered that both big toes had been attacked by frostbite. He was in some discomfort and it was decided to leave him behind while the others successfully climbed the summit. A month later at base camp one of his frost bitten big toes was amputated.
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After this initial accomplishment the expedition then split up into three groups to carry out specific tasks. The Northern Party task was to reach the magnetic South Pole; Shackleton led the Southern Party whose objective was the South Pole, while the Western Party including Sir Philip surveyed mountains around McMurdo Sound discovering the potential for economic exploitation of minerals. Earlier, Shackleton had suggested that Brocklehurst be a part of the larger Southern team, but the conditions of his toes forced a change of mind. The Western Party were carried 16 miles by the car that had been bought out- a first in Polar exploration.

The Arrol- Johnson performed very well. The oil was specifically developed to withstand temperatures down to –30F. Ordinary tyres with skid-chains were found to be adequate and operated excellently in the conditions. This was 100 years before Clarkson and May attempted a polar excursion in a Toyata Hilux along with film crew. sat nav and with emergency services to hand. On the way back from dropping off Brocklehurst and the others the car got stuck in ice crevices and was not used again. In the thawing ice it was thought too dangerous.


Brocklehurst began to have strange dreams, which reveal the sense of insecurity that he and the others must have felt.
　

He dreamed "that the ponies had died, and that Shackleton was unsuccessful, while Mackay sat at Butter Point when we arrived back explaining how he had quarrelled with the Professor and Mawson were on some thin ice. About as ill omened a dream as I ever heard"

At first the group achieved their tasks and the three men collected minerals and fossils as well as surveying a previous unknown part of Antarctica. They enjoyed breakfasting on Skua eggs, as the birds were a terrible nuisance, both to the men and dogs. Brocklehurst despite have an amputated toe climbed a small mountain -Harbour Heights- and was able to keep a note on the surrounding topography.

On January 25^th 1909 their lives were placed in peril when the ice they were camping on broke off and floated along the coast. There was the risk of being carried off into the open sea, and the danger of killer whales. Brocklehurst and his comrades were in a dilemma, but the only course open to them was to remain on the floe and await a passing ship or the hope that they might drift back to land. The men had good fortune as the following day the ice had drifted very close to the shore and they were able to jump on to the shore.
The ice floe then drifted back into the open sea. Brocklehurst commented on a disappointed group who had been recent observers.

The killer whales were all around the foot of the glacier, great ugly brutes deprived of their unusual breakfast
 He had cheated death for a second time.

The Northern Party under the command of Edgeworth David reached the magnetic pole despite suffer appallingly in blizzards and temperatures below -20F, and were like Brocklehurst’s party picked up by the Nimrod. Shackleton leading the Southern party passed the previous record for most southerly point set by Scott during the "Discovery" expedition of 6 years earlier and on the 9^th January 1909 planted the Union flag 97 miles from the South Pole. Disappointed the group turned back for their rendezvous with the Nimrod
Nimrod returned to Britain in June 1909 and Shackleton, Brocklehurst and the rest of the crew were feted at a Royal Geographic Society dinner. Shackleton in responding to the toast said that the reception that the crew had received in New Zealand and Australia had been a very fulsome one and had prepared them for the welcome they received in London. He congratulated the crew on their devotion to duty. They had miraculous escape, but they were ready to return to Antarctica. Brocklehurst enjoyed being feted and made much of his missing toe. At another dinner at the Savage Club chaired by Scott, he was at the centre of attention. Scott asked what had happened to the toe." I hear he has bought the toe back in a bottle".
　
Brocklehurst informed the gathering that it was doing the rounds of London Medical Schools examined by clinicians interested in the effect of frostbite. "I wish I had it. I can’t regain possession of my toe. The Doctors want it".
 The Leek Times of the 19^th June 1909 devoted an editorial to the safe return of the Nimrod. Shackleton felt that to turn back only 100 miles from the Pole was the correct thing to do. "We could do no more", he said. The editorial praised the actions of the party, "they had touched the limit of human endurance". No mention was made of the local connection that Sir Philip had with the area.

Shackleton went to Antarctica in 1914 in the Endurance expedition. The voyage proved to be nearly disastrous, after the ship was crushed by ice the expedition was forced on an epic journey of survival. Despite suffering much hardship all the crew were rescued, after an ordeal that lasted 10 months. Shackleton died at the age of 47 in January 1922. He was buried on the South Atlantic island of South Georgia.

