Girl, 14, sent to reformatory after stealing cash, rings and jewellery

Mary Crook, aged just fourteen, appeared before the Preston magistrates in mid-August 1896 charged with sleeping in an unoccupied house on North Road.

- with Keith Johnson

The girl's father said he could not manage her, recounting that she had been away nine times previously, had been guilty of theft, and would not work.

She had been found employment in several mills but had always left in days. On one occasion she had broken into her own home and stole her mother's shawl and half a crown. In view of the nature of her latest offence the magistrates felt a severe warning was sufficient punishment.

In early October 1896 a burglary took place at 136, Lancaster Road the home of market draper Abraham Shapiro. On that Wednesday afternoon Mr. Shapiro was working at Blackburn and his wife attending Preston market. Before she left home Mrs. Shapiro had locked the house up, but on returning at three o'clock she found the back of the premises open, and the drawers and rooms ransacked and a cash box missing.