Sal Madge's gravestone smashed
Last updated at 12:44, Saturday, 24 July 2010
A headstone ruined after yobs caused £20,000 damage to a Whitehaven cemetery was a memorial to one of the town’s most famous characters, Sal Madge.
Vandals went on a wrecking spree at the old graveyard on Low Road on Wednesday night, using a sledgehammer to demolish around five headstones.
Two teenagers, aged 15 and 18, were arrested after the vandal attack and bailed until next month pending further inquiries.
Sal Madge’s memorial headstone was put up by the Friends of Whitehaven Museum in 1993.
Sal is one of Whitehaven’s most famous characters and was one of the last women to work at the pits.
Ray Devlin, of the Friends of the Museum, was horrified to learn of the vandalism. “It’s disgraceful,” he said. “Vandalism of any kind in a graveyard is dreadful.”
Mr Devlin said that he would raise the issue at the next meeting of the Friends of the Museum and a decision would be made as to whether to replace the stone.
This is not the first time that youngsters have targeted west Cumbrian cemeteries.
In Salterbeck, Workington, vandals pushed over graves and destroyed tributes to people’s loved ones two weeks ago. The Salterbeck cemetery had been vandalised twice before this latest attack this year.
Sal Madge was born in a workhouse in Penrith in 1831 but lived and worked most of her life in Whitehaven.
She died a pauper in 1899 but huge crowds attended her funeral.
Her enjoyment of beer-drinking, card-playing, tobacco-chewing and wrestling earned her the respect of pit-men.
She even wrestled men. Her hair was short and, except for a skirt, she wore men’s clothes.
Although the stone commemorated Sal Madge as the ‘last of the women colliers’, in fact research revealed she had never worked down the mines. She had only worked on top of the mines leading horses from the pit with coal.
Anyone who has information about the attack on Whitehaven Cemetery can call police on 0845 3300247.
First published at 12:43, Saturday, 24 July 2010
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk
The kids who did this should be put in the stocks before brutally and relentlessly beaten senseless by a mob of Whitehaven residents. Their families should be evicted and their houses burned to the ground. The whole process should be filmed and put on the internet for the voyeuristic and twisted enjoyment of others. I am certain that would REALLY teach them that violent anti-social behaviour is unacceptable to the civilised people of Whitehaven.
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I think that 'Golly's comment is bang out of order!!! You can't tar all youngsters with the same brush. Yes they should pay for the damage! and I agree what these kids done is wrong on so many levels, but bare in mind that it was TWO children that done this, not every child in the county!!!
Posted by B on 27 July 2010 at 13:00