1853 - Proceedings of the Old Bailey (1)

Record
Date	1853
Topic	Robin Hood Lane [Poplar?] mentioned twice in case of theftProperty "Alabout" (as page type) with input value "Robin Hood Lane [Poplar?] mentioned twice in case of theft" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

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Robin Hood Lane, Poplar.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-06-15. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-04-27.

Record

[3 Jan. 1853:]
GEORGE CRASKE. I am one of the foremen at the Eastern Counties Railway; on 6th Dec., I asked Pike if he had taken any sweepings from the "D" floor, he said, "No"—I then asked if he had taken from "M" or "N," which are the next to "D," and the floor from which these sacks were missed—he said, "No," he had not been in there since last Friday—I did not give him any authority on Friday to take any sack out—I then asked if he was certain he had not put a sack of grain on a hand cart—he said, "Certainly not"—I told him to be sure about it—he said he had no business to put anything on a truck without my sanction, and he had not done it—this conversation was between 10 and 11 o'clock, and when he went to his dinner I watched him to Robin Hood-lane, which is a quarter of a mile, or more, from the Company's premises; I saw him go into a yard there where the prisoner Samuel's premises are—I left him there—I cannot say how long he remained there, he came back to his work at the usual time—he was taken into custody on the same day, a short time afterwards.

Cross-examined. Q. When did you see him go to Samuels'? A. On the Tuesday, the robbery was on the Friday; no one gives orders for the removal of goods, but me or Dyson—I cannot swear what this sack contained.

Pike. Q. Have you not known that we take sacks on our shoulders when it is wet? A. I have known it, but you never asked me for a sack.

MR. ROBINSON. Q. Supposing they ever put a sack over their shoulders, would it be their duty to bring it back again? A. Yes; a full sack would not be likely to keep the rain off their shoulders.

WILLIAM GAVIN. I am an inspector on the Eastern Counties Railway. On 8th Dec., after the examination at the police court, I went with Puddiford to a room I was told was occupied by Pike's wife—I have not heard Pike say where he lived—I had the address from the charge sheet.

GEORGE CRASKE re-examined. I know where Pike lived, but I forget the name of the street—it is No. 81, not far from Gravel-lane—I have only lived six months in London—the street is not far from the Tower, and runs parallel with the dead wall of the docks, which is on one side—Gravel-lane runs into the street, it was the address he had given at the police court—I heard him give it, and saw it taken down.

WILLIAM GAVIN continued. The house I went to was No. 81, Pennington-street, which has houses only on one side, and a dead wall on the other—Gravel-lane runs into Pennington-street at one end, and Ratcliffe Highway at the other—when I opened the door I was followed by Puddiford, and I called his attention to the state of the floor which was covered over with sacks lald edge to edge, and in some places secured to the floor, to form a carpet—I found this sack among them (produced), it is marked, "T. and W. E. Coote, St. Ives"—I went to the top of the house, and found this new plain sack (produced) laid down by the side of the bed—the room was occupied by a lone woman—in the back yard I found a quantity of sacking cut up, and in the back kitchen I found a large box containing two or three bushels of oats.

JOSEPH PUDDIFORD (policeman, K 276). I went with Gavin to Pennington-street, in a little back room I found this sack (produced) doubled up, it is marked, "Eastern Counties Railway Company." On 7th Dec., about 7 or half past 7 o'clock in the evening, I apprehended Samuels at a beer shop in Robin Hood-lane—I told him, I took him for receiving a sack containing grain from the Eastern Counties Railway warehouses—he said, "I do not know where they are"—I said, I meant the old pepper warehouses that used to belong to the East India Dock Company—he said, "I do not know where they are"—I said he must go to the station, he said, "I am your humble servant"—he is a corn dealer—I searched his premises, and found oats, beans, and I think a few peas—I received a description of a truck from Mr. Craske; I searched for it, but it was gone then.^[1]

Source notes

IRHB has silently regularized the use of spaces before punctuation marks in the quotation and corrected the HTML text at Proceedings of the Old Bailey from the PDF of the original printed edition.

IRHB comments

In view of the crime scene being a warehouse formerly belonging to the East India Dock Company, the Robin Hood Lane intended is almost certainly that in Poplar. It is a side street of East India Dock Road. The East India Dock Basin is about 600 m east of Robin Hood Lane, Poplar.

Lists

Not included in Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.

Sources

Proceedings of the Old Bailey: 3 Jan. 1853.

Background

Wikipedia: East India Docks.

Also see

Notes

↑ Proceedings of the Old Bailey: 3 Jan. 1853.

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[1] Proceedings of the Old Bailey: 3 Jan. 1853.

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