I’m a Felon - it’s official!
Last night I attended a most unusual and enjoyable social event in the ballroom of the Crown Hotel. A few months ago some good friends of mine - David Puxley, Ivan Forster and Alan Fernyhough - told me that had found an advert in a newspaper dated 1790 announcing that the Stone Association for the Prosecution of Felons was holding it’s annual dinner in the ballroom of the Crown Hotel! We are all familiar with Felons dinners in Hanley and Burslem but none of us had ever heard of a Stone Association. Local historian and fellow councillor Philip Leason was roped in and he too could find no further references to it.
So David et al formed a small committee and set about arranging a ‘resurrection’ of the Association and it’s annual dinner. And what a success it was! A splendid meal, many bottles of wine on the table and three short but excellent speeches. President Ian Moxon formally announced that we were all appointed members of the Association and could henceforth be called Stone Felons!
These associations were formed before Robert Peel created the police force as we know it today. Local businessmen would subscribe to a fund in order to employ nightwatchmen to arrest burglars and thieves and to pay for the prosecution of local criminals. Since the advent of a proper police force, the only purpose of the Association is to hold an Annual Dinner. I’ll drink to that!
Grateful thanks to the organisers. A splendid evening which I’m sure will now become a tradition in the years to come
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