The Camborne Riots of 1873: Part One

Reading time: 20 minutes

Miners and tinners were archetypal male rioters, yet also it is notorious that whole communities shared in their movements…

~ E. P. Thompson, Customs in Common, Penguin, 1991, p310

Town and Police

Camborne in 1873 was a mining boomtown, the Wild West minus guns and Hollywood glamour. Between 1841 and 1871, its population expanded dramatically by 5,000, making a total population of just under 15,000 by 1873. To illustrate the lack of growth since, Camborne’s population was only 20,000 in 2011¹.

Camborne looked very different in 1873. There was no library, just a terrace of Georgian houses:

There was no Camborne School of Mines. No Fire Station. No fountain in Commercial Square. No Recreation Ground. No rugby club. No statue of Trevithick. But lots of mines:

And, you might think, lots of work. In the 1850s this was true, with around 50,000 miners employed underground in Cornwall. However, by the early 1870s mining was on the verge of collapse, which resulted in the great years of Cornish emigration³.

Not only were the mines slowly closing and the jobs drying up, but the nature of the work was incredibly hazardous and poorly paid. The life expectancy of a miner in this era was 45 years, chest complaints and lung disease causing 50% of deaths. Cornwall’s infant mortality was horrifying: 64% of males and 45% of females died before the age of 5⁴.

The miners may have suffered, but the Captains and Adventurers profited handsomely. Josiah Thomas, a Wesleyan preacher and Captain of Dolcoath Mine, had a workforce with no choice but to defecate in the shafts⁵. Thomas’ fine place of residence was Tregenna House, on Pendarves Road:

So, Camborne in 1873. Disparities of wealth. Overcrowding. Economic uncertainty. Unemployment on the rise. Low life-expectancy. High infant mortality. Poor sanitation, housing, and diet, especially amongst the working classes. Dangerous, life-threatening conditions in the mines. Disease. Low wages. Illiteracy. Hard men and hard women, living hard lives. Methodists and prostitutes. Mansions and slums. Taverns and chapels. Hard drinkers and temperance unions. Hellfire preachers and fistfights.

Now, all this Wild West town needs is a good lawman to clean it up…

An established police presence in Camborne at this time was still an unwelcome novelty. Although from 1835 Penzance Borough Police Force had its HQ at Camborne, it only had seven officers to cover such a vast area. It wasn’t until the forming of Cornwall County Constabulary in 1857 (Penzance Borough HQ remaining in Moor Street) that a more visible police presence became apparent⁶.

The new officers of law enforcement had it tough. Instead of preventing crime, their presence, especially in rural areas, seemed to incite it. Seen as a provocative symbol of authoritarian oppression, they were often attacked and assaulted by gangs of locals. Subsequently, the recruits who were able to make a decent fist of this occupation came from the same school of hard knocks as their tormentors, and patrolling armed with staves and coshes became the norm. Periodically, these raw policemen would overreach their new-found authority, taking out their frustrations on suspects in custody with the odd beating⁷.

In 1873 Camborne’s Superintendent was Alfred Stephens. It’s hard to form a positive view of this man, as all the contemporary ‘papers are unanimously negative concerning his character. He was noted as an

…exceptional officer in his arrogance and tyranny…a great coward…

West Briton, October 16 1873, p4

His men received a pretty bad press too. The Camborne force were noted as taking “arbitrary, severe, and frequently illegal action” concerning suspects⁸. Stephens and his force were, by the early 1870s, figures of

…popular animosity…

Lakes Falmouth Packet, October 11 1873, p1

…throughout the town. For example, in 1872 two miners were convicted of assaulting Camborne’s policemen and endured sentences on the treadmill⁹.

Tensions were heightened in late September and early October 1873. A married woman of Stray Park Lane, Elizabeth Bennetts, had been arrested on suspicion of theft and incarcerated for over a week. She was found not guilty and released from Moor Street, to much fanfare and cheering, on Friday October 3.

Such was her alleged mistreatment at the hands of Stephens and his men, that the Chief Constable of Cornwall, Colonel Walter Gilbert, heard her complaints in person¹⁰. What is beyond doubt is that Stephens had arrested her on minimal evidence, pressurised the lawyers into denying Bennetts bail (though she was pregnant), and refused to provide a conveyance to transport the unwell prisoner from gaol to court, a distance of half a mile¹¹.

But word got round that worse had befallen Bennetts in Moor Street, including the rumour that she had been stripped naked in Stephens’ presence. Such tales fell on sympathetic, and increasingly angry, ears:

No story to discredit the police is too absurd to obtain belief, and the inference is that this exceptional state of feeling could not have been created without a good deal of provocation.

Royal Cornwall Gazette, October 11 1873, p8

(Public sympathy has a brief shelf-life. In 1875, and now living in Redruth, a mob burned Mrs Bennetts’ effigy in Bullers Terrace after stories abounded of her involvement with another man¹².)

