Hop bine and pole theft (1863)

Post date: Mar 27, 2013 3:35:7 PM

Extract from Maidstone Telegraph, 10th October 1863.

WATERINGBURY. —

At the Malling petty sessions, on Monday last, before W. Stratford, Esq, (chairman), Colonel Fletcher, and J. Savage, Esq., Caroline Jukes, a young married woman, came up to answer her bail, and pleaded guilty to stealing a quantity of hop-bine and some pieces of hop-pole, value 2d., the property of Mr. Alfred White, at Wateringbury, on the 26th Sept. Mr. White said he had no wish to press the case with severity, but it was a practice which must be put a stop to. He was in his garden at Wateringbury when he saw the prisoner taking the poles and bines. They not only suffered from depredations such as these, but their hedgrows were broken down and much injured. The prisoner was sent for three days to Maidstone prison with hard labour.