Man’s Ear Bit Off In A Brawl – Nottingham Journal – Friday 22 April 1864
United Kingdom Hotel, Station Road, Methley
On Wednesday, at the Wakefield courthouse, before Dr. Kendell, a collier named Henry Wright, was charged with having, on the 16th of April at Methley, bit off the ear of another collier, named Alfred Howdan. Mr Mander was for the prosecution, and Mr. Gill for the defence.
It appeared that the parties were on Saturday, at the United Kingdom Hotel, Methley, and that they began a fight, in the course of which, the prisoner bit off one of the prosecutor’s ears.
The defence was that the prosecutor first began to bite, and the prisoner seized the ear to relieve himself, and that other parties who were then in the hotel pulled the prosecutor from the top of the prisoner, which act caused the ear to be pulled off without the prisoner having intended any such thing.
The prosecutor recommended the prisoner to the mercy Of the Court, and the other witnesses for the prosecution gave him a good general character. Mr. Gill, therefore, under the circumstances, (and as the prisoner has a wife and seven children) asked the Magistrate to deal with case summarily, but Dr. Kendell declined, and committed the prisoner for trial at the sessions, though be admitted him to bail.
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NOTTINGHAM JOURNAL
Nottingham’s first newspaper was probably The Weekly Courant, published by William Ayscough in August, 1712. It was followed by The Nottingham Post in 1716. In 1723 Ayscough took over the Post and later that year he published The Nottingham Weekly Courant. The Courant lasted until 1769, when Samuel Cresswell bought it and in 1787 changed its name to The Nottingham Journal.
In 1953 the Guardian Journal was formed by a merger of the Nottingham Guardian and Nottingham Journal. The Guardian Journal lasted until 1973.
Founded: 1787