Armistice 100: Leeds rhubarb growers line up to make a splash in post-war champagne market.. and Bradford man breaks PM's windows

A policeman said that about 10 o’clock in the morning, he saw the prisoner run along Downing Street and deliberately throw a stone through the window. The officer asked Kelly why he had done it. He responded: “I intended to do it and if you don’t arrest me I shall do it again.” He was thereafter taken into custody.

Addressing the magistrate, the prisoner said this was the second time he had adopted this method of trying to draw the Prime Minister’s attention “to the human law”.

He went on to make a statement as to a grievance he had against the medical profession, alleging he had been deformed by an experimental operation and that it had taken him four years to bring the matter to the public attention. However, details of his grievance were not disclosed, other than to say he was maimed and wanted compensation.

The bench sentenced him to one month in prison, to which he replied: “Thank You.”

Another story highlighted a possible post-war market for Leeds rhubarb growers and said that before the war, champagne makers in Epernay had regularly supplemented their output by buying the plant in from Leeds and district.

One grower in Rothwell recounted the story of a connoisseur who tasted rhubarb wine from the are and then enquired what brand of champagne it was.

At that time, 10,000 tons of rhubarb were produced in and around Leeds from December to May. It had at that time been grown commercially for the previous 70 years and was now the largest ‘forcing’ centre in the UK.