The Riots at Denaby Main

Before Mr Justice Wills at the Leeds Assizes on Friday, John Humphrey, 31; Thomas Potts, 36; Edward Peters 22; John McHale 45; Tom Wood 39; Henry Davies 32; Daniel Pearce 52; William Wilson 28; John Stokes 34; George Shaw 28; William Cooper 46; Amos Dainty 41; Samuel Hadley 32; Alfred Stevenson 40; and George Marsden 38, miners were indicted for being concerned in the rioting arising out of the colliery dispute at Denaby Main of July 12.

Cooper, Dainty, Hadley, Stevenson and Marsden were further charged with feloniously wounding John Merrick at Denaby on the same day.

Mr J Heaton Cadman and Mr O.E. Ellis (instructed by Messrs Binney and Sons, Sheffield) prosecuted and the prisoners were defended by Mr Kershaw (instructed by Mr Hickmott of Rotherham)

By the advice of Mr Kershaw, all the prisoners pleaded guilty to the rioting, and the five charged with the attack on Merrick to unlawful wounding. A verdict of unlawfully wounding was accordingly returned against them by direction of his Lordship.

Mr Cadman, in relating the circumstances of the case, said the riot originated in a difference of opinion with the prisoners and other men stop it would not be desirable, perhaps, to go into the ground work of the quarrel because that was pretty well understood by all concerned and by the public at large. At any rate, there was some squabbling which culminated in serious rioting.

The men, to the number of 150 to 250, seem to have acted with the most deliberation, a march in a body from Conisborough station to the works of the Denaby company, when a large number of men were at work from another county. The men in the dock seemed to have been largely engaged in leading this compact body in what amounted to an assault upon the works of the company. Sticks were used, bricks were thrown, violent language was used, and a great amount of damage was done.

One of the unfortunate Staffordshire men was seriously assaulted. Happening to go out of the gates to see, as he said, what was going on, he was immediately set upon by five of the men now charged, and was first struck with a brick on the face and then knocked down. Cooper and Stevenson struck him on the head with thick sticks, and when he was down he was attacked by Hadley and Marsden and brutally kicked and ill used. He was dragged back to the colliery gates perfectly insensible, as so serious was his condition that he did not recover consciousness until he reached Doncaster, to which place he was taken.

It was only right to say that of the 15 prisoners, four of them – Cooper, Stevenson, McHale and Wood – were then and at the present time bound over to keep the peace. Of these four, Cooper and Stevenson were also charged with others with unlawful wounding. He mentioned this in order that is Lordship might see there was considerable difference among the men.

Mr Kershaw appealed to his Lordship in mitigation of punishment. It was not without very grave and serious consideration that he came to the conclusion that he would best be doing his duty by advising the prisoners pleaded guilty.

His Lordship : no doubt that is good advice, because it is utterly impossible they could escape conviction.

Mr Kershaw was extremely grateful for his Lordship’s opinion. He did not propose to say word with regard to the cause of the dispute, being convinced that it would not help the ends of justice, he did wish to say that the Denaby men had been out of work for the last seven months, and he begged his Lordship to consider what was involved in that, their wives and families of these men being dependent upon their weekly earnings. It had been represented that the prisoners acted without provocation. Now, he was far from saying that provocation would justify what they did, but he could prove that they did not act entirely without it.

His Lordship said the worst part of the case was the kicking when Merrick was on the ground. This was a thing no English judge would permit you did not mean to say any fighting was lawful, nor would he give any encouragement to it, but an honest fight with natural weapons was a very different thing from what took place here.

Mr Kershaw pointed out that on this occasion when the assault took place the men passed numbers of houses belonging to the company, and passed them without doing damage, which showed the temper they were in.

His Lordship said if he passed a lean years sent on those engaged in the rioting, you will want some leaders of the men enter into recognisances for their good behaviour. He hoped that the Corsi was about to take with regard to the majority of the accused will not be open to any misunderstanding either on the part of the public or themselves. They were quite right in having their own views about the trade dispute and to combine to affect their purpose by lawful means, but the company were at the same time at liberty to employ whom they pleased and on what terms they chose. They were also right in evicting from their cottages men would not accept their terms, and any appeal to him for sympathy on this ground was wholly unfounded. It would be very mischievous to lend the sanction of his position for a moment to attacks on person and property under conditions of this sort. He was not going to pronounce an opinion as to which party was in the right originally, or which was most entitled to the sympathy of the public. Such considerations had no place in a court of justice. The peace must be kept, and those who broke it must suffer for it. The last thing he could wish was to embitter a dispute which hoped belonged more or less to the past, and he hoped the feeling between the two bodies of men would settle down. In the hope that it might do so he was able to take with regard to the majority of the prisoners a very lenient course. All the prisoners will have to enter into their own recognisances in £20 to be of good behaviour for 12 months, to find two sureties in the same amount with a similar object, and to come up for judgement when called upon.

His Lordship emphatically warned those who were thus dealt with of the necessity of being guarded in their conduct in the future. The four men – Stevenson, Cooper, McHale and Wood – who were bound over previously, would be imprisoned for three weeks with hard labour, in addition to being bound over; the five prisoners charged with the assault would each be committed to 4 months imprisonment with hard labour, the two terms in the cases of Cooper and Stevenson running concurrently.

Samuel Straw 26; William Westwood 30; and William Wrigley 30, miners, were next indicted for assaulting and resisting John Drake, Samuel Betts Wood and William Kendall, they being constables, in the execution of their duty, at Denaby on 5 July.

Mr Ellis prosecuted.

The constables were part of the force on duty at the colliery.

By the advice of counsel (Mr Kershaw) the accused pleaded guilty, and his Lordship, taking into account that the men had already been locked up for a month, sentenced them to 14 days hard labour