Today, arson carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It is criminal damage ‘without a lawful excuse.’ In rural areas, it has always been a profoundly serious crime. In the eighteenth century in North Lincolnshire, it was very rare; there were only two cases recorded in the latter decades. Historical periods patently have their own specific varieties of crimes against the property, some politically motivated and some factional.
Anyone wanting to set fire to a haystack in this area would not find the task difficult in the nineteenth century; rural firefighting was basic in the extreme and would be distant from any one the settlements of any size around Scunthorpe, Frodingham and Crosby at this time. This helps to explain the special fear and panic associated with a cry of ‘fire’.
Around Scunthorpe one of the worst times for terrible incendiary crime was in the years 1860–65. There had been burnings during the Captain Swing years thirty years before this; but isolated arson still occurred and was deeply disturbing, as in the case of a farmer in Waddingham in 1855, when a rick was burned and everyone went out in search of suspicious-looking tramps. But in 1861 in the early hours of the morning on 8 September, it was the village of Belton, just five miles away from Scunthorpe, which was hit. It happened in Robert Robinson’s stackyard and little could be done to stop the blaze. Although many of the residents came out to help they were not able to prevent three stacks being lost.
In the confusion of all this, it was noticed that a drunken man, Thomas Cawkwell, was there, trying to help in the firefighting. But later, in the cold light of day, when questions were asked and the constable looked around the site, footprints were found going from a rick to a field of root vegetables. These prints matched the boots worn by Cawkwell. There was a story behind the affair, involving a personal vendetta. The young man had been making advances to one of Robinson’s servants and the farmer had made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with Cawkwell, and that he should stay away. Villagers had heard Cawkwell loudly vowing to get even and make the farmer pay for this rebuff. Apparently, this was not as effective as it might at first seem, as a blacksmith who said he heard this was not a trustworthy witness, being an ex-prisoner.