HOBBS END GAZETTE
Saturday 15th July 1893
Trouble in Wells Street, a serious affray.
Ever since the council condemned the row of houses on the west side of Wells Street the Communists have been agitating for a fairer deal, finally the police got involved, our correspondent investigates.
Last night the Communists were again in Wells Street holding a meeting in the middle of the road and rather conveniently right outside their party headquarters. The speaker, Mr Greeves, was questioning the coincidence that Councillor Johnson's brother in law's company had won the contract to demolish half of the street and also where the residents were going to live as no alternative accomodation was forthcoming.
It would seem that Councillor Johnson doesn't like his name or his business dealings being the subject of street meetings and as he was in the same club as the Chief Commissioner getting the street meetings closed was fairly easy, unfortunately our local police had to carry out their orders to the letter and trouble was inevitable.
Almost immediately one of the Communists was knocked down and so was a policeman, the man who assaulted the constable was a local bruiser called Stebson, who goes under the nickname Gripper, a couple of constables who saw this quickly gave chase.
Diving into an alleyway Stebson turned to face his adversaries, a seasoned jailbird and thug Stebson is also fast and ruthless, one policeman was felled in an instant, his companion fought back but was too slow and he payed the price.
