Town Crier
HISTORICAL REFERENCE TO KIDSGROVE TOWN CRIER

Staffordshire Sentinel 24th June 1871.  ‘Kidsgrove.  The Town Crier advertised a sale of furniture to be held in the yard outside the Swan Inn.  There was a large crowd’.

Staffs Sentinel 23rd September 1871.  ‘The Town Crier advised miners to go to work by order of Mr Brown, the Miner’s Agent.  Not long after this the bellman came round again advising of a miner’s meeting to be held at Goldenhill’.

Staffs Sentinel 21st October 1871.  Headline ‘George Waddups is the new Kidsgrove Town Crier’.

Although the news account reports that there were actually two rival Town Criers, the other being Paul Goldstraw.  The Sentinel reported  ‘they’ve been at it again’.  i.e. They’d been fighting.  Paul Goldstraw is said to have put a fist in his rival’s face, saying – ‘You Ferrian old ……., if I was not bound over, I would put the bell down your throat’.