22nd July 1817: Two frames sabotaged at Wimeswold, Leicestershire

The Leicester Chronicle of Friday 1st August reported an act of sabotage that had taken place in Wimeswold in the early hours of Tuesday 22nd July 1817:

In the night of Mondsay se'nnight, a stocking-maker's shop at John Clarke's, of Wimeswold, near Loughborough, was broken open, and the jack-wires withdrawn from two of the frames, and taken away, besides a little injury done to some of the needles. It is supposed that this serious mischief (serious indeed to the life of the perpetrator thereof, if he should be caught,) was committed at the early hour of one o'clock in the morning, as some neighbours heard a noise thereabouts. There was another frame in the shop, but is escaped being at all meddled with. Working under price is assigned as the cause of this lamentable occurrence. We also understand, that an event of a pretty similar description has recently taken place at Castle Donington.