1890
It was the kind of winter often described in stories. The old-fashioned sort, where the ground is blanketed by snow and frost shimmers in crisp, cold air.
Five days before Christmas
4.30am
To a Victorian gentleman of modest means, there was no creature more noble, more festive, or more tragically destined than the Christmas Goose. At Northgate Farm, nine such creatures resided in feathered contentment, unaware that their worth – some five pounds sterling – rendered them a temptation too great for the desperate souls of the district.
The clock in the Chorley steeple had not yet struck five on that frosty morning when the event occured.
Swiftly, three men made their way to a cote located away from the farmhouse. One of them removed a piece of wood that secured the cote door shut and taking it in turns they snatched nine geese that were housed there.
It was a quiet theft, executed while the world was yet a hush of shadow and biting frost, and the good people of Chorley slept on, unaware that their festive tables were being robbed in the dark.
Later that morning…
Farmer Ralph Pass had just finished his rounds with the milk before heading back to the cote at Northgate to check on his geese. It was 11am and he hadn’t yet looked in on his birds since the previous day after dinner. The air was usually filled with the indignant honking and shifting of his birds, but on that morning, there was an unnatural quietness on his approach. As he got closer to the cote, he was aghast to discover that his geese were nowhere to be seen!
Ralph raised the alarm and a prompt investigation into the missing birds was launched.
Chorley Town
Meanwhile, at the Leigh Arms in Chorley that same day, two men entered the public house; Mr James Gradwell, a weaver who worked at the Calico Printworks and his companion John Costello, a local coal miner.
Behind the bar was the young landlord Geoffrey Woodward, newly married to the widowed landlady whose husband had passed just seven months earlier.
Gradwell and his friend approached and told the landlord about a bargain of a goose that they had got earlier that day for 6 shillings and sixpence.
Geoffrey Woodward questioned for a moment the legitimacy of their purchase, the bird was far too fine for the price they claimed to have paid, but Gradwell reassured him.
James Gradwell had always been a respectful man and had often sold cock chickens and pigeons to Geoffrey.
Mary. E Waring a young local woman, brought the goose to the public house and Geoffrey paid 7 shillings for it.
Sale of Geese
James Gradwell had bought the goose from a man named Robert Jackson in Chorley.
Robert Jackson aged twenty-eight at the time, was an associate of the thieves.
Jackson had sold another of the birds to a Mrs. Ann Nowell, who was instructed by her husband George to go to Jackson’s house to collect it.
Another was sold early that morning to Mr. Thomas Ince, a coal heaver and father of five.
Thomas was urged by a friend of Robert Jackson that…
“Someone at Jackson’s house had a goose to sell for just 3s if he was interested!?”
Ince was suspicious but went to Jackson’s house and purchased the goose anyway.
Whether it was that initial suspicion that tugged at Thomas’s conscience later, or some other reason entirely, his goose ended up at the local Police Station.
Police Sergent Warmington, aided by this new lead got his team to work. It wasn’t long before PC Reilly made two arrests and tipped off by those already in custody, a third arrest was made the following day.
The Suspects
John Kerfoot, who had a history of poaching.
Simeon Southworth, labourer and Patrick Hasleforth, a mill worker who had been in trouble previously on a charge of drunk and disorderly.
All three men admitted to the crime.
“We took the nine geese. We were all three together, it is no use denying it.” – Patrick Hasleforth
Simeon Southworth declared that he had taken six of the geese to Robert Jackson who had paid two shillings for two of them, and that he had left others in a cote belonging to Robert’s father, Joseph Jackson.
The three men came up against an inevitable verdict of guilty. For John, Simeon, and Patrick, the festive season was traded for the grey stone walls of the goal, with hard labour included as a fitting punishment to deter future instances of mischief.
Robert Jackson, the middleman, was put on police bail until his summoning at the quarter sessions. He was charged with “feloniously receiving nine geese that he knew to be stolen”.
Robert spends Christmas of 1890 with his new wife and young son, likely anticipating the impending trial.
A couple of weeks later on Wednesday 7th January, Robert’s session in front of the Jury took place at Preston. His charge was quashed by a verdict of ‘not guilty’.
The chairman in discharging Robert from custody advised – “To take care how he bought his next Christmas goose”.
A Victorian Christmas
Alongside the baking of the Christmas pudding, a roasted goose played an extremely important part as the Victorian centrepiece for a family’s Christmas feast. More than one Chorley family enjoyed the indulgence of the three men’s misconduct that year.
The nine geese were valued at £5, which at that time was considered a significant loss. Ralph identified four of his stolen geese by their marks and these were returned to him.
I enjoyed exploring this peculiar story set in Victorian Chorley. The winter of 1890 was published as an exceptionally cold year, inspiring quaint imaginings of a Charles Dickens conception of Christmas, with snow, working class families and the notable Christmas Goose.
Northgate Farm, is now the site of a housing estate, marked by Northgate Drive. The ‘Leigh Arms’ public house, is today the Chorley ‘Inspire Youth Zone’.