It’s easy to think that the current problem of shoplifting, which feels like it’s getting out of control, is something new. However, the crime pages of the Norwich Mercury from 200 years ago this month are full of the latest robberies that had taken place in the city. Norwich wasn’t necessarily a safe place to live at the time, violent crime wasn’t rare and thefts were common. The newspaper reported in November 1826.
“On Tuesday evening, about six o’clock, some villain entered the bar, at Mr. Callow’s, the Golden Cann, St. George’s Colegate; his daughter hearing the door go immediately went, and saw a man drawing the till from the counter, when she instantly called out—oh! you thief! the man ran with the till just outside the door, with about six or seven shillings’ worth of copper, and three sixpences in it, but being closely pursued he dropped it, with its contents, and made off. Two more of the gang were seen near the door.”
There were apparently three men involved, which seems a generous allocation of staff for a theft that got no further than the pavement. But, the element that amuses me the most is that there’s something particularly vivid about the daughter’s shout surviving in print for two centuries. It makes the incident feel surprisingly immediate, although I suspect the trail has now gone a little cold.
The venue, which sat at the junction of St. George’s Street and Alms Lane, had been a licensed premises since the early nineteenth century, originally a Crawshay pub and then subsequently part of the Youngs & Co estate. Unfortunately, the pub didn’t survive being bombed in April 1942 and a decision was made not to rebuild it as licensed premises.