MURDER AT THE BAY HORSE, LANGCLIFFE
In 1871, Christopher Wright was a beer keeper at the sign of the Bay Horse. He was 75 and had lost his right arm. He lived with his wife and two granddaughters, Agnes and Annie Atkinson. Agnes was a servant and Annie occasionally assisted in the beer house. On the eighth of January, some navvies from the Settle-Carlisle construction gangs were drinking in the beer house. Ellis Parker, (sometimes known as Nelson), arrived with his mate Tom. Ellis and Tom didn’t order any beer but got their drink from the others. It was a custom amongst the navvies to buy a quantity of ale and then pass round ‘a lot’, a small glass, which they filled from the big pot. They got ‘fresh’ but not drunk. At about eleven o’clock when the landlord called closing time, Ellis moved with the others to the door and let them all out except Tom. He closed the door and stood with his back to it. Then he and Tom moved into the house. Mrs Wright demanded to know what they were doing. She offered them sixpence if they would go. Ellis swore he would go, " as true as God in Heaven", but took the sixpence and still refused to go. He then demanded a gallon of ale and asked Kit or Agnes to fill it. They refused to do this and asked him to go repeatedly. Ellis and Tom stayed on.
At about twelve o’clock, Annie Atkinson was sent to get a constable, Christopher Jackson. Unfortunately the constable had been moved to another post the previous week and Langcliffe was without a police officer. Agnes and Peter Smith, a friend of Agnes who had been waiting outside, went to Settle in search of a constable. They returned without finding one and joined Christopher, his wife, Annie and an Irish boy in the kitchen. Agnes told her grandmother that the police were coming. Ellis shouted, ‘"If three came I’d master them all" and " if six policemen came I’d punch their bloody brains out". Ellis then demanded some supper saying that he knew Mrs Wright had some cheese. He bolted the door and said he was ‘Champion of London ‘ and he would let them see who was landlord of the house.
Christopher protested, "I will have my door open", and went to pull the bolt. His wife followed with a candle. Ellis pushed Christopher away and knocked Mrs Wright against a partition which cut her arm. Christopher again tried to pull the bolt but was knocked down onto the flagged floor He was kicked and punched repeatedly then dragged through the house and thrown down to the floor hitting his head on the long settle. His wife ran from the house but was brought back by Annie and Mr Smith. Christopher called ,"Lord have mercy on me, Agnes, you won’t see me killed". Agnes went to lift Christopher’s head and Ellis threatened to "dash her bloody brains out if she didn’t let him alone"; "let the old bugger suffer". Agnes and Mr Smith lifted Christopher and took him to his chair in the kitchen. He cried out and complained of the pain in his back. Ellis laughed and jeered, "he’s makin’ it", and put his arm in a sling to mock him. At four in the morning Christopher dragged himself to his bed. At five o’clock, Ellis and his mate left of their own accord.
Dr Altham was called later in the day and tended Christopher until he died, almost a week later. According to the post mortem, the cause of death was injury to the brain and kidneys and general shock to the system.
Ellis was apprehended by William Taylor, a police constable from Settle on the ninth of January. Agnes accompanied the constable and pointed out Ellis. Ellis was sleeping in a railway hut at Willywood. Ellis was wearing clogs with iron rims. Ellis claimed he had been in bed and then said ‘He struck me first’. The constable took Ellis to Christopher Wright’s house where Agnes and Annie identified him. He was then taken to the lock-up at Settle. After the inquest on the seventeenth of January, Ellis was charged with the murder and manslaughter of Christopher Wright. He said, " It’s a bad job".
Ellis Parker appeared before the local magistrates, Mr John Birkbek and the Rev. H.J. Swale, on Tuesday the tenth of January. He was remanded until the following Monday. Christopher Wright died from his injuries on that Monday and Ellis Parker was then committed for trial at the West Riding Assizes.
His case was heard at the West Riding Spring Assizes before Justice Brett. In his summing up the judge said, "the prisoner’s conduct was as great an outrage as I have heard for many years. I cannot sufficiently express the contempt I feel for the mode in which he (the prisoner) had behaved himself on that night. It has been asserted that his conduct has been exaggerated, but having looked into the depositions I see no reason to think that was so. If he had used weapons, there could not be the least doubt but he would have been found guilty of a murder for which there would have been no forgiveness, and his life would have been forfeited. But because he had not used a weapon people thought it right not to charge him with murder." The sentence was "penal servitude for five years."
The licence of the Bay Horse was revoked although one suspects that it continued to sell beer until the early years of this century when it was a shoe shop at the front and a selling–out shop at the back. It was referred to locally as the Pig and Whistle. The old Inn is now a private house.
Author Mary Slater
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