Wednesday, October 20, 2004

100 years ago: A Scarborough woman who had made astounding claims about witchcraft at an inquest on one of her children was charged, along with her husband, with having neglected her four children. The police surgeon gave evidence to the effect that the children were in a very filthy condition, with one child, aged two years and nine months, unable to walk. The mother had told him a long story about the children being bewitched and the house haunted, blaming a neighbour for laying a curse upon her children. The male defendant put in a certificate, which stated that the woman was suffering from hallucinations of sight and hearing and mental depression. The magistrate gave the defendants a fortnight to remedy the state of things, the police surgeon to have the woman under observation in the meantime to report back.

50 years ago: Elizabeth Fry, the great Quaker philanthropist who did so much to bring about reforms in our prisons, died 109 years ago this month, and so Mr Nobody looked back at her impact on York. In 1818 she and her brother, Joseph John Gurney, visited York Castle Prison and published a report of their findings and recommendations, which caused quite a stir in Yorkshire at the time. Some of the reformers' recommendations for the improvement of the prison were acted upon a few years later when a special Act called for better conditions in prisons. One of the main criticisms of the prison was that there was nothing for the prisoners to do: "were the prisoners employed, they would not be occupied by various devices for effecting their escape". There was criticism that felons could easily communicate with the public, the prisoners had insufficient clothing and hardly enough food, they were heavily ironed, and the men's part of the prison was "far from cleanly".

25 years ago: Human remains were unearthed at the rear of the Viking excavation in Coppergate, York, the lower limb bones and fragments of the lower torso suggested the indiscriminate and unceremonious disposal of unwanted remains. The remains dated from the late 10th to early 11th century when most citizens were buried carefully in York's many cemeteries. An expert pointed out that the macabre discovery may be the remains of bodies disturbed when the nearby church of St Mary's was rebuilt, but discounted any idea that the bones were from a massacre.

Updated: 08:13 Wednesday, October 20, 2004