Southeastern Gazette, 10 May 1853.

CRANBROOK. Petty Sessions, Thursday. (Before C. T. Pattenson, Esq., chairman, T. L. Hodges,. Esq., the Rev. F. Barrow, the Rev. J. Deedes, G. R. Stevenson, Esq., and W. P. Croughton, Esq.)

Joseph Ransley landlord of the "White Horse Inn," Elizabeth Wimsett, of the "Windmill Inn," and William Hollands, of the "White Lion Inn," all in the town of Cranbrook, were severally charged on the information of Isaac Rumens, constable of Cranbrook, with, having their houses open during divine service on Sunday afternoon, the 1st inst. The two first named persons pleaded guilty, and Ransley was fined 40s. and costs, and Mrs. Wimsett 10s. and costs. The case against Hollands was gone into, and Mr. Dadson deposed to visiting defendant's house, when he observed a quantity of what he believed to be beer spilt along the passage. This, coupled with some information brought by Rumens, who entered the back way, led him to go into the yard, where his attention was attracted to a coachhouse used as a skittle ground, by seeing a shutter put to. He enquired for the key of this building, and eventually got the ostler to unlock the door, when he saw about a dozen men huddled up together in one corner, each evidently trying not to be visible to the eye of the constable, from a conviction that they had not been there all the afternoon without anything to drink. But fortunately for the defendant the constable summoned a witness from among the concealed group, who swore that he and the whole of his companions had been locked in from the time service began, but he didn’t know by whom, and that the defendant had not supplied them with any drink. This evidence, which the constable could not then rebut, destroyed the proof of the case, and defendant was dismissed with a caution.