As The Battle of The Somme Looms......

[leigh kitchen]

June 1916, & while the British army prepares for the Battle of The Somme, back home in Peterborough the fight aganst crime continued - person or persons unknown having maliciously and wilfully damaged the grass and trespassed on a field in Dogsthorpe Road.

Reward, 1 guinea (that's ?1.05 in modern stuff) is offered (along with a free pardon to any accomplice who turns King's evidence against his co-offnder / offenders.

Half the reward is to be paid by the owner of the field, Mr. H. C. Lilley, the other by Mr. J. Blake, Treasurer of The Liberty of Peterborough Association for the Prosecution of Felons and Protection of Property.

The poster, a fraction shorter & wider than A4 size, is pasted to a thn piece of wood & hung by a cord mou

Edited April 16, 2009 by leigh kitchen

[Tony]

1 guinea reward! The damage must have been tremendous for a reward that high.

I wonder if a bunch of tanks were driven over the field.

Where did you find the poster, at work?

Tony

[leigh kitchen]

The poster was in a now defunct antique centre, along with a similar one for a 1906 broken window. The solictors firm are still in Peterborough although the printers isn't.

I have a few similar posters from the 1800's.

The rewards - in 1906, 1/2 guinea was offered re a broken window, 1839, 5 guineas was offered re theft of a sheep, 1823, ?25 re shooting a servant during the commission of burglay, some hefty sums there for the times.