In the non-existent footsteps of the Halifax Slasher

I blogged about it two years ago, Tim Chapman's article for Strange Attractor called Haunts of the Halifax Slasher. Today Tim was generous enough to walk me around the town and show me the sites where in 1938 Halifax was gripped by 'two weeks of terror of a kind said to have been unseen since the days of Jack the Ripper', when 'women were cut with razors; right-thinking men patrolled the streets; bystanders who looked a bit odd were beaten up'.

The astonishing thing about this episode in the mill town's life was that there never was a Slasher, and the incidents were largely proven to be false, the self-inflicted wounds of fearful or attention-seeking individuals at a time of mass-panic.

The lynch-mobs searching out suspects, and venting their vengeance on innocent parties - they were real enough. Interesting to reflect on this whilst walking, unmolested, through Halifax's Asian quarter (the old mill area where many of the Slasher incidents took place) and talking about the persecutory prerogatives of the far-right in the town's current politics.

This walk took me into mental spaces I've not much visited so far on my journey - spaces of violence. Halifax is probably no different than any other town in its relationship to violence, but it has had its headlines: today we walked past the site of one of the killings by 'Yorkshire Ripper' Peter Sutcliffe in 1979. On 4 April that year he killed Josephine Whitaker (aged 19), a bank clerk, assaulting her on Savile Park Moor as she was walking home. In contrast to the unsubstantiated or hoax Slasher stories, Josephine Whitaker's murder was very real and is still, obviously, very raw.

Our walk took us down Gibbet Lane and past the celebrated gibbet, the original one possibly a millennium old, the method of execution for thieves of cloth or creatures and a precursor of the revolutionaries' guillotine. Having stopped for refreshments in the restuarant at Dean Clough, an ex-mill still massively imposing even in its current gentrified form, we then walked under North Bridge where, Tim recounted, 'On 15 August 1842, probably the largest mob ever seen in Halifax ... (thousands of) Chartist marchers [entered Halifax], ... singing Chartist hymns and the 100th Psalm: "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands." The Riot Act was read. At the height, a mob of some 25,000 people thronged the streets of Halifax.'

The Chartists were protesting for emancipation and parliamentary democracy, and also against the "cruel wars against liberty", the "unconstitutional police force"; the 1834 Poor Law; factory conditions and church taxes on Nonconformists. The march on Halifax was part of the Plug Plot, in which striking workers stopped production by removing the boiler plugs from the steam engines in their factories.

Tim quotes Ted Hughes description, "Black Halifax boiled in phosphorus". Many of the old mills and civic buildings are scrubbed up nicely today, shining in lovely light York Stone. But having had The Slasher Tour, and reflecting on Halifax's dark industrial history and current issues of integration and tentative regeneration, it's easy to understand what Hughes was seeing.

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[Great also to share some good conversational time this morning with Tony Z, in Halifax's uniquely odd and wonderful Piece Hall. Halifax - another place on these travels which made me yearn to return. Thanks, Tim and Tony.]

Comments

[Tony Zimnoch]

A Pleasure Meeting John.
I thought i knew about about my hometown but i must confess i didnt know about the "Plug Plot" (*blushes*!)
Methinks i need to speak to Tim!
Best Wishes
Tony

[Tony Zimnoch]

p.s.
John,I forgot to mention today.
Can I point you in the direction of Ralph Fox?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPfoxR.htm
Halifax's greatest author.Sadly , neglected in his hometown.........(born in the Savile Park area)

[John Davies]

Tony
I'm sure that Tim will know about the Plug Plot as he's got a great deal of interest in the Chartists and that period, however just to clarify, I actually got the info in that paragraph from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CHplug.htm.

[TimC]

Good to meet you, John. Always a pleasure to perambulate and pontificate. And Tony - I'm always up for a pint!

There was a Chartist festival just last year in Halifax, mainly commemorating local radical Ben Rushton - http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rushtonchartist/ - which included a walk around Skircoat Green and Salterhebble, the site of a pitched battle between workers and mounted soldiers. Rushton is buried in the Lister Lane cemetery that we walked past. In 1846, he led a 12,000-strong meeting at Blackstone Edge, which which is well worth taking in as you cross the Pennines. That's also where Daniel Defoe had conniptions as he crossed over from Rochdale in a blizzard.

I did mention Ralph Fox in the Strange Attractor piece - his only monument is a plaque on a bench at Bull Green, but I missed that out on the walk yesterday.

[paddy]

I've just com in on this leg (hopping) of your journey which Tony highlited on hid site.
A chilling saunter.
I remember the 'Yorkshire Ripper' story very well; something at the time I found hard to take in.
Attention-seeking (The Slasher Tour) was simpler in the old days (he says gilibly).
The Gibbet for thives and murders and the deterrence of potential criminals. I checked it out, but I got no exact info. about how it works, which is neither here or there, but you've got me interested.
The Chartists sound like what the labour party used to be. Now it's "Make a joyful noise unto the lord, (America) all ye lands," for worse
social and economic conditions for working people.
Fantastic! I wish you the very best to you and fare thee well.
Y;-) Paddy

[Tony Zimnoch]

Yea Tim !A Pint in The Big 6 sometime would go down well!

[Tony Zimnoch]

By The Way, all Ralph Fox,s books are long out of Print.But i do have a copy of "THE NOVEL AND THE PEOPLE" if anybody wants to borrow?
nb the copy was first sold at "THE NEWINGTON BOOKSHOP,27 NEWINGTON,L'POOL" and has an inscription "From Ron.Xmas 1944".

[John Davies]

Ah, the Newington Bookshop, a lovely little shop sadly gone the way of Ralph Fox and the Chartists - but the spirit and purpose of all these is still alive thankfully at my favourite bookshop (and I've not found one, yet, to compare with it on my travels), News from Nowhere [ http://www.newsfromnowhere.org.uk/index.php ]