December 19th 1881 – Found Drowned On Saturday morning the dead body of Hugh Taylor, quarryman of Stacksteads was found dead in the Irwell at Tunstead. On his way home he had to cross the river where it was unfenced. The previous night he had been in the public house and in the storm and darkness had fell into the river which was swollen by melting snow. Bacup Times  March 3rd  1900 Narrow Escape At Leewood Quarries On Saturday afternoon a quarryman named Thomas Clynnes, of Rockliffe Bacup, whilst following his occupation had a miraculous escape from death. He was standing upon a huge piece of rock which he had been working, when he stepped to the side to throw some dirt, the stone tilted over and both he and the rock fell into the bottom of  the quarry, Fortunately the stone did not fall upon him or death would have been certain.     March 10th 1894 – Fatal Accident at Stacksteads A man named Richard Tattersall, mule overlooker in a cotton mill, living at 26 Booth Road, Stacksteads, on Wednesday from the effects of a fall he sustained on the 3rd instant.. He was in the act of descending the stairs of the Stacksteads Working Mens Club, when he missed his footing and fell headlong to the bottom fracturing the base of his skull. He was sixty four years of age and was prone to dizzy spells one of which it is surmised was responsible for his fall. January 24^th 1898 – Release of Waite the Bacup Murderer John Waite, the Bacup murderer, was released from Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, on Thursday last after serving a little over twelve years in penal servitude. It will be remembered that Waite murdered his wife, at Smelt, Bacup on June 4^th 1886, by cutting her throat with a bread knife. After committing the dreadful deed he walked down to the residence of P.C. Low in Rochdale Road, and gave himself up. He made a full confession of his guilt both at the coroner’s inquest, and at the Manchester Assizes, and on the 14^th July 1886, he was sentenced to death. A petition in favour of his reprieve was signed exclusively in Bacup and district, and the death sentence was commuted to one of penal servitude.  He has spent the bulk of his term at Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, and was released on Thursday last, and handed over to the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society. He came straight to Bacup to make inquiries after his three children, and has since left the district again. Bacup Times November 1873 A young man named Charles Beet was brought before the magistrates at Burnley charged with highway robbery. He was a servant at the Roebuck Inn, Portsmouth, and John Earnshaw of Bacup called at the house and had a glass of beer in the kitchen. Whilst there and in the presence of the prisoner, he pulled his purse out and counted his money. He then asked the prisoner whether it would be best for him to go to Bacup buy the Delph or by the Greens road, and the prisoner advised him to take the latter. He did so and had not gone far when the prisoner overtook him, and demanded his money and threatened to shoot him if he did not. He took the purse which contained £9. 12s 6d. Mr Earnshaw gave information to the police and in the course of the next day the prisoner was apprehended, and on being searched the purse was found tied in his shirt with the contents untouched. He was committed to take his trial at the Liverpool assizes. Bacup Times  November 18th 1944 Nazis Recaptured In Rossendale HIDING IN DISUSED PIG-STY ON MOORS Two of the three German prisoners who escaped from a camp at Bury on Saturday were recaptured on Tuesday morning at Haslingden. They were hiding in a disused pig-sty on the moors at Grane Heights the sharpness of Mr. J.T Nutter, Heights End Farm, Pickups Bank, led to their recapture. "I was out on the moors at 9.30am " said Mr Nutter " and left my pony tied up in a shippon belonging to a disused farm while I went over the moors. When I came back I noticed smoke coming from a building. "Then a man came out and began talking to me" .He seemed about 28 and said he was a pole. Among the questions he asked me was about the situation of aerodromes. I twigged who he was and came away with my pony, and found Ernest Roundell, a shepherd, who works for me and told him to keep his eye on the man and not go away. "I went to a telephone and rang up the Haslingden police, and in half and hour they came and got the two men, the one I had seen and another that must have been inside the building. The man I had seen was in civilian clothes and wore a green trilby hat. The other was in air force clothing. They had travelled about 12 miles from Bury, a third man who had escaped with them was recaptured on Sunday. Beer and Spirits were on sale at 1914- 1918 prices to veteran members of Bacup British Legion Club on Monday 11th November 1968. To mark the 50th anniversary of the ending of the First World War. The club has seven members who are veterans of that war, and six of them were present as special guests of the club. Four of them brought their wives, and they were able to buy beer at a penny a pint and spirits at two pence a tot. Other members of the club were able to buy beer at one shilling a pint, and not surprisingly there was a packed house. The veterans of the First World War were Mr Wilf, Keeble, Mr P Herbert, Mr J R Ashworth, Mr H Williams, Mr T Clegg, and Mr Arthur Quinton, who is a former licensee of the Hare and Hounds public house at Stacksteads. Unable to be present owing to ill health was Mr Wilf Hall.   November 11th 1968 January 12^th 1867 – An Unwelcome New Year Gift About three o’clock Tuesday morning a couple of men, knocked at the door of Police Constable Turner’s house in Rochdale Road. On opening the door the officer received a blow to the face which was quickly followed by another. He shut the door to as quickly as possible, at which point his windows were smashed. He has been stationed in Bacup for only a short time but appears to have been thoroughly detested in the place where he lived previously mainly because of his meddling ways. On leaving Todmorden to come to Bacup, his effigy was publicly burnt before his door. The police authorities have now transferred him to Manchester the place apparently being too hot to hold him. June 29^th 1898 – The Oldest Volunteer The following letter from Col Munn, who is well known in the Rossendale Valley, has recently appeared in the London Evening News. In the Evening News of June 4^th, a paragraph appeared relating to Sergeant Bancroft, of the 3^rd Battalion Cheshire Volunteers, stating that he is the oldest volunteer in England. This may be, and no doubt, is true if it refers to his age, but certainly not as to priority or continuous service.  Sergeant Bancroft was sworn in on October 9^th 1862, and his service is undoubtedly a most meritorious one. May I state however, that I was sworn in June 25^th  1859, and claim to be the oldest officer living in England in point of date, and secondly, that I swore in Col. Thomas Mitchell now of Cannizaro, Wimbledon, on June 26^th, 1859, when he joined the company I had just raised and that he is still on active duty in command of the battalion of which I was first lieutenant colonel. May I add that, whereas the paragraph goes on to state that Sergeant Bancroft has attended camps ever since their introduction in 1871, my battalion was encamped at Lytham for a week in 1863, and its first company was billeted at Fleetwood for four days in November 1859.Everyone must admire the service of Sergeant Bancroft but the prestige of my old battalion is very dear to me, and must be my excuse for this letter. Robert Munn. Late Lieutenant Colonel, 2^nd Volunteer Battalion. East Lancashire Regt. February 16th 1884 – Alderman Found Drowned Mr James Hardman, Alderman, was found drowned in a pond near to his mill on Friday. The deceased was head of the firm Hardman Brothers Spinners and manufacturers and Stone Merchants. It is reported in October last he was waylaid and robbed and since then has suffered from depression. December 19th 1883 – Alleged Extraordinary Theft On Tuesday morning at Bacup, Ellen Catley, a domestic servant, was charged with stealing jewellery of the value of £30.00 from her employer Mr James Barcroft of Edgeside Hall, Newchurch. On Monday the prisoner rushed breathlessly into her mistress’s room, and apparently fainted after declaring that a man had threatened to shoot her, and had ransacked the room. The jewellery was found afterwards in the prisoner’s box. She was remanded for trial.