The female bicyclist's vendetta

Miss Greenwood wanted the local publican out of her adopted community - and employed both a photographer and a private detective to help fake an assault...

Picture the scene. It is the summer of 1900, in a coal-mining and brick-working area near Wakefield, in West Yorkshire. The main players are an innkeeper, Edward Garner, aged 36, and a local spinster, Sarah Elizabeth Greenwood, aged 31. Minor characters are a local photographer, and a Leeds private detective.

Miss Sarah Elizabeth Greenwood first. She is a rather intelligent, enterprising woman: from her home in Normanton, she runs a registry for servants and those seeking servants. She lives with her widowed mother Margaret, and two siblings - John and Margaret - but her older married sister, Mrs Smith, lives nearby. They are a close family. However, Miss Greenwood - often seen out and about on her bicycle - has something of a vendetta against publican Edward Garner.

Sarah Greenwood was known for cycling around Normanton and Altofts

Edward runs the Prospect Inn in the village of Altofts, less than a mile from Sarah Greenwood's home. In the autumn of 1900, he is applying for the renewal of his licence, an issue that has caused controversy in the local area. There are several pubs nearby; some neighbours do not want the Prospect to continue - certainly not under Edward's management. Their disputes come before the local bigwigs, and the licence hearing is adjourned. Sarah is keen for Edward to lose his licence. She therefore conjures up a scheme to ensure that he does.

George Henry Pycock lives on the Wakefield Road, running his own business as a photographer and picture framer. Sarah approaches him, commissioning him to take some photographs of the Prospect Inn - and of Edward Garner in particular - for the princely sum of two shillings. She tells him that she guarantees that he will assault her, and she wants Pycock to photograph the altercation.

It is 30 August, and in the morning, Sarah cycles from her home on Church Lane in Normanton, to Altoft. Meanwhile, George Pycock is in position outside the Prospect Inn. Nothing happens. But when Sarah returns home, she issues a summons for Edward Garner, accusing him of assault.

When the case was heard at Wakefield Court House the following month, Sarah claimed that Edward Garner had spotted Pycock lurking outside the pub and had come out to see why he was there. He saw Sarah, and shouted, "Go away from here, or I'll kick you away!" before striking her on the arm.

Normanton, West Yorkshire: home of the Greenwood family

Sarah was challenged about why she had been near the pub. She claimed that she wanted to get Pycock to photograph the local roads because she kept getting hit by stones when she went there (whether by loose chippings on the road being dislodged by her bicycle wheels, or by locals throwing them at her, she did not state).

But this was not the case. It turned out that Sarah was one of the local people who wanted Edward Garner to lose his pub licence. She had asked George Pycock to photograph her and Garner that morning in order to get evidence of a dispute that she could produce at the adjourned sessions when it met again to decide Garner's licence application. Pycock had realised this, and had returned her money, refusing to do any more work for her. The litigious Sarah had then sent him a lawyer's letter, trying to force him to do it.

Sarah had employed more than just a photographer. She had also employed a private detective. This was a Leeds man named Ezra Thornton. I can't locate a private detective of this name, and Ezra Thornton was a surprisingly common name in Leeds at this time. The most likely candidate is a furniture broker who may have done a brief bit of sleuthing work on the side. He was instructed by Sarah through an intermediary named Mr Nelson. He told Ezra that an assault was going to take place, and that he should be in place by the pub in order to witness it. When called to explain himself to the magistrates, he stated:

"I went by the orders of Mr Nelson, who had been instructed by Miss Greenwood, who said she thought there would be an assault. Miss Greenwood told him she had arranged with a photographer, and also that she expected an assault."

Photographer George Pycock refuted Sarah's claims of having been assault, saying that Garner had simply told him to go away (and he had). Sarah had not been struck, and Garner hadn't even said anything to her. Neighbours also gave evidence as to Garner's personality, noting that he was not the sort of man to assault anyone, let alone a woman.

Sarah's plan was thwarted, with Edward Garner's defence making clear that it was "one of the most vindictive and ridiculous prosecutions" he had ever seen. Sarah had made a malicious prosecution in order to get Garner's licence for the Prospect Inn revoked. The magistrates agreed, and the case was dismissed.

Edward Garner continued to run the Prospect Inn until 1910, when he moved a few miles east to take over the Bradley Arms in the village of Featherstone, near Pontefract. Sarah set up shop as a tobacconist on the Wakefield Road in Normanton, and George Pycock became a farmer. Ezra Thornton's role, a minor one as it was, became the sole evidence for his job as a private detective.