Tuesday April 1, 1873

The Hall family of Lower Buswarvah, Madron, knew exactly how to respond when one of their number – Richard – was arrested on suspicion of stealing coal. 

Richard’s father and brother, William and Thomas Hall, confronted PC Oliver who had arrived to effect the arrest, and demanded to see the summons. When PC Oliver admitted that he had no such document about his person, William declared that in that case, Richard was going nowhere – and Thomas, younger and more impetuous, was bold enough to try a bit of pushing and shoving. 

Reinforcements eventually arrived in the shape of a sergeant with the requisite paperwork, which also mentioned another man who was to be arrested on the same charge.  

Richard Hall and his partner in crime were taken into custody, and William and Thomas were also charged with attempting to ‘rescue’ Richard. How, the police asked, could two officers both have the same summons in their hands at once?  

Wednesday, April 2,  1873

St Just boy William Wallis took his former employer to court for six shillings owing in unpaid wages. 

William had been employed to work underground for 25 shillings a month, of which he had been paid 15 shillings – and forfeited another four because on four days he had not turned up for work. This, he claimed, left six shillings outstanding.

The employer, however, had a different story to tell. According to him, William had neglected his work, complained of pains in his head (perhaps the forerunner of ‘it was doing my head in?’) and had finally run away altogether.  

There had been no option but to tell William to seek alternative work elsewhere.  A compromise was agreed; William would be paid three shillings – half of the amount claimed. 

It seems that he wasn’t suited to underground work, so what kind of occupation did he take up instead? If anyone knows, we would love to hear from them. 

 Wednesday, April 9 1873

The 200 boats that comprised the Mount’s Bay mackerel fleet had enjoyed an excellent start to the season. 

The 30 crews were lucky – or made good judgements – and returned from the distant fishing grounds to the south-west of Land’s End with an average of 1,000 fish aboard each boat: one catch had numbered 1,500. 

Prices were high, thanks partly to more efficient and speedy freight-handling on the railway; 120 of the best fish would fetch up to £3, and on Wednesday 9th April over £1000’s worth of mackerel sped up the line to Billingsgate, hauled by steam locomotives. 

Meanwhile, Gulval ice works was busy, sending full carts down to Newlyn to preserve the London-bound fish during its onward journey – and two 500-ton cargoes of ice had just arrived at Penzance Quay by ship, from Norway.