‘Perhaps he was,’ Sergeant Hazell replied. ‘Perhaps he was.’
❖ THE END ❖
What Really Happened
in Bath in 1850?
On Sunday 6th February 1850, in the early hours of the morning, Thomas Hunt drowned himself and his daughter. Suicides were relatively common in that stretch of the River Avon at the time and rarely merited more than a mention in the local paper, but the deaths of Hunt and his daughter were reported in The Times. The Coroner’s Court found her father guilty of murder.
It was in a newspaper archive that I first read of Thomas Hunt and his daughter. There was nothing in the newspaper records to indicate that he was in debt, but debt and loan-sharks were a way of life for the working class at that time. I had intended to use the story as an anecdote somewhere in the book, but gradually, as I wrote, the deaths of Thomas Hunt and his daughter became the link that bound the story together, though I never discovered his daughter’s name.
In 1850, Bath was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Britain. The fine Georgian buildings, the spa waters, the fashionable shops in Milsom Street, and the annual round of concerts and balls still drew wealthy visitors for the season. The wealth of this transient population was the bedrock on which the city had been built and grown.
Most of the better houses in the city were rented, as were the accoutrements that went with them; the horses and carriages, furniture and bedding, table linen and crockery, cutlery and silverware, cooks and servants. If you had the money and the manners, you could be whoever you wanted to be in Bath. Yet by 1850, the nature of the city was changing and its popularity as a fashionable resort was declining.
In truth, the grandiose Georgian façades hid buildings that were often poorly finished and viewed from any other angle quite unsightly. And the city, too, hid its uglier aspects behind an illusion of opulence. By 1850 industry was thriving in the city – corset makers, furniture and coach-making, brass foundries, printing, tailoring, shoe-making, breweries and stone quarrying. Bath did its best to keep the factories and sweat-shops largely out of sight and as far away as possible from the minds of visitors and wealthy residents. The cholera outbreak in the previous year (largely confined to Avon Street) had been the second largest in the country, yet it too was kept out of the public eye.
The Avon Street area had grown by 1850 into a sprawling, disease-ridden slum and was subject to frequent flooding. It was bounded to the east by a complex of courts and lanes leading off Southgate Street, one of the main thoroughfares of the city. To the north of the area lay Lower Borough Walls and Westgate Buildings, the latter referred to in Jane Austen’s Persuasion in which Sir Walter says to Anne Elliot, ‘Upon my word Miss Anne Elliot, you have the most extraordinary taste! Everything that revolts other people, low company, paltry rooms, foul air, disgusting associations are inviting to you.’ The western boundary of Avon Street was Kings Mead Terrace (now Kingsmead East) and the wasteland beyond and to the south was the River Avon and the Quay. Avon Street itself cut through the western part of the area from Kingsmead Square in the north, in a straight line down to the river in the south.
In all, the Avon Street area occupied a relatively small part of the city geographically, but by 1850 it was home to 20 per cent of Bath’s population, largely Irish and other immigrant minorities, and itinerants looking for work. It was abhorred and for the most part ignored by the city and its visitors, but provided a convenient source of cheap labour for the factories and hotels, and domestic servants for the fine houses. When disreputable behaviour spilled out into the city, it was usually put down to the ethnic origin of the sinner, or the influence of alcohol.
By 1850, evening outings by the wealthier classes to the theatre, concerts and balls had, to a large extent, been superseded by dinner parties and entertaining at home. Despite the introduction of street-lights and police, the streets were neither a pleasant, nor a safe place to be after dark, though there was plenty of alternative entertainment for the gentlemen. Prostitution, gambling and other vices were well catered for in the city, and largely centred around Avon Street.