Sir Philip was to continue a life of public service up to his death on the 28^th January 1975. He married in 1913; Shackleton was best man. During the First World War Sir Philip served in the Life Guards, he was wounded. In early 20s, he worked with the Egyptian Army and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. An interesting aspect of his life was his involvement in Military Intelligence in the mid 1930s keeping an eye on far right groups including his North Staffordshire neighbour and British Union of Fascists Leader Sir Oswald Mosley at Wootton. In the Second World War he commanded a mechanised brigade of the Arab Legion and was British Consul in Trans Jordan between 1943-4. He chaired Swythamley Parish Council for over 50 years. He was also very active in the Conservative Party.

He was devoted to his brother Henry Courtney Brocklehurst who was killed in action in Burma in 1942. Philip inscribed an epitaph to him on Hanging Stone Rock to his memory. Henry shared his brother’s outside life: He hunted game in East Africa and wrote an account of his time as a warden for the Sudanese Government. His book Game Animals of the Sudan written in 1931 is dedicated to Philip. Henry went on to set up the wild life sanctuary on the Roaches before the Second World War, which was continued by his brother after Henry’s death. In the late 40s a Tibetan Yak wandered the estate and a friend of mine came head to head with one when climbing in the area. The Wallabies were a result of this enterprise.

A story circulated about the fate of Brocklehurst’s big toe after he had recovered it from a London teaching hospital. It had a place of honour on the mantelpiece at Swythamley Park and disappeared after his death. The yarn went that a guest ate it thinking it was a snack at the wake for Sir Philip.

In October 2007 the Times carried a report that the descendents of members of the Nimrod expedition were to follow in the steps of their forebears and attempt to reach the South Pole amongst them Patrick Bergil, the great grandson of Ernest Shackleton. The expedition was to begin on the 28^th October 2008 and was being used to launch a Shackleton Foundation, which will fund projects that embody the spirit of leadership and adventure personified in Ernest Shackleton and the men who followed him 100 years ago.

Henry Wainwright, a severed hand and Leek Mechanics Institute

The Mechanics Institute in Russell St cuts a rather forlorn figure. I took a party to look at it. It is an early Sugden building dating from around 1860 and strongly influenced by Ruskin. The lions on the front of the building suggest to me someone who had read the "Stones of Venice". The chronology is right of the book was published in 1853 and for William Sugden, as for many, it must have resonated. I said forlorn and the ground floor frontage of the building now occupied by Age Concern must the most hideous in Leek.

But first what was a Mechanics Institute. They were established at the beginning of the 19^th century. Historically, they were educational establishments formed to provide adult education particularly in technical subjects, to working men. As such, local industrialists often funded them on the grounds that they would ultimately benefit from having more knowledgeable and skilled employees. The Mechanics' Institutes were used as 'libraries' for the adult working class, and provided them with an alternative pastime to gambling and drinking in pubs. In practice however the fees demanded from Mechanics Institute put them out of the reach of many of the working men of Leek. The Leek Literary and Mechanics Institute was initially founded in 1837 and it moved to the present location in the early 1860s. It was described as a very impressive structure with a commodious reading room and lecture theatre. It was the only library in town prior to the establishment of the Nicholson Institute in 1884.

One of the earliest speakers at Leek in late January 1864 was a 25 year old Londoner Henry Wainwright. He was an acknowledges expert on the 18^th century poet Thomas Hood and Wainwright spoke on the "Wit, Whims and Oddities of Thomas Hood. The meeting was chaired by Lord Norton and the money raised for the building fund totalled £13 7s 1d. It was a very successful meeting.

Move forward 11 years and Wainwright is in a very different situation. He had a brush making business in East London and lived in the Whitechapel Road. Right next door was the Pavilion theatre - and Henry did love a trip to the theatre, socialising with many performers, even inviting them back to dine with his wife - though the younger, prettier actresses were entertained elsewhere. And, when he met a hatmaker by the name of Harriet Lane, he set her up as 'Mrs King' in various East end residences, the last being in Stepney's Sidney Square. But, Henry tired of Harriet's charms. She was murdered and her body was buried under the floor at his warehouse. A year later, in 1875, with the warehouse sold and about to change hands, Henry exhumed the corpse, cutting it into pieces, which he wrapped in thick canvas cloth. He certainly did try to move the remains, even asking a member of staff to help with transporting them to his new premises - claiming they contained hair for his trade. When the poor workman complained at the stench, Wainwright assured him that it would 'blow off'. A little while later, out in the street, when he complained again at the weight, Wainwright became exasperated, leaving his employee alone with the parcels while he went off to find a cab.

