The grisly past of one of Bamber Bridge's most affordable streets
This week, the most - and least - expensive residential roads in Bamber Bridge were revealed.
One of the most affordable streets was Brandiforth Street, just off School Lane, where there had been 10 property sales since 2019, achieving an average price of £95,135.
While researching the area, the grisly past of Brandiforth Street became apparent. Here’s what happened back in 1922, in one of the houses still there and occupied.
According to the Leyland Community History Library, on April 25, 1922, 52-year-old Hyram Thompson, a Preston labourer, brutally kicked his wife to death at their home in 11 Brandiforth Street.
On many occasions over the years his wife Ellen had applied for a separation order but each time he managed to persuade her to change her mind. Thompson had a violent temper and his wife was not alone in bearing the brunt of his anger for he just as often turned on his three children.
On that fateful day, Thompson came home from work and sat down at the dining table. He was already in a foul mood after a hard day at work so when his wife asked him to prepare his own tea because she was looking after a neighbour’s nine-month-old baby boy, he flew into a rage. Tired of his abuse, Ellen walked over to the table and struck her husband across the face. He rose from his chair and punched her to the floor, then, as she lay stunned on the carpet, he brutally kicked the last breath from her body. His anger still unsatisfied, he went to the bathroom, gathered up his cutthroat razor, then returned to his wife and coldly slit her throat.
The children found their mother dead when they returned home. Beside her, the young child she had been minding was screaming in a cradle. Thompson was apprehended in a nearby bed and breakfast, and just 18 days after he had committed the offence, he stood in the dock accused of wilful murder.
His son John Thompson, 24, told the court that his father was a drunken, lazy, wicked man, and that the family lived in fear of him. The whole proceedings took less than an hour and the jury did not even have to retire before they delivered a verdict of guilty. Thompson was sentenced to death by Mr Justice Branson. Less than six weeks after committing the murder, he was hanged by John Ellis and William Willis on May 30, 1922.