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At the start of Victoria's reign most people
lived in small towns and villages, large numbers of felons were transported
and public hangings were regularly witnessed by enormous drunken, jeering
mobs. By its end most people lived in large towns and cities, a massive
prison building project had been implemented and murderers were quietly
despatched behind closed doors.
The move to the towns created enormous health and accommodation problems in places like Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham and Gateshead where whole families made do with just one squalid room and often shared the same bed. Life in these teeming towns was brutish and assault common, disputes being swiftly settled with a few well-directed kicks and punches. A majority of offences were committed under the influence of alcohol and cases of wife-beating, petty larceny and the occasional murder filled courts throughout the old counties of Northumberland and Durham. Most of the reports of life and crime in the North-East, from Berwick to Darlington, are here published for the first time. Please join us in Northumberland and Durham... the Sinister Side. |