THE HISTORY OF WARNER STREET ACCRINGTON

Warner Street in Accrington, Lancashire is a Georgian street, originally built in c.1821 to house workers of the local industrialist Mr. Thomas Hargreaves and to create a safe passageway from the Abbey Street end of the town to St. James Church. The street was one of the towns earliest paved thoroughfares. Originally, the street wasn't linked to Church Street at the bottom, this came later after the River Hyndburn had been culverted.

For quite a while after it was completed, the street was informally known as “New Street” but was later named Warner Street after the Lee-Warner family who owned the land it was built on. It was considered to be the best thoroughfare in the town as it was the only street properly paved.

Warner Street leads from Abbey Street to Church Street and today houses a wide range of diverse and unique independent shops and businesses. Interestingly, if you look at the building numbers, they appear to have been started from the wrong end, with the low numbers at the Abbey Street end. This is because, when building work for Warner Street commenced, Abbey Street was the main market street in Accrington and so numbering started from there.

To the right are a series of six pictures depicting various views of Warner Street old and new. As you can see, in terms of buildings at least, not a great deal has changed. Click on any of the pictures to see a larger view.

Can You Help?

Below is an extract from an e-mail we received recently at The Warner Street Web. We contacted the gentleman who sent it and he agreed to us using it here to see if any of our great readers knew any further information regarding the family or indeed any other old businesses of Warner Street?

If you do have any information, please get in touch by e-mail or by using the form at the bottom of the page and we’ll be delighted to pass it on and perhaps feature it here as well.

“ Researching my family history, I discovered some of my family had lived on Warner Street in Accrington.

As usual, I "googled" the street name. Imagine my surprise, when I found that it had its own web-site.

My ancestor was called Ralph Hull. He is referred to in the documents as either a joiner or carpenter. He is my great, great, great, grand uncle. He must have been one of the earliest residents of the street. He was there in 1832 at the time of the baptism of his daughters, Nancy and Alice, with his wife Sarah (Sally). He had left the street by 1838, possibly earlier.

Fantastic to see old views of the street, especially with St James church in the background, where many of the family were baptised or married.

All the best,
James “

Let us turn the clock back in time to 9.00am. on Tuesday 9th June 1896 and visit Warner Street, Accrington. The Coates family, John, Sarah and their son, twenty five year old Thomas, had their own business at No 3 where they made cabinets .The events of that day have gone down in local history as the Warner Street tragedy.

John Coates employed a local lad, Christopher Hindle, as an apprentice cabinet maker. John and Thomas had been busy in the workshop whilst 15 year old Christopher had been in the shop at Warner Street assisting Mrs. Sarah Coates.

At 10.15am. Christopher ran to the workshop in a state of hysteria shouting to John and Thomas that Mrs. Coates had been murdered. As he shouted these words he had his hand covering his left shoulder applying pressure to a wound. "Where is my wife" shouted John, to which Christopher replied that she was in the shop. Both John and Thomas rushed at great speed to the Warner Street premises. Both husband and son were deeply distressed by the sight that greeted them.

Sarah was lying on the floor in, a pool of blood, her throat had been cut and she was bleeding freely. Thomas tried to stem the flow of blood whilst his father, in a state of shock, tried to take this dreadful scene in. Meanwhile Christopher had gone to fetch the doctor, Mr Clayton, who, when arriving, had the unpleasant task of informing them that Mrs. Coates was indeed dead. The Doctor then turned his attention to the wound on young Hindle's shoulder, and noted that it was a series of almost identical scratches, and really only a minor flesh wound.

The police, Inspector Sinclair, Sergeant Bale and PC Andrews arrived very quickly to start their investigations into the murder. PC Andrews interviewed young Hindle first. He told the officer that he had been downstairs in the shop when he heard screaming from the upstairs room where Mrs. Coates had been working, Rushing upstairs he saw a very tall man with a huge black moustache, a blue suit on, and carrying a knife, He had assaulted Mrs. Coates and blood was gushing from her neck. Her attacker then switched his attention to him, and caught his shoulder with the knife before running downstairs and out into Warner Street with him giving chase.

Hindle was then interrogated by Inspector Sinclair and told a similar story, but this time he mentioned that he had run down the back street. As it happened that morning workmen had been block paving on the back street, and they informed the police that they had noticed no one running down the street, at any time of that day.

The police surgeon was asked to take a look at Hindle's wounds and after close inspection he concluded that Hindle had in fact harmed himself. Mrs. Coates' body was sent for a post mortem and it was ascertained by the police surgeon, Doctor Geddie that a pair of scissors had been used to commit the murder - he also believed that the same weapon had caused the injury to Hindle's shoulder. Christopher Hindle became the prime suspect.

The police looked all over the county for a man with a blue suit and large moustache, but no one was arrested. They were convinced that Hindle had been stealing money that day and indeed Sarah Coates had been unfortunate to be in the vicinity at the same time. Two days after the murder the weapon used to kill Mrs. Coates was indeed found, and was confirmed by the police surgeon as the pair of scissors used. Hindle was arrested and sent to Lancaster Castle for trial. He still kept up his story that Sarah had been attacked by a tall man in a blue suit with a large moustache.

The trial began at Lancaster, Hindle’s parents were obviously horrified at the trial and fully expected their son to be executed. Then a most unusual letter arrived at the Hindle’s home.

An anonymous letter from Bolton, recalling that a person called Murray had been in a Bolton pub drinking quite heavily. This man was tall, wearing a blue suit and sported a large moustache. He informed the anonymous writer that he had indeed committed a murder in Accrington. He did seem very distressed by his confession, and his guilt must have got the better of him. As they departed this character must have felt that he was about to be arrested by his confession because, the following day a body was found on the railway, the mangled mess of humanity did reveal a huge moustache.

Unfortunately for Hindle however this new evidence was not taken seriously; the jury did find Christopher Hindle guilty but also asked for mercy because he was only fifteen years old. As a result Hindle was imprisoned due to his age.