Suddenly Camborne was on a short fuse.

Enter James and Joseph Bawden.

Saturday night’s alright…

James was 30, hard of hearing, with a light beard, scarred forearms and a curious blue spot on his forehead. Joseph was 26, and similarly scarred. They came from Relubbus, and both were miners¹³. In Camborne, they lived on Trelowarren Street. It was noted of them that they bore

…good characters…are a little rough in speech, but [are]…decent, honest, hard-working fellows – just the sort of men who can be easily led but are hard to drive…

Cornish Telegraph, October 15 1873, p2-3

The Bawdens were also street-fighters par excellence. James may very well have been the same James Bawden who was fined in 1870 for “drunk and riotous” behaviour in Camborne’s streets¹⁴.

It’s around 7pm, Saturday October 4, 1873. PC 61 James Osborne is jostled (whether this was deliberate, accidental, or down to inebriation is unclear) by James Bawden in Market Street. Words are exchanged, and Bawden makes another lunge for Osborne, who then tries to grab Bawden in turn. Bawden, keyed up, declares that

No damned policeman would take him into custody…

West Briton, October 9 1873, p4

At this moment, seemingly from nowhere, Joseph Bawden appears, and the numbers are made even by the arrival of PC 51 John Harris. The four men square up…

It didn’t last long. James put Osborne on the deck with one hit, leaving Joseph to administer the prone officer a few kicks for good measure. Harris took such a hiding he was later carried to the White Hart pub for treatment.

Osborne would later state in court that the Bawdens were spirited away from the long arm of the law by 400-500 raucous townspeople. To be a policeman thwarted in your duty by half a legion of angry locals sounds better than being savagely beaten by two unarmed miners. Lest we forget, both Harris and Osborne would have carried cudgels of some sort, and would have surely used them, had the Bawdens been accommodating¹⁵.

(The brothers’ version of events is unrecorded.)

Round one to James and Joseph.

10.30pm. Osborne, with a still-groggy Harris, go to the Bawdens’ house on Trelowarren. And they’ve brought their colleagues: PCs 4 Martin Burton, 136 Francis Bartlett, and 21 John Nicholls. The brothers fight like wildcats.

Osborne was scat down with yet another roundhouse right, and Bartlett wore one on the face as well before being ferociously bitten. Harris, who must have been praying for the night to end, was booted repeatedly in the bowels. Even when the brothers are finally handcuffed, he is knocked into the gutter several more times, and declared unfit for duty for several days¹⁶.

It must have been one hell of a fight.

…a very strong sentiment…

Over the Sunday and Monday, in their cells on Moor Street, the Bawdens were given a good going-over.

As much as Osborne and Harris would later testify that, on entering the station the brothers injured themselves whilst yet again attacking the officers¹⁷, others disagreed.

Anthony Cock, a resident on Moor Street and a man of impeccable honesty¹⁸, stated he saw the brothers being hit with staves as they were being manhandled into the station. He and others testified to hearing cries of

Give it to the b_____s!

Cornish Telegraph, October 15 1873, p2-3

…later emanating from the vicinity of the cells, accompanied by the grisly sound of wood striking flesh.

Word travelled round town of the supposed police brutality, and rapidly roused

…a very strong sentiment against the county force…

Cornish Telegraph, October 8 1873, p2

Truth be told, sentiments had been running that way for some time.

The date for the Bawdens’ hearing was set.

Tuesday, October 7, 1873

11am. Three thousand people lined the roads from Moor Street, to Trelowarren Street, and down to the Town Hall, where the hearing was to be held. If Camborne’s total population in 1873 was around 15,000, then a fifth of its inhabitants were out that morning. And this was no peaceful protest. These people were armed with whatever came to hand. All the shops in this part of town were closed and boarded up¹⁹.

The hearing had originally been set for Monday 6th, in Redruth. However, before the Bawdens and their escorts could depart, a large and intimidating crowd had gathered on Moor Street, forcing the officers and their charges to retreat. William Bickford-Smith, local magistrate and JP for Cornwall, wisely diffused the situation, resetting the trial for Tuesday²⁰.

It was at this point that the authorities realised something was badly wrong. Colonel Walter Gilbert was notified, strings were pulled, and by Monday night between 30-50 extra policemen were present in Camborne²¹.

Trouble was brewing. And it’s not even high noon.

The Bawdens’ conveyance, flanked by an escort of 30 officers, endured a gauntlet of shouts and abuse from the crowd as it gingerly made its way to the Town Hall. The reinforcements must have wondered what they’d been drafted in for²².

Somehow, the majority of this party entered the Town Hall, yet a dozen or so policemen were left on guard outside. What they’d done to deserve this is anyone’s guess.

