'Impossible' legal dilemma for bakers

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, August 16th, 1917.

'Eat less bread' poster

Bakers faced an impossible task in trying to comply with foods control regulations which stipulated that loaves of bread should weigh an exact number of pounds when sold, magistrates at Luton Divisional Police Court on Monday were told.

One magistrate, Mayor of Dunstable Councillor Edward Franklin, acknowledged it was impossible for bakers to comply with this regulation as they could not say what the weight of a loaf might be after baking. And magistrates' clerk Mr Barnard said: "I think the bakers have the sympathy of every reasonable man."

Four bakers were each fined £1 on each charge, including one baker who had been in business for 23 years and produced up to 2,000 loaves a day, many that turned out to be sold slight overweight. Bread sold had to be at least 12 hours old, and the weight of loaves changed the longer they stood - losing up to half an ounce in 24 hours in one experiment.

During the course of the trials, County Weights and Measures Inspector Mr A. W. H. Poole made the following points. An underweight loaf could not be made up by adding an extra piece of bread and any loaf not weighing an exact number of pounds should be cut up and sold by the pound. Each loaf had to be weighed when sold, requiring a 1lb weight and scales to be carried on the baker's cart.

In one case, the court was told that out of a batch of 55 loaves 32 should have been cut up to sell by weight. Yet the aggregate weight of this and other batches of loaves tested in unannounced inspections was only ounces out.

  • Another base of concern to magistrates at the Monday court hearings was that of Sgt Guest, of the Royal Engineers stationed at Houghton Regis. He was summoned for failing to produce his motor driving licence when stopped by a police special constable. The military motorcyclist claimed that the police had no right to require him to show his licence while he was on military duty - and he had a statement from his acting commanding officer to that effect. But that appeared to conflict with other orders issued and the case was adjourned for two weeks to allow responsible military witnesses to give evidence. Clerk Mr Barnard suggested it might be a case of "simple defiance" on Sgt Guest's part.

  • An article previewed the sale at Luton Town Hall on the following Monday of the Houghton Estate and parts of Dunstable, including the 12th century royal palace site of Kingsbury Farm. The sale offered a fine investment for speculators, said the report, as the Great Northern Railway Co had recently "purchased four acres opposite Skimpot Farm and, it is whispered, mean to build a station, and having purchased a strip all along their line from this estate it is possible that the much desired widening of the line between Luton and Dunstable will soon be an accomplished fact".

  • The will of the late Mr Albert Arthur Oakley, of Hillcroft, High Town Road, Luton, a member of the firm of Oakley Bros, provisions merchants, Luton, a member of the Beds County Council, Luton Town Council and of the Borough Bench, who died on June 24th last as the result of being thrown out of his gig, has been proved at £67,881 5s 6d.

  • An accident occurred in Dallow Road on Monday afternoon, resulting in injuries to a child. At about 4 o'clock troops belonging to the Training Reserve from Stockwood were marching to the music of their band when a little boy named John Wood, aged about five years, ran into the roadway to see the soldiers. A trolley being driven by Frank Gregory, of Trowley Bottom, Flamstead, and owned by Sidney Fox, of Jubilee Street, was heading in the direction of the Diamond Foundry with a load of bolts when the child was caught by the vehicle and one of the wheels passed over his body. Soldiers conveyed the child to the nearest house, where a doctor was called and it was found the child had sustained a fracture of the collar bone and bruises and cuts to the head.

  • The mystery of the finding of a still-born female child which had been washed through the drains into the screening chamber at the sewage farm at Chalk Hill, Dunstable, was investigated by Deputy Coroner Mr G. J. M. Whyley at an inquest at the Green Man Inn, Chalk Hill, on Monday afternoon. Dr Harold Norman Little said his post-mortem examination found that the lungs had not contained any air and there was no signs of disease or injury. A verdict of "stillborn" was recorded by a jury.

  • During the thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon, the cowhouse at Mangrove Hall Farm was struck, a strip of the roof being torn off at one end. The stockman (Mr Robinson) was inside the building and was temporarily dazed by the shock, whilst a pigeon which had been on the building was found dead in the debris. Fortunately the damage was not extensive, although the storm was one of the worst in the memory of the oldest native. Crops which had previously been beaten down were further damaged, more particularly the oats.

  • Mr Horace Ayres, of Mangrove, recently offered himself as a skilled mechanic for the Royal Naval Air Service and is now rated as First Class Mechanic. He has been for some years a skilled worker at the Vauxhall Works, Luton.

  • ROLL OF HONOUR: Pte William Flitton (Beds Regiment); Pte Cecil Blaydon (Beds Regiment); Pte 'Bert' Burgess (East Surrey Regiment); Pte Stanley 'Tom' Toyer (South Lancs Regiment); Pte Albert King (Machine Gun Corps); Pte Bertie Good (Northants Regiment); L-Cpl Harry Woodbridge (Middlesex Regiment); Pte Ernest James Elsdon (Beds Regiment).

  • Two men reported missing on the battlefield during 1916 were officially presumed to have died there. Guardsman Cyril Bernard Bryan (Grenadier Guards), who had worked for Mares outfitters in George Street, Luton, was presumed to have died on September 25th, 1916, while Pte Stanley Thomas Warner (Royal Sussex Regiment), an Essex boy who had lived in Luton for some years, was presumed to have been killed in action on October 21st, 1916, after being reported missing.

  • Mrs C. Rookwood, of 14 Ashton Street, Luton, has been notified that her son, L-Cpl Arthur Rookwood, has been admitted to hospital at El Arish as a result of a gunshot wound in the left thigh on July 20th.

  • Miss E. Lewis, of 29 South Road, Luton, has received official notification that her brother, Pte W. Lewis (Machine Gun Corps), has been severely wounded in the leg during an engagement in France. He is now in Lord Derby's War Hospital, Warrington. Before mobilisation, Pte Lewis was an employee of the Diamond Foundry.

  • News has been received that Gunner A. Kent, 32, of 73 Butlin Road, Luton, was wounded in the leg in an action in Flanders on July 31st. The former empoyee of Hucklesby & Co, George Street, is now in the 2nd Stationary Hospital, France.

  • The first annual meeting of the Vendale FC was held on Monday at the Bute Restaurant. E. Abbott was elected Captain, W. Ambridge (Vice Captain), T. Woodward (Treasurer) and Mr E. A. Ambridge (Secretary). A practice match was arranged against Albion FC at the Diamond Foundry ground on August 18th.

  • It will interest football enthusiasts, in spite of the somewhat gloomy prospects for the Luton Town Football Club in the approaching season, to know that Bdr Bob Mercer, the Scottish international centre-half, is now in training at a military camp within easy distance of Luton. Mr Charles Green, the Luton Secretary, has received permission from Mercer's club, Heart of Midlothian, to approach him with a view to securing his services. Lutonians will remember J. McCartney, the Secretary of the Hearts Club, as the former Luton half-back.