Scandalous story led to mob on the streets

For a Valentine's Day theme, here's a story of a happily married couple in Victorian Weston who were victims of rumours of infidelity. The rumours weren't true, but locals took to the streets in protest anyway - but, asks Eugene Byrne, were they following an ancient tradition, or were they rioting?

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'Rough music' in Warwickshire, 1909; such parades were once common across England when the community wanted to express its disapproval of someone's behaviour. But was this what happened in Weston in 1861 - or was it a riot?

In the 1860s, Weston-super-Mare was quickly growing as a seaside resort. From a tiny hamlet of a few dozen houses 50 years previously, it was becoming a destination both for invalids seeking a healthy environment, and even more a place for family holidays.

Nearly all of this growth was thanks to the arrival of the railways - Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself took his family on holiday to Weston at least once. Birnbeck Pier, which would be completed in 1867, would become a major attraction in its own right but would also serve as a landing-stage for pleasure steamers bringing in thousands of day-trippers from South Wales every summer.

Much of the growing profits of the new resort found their way into the hands of the Smyth-Pigott family, which owned much of the land in and around Weston.

In March 1861, John Hugh Smyth Pigott dismissed his estate manager, Robert Jones, believing that Jones and his wife Blanch were having an affair. Blanch was, after all, 24 years old and 18 years younger than her husband.

Blanch went to her father, Henry Arundel, a wealthy businessman, to seek his help and he installed her in a house in Birnbeck Terrace, Weston (now part of Birnbeck Road, next to the Prince Consort Gardens).

John Smyth Pigott started divorce proceedings and left the country to stay in France for a while.

But only a few weeks later, Pigott decided that the stories about his wife and Robert Jones were untrue. He and Blanch were reconciled, possibly at Henry Arundel’s house in Marylebone, and - between the lines - after Arundel paid lawyers to investigate the allegations against his daughter.