Boys Damage Telephone Lines at Potton

Gamlingay Road, Potton [Z1306/91/9]

Saturday 4th March 1916: Reuben Yerrill and Edward Hutchinson, two errand boys from Potton, were summoned to the Children’s Court in Biggleswade for attempting to break insulators on telegraph poles on January 9th. Special Constable Ernest Jones was on duty in the Gamlingay Road at 3.45 p.m. when he saw the boys throwing stones at a broken insulator and in the direction of the telegraph wires and poles. Florry Tear said she was walking along the road at the same time and saw the boys throwing the stones.

A Post Office official said that during the last six months 21 insulators had been broken between Wrestlingworth Cross Roads and Gamlingay on a newly erected line. Each cost 5½d and replacing them caused considerable expense. The damage also often stopped communication along the line. The case was brought as a warning and the lads were discharged with a caution.

Source: Biggleswade Chronicle, 3rd March 1916