The Great Leighton Buzzard Bicycle Chase

Hyde Edward Dightam, from whom the bicycle was taken, explained 'the prisoner came to my shop in Lamsey Street – He wanted to buy a 50 inch bicycle I told him I had not one at home but had a 52 inch standing at the painters'. Webb went away, only to return having apparently discussed the matter with his uncle Hopkins at the Plume of Feathers, who had said he should buy the larger cycle ‘if he thought he could reach it’. The bicycle was produced – 'he got on the machine and could reach it. It was then taken out into the street…He then said he would like to try it. He got upon it. I held it for him to mount. He rode straight away down the Brickhill Road out of sight…'

Dightam followed on foot as far as Rushmere and as Webb did not return he went back to town and made enquiries of Thomas Hopkins, landlord of the Plume and Feathers at Leighton, who advised that Webb was not a relation of his and he never gave him any advice about buying a bicycle.

The machine must have been a penny farthing – the measurement of 50 or 52 inches referring to the diameter of the large wheel - your inside leg measurement was crucial to the size of wheel you could manage.

There then follows an account of a chase across the county in pursuit of the cyclist. First Dightam retraced the trail to Rushmere across to Woburn and obtained police assistance and a horse and trap. Webb is seen at Ridgmont, Ampthill and Elstow but is always just a little ahead. He could not be found in Bedford so Dightam returned home. The following day he and a police superintendent took an early train to Bedford to continue the chase. When they got to St Neots they found the bicycle at the paper mill where it had been left broken following an accident.

Webb's adventures had come to an abrupt end. He arranged to follow a cart from St Neots to Godmanchester as he didn't know the road. The cart driver said 'he waited for us and rode his bicycle behind the cart. We started at ten. Stopping at a gate near the St Neots mill he ran his bicycle into the back of our cart and broke it.'

The story has something of a happy ending. Webb explained to the police 'I can only say I did not take the bicycle with the intention of stealing it. I left the cup [a plated cup he said he had won in a swimming race] with Mr Dightam until I had seen whether the machine suited me until I came back – I wanted to try the machine. I have offered him the money for the machine since I have been taken and he can have it now in two hours' time.' This was enough for the jury and Webb was acquitted. He presumably paid for the bicycle which was worth the not inconsiderable sum of £10 10s (approximately equivalent to £900 today)