Victorian Newspaper Stories

A fascinating blog filled with stories taken directly from Victorian newspapers.
Enjoy!
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed an your water iced
KJ

An Extraordinary Incident is a collection of news stories from Victorian publications (and a few earlier ones). It features the unusual, the amusing, the macabre, the tragic and the hair-raising. You’ll find accounts of daredevil aeronautics, dastardly crimes, encounters with wild beasts and all manner of pith-helmeted heroics. All the stories were printed in real newspapers but that, of course, is no guarantee of their veracity. They are presented verbatim for your interest and enjoyment.

An example from the The Dundee Courier and Argus, Tuesday 7 June 1898

An unusual spectacle in the air
THE LADY AND THE PARACHUTE

EXCITING BALLOON ADVENTURE

Miss Maud Brookes ascended in a balloon from Trafford Park, Manchester, the other evening with the intention of descending by means of a parachute in the neighbourhood, but on reaching an altitude which she estimated at 9000 feet she got into a current which would not permit of her descent. She was carried gradually higher, until she encountered a cloud and hailstorm. She did not under the circumstances attempt to use the parachute for about twenty minutes, and meanwhile she was carried across country. She then left the balloon for the parachute in the hope of rapidly descending, but the force of the current carried her along to Oldham. The unusual spectacle in the air attracted the attention of thousands of spectators. The parachute gradually descended, until it collided with the warehouse of Phoenix Mill, Brunswick Street, situated about the centre of town. A couple of young men ran to Miss Brookes’s assistance, and seized her as she was about to touch the earth, and thus saved her from serious personal injury. Miss Brookes was taken to the Central Fire Station, and was provided with refreshment. In reply to inquiries, she stated that she had sustained slight injury to the back of her head and an abrasion of one of her elbows, but was otherwise unhurt. The balloon is supposed to have travelled in the neighbourhood of the West Riding of Yorkshire.