Mary Ann Snell - The Wild Woman who shocked Basingstoke

She and her future husband, Robert Moore, lodged with a family at 6, Windover Street.

In January 1880, Sergeant Waldren arrested Mary Ann Snell for being drunk and disorderly in Wote Street.

The Rose Inn (Image: Bob Clarke/Contributed)

Under the headline, A DANGEROUS WOMAN, the Hants and Berks Gazette reported: “On being taken into custody Mary Ann used her utmost endeavours to escape from the hands of the police, by kicking and biting and the other little aggressive practices resorted to by pugilistic women.

"In the scuffle this virago managed to bite a piece out of Waldren’s trousers, besides doing damage to other articles of his clothing.”

On July 7, 1880, Sergeant Waldren was called to the Rose Inn to evict a drunk and disorderly woman who was refusing to leave.

When he arrived, he found it was his old friend, Mary Ann.

He asked her to leave to no effect and had to forcibly eject her.

“She then made use of very filthy language, and the more he persuaded her to go away, the more she abused him.”

The magistrates sentenced her to 14 days’ hard labour in Winchester Jail.

Shortly after her release, Charles Hyde, landlord of the Flower Pot Inn at North Waltham, charged her with stealing three half sovereigns from him.

Charles said he met Mary Ann in the Railway Arms.

They went for a walk down Dark Lane.

He was “a little the worse for liquor” and dropped off to sleep.

When he awoke, Mary Ann had disappeared and so had his money.

He walked back to town and met P.C. Trodd.

They brought Mary Ann to the police station at about three in the morning.

The superintendent’s wife searched her, and found a shilling, a key, and a halfpenny.

Mary Ann said another young gentleman had given her the shilling.

Sergeant Waldren searched her lodgings and found the half sovereigns in a shoe under the sofa.

When the case came to court it appeared that Charles had been so drunk that he could not remember whether he lost the money or gave it to Mary Ann, as she alleged, in mistake for sixpences.

The case was, therefore, dismissed.

In January 1881 Mary Ann was fined 9s or seven days’ imprisonment in default of payment for fighting in the taproom of the Ship which spilled out into the Market Place.

In June that year Mary Ann and Robert Moore got married.

On the night of Saturday, May 17, 1884, at about 11 o’clock, P.C. Notton was on duty in London Street when he heard the sounds of a row near the Bell Inn.

He saw Mary Ann Moore quarrelling with several men, surrounded by a group of about 50 people who had stopped to enjoy the free entertainment.

P.C. Notton said to her, “Take my tip, get on home quietly like a good woman before you get into trouble.”

She replied, telling him where he could stick his tip.

When Mr Cannon, the London Street butcher, tried to persuade her to go home, she told him in similarly explicit terms where he could stick his “bloody dead mutton”.

Thomas Taphouse tried to calm things down by trying to persuade the man she was arguing with to go away.

She rewarded his intervention by calling him “a little sod,” hitting him in the eye and kicking him in the privates.

When the case came to court, the Chairman of the magistrates told her that there was no doubt that she was a very evil, wicked woman, and the only way they could punish her sufficiently was by sending her to Winchester Jail for seven days’ hard labour for using obscene language, and a further seven days’ hard labour for the assault on Thomas Taphouse.

When she was sentenced, she said, “I can do it, gentlemen, and when I come out (pointing to the constable) I’ll give that ------ something”.

In the 1891 census, Robert and Mary Ann were living in a cottage at Brown’s farm, Heckfield, where Robert was employed as a carter.

In 1911 they were living at The Lodge, Yateley Hall, where Robert was described as a “Houseman on Farm.”

It appears that they didn’t have any children, which was probably just as well.

This article was written by Bob Clarke