James Bartlett was a staunch advocate of the Conservative political cause, was strongly opposed to vaccinations and was strictly teetotal. He was owner of local newspaper, the Blandford Express in whose columns he had argued that the number of public houses in the town should be drastically reduced. Born in Durweston, he spent his early years working on a farm before moving to Blandford to set up a printing business without any training in this trade. George Vince was a fishmonger with different political views and certainly was not teetotal. In fact he had two convictions for being drunk and disorderly. The two clashed at lunchtime on Monday 15 th June 1885 when Bartlett refused to buy any fish. The altercation took place outside the newspaper offices, known as 'Printer's Corner' at the corner of Salisbury Street and White Cliff Mill Street. Bartlett’s refusal angered Vince such that he described the former as ‘a --------- turnip hacker, shepherd boy and that’s what h...