AS part of our weekly Crime Files series, we are taking a look back at the archives to bring you stories from Herefordshire's history.

The following story dates from 1894.

A CHILD was sent to the workhouse after stealing from a Herefordshire country estate in 1894.

Young William Hatton, who was aged just eight at the time, was hauled before the Reverend E. B Hawkshoaw, Captain E. M. Allen, Alderman Thomas Blake, and Messrs. H. C. Moffatt and G. Strong at the Ross Petty Sessions in June of that year charged with one count of theft.

The Ross-on-Wye court heard that the schoolboy had stolen part of a wooden fence belonging to Mr C. Lee Campbell of Glewstone Court in Bridstow on May 18.

OTHER NEWS:

The youngster had previously been charged with stealing a walking stick belonging to Mr Campbell's bailiff, the court was told.

With his previous theft offence counting against him, the eight-year-old was remanded to the workhouse for seven days, with enquiries to be made in the meantime for getting him into an industrial school.

Industrial schools were supposed to give children an education in the hope that they would be able to lead productive lives in the future, enabling them to find work and removing bad influences and the need to steal in order to live.