He returned and loaded the packages into the cab and then travelled on alone. But during his absence, the suspicious employee had sneaked a look and discovered a decaying hand. He did not challenge Wainwright at the time, fearing he might be murdered too, but as soon as the cab set off, a constable was informed and, in due course, Wainwright was detained, red-handed, with blood seeping out through the cloth in his arms. However, there was a twist. Wainwright was hanged for the crime, but during the court case it came out that he had a brother, Thomas, and Henry had encouraged Thomas to woo Harriet in his place - hoping to make their break easier. When Harriet's body was found, Thomas had long disappeared. Some believe that Henry, having already lost his reputation, sought to protect his brother's name, taking the blame for her death on himself.

Prior to the Mechanics Institute cottages occupied the site. One of the cottages a Mrs Yates an oatcake maker. She was known to augment her supply of wood for her business by stealing from neighbours. They were determined to teach her a lesson and hid an amount of gunpowder in a pilfered amount. The subsequent detonation served Mrs Yates right and cured her of her stealing.

From Brown to Green to Gold

I was driving past my old school at Carmountside. The school was closed in the mid 80s and the site demolished a few years later. The last part of the school was the Youth and Adult Centre, which was pulled down a decade ago. In a very short time the area has returned to meadow and woodland and the area green where once it was concrete and cement. It has taken less than 30 years to obliterate any trace of the High School that had existed from 1938 to 1985. The power of nature to reclaim the landscape was very evident.


It got me thinking and I have been aware that in recent months I have been negative about developments in the City Council and the lack of progress on a number of key projects such as the Bus Station. I have resolved to try to put forward a positive idea that I hope will be received in the spirit it is sent out.
I have previously expressed an interest in addressing one of the main problems facing the City that of the high level of derelict land. Brown field and other empty sites is a prominent feature of the Stoke on Trent landscape. Can any urban area have as bad an entrance as Stoke does for travellers arriving at Stoke station from the North? The wastelands around Etruria and Cliffe Vale are a main source of embarrassment and I am mortified that for the stranger this is the first impression that they will have of the City.


I believe or at least hope that brown could be turned to green and ultimately gold. In short we should be looking to use derelict land to grow biofuel/ biomass crops. Can it be done? I think that at the very least it ought to be investigated. There are signs that other areas in the country are looking in this way to unlock the potential of former industrial land. Teeside University is seriously looking at ways in which areas around Middlesborough can be turned into profitable use. Last month the Teeside project won an award following evidence that grasses can be grown on derelict sites that has good biofuel potential

Likewise in the States to quote from one site

"The rapid growth of the biofuels industry is good news for many farmers, but using land to grow crops for fuel, rather than food has raised public concern about the impact on food prices in the United States and beyond. So what if farmers started growing oilseed crops such as soybeans, sunflower and canola, and ethanol crops such as corn, on land that isn’t suitable for growing food?

Michigan State University professor Kurt Thelen is experimenting to find out whether such crops can thrive in previously contaminated soil. Even more, Thelan’s group is testing whether or not the plants can actually assist in site clean-up by taking in contaminants from the soil, a process known as phyto-remediation [see "Blue skies ahead for phytoscience," SIJ, March 2003].

Funded by DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX), NextEnergy, a Detroitbased non-profit that supports energy technology development, and the university, Thelan’s group last summer planted a two-acre plot of oilseed crops, corn and ethanol on a 120-acre former Superfund site in the greater Detroit area.
"Yieldwise, we had a very good year," Thelan says. "And we don’t expect to find contamination — the remediation work was done years ago. But we know that just by having plants, we are increasing the microbial activity in the soil, and that has some bioremediation effects."

