John Bebbington
of Gaythorn, Manchester
Connected with Krauss and Bebbington?
1841 John Bebbington, glue and size maker, Gaythorn [1]
1847 'Borough Nuisance.— John Bebbington was summoned by the corporation, before Mr. Maude and Mr. Walker, yesterday week, for not having abated a most intolerable nuisance, arising from his bone boiling manufactory, near Gaythorn. Mr. Heron, the town clerk, stated the case to the bench at considerable length. The defendant kept an establishment, in the neighbourhood of the Chorlton Gas Works, for boiling bones and offal, the stench arising from which was most intolerable. Mr. Bebbington had been repeatedly warned by the servants of the corporation to remove or abate this nuisance, but to these warnings he had not paid the least attention; consequently, on the 30th of September he had been served with a legal notice, that at the end of fourteen days he would liable a penalty of £5 a day for every day the nuisance was continued.. He (Mr. Heron) visited the premises on the 25th November, and found that the nuisance still remained. Of all the offensive smells he ever experienced, that was the worst; and he was quite sure that if, in addition to the epidemic which was now prevalent amongt us, we should be visited with that still more alarming scourge —the cholera, with which we are threatened, the stench and maleria arising from this establishment would be most fatal to the whole locality, and must spread, to a fearful extent, disease and death. It was true there was another similar establishment in the same neighbourhood, belonging to Mrs. Bakewell, but he would be able to show, by highly respectable evidence, that the nuisance arose from the establishment of Mr. Bebbington, and not from that of Mrs. Bakewell, although a summons had been issued against her. He referred to a report recently published by the Sanitary Commissioners of London, which stated that such intolerable and offensive smells had a most fatal tendency to spread death and disease around. After a few observations as to the high character of the evidence he had to produce, Mr. Heron called upon Mr. Neale, inspector of nuisances for the corporation, who fully confirmed the statements made by the town clerk, and bore testimony to the innumerable complaints which had been made of the offensive and sickening smell arising from Mr. Bebbington's works. Mr. Neale further stated, that he had repeatedly seen six, eight, and ten tons of putrid bones and offal lying in the yard at one time, sending forth the most unbearable stench imaginable. Several other witnesses were called, amongst whom were Mr. Fernley, millowner, Mr. Dearden, the superintendent of the gas works adjoining Mr. Bebbington's works, and Mr. A. Brumley, in the establishment of Messrs. Horsfal and Co., Bridgewater-street, the evidence of each decidedly confirming the statements of Mr. Heron and Mr. Neale. After some remarks by Mr. Bebbington, in which he inferred that the witnesses produced were anything but respectable.'[2]