AS part of our weekly Crime Files series, we are taking a look back at the archives to bring you stories from Herefordshire's history.

The following story dates from 1893.

A FORMER Hereford pub and coffee shop was the scene of a shooting by a jealous husband in 1893.

Henry Ellis was charged with attempting to murder his wife Ellen, stepdaughter, and lawyer's clerk George Palamountain at Hereford Police Court in April of that year.

The court heard Ellis at pulled out a revolver at his wife's business, the City and County Dining Rooms, later The Tabard, and more recently Starbucks, in Hereford.

The couple had been living apart, the court heard, with Mrs Ellis paying him an allowance while he stayed in Cardiff.

But, apparently prompted by jealousy of his wife and Mr Palamountain, Ellis returned to Hereford, rushing into the house with a loaded six-chamber revolver and firing two shots, one at Mrs Ellis and one at Mr Palamountain, who came upon the scene after hearing a disturbance.

OTHER NEWS:

Both bullets missed, with Mr Palamountain said to have had a narrow escape, while Ellis also pointed the weapon at his stepdaughter and the barmaid, a Miss Box, who had intervened.

However, in June that year, it was heard at Hereford that Mr Palamountain and the stepdaughter did not believe that Ellis had really intended to injure them, and he was sent for trial on a charge of shooting at Mr Palamountain with intent to do him grievous bodily harm, with the other two charges dismissed.

The 47-year-old appeared before Hereford Summer Assizes in July, where he spoke without a lawyer and appealed to the jury as married men, arguing that if they had been placed in the same position as him, they would have acted the same way.

He was found not guilty, with the decision being greeted by applause, and entered a guilty plea to a charge of common assault.