South Yorkshire Times – Friday 27 October 1933
Street Fights
Mexboro’ & Denaby Cases
Several cases of fighting on the highway were heard at Doncaster on Tuesday.
A Swinton miner, William Henry Wood, and a Mexborough miner, John William Riley, appeared for fighting at Mexborough on September 30th. P.c. Wordsworth said he found the two men fighting in the middle of a crowd of 150 persons in Doncaster Road at 10-20 p.m. Riley said they were having “a bit of a talk” when a sudden blow on the chest knocked him to the ground.
In a letter, Wood stated he fought in self-defence. They were each fined 10s.
Father and son, Joseph Henry Ball and Harry Ball, Barnburgh Street, Denaby, were, it was alleged by P.c. McLeod, having a fight near their home, and so many people gathered that the street was completely blocked. The father suffered from a blow on the head which bled severely, and the son had stripped to the waist. The father went into the house immediately they were parted by the constable, but it took over half an hour’s persuasion to get the son into the house. Both men had had some drink, and the son when charged said, “You would do the same if your mother was being knocked about.”
The father said his son hit him on the head with a bottle, and after the fight he had to go to hospital. The father, who had 25 previous convictions, was fined £1, and the son 10s.
Another fight at Mexborough on October 2nd resulted in Ernest Phillips and his son, John Phillips, along with Campbell Walker, being summoned. P.c. Snashall said at 10-25 p.m. on October 2nd he was with Inspector Redfern at Barker’s Corner when he heard continuous shouting from a hundred yards down main street. On going to the place he found a crowd round the three men, who were fighting. Walker was stripped to the waist, John Phillips had his coat off, and Ernest Phillips was kicking Campbell, not using his fists.
Walker’s defence was that he was stripped because he had been building a wireless set. He was standing near the door of his home when his younger brother came up and said Phillips had attacked his father down the street. He rushed to the place and immediately he arrived the Phillips’ set about him. He had to fight in self-defence, and for his father.
Inspector Redfern: There has been some trouble between your father and the elder Phillips because of Phillips’ association with your mother?—Yes, he has broken our family up.
John Phillips said Walker hit him first. He was knocked down.
Inspector Redfern: Is it not a fact that you went down there with your father for the purpose of making trouble with the Walker family?—No.
Ernest Phillips said he and his son left the Bull Head and went to Main Street to see that the headquarters of the unemployed workers’ movement, of which he was secretary, was locked. “Several times in the last four years I have been attacked by Walker’s father. There is no truth in what they say about myself and Mrs. Walker. I was pleased to see the police come. I had a pair of glasses broken.”
Phillips called Kenneth Whaley, 58, Cowper Road, Mexborough, who said Walker’s father caused the trouble that night.
The Chairman (Mr. M. L. Nokes), fining the Phillips’ £1 each and Walker 10s., said the magistrates were of opinion that the Phillips’ were the aggressors.
Ernest Phillips asked the magistrates to bind them over for a year, but the Bench refused.