South Yorkshire Times May 26, 1956

Flowers Were Her Delight, Now…
Disgusting Vandalism at Conisbrough

Invalid 85-year-old widow, Mrs Mary Preston, really takes an interest in a garden full of flowers and has spent many happy hours looking at flowers through the window by her bedside. But now her pleasure has been denied her. Night raiders had destroyed dozens of tulips in the garden of the house of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr and Mrs Frank Burton, 47, Lime Grove, Conisbrough.

Mr Burton, a coal tipper at Mexborough power station, spent hours tending the flowers in the garden and had a large display of tulips. “They really pleased my mother,” said Mrs Burton. “She hasn’t much left in life at her age and she cannot move from her bed. The flowers were her only delight.”

The flowers were pulled up and destroyed on Monday night. Mrs Burton got up and looked out of the window on Tuesday morning she was shocked to see all the tulips scattered over the garden.

“We take a pride in the garden for my mother’s sake alone, but she has been an invalid and bedridden for over six years now. We don’t cut them to bring them into the house, as she likes to see them growing. And now all our labour has been in vain,” said Mrs Walton.