When I attended a Green Energy conference last February at Staffs University I mentioned this as a possibility and my comments were well received. I was in contact with a number of organisations who were keen to explore the potential of using the brownfield sites of Stoke for some useful purpose.
There are obviously a number of positives that could derive from this

1. Creating employment opportunities in the City
2. Cleaning and turning to good use previously redundant land
3. Reducing good agricultural land usage for biofuel use

　
　
I believe that this has real potential and have been in contact with Dr Bridges who expressed an interest. I am keen myself to support this agenda.

A Killing on Wetley Moor

I knew Wetley Moor from childhood. It was not too far from the council estate that I was bought up on. It was especially good in late summer when you could pick bilberries and play commandos amongst the rocks. Cattle would be grazing on the moors and panic as charging boys forced them to scatter. I used also to like to take a bird recognition book and an old telescope trying to spot the different birds. Once, I saw a buzzard and nearly stepped on the nest of fledgling skylarks. Do boys from the Abbey Hulton still engage in these innocent pleasures on the Moor?

I didn’t realise it then but over 160 years ago Wetley Moor was the scene of a violent death in which my great great great great grandfather Thomas Sherwin would play a significant part. He was born in 1817 and was part of an extended family that lived in the area for at least 150 years before his birth. His great grandfather John Sherwin was born at the beginning of the 18^th century, John’s remains lie in St Mary’s Church in Bucknall. Thomas Sherwin’s mother was Susannah Forrester another well known local family. In 1838 Thomas married Sarah Hewitt and at the time that these events had two children James and Enoch. He was clearly a man of some intelligence and could write his name in a beautiful copper plate hand. As his marriage certificate attests. Thomas Sherwin was a collier. Small mines and coal pits existed around the moor. Mining as an activity had flourished from the middle of the 18^th century and reached a peak just after the First World War When I was a child in the 60s there was always the fear that there was a mine shaft that could open up on the unwary, whether that be man or beast
.
But the focus of the story shifts to the uncle of Thomas Sherwin’s wife. William Hewitt was 60 in June 1841 and a former miner. The newspaper report stated that he lived a mendicant lifestyle. He seemed in a woeful state. The newspaper described him as a "frugal man and disreputable" One of the witnesses at the trial said that shortly before Hewitt’s death the old man was seen carrying a load and looking "clemned"- a dialect word for starving.
　
　
He would have been thought old in the context of the early 19^th century when the expectation of life for working men would have been very low, not much beyond 60. William Hewitt had got into trouble the previous year when he and his brother were imprisoned at Stafford for stealing fowl. He was in jail in October 1840 and released the following spring. The hovel that Hewitt built on the moor had been pulled down and he was homeless. William Hewitt lived by staying at the homes of people who lived on the moor, or by sleeping rough. He did think of changing his life and at the trial Thomas Sherwin recalled a conversation with Hewitt who told him that he wanted to build a house. He had 16 gold sovereigns and a Mr Perry owed him £22- enough to build something. Hewitt was a miser although everyone knew that he had money. A farmer called Wilshaw saw a drunken Hewitt drop his money on the road in front of him. His aside is reported in the Staffordshire Advertiser in the report of the inquest in June 1841. Wilshaw’s responded to his neighbour’s difficulties with banter.

"What, William, are you going to mend the road with sovereigns?
Wilshaw mentioned this episode to William Simpson, a fellow, according to the newspaper, "of unprepossessing appearance and intemperate habits". Simpson liked a pint and a couple days before the death of Hewitt complained about having no money and that he was looking for work.

Hewitt’s body was found at 7am on the 19^th June 1841 by a man called Holland. Holland was looking at collecting sand for a house that he was building on the Common. The body had been seen the previous evening by a party of young women walking from Lane End. They thought that the old man was drunk. Holland called on Thomas Sherwin who lived nearby and they established that Hewitt was dead. The body was lying on its back in a stone pit. The left arm was folded across the stomach. His head was resting on a rock. There were two deep head wounds and the body, according to Sherwin, was stiff and cold. The left trouser pocket had been cut off, and Hewitt’s purse was missing. In the other pocket were one shilling and sixpence and 4 pence in copper. They called a constable.
　
　
A few days afterwards an inquest was held in Hanley when the details of the death of Hewitt were investigated. I get the impression that the examination of the circumstances that led to the man’s death was quite thorough in the short time that was allowed. The Surgeon who examined the body determined that Hewitt was beaten with a stone and that his death was not due to a fall. Constable Allen, the investigating police officer after a search around the quarry found a lump of grit stone about 5 inches across, matted with blood and hair. It was concluded that it was the murder weapon. The cause of death was a fractured skull with two heavy blows to the back of the head. The brain had not been exposed by the attack.
The Magistrate, Job Meigh made frequent interruptions especially about the drinking culture at the time. There was a reference to the chief suspect drinking in a pub in Bucknall, the day after the death of the old man- Sunday 20^th June. The pub had been opened at 7 am where beer and gin had been drink for several hours. Meigh did not approve of the "impropriety of disrespecting the Sabbath, by allowing tippling to such an extent on a Sunday; and after giving the landlady of the "Dog and Partridge" a suitable caution, hoped the constable would strictly due his duty.
 The jury returned the verdict of "wilful killing" The Police already had a suspect in custody. William Simpson had been apprehended by the authorities. Simpson’s mother who gave evidence at the inquest was hysterical: she recognised that her son faced the prospect, if he was charged with murder, with death by hanging.

