The pages of the Salford City Reporter hold some fascinating stories and we were particulary interested in this one from April 1916 which tells of a ferocious harridan with a very violent temper.
The Magistrates Court heard the story of how an unnamed woman appeared in the court with her head swathed in bandages.
She told the Magistrate, Mr Foyster that she resided in the upper portion of a house in St Stephen’s Street, Salford and that on the evening of Tueday 3 April she went to get some hot water to wash in.
She had to pass the Defendant, Mary Ann Moloney, 37, in the corridor and once again Mrs Moloney was drunk.
Sadly, she wasn’t a happy or even a melancholy drunk, instead she got hold of the defendant after some perceived slight to her character and proceeded to strike her several blows to the head and body.
As if this wasn’t enough she then attempted to bite off the woman’s top lip!
Mr Foyster was no doubt a man who had seen many things in his time as a Magistrate in Salford but this was surely a new low.
He asked Mrs Moloney if she had indeed struck the Defendant and then attempted to bite her face.
Her reply was somewhat confusing to say the least.
She proceeded to ramble on incoherently and “began to pour forth a volume of reasons and excuses for her position which was impossible to decipher”.
Mr Foyster, no doubt looking on with some confusion, said: “Good gracious woman, if you talk like that when you are sober, I don’t know what you would be like under drink.”
I get the impression that Mrs Moloney had no doubt taken a drink or two to steady her nerves for the ordeal of being questioned in court.
She should not have worried unduly as Mr Foyster had obviously heard enough and sent her to prison for 14 days with hard labour for this quite brutal assault.
Main image: Whittaker’s, St Stephen Street, Salford © Salford Local History Library
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