Newspaper Extracts
Escape of two prisoners
September, 1865On Friday morning two prisoners escaped from Rotherham police-station in rather a clever manner.
One of the fugitives is a man named William Turner, who has been in custody for 6 or 8 weeks on a charge of committing a murderous assault on a farmer. After the committal of the offence Turner absconded, and was not apprehended for some time. Since his apprehension he has been brought before the magistrates each succeeding a week, but, owing to the prosecutor being so injured as to be unable to leave his bed, the hearing of the case against the prisoner has not taken place, and he has been remanded in custody from time to time, bail being on each occasion peremptorily refused.
The other runaway is a chimney-sweeper, whose wife and family live at Worksop. His name is John Holmes, and he was committed for trial on Monday last on a charge of rape.
On Thursday they were lodged together in one of the cells, their beds being placed at opposite ends of the room. The "reserve" officer saw them all safe at 3 o'clock on Friday, and believed, from the appearance of the beds, that they were asleep at 4 o'clock when he visited the cells. At 5 o'clock, however, he discovered that they were missing. An alarm was at once raised, and the place was examined. It was then found that a portion of the flooring under one of the beds had been torn up, affording space for a man to pass through, though with difficulty. Between 1 and 2 feet below the floor is an arched ceiling built of bricks, and along this the men appear to have crawled - the chimney-sweep, no doubt, finding his professional experience useful - for a distance of 8 or 9 feet, when they managed to take out a number of bricks, making an aperture sufficiently large to allow them to pass through to the room below, in which is kept the warming apparatus. Thence their regress would be comparatively easy, as they had only to remove the coal-hole grating, climb up into the yard, and escape over the wall.
As soon as it was found that they were gone telegrams were sent to various places and routes, and were also despatched as early as possible to all places in the surrounding district.
From the time and labour that would be required to be expended in the preparation for escape it is inferred that the crafty fellows must have been at work more than one day. No tools were found, but it is surmised that some may have been given to them through the window, a pane of which is missing.
