HistoricaLeigh - The Battling Canon

September 21, 2015 by Carole Mulroney

THE BATTLING CANON

On 5 May 1885 Canon Walker King, Rector of Leigh, took a number of the oldest fishermen to act as witnesses before a Committee of the House of Commons to protest against having Bell crossing and wharf closed. 

Apparently, as they were entering the Law Courts, Sir Samuel Wyatt came up to the Canon and said ‘Why King, what are you doing here?’ The Canon, who was an old college friend of Wyatt’s told him the reason. It turned out the case was heard in Wyatt’s court but when the case began Counsel for Leigh was not there and the Canon rose saying ‘I don’t know if you will hear me, but in my parish I am parson, clerk and lawyer too’. The judge laughed and the Canon continued with the case.

The Canon won the day against the Railway Company and it was ruled that the public had a right to the pathway from time immemorial. The returning party was met by nearly the whole of Leigh with loud cheers, the boys escorting the Rector to the top of the hill shouting and beating on tin pots and kettles.

On 16 May the following year Bell crossing was closed and an iron bridge erected instead by the Railway Company and presented to the village to maintain the right of way over the railway.