Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

My speed along the Sancton road,
Was more than allowed in the Highway Code.
I thought my hearing very good
When informant P.C. Walter Good
Stated my speed was 36,
Which is now increased to 46.
I realise I cannot be excused,
From the offences of which I’m accused.
I only hope your worship hears,
That it’s my first for 32 years.
I beg the court to have great pity
On one who writes a lousy ditty.
[Fined £5.]

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

That’s just £56 at February 2024 prices. I don’t think anyone would now jest with magistrates about exceeding the speed limit by 50%.

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Original

York motorist Walter Gott, of Middlethorpe Grove, Dringhouses, sought poetic justice when he pleaded guilty, at Market Weighton yesterday, to exceeding the speed limit.

Mr. Gott, who was caught in a radar trap in the town, forwarded a plea of mitigation, and the magistrates heard the following lines:-

“My speed along the Sancton road,
Was more than allowed in the Highway Code.
I thought my hearing very good
When informant P.C. Walter Good
Stated my speed was 36,
Which is now increased to 46.
I realise I cannot be excused,
From the offences of which I’m accused.
I only hope your worship hears,
That it’s my first for 32 years.
I beg the court to have great pity
On one who writes a lousy ditty.”

Mr. Gott, an area manager for an asphalt company, said after the case: “I just made it up on the spur of the moment. I was hoping the magistrate would have a lighter side to his character.”

He added that he knew there was no way of getting out of speeding, and when notified by the Evening Press that he had been fined £5, he seemed to think that it was poetic justice.

219 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Car (3) ·
• Doggerel (8) ·
• Dringhouses (2) ·
• Humour (26) ·
• Magistrates’ court (England and Wales) (4) ·
• Market Weighton (4) ·
• Poetry (70) ·
• Road transport (13) ·
• Sancton (1) ·
• Speed limit enforcement (1) ·
• Speed limit (1) ·

All tags.

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