SIX STRIPES EACH, EXETER, 1876.

In August 1876:

"SYDNEY BOWDEN, WILLIAM BOWDEN, and WILLIAM SPARKS, three lads, the eldest being ten, living in Well-lane, were summoned for having placed stones on the rails on the incline between Lion's Holt and the tunnel.

"P. C. Leeworthy stated that about eight o'clock the previous evening he was on the railway bridge in Lion's Holt, and therefrom saw the lads picking up stones between the rails and placing them on the metals  On seeing him the eldest lad, William Bowden, knocked the stones off the metals and ran away.

"Mrs Sparkes said her child only placed pins on the metals, and produced some that had been crushed by the train,  The mother of the Bowdens said she had thrashed her boys.

"The parents reluctantly consented to have the childen whipped, and they were put behind to receive six stripes each.

"Mr. Rogers, who appeared on behalf of the Company, said that if the stones had been large they would have thrown the engine off the metals as it was a very steep incline, but as the defendants were young the Company were willing to leave the matter with the Magistrates"

The eldest of these boys, William Bowden, was ten!  How young, for humanity's sake!, were the others?  Their tender age did not spare them six stripes each in the cells behind the Exeter Guildhall.... and the Bowden boys, perhaps, were being thrashed for a second time!

When I wa s a little boy, in Mossley Hill, we liked to bend halfpennies by putting them on the line.  It was strictly forbidden.  I don't remember any thrashings but this was a long lifetime later.  

One doesn't often see therefrom these days.  Wherefore!?

Does anyone still speak of the metals of the track?

Source: The Exeter Flying Post, 30th August 1876.