Simpson was seen the day of the killing. He lived close by and one witness Thomas Sherwin’s Aunt Mary Sherwin, a woman in her early 40s saw Simpson walking in the direction of Armshead from Washerwall at about 2pm, very close to the old man who was warming himself by a clod fire. George Forrester, the uncle of Thomas Sherwin, passed Simpson on a footpath in the direction of the old quarry where earlier he saw Hewitt.
　
　
I have seen a map of 1900 of the area. Wetley Moor is about 80 acres in size and rises to above 800 feet in height. It is a leftover of the Gritstone Edge that runs northwards towards Leek into the Pennine Chain. The area is criss-crossed with stone walls and footpaths. There is a great deal of evidence of mining and quarrying in the area, the landscape is dotted with shafts and stone pits. There are three quarries on the map and a footpath that cuts behind a spot called the "old quarry" and bends towards the trig point of 857 feet and then on Luzlow and Bagnall.

I am assuming that Hewitt was killed at the site of the old quarries; some distance away from being overlooked from nearby houses
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Simpson luck changed radically the day after Hewitt’s death. He had money and was spending it freely. He redeemed a coat that he had in pawn since April with sovereigns and paid off drinking debts. He "went up Hanley" where he met his mother and drank liberally in the New Inn. He paid off the debt he has run up in that pub by asking what his "shot" was. He bought a smock frock for 8 shillings and in the town met a man called Lunn, an old drinking companion and offered to loan him a shilling.

The following morning Simpson met with Thomas Sherwin and roused the landlady of the "Dog and Partridge" in Bucknall. The two men stayed there for a few hours, drinking beer and gin. Simpson ate bread and cheese. Sherwin and Simpson parted company and Simpson slept off the effect of the drink in an empty fodder bin. He was found there by Constable Allen.

Simpson was wearing a waistcoat when he is arrested and detained in Hanley. On examination the Constable noticed a dark stain that could be blood on the left sleeve and asked Simpson how the garment got to be stained. Simpson claimed that he had a nose bleed in the cell although there is no evidence of bleeding in the newly changed bed straw.
　
　
Simpson was also asked how he came by the money. He replied that he had worked for it and it was money that he got for "bark peeling past Newcastle". Bark Peeling was a long-established woodland craft which used the same techniques for centuries. The bark contained a chemical derivative which was used to process animal hides. As proof of his story he produced a receipt although the Constable reported there was a considerable difference between the money that he had received and the recent spending spree
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It looked as if Simpson was doomed.

Justice worked very swiftly in the 19^th century and the following month Simpson was on trial for his life at Stafford Assizes. The case was tried by Mr Justice Coltman, an experienced judge he had been trying capital cases for a number of years. Mr Kinnersley and Mr Greaves lead for the prosecution while Simpson defended himself. Reading the trial reports few working men could afford the costs of a defence lawyer and had to rely on their wits in the proceeding that were to follow he was to demonstrate some skill in self advocacy. The odds were stacked against them. The prosecution made great play that the evidence was circumstantial, but put strong arguments why they believed that Simpson was guilty
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The names that gave evidence that day and in the other trials are still common in North Staffordshire, names such as Wilshaw, Matthews, Forrester, Bailey, Holland, Mayer, Machin, Leese, Allen, Fallows, Hewitt and Sherwin
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The only evidence that seemed to help Simpson is witness’s inconsistency over the material and ownership of the purse that Simpson has on him at the time of the arrest, there is an inconclusive attempt to link the purse to Hewitt
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All that Simpson said in his defence at the trial is reported in the Staffordshire Advertiser of the 24^th July 1841.
　
　
　
I am innocent of the charge as an unborn child; I have no witness here as I know of
The Jury took 10 minutes to reach a verdict and found the defendant "Not Guilty".
There was astonishment in the crowded court; Mr Justice Coltman was unprepared for such a result. I imagine that he was getting ready to don the black cap and pronounce the death penalty. The affair does not end there, however. Simpson went on a heavy drinking bout in the pubs of Stafford on the night of the acquittal and under the influence ranted and raved.

