Old pubs gather history like magnets gather iron filings. Walk past any pub and you walk past a repository of stories of good and evil, happiness and despair. Better still walk into any pub and settle down with an old newspaper and a pint and invite the past to join you. Take, for example, the Crown Hotel on Lightcliffe Road, just north of Brighouse. The date is the 9th October 1905 and criminal misdeeds are afoot.
Bradford Labourer Committed For Trial
At Brighouse, to-day, Edward Hustler (27), a labourer, of Bradford, was brought up in custody, charged with having committed robberies at two Brighouse hotels.
Inspector Stancliffe said that on Monday evening last, a silver watch was stolen from a bedroom the Albion Inn, Lane Head, Brighouse. The watch was found in the prisoner’s possession when he was apprehended Bradford on Wednesday last. The same evening, a bag containing £50 in money was stolen from a drawer in a bedroom at the Crown Hotel, the property of Mr. J. W. B. Clarkson, the landlord. Prisoner was commit ted for trial the next Quarter Sessions.
And as you drink your pint you can reflect on the fate of poor Edward Hustler and the good fortunes of the landlord and his £50.
I wonder if Hustler (an apt name) was committed to the assizes. I love the word assizes - conjures up images of hanging judges.
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