How far would you go?!

I was trying to find out more information on Fred Cowling’s bankruptcy using ‘old-fashioned’ internet searches when I chanced on a mention of him in the London Standard newspaper which I had never seen before.

The edition of January 17th 1913 reads: “Frederick Watkin Cowling, a baker and confectioner told the Official Receiver at the Durham Bankruptcy Court that he had walked from York to attend his public examination because he had no money to pay his railway fare.”

This was fantastic as a small news story, but to me it raises more questions than it answers:-

- Was he working in York at the time?

- Had he really walked the full 70 miles or so?

- He must have stayed somewhere overnight en route, and did this cost less than a train fare?

I wish there was more on this! I might have to try and find out more from the bankruptcy registers of the time.