In which animal cruelty was described as "Mischievous habits"

Saturday July 25th 1936

"BOYS IN TROUBLE - MISCHIEVOUS HABITS AT GRANTHAM"

What, at first read, looks like a campaign of fairly innocuous mischief making from local boys has a much darker tone to it when all the details are read. One of the things that really strikes me when reading through the sentences passed down by the magistrates in Grantham in the period 1919-1945 was just how inconsistent the punishments were. For some fairly minor infringements (today), such as theft of a coat, three months of hard labour were given. For this case, a much lighter tariff.

Four boys aged between eight and twelve went on a wild rampage of criminal behaviour between the 22nd of June 1936 and the 25th of June 1936. First, they attacked the Kings School playing fields at Grantham, doing damage to rugby posts, a "ball catcher" (I think this is a kind of large bowed wooden structure in which cricket balls are thrown to practice catching), and football crossbars dismantled in order that the boys could play what is called here "hitling", which is described as a kind of see-saw game. I can't find any references to the game online, so if any reader has any more details, please contact us so that I can describe it more accurately!

Having caused this damage, the boys went to Manthorpe Road, where they went to the duck pond of Mr Burrows. He had 60 ducklings, all of which had been thrown into the pond by the boys "to see if they would swim". In the majority of cases they didn't, and all but 25 of the ducklings had been killed, in what seems to me to be a case of animal cruelty.

They then went on to raid a gas meter in the basement of 24 North Parade Grantham, where the commotion of their criminality allowed the home owner, Mr Dickenson, to be able to apprehend one of the boys as they ran from the scene of their nefarious activity. Detective Bramhall interviewed the unfortunate miscreant, and the other boys were interviewed in the presence of their parents, where each blamed the other for the acts.

Having listened to the case, the magistrates were convinced of their guilt, telling the parents, "...look after the children better, or something serious will happen". Having taken all of this into account, each child was fined 5d.

IN OTHER NEWS: The Art Master of the Central School, Grantham, was appointed as the headmaster of a school in Waterford in "The Irish Free State"

ADVERT OF THE WEEK: L.N.E.R. Half day excursions - to Cleethorpes, Peterborough, Newark, Retford or Doncaster.