The Theatre Royal in Bath had been in decline for several years and Mrs Macready is widely credited with saving it. The more famous Mr Macready appeared there in 1850 in the role of Macbeth, though it was towards the end of the year. Mr Macready remains famous for an incident which occurred during his American tour in 1849, when he played Macbeth at the Astor Place Opera House in New York. His fierce American rival Edwin Forrest as an open challenge, decided to play the same role, on the same night, in the same city, but at the Bowery Theatre. Many of Forrest’s fans went to Macready’s performance and pelted him with rotten fruit. Crowds began converging on the Astor Place Opera House. The police and militia were called out. Rather than retreat, the mob turned on them. In the ensuing battle, twenty-two people were killed.
In 1850 the constabulary in Britain were still at a formative stage in their development and the various forces were riddled with corruption. Since their primary duty was often perceived as minimising inconvenience and distress to the wealthier classes, they were largely resented by the working class. Crime was rife; thieves were known as Maggsmen, which is where Charlie got his name. The confidence trick that Charlie carried out on the silversmiths of Clifton in Bristol was a con job well known by criminals, and was recorded by Henry Mayhew at the time, in his chronicles of London Labour and the London Poor.
Bath Races were one of the earliest horse-racing meetings in England, but they were suspended for a number of years. They resumed at Lansdown in 1850. A fair was also held at Lansdown every year and was notorious for an event in the 1839 when, as the day was drawing to a close, and the fair-men were packing away, a gang of drunks from Avon Street led by a notorious local character known as Carroty Kate converged on the fair and began smashing up the stalls.
The riot grew in intensity as the band looted every available source of alcohol and started setting fires, before eventually returning to the city. Thirty or so fair-men pursued them and captured the ring-leaders, including Kate. They were taken back to the fair, tied to the wheels of the wagons and flogged. Kate was the last to receive summary justice, and was held over a trestle table as two young women flogged her with canes until they were too tired to continue. As the beaten rioters returned to the city, they were met by the police and another skirmish ensued. Several were arrested and later transported. One of the rioters severely injured a policeman with an iron bar and was later tried and hung, for wounding with intent to murder.
Nathaniel Caine is a fictional character, but the Caines family did exist. They were notorious throughout the West Country for being connected with, and sometimes leading, a gang of thugs based in the village of Cockroad. Abraham Caines was hung for stealing at Gloucester jail in 1727. Francis Caines stole a valuable consignment of cloth, was caught, confessed, and was hung at Ilchester jail in 1804. Benjamin Caines was hung in 1817 for robbing a young woman. His father had his corpse brought home and charged people to view the body laid out in the parlour to help pay for his funeral. In 1842, Edward Caines, defending the honour of the family name, drew a knife in a fight and was transported for seven years.
The Caines’ Cockroad gang were largely petty criminals, but exercised substantial power, extorting money from farmers and publicans, stealing from houses, and robbing coaches and travellers on the highways. There is no evidence for them being money lenders, though they were involved in various protection rackets, and though they never established a meaningful presence in Bath, they did collect their dues each year at Lansdown Fair.
The gang was one of the last bands of highwaymen to operate in England. They were finally subdued and arrested by Sergeant Hazell in 1850. So great was their strength and the fear they generated that he required the support of a troop of militia to enter the village of Cockroad. Even then they had to approach with stealth, at dead of night and pick off the gang members, house by house. The last highwaymen were not romanti
c figures, but violent thugs who terrorised those around them.
I have tried to be scrupulous in reconstructing the Bath of 1850, but on a few occasions have resorted to a little literary licence to assist in conveying a scene, or to help the plot along. The free public fountain at the end of Bath Street (since demolished) where James and John drank when fleeing from Caine was not erected until 1859, and the County Club outside which James was shot (now the Bath and County Club) was not developed as a gentleman’s club until 1858. I hope the reader will forgive an occasional bending of the truth in the interests of story-telling.
Most of the Avon Street area is now occupied by Bath Spa University, various commercial properties, bus depots and sundry car parks. The past and its people and their stories lie buried. Yet their struggles deserve to be remembered.
The past makes us who we are. The choices we make determine who we become.
Copyright
First published in 2012
The Mystery Press, an imprint of The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2012
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© Paul Emanuelli 2012
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Avon Street Page 42
