Victorian Crickhowell - the case of the stolen boiler

Crickhowell and district
Crime and punishment

	The case of the stolen boiler	Glossary
	In October 1842 several people were brought before the court of the Quarter Sessions accused of various crimes. Among the documents which have survived from that day is a printed list of all the people who had been kept in the local gaol awaiting trial. Among them was Samuel Powell aged 38, a waggoner from the Crickhowell area. He could neither read nor write...	Feloniously - against the law.

This extract from the list shows what Samuel Powell was accused of. At the time of his arrest several other people involved gave statements. These were written down and kept so that we know what happened in the case.
Below is part of the statement of Mary Morgan of Glangrwyne. Behind her house she had an outbuilding where she soaked wood ashes in water as part of the soap making process. On the morning of 21st of April she had a shock when she went out...

To make soap you soaked wood ash in water to make a very dangerous fluid called lye water. This was then heated with grease from animal fat. This was then cooled to make a simple form of soap.

It reads:
"I opened the door of the cot and I then found that the ashes and water which I had put into the boiler (making lye for washing) had been thrown over and the boiler was gone".
Someone had broken into the locked shed and stolen the brass boiler.

More about the case of the stolen boiler...

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