The crowd let them have it, constantly heaving rocks and stones their way. PC 29, Sgt Edward Currah, was one of the men guarding the doors. He testified to being hit endlessly by missiles, yet curiously remarked that the crowd

…did not want to hurt strange policemen…

Cornish Telegraph, October 15 1873, p2-3

The mob’s true hit-list featured the detested members of the Camborne force: Stephens, Bartlett, Osborne, Burton, Nicholls. Oh, and John Harris, of course.

He arrived to give his statement by a separate carriage and, as soon as he alighted, was savagely attacked by an elderly woman with her umbrella²³. (I always picture the offending brolly to have a handle shaped like a duck’s head.)

Before the wretched Harris was laid low yet again, he was rescued by Bickford-Smith, who took a stone over the eye for his troubles. Richard Holloway, counsel for the prosecution and therefore a highly unpopular man, was another target for a hail of rocks²⁴.

The situation, then, whilst the trial was in progress, was deteriorating. The crowd was becoming increasingly emboldened. Outside the Town Hall, remarked one commentator, the scene was like a

…seething of the cauldron soon to boil over…

Cornish Telegraph, October 15 1873, p2-3

Another journalist noted that the

…case lasted for three hours and a half, and during the whole of this time the Market Place was so full of people that ingress to and egress from the magistrates’ hall were exceedingly difficult. Indeed, it was very dangerous to be anywhere near, for stones were thrown and sticks used with great freedom…

Royal Cornwall Gazette, October 11 1873, p8

As the trial drew to a conclusion, things weren’t looking good for the Bawden brothers. Despite various testimonies in their favour, and Anthony Cock’s insistence that they’d been assaulted inside Moor Street station²⁵, the crowd sensed an unfavourable outcome. Many miners present, in desperation,

…contemplated a rescue…

West Briton, October 9 1873, p4

Was the Town Hall stormed like a Cornish Bastille, the Bawdens set at liberty, and the authorities thoroughly routed?

Find out by clicking here…

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References

1. Source: https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CON/Camborne#Population
2. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camborne
3. Joanna Thomas, Lost Cornwall: Cornwall’s Lost Heritage. Birlinn, 2007, p67-69 (employment figure from p55); John Rowe, Cornwall in the Age of the Industrial Revolution, Second revised edition, Cornish Hillside Publications, 1993, p305-326; Allen Buckley, The Story of Mining in Cornwall, Cornwall Editions, 2007, p118-131.
4. John Rowe, Cornwall in the Age of the Industrial Revolution, Second revised edition, Cornish Hillside Publications, 1993, p312-3.
5. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolcoath_mine
6. Ken Searle, One and All: A History of Policing in Cornwall: the Cornwall Constabulary, 1857-1967 Halsgrove, 2005, p13-14.
7. Clive Emsley, The Great British Bobby: a History of British Policing from the 18th Century to Present. Quercus, 2009, p50-6, 84-90.
8. West Briton, October 16 1873, p4.
9. Source: All Cornwall, England, Bodmin Gaol Records, 1821-1899, ref AD 1676/4/10. From Ancestry.
10. Royal Cornwall Gazette, October 18 1873, p4-5.
11. West Briton, October 16 1873, p4.
12. Cornish Telegraph, May 5 1875, p4. For more on the Cornish cult of effigy burning, see my article here: https://cornishstory.com/2022/07/02/effigy-burning-in-nineteenth-century-cornwall/
13. The Bawdens’ descriptions are from: Cornwall, England, Bodmin Gaol Records, 1821-1899, Reg. #12, Vol. no. AD1676/4/11, Ancestry.
14. West Briton, January 20 1870, p5.
15. West Briton, October 9 1873, p4.
16. West Briton, October 9 1873, p4; Cornish Telegraph, October 15 1873, p2-3.
17. West Briton, October 9 1873, p4; Cornish Telegraph, October 15 1873, p2-3.
18. 1871 census. The Royal Cornwall Gazette of October 11 1873 (p8) emphasises Cock’s trustworthy character.
19. Cornish Telegraph, October 8 1873, p2; West Briton, October 9 1873, p4.
20. Cornish Telegraph, October 8 1873, p2.
21. West Briton, October 9 1873, p4.
22. Cornish Telegraph, October 8 1873, p2; West Briton, October 9 1873, p4.
23. Cornish Telegraph, October 15 1873, p2-3.
24. West Briton, October 9 1873, p4.
25. While Cock’s claims caused a sensation, Supt. Stephens’s evidence was thrown out on a technicality. He refused to leave the court when all the witnesses were ordered out, and the defence quickly protested against his evidence being taken. After some “smart repartee” between the opposing lawyers, Stephens, and his statement, was dismissed. Royal Cornwall Gazette, October 11 1873, p8.