The people who gave evidence against him were a "damned lot of forsworn witnesses all together and when he got home he will make them stand further"
 I am assuming that Simpson felt that he had been conspired against and as the Forrester’s, Hewitt’s and Sherwin’s were all related had plotted against him.

The speech was heard by Constable Thomas Stone of Bagnall who warned Simpson that he had a narrow escape and should think himself very well off. Stone warned that if he continued in that way of threatening witnesses then he would find himself in custody.

This did not deter Simpson.
Well, I will. I will never kill another man, if I had killed him. If Lunn had gone with me to Kingsley Wakes I should have taken the six sovereigns, and should have hanged and nothing will have saved me.
He was rearrested and a trial date fixed for the following March when he was to be tried with manslaughter and larceny.
　
Thomas Sherwin was not a witness at the 1842 trials. On 31^st October 1841 he was killed in a gunpowder explosion in a pit. He died at a pit in Bucknall. The explosion also took the life of a 12 year old boy Walley. The new mines that grew up in the 19th Century depended on men and children to work long hours in often dangerous conditions. Accidents were common.

During the 19^th century, on average, 4 miners were killed a day. Thomas Sherwin left a wife and two small boys. The children will not have known their father. Sarah Sherwin remarried Charles Wilshaw in 1853.
The following spring Simpson faced the lesser crimes of manslaughter and robbery. The trial was played out again with little new evidence. The newspaper reported that Simpson questioned the witnesses on the subject of the colour and material of the purse that Hewitt had with considerable shrewdness.

For a second time, Simpson was found not guilty while admitting that he had taken the purse from Hewitt’s corpse. The third trial was a formality and was over in minutes; Simpson was found guilty and transported to Australia for seven years.

The Judge at the trial in passing sentence made the following remark,-
It would ill become me, now that you are convicted of this offence, to comment on the degree of guilt in which you have been involved in the same transaction; this is a matter between you and God.Transportation of convicts to Australia started in 1787. By 1840 transportation to New South Wales ceased but continued to Tasmania and Western Australia until 1853.　 Prisoners who received a transportation sentence were not normally allowed to return to the UK. It is estimated that from 1789-1870 over 150,000 Britons forcibly colonised Australia in this way.
　
　
Most prisoners receiving a transportation sentence were sent initially　 to the Prison Hulks in London and served the first part of their sentence in solitary confinement before being assigned to a convict ship and leaving England.

In one sense Simpson was fortunate to get a sentence of 7 years, at the same Assize a man from Penn near Wolverhampton was sentenced to 10 years for stealing a sheep
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Given the evidence how would modern forensic detection have worked? Fingerprint evidence was not introduced until 1900 and DNA was first used in 1986. I imagine that today work would have been done on the blood on the sleeve of Simpson’s waistcoat. The purse would have been examined to see if it contained material linking it to Hewitt. A pathologist would be able to ascertain how and when Hewitt met his death, and how the way the fateful wounds were delivered. Evidence would have been taken over time to try to link Simpson and Hewitt.

This piece began with a death and ends with a death. Thomas Sherwin was not the first or last Sherwin to die as a consequence of mining. Over 40 years after the death of Thomas, 3 other Sherwin’s went underground to die. In October 1889 fire damp at the Mossfield Colliery near Longton took the lives of 64 miners. Three of the miners were Thomas, Charles and Samuel Sherwin, Sam was 16. The father William was also a miner and never went down the pit again. With the compensation from the mining company the father and mother opened a bakery in Werrington. A story has it that a pair of clogs belonging one of the young men was hung over the grave in Caverswall Graveyard.