The Extraordinary Tale of the Castle Yard Riot

<p>You have all been found guilty of this riot and unfortunately it appears that you took the law into your own hands in a country where everybody has the right to legal redress of his grievance [...]</p><p>Attending as I do to the recommendations of this jury [for the sentence to be tempered with mercy] I do not feel myself at liberty to pass a less severe sentence than the one I now pass which is that you each be imprisoned with hard labour for three months</p><p>Mr Justice Shee</p><p class=ql-align-justify> </p><p class=ql-align-justify>On Friday 6<sup>th</sup> April 1866 eleven honest and true men of Knaresborough were sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour in Wakefield Gaol. The overwhelming reaction of the inhabitants of Knaresborough was a response the like of which the town had never before witnessed. It is a story which deserves to be told.</p><p><br></p>