Tweet
Townwell Fold -1960s
-
-
Regional Accents
By the time they returned to London, the Tomkins boys had spent 15 years or so in Manchester and had no doubt adopted the local accent.
This isn't Manc, it's Black Country, where Kate Eddowes hailed from, but it's an example of a strong regional accent that at times sounds like a foreign language (stick with it until you get to Dolly Allen and then Harry Harrison's 'oss' elegy).
Comment
-
This is a slightly fuller version of the Shippy dog-baiting incident from 1861. It says Nick was no longer working for the Leeches, but later reports suggest he was welcomed back into the (Townwell) fold some time afterwards.
Comment
-
Joseph Leech
Before we leave the Leeches, here are a couple of press reports from 1861 about Joseph, the eldest of the three brothers and apparently the head of the clan at the time. The first is interesting because it is further support for the idea that Sunday was a knacker-free day. Joseph was fined 2s 6d for simply carrying a horse on his cart on the sabbath.
The second is even more interesting, involving the death of Joseph's drinking buddy, Benjamin Devey, following an alleged scuffle with an unnamed policeman. The subsequent inquest determined that the cause of death was not related to the alleged scuffle, so no further action was taken.
Comment
-
Joseph Leech 2
Comment
-
I recognise that Harrison Barber logo.Comment
-
-
With a pair of matching boxer shorts?Comment
-
Whatever happened to Harrison Barber?
Where they taken over by Whiskers? Or did they succumb to a Kray-Hart protection or long firm racket and sell up?Comment
-
Comment
-
Boxer? Was than an Animal Farm reference?Originally posted by Edward Stow View Post
Here's the right attire for George Orwell fans:
Comment
-
This thread was supposed to be specifically about HB, but it has developed into a catch-all horse-slaughtering one. However, given that the history of London horse-slaughtering is the history of the HB monopoly, and given that certain of the London horse-slaughtering families ranged far and wide across the country, I don't think it has really gone too far off-topic.
It also contains a sort of flat-pack Tomkins theory, though without the instructions (I think I may have thrown them out with the box!). And as always with flat-pack there are a few key components that seem to be missing.
I'm pleased that I've found motives for some of the moves the various families made, but one that has so far eluded me is the reason behind the T's move to Whitechapel. They had been settled in Manchester for 15 years, Henry and Thomas had married local women and several children had been born. Why, then, did they feel the need to up sticks and move back to London, seemingly in late 1887/early 1888?
The fact that John Harrison, the man who insisted on prosecuting William Tomkins for theft, appears to have bailed out of HB shortly after he created it in 1886 may have been a factor, but I can't help wondering whether, in addition, something happened in Manchester that made life there awkward for them.
And if something did happen, it might shed some light on the boy's mind-set during their brief spell in the East End. For example, if the vicious attack on Sarah Tomkins by a woman bearing at least a passing resemblance to Polly Nichols had occurred a few weeks or months, rather than years, before they started work in Winthrop Street, that would at least be very interesting, wouldn't it?
Clutching at straws? Yep, but don't you need straw to make bricks?Comment
-
Leeches again 1
I thought I'd finished with the Leeches of Townwell Fold, but looking through my knackives I have found a further two press reports that I think are worth sharing. The first is a report of the death of William Leach/Leech (the spellings are seemingly interchangeable), a horse-slaughterer of Townwell fold, in 1860. Without sending for the death cert I can't be sure which, but I believe this is either the father or the older brother of the three men we have already looked at.
Leech clearly suffered from the same weakness as William Tomkins - they were obviously a hard-drinking lot those old knackermen. Nothing unusual in that, of course, it was quite the norm for Victorian working men.
Comment
-
Comment
-
Hi How,Originally posted by Howard Brown View Post
Yes, I did. Thanks for that - very interesting.
I suspect these men, if they existed, would have been regular slaughtermen rather than knackers, though. Given the nature of the victims' injuries, it's not surprising that a slaughterman came to mind at the time. And the proximity of the HB3 and Henry Tomkins's performance at Polly's inquest can only have only added support to the idea.
The other Leech report I'd like to post is, on the face of it, just another piece of grossness about horse entrails, but it contains an interesting comment about daily deliveries of boiled horseflesh by rail between Wolverhampton and London as far back as 1864.
GaryComment
Comment