Hungerford Arcade is closed on Easter Sunday, 16th April 2017 but will re-open at our normal time of 9.15 am on Monday, 17th April 2017.  

Hungerford Arcade are no strangers to the people who visit us.  They have either seen us on the television, read about us in the media, been told by friends that they must visit us when they are in the UK or, like this lovely lady, they have relatives living in Hungerford.

                                       Yukiko Yanai, Adrian Gilmour & Dr. Lois Pihlens

It was a wonderful surprise when Dr. Lois Pihlens came in with her sister-in-law, Yukiko Yanai and introduced her to us.  Yukiko Yanai is married to Lois’ brother and they live just outside Tokyo.  They are a very close family and visit each other regularly.  This time it was Yukiko Yanai and her husband’s turn to come to Hungerford.  Yukiko Yanai said she loves coming to the Arcade and would never dream of going anywhere else when she is here.  

Yukiko Yanai you are a beautiful lady and it was a great pleasure meeting you.  Thank you Lois for introducing Yukiko Yanai to us.  It was a lovely experience. Rita

We received an email recently from Matt, a military officer from the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, asking if we might be able to help him find some props for a Sherlock Holmes themed murder mystery evening he was hosting.  

He was looking for an inkwell, a typewriter and various Victorian bit and pieces to fill the centre of a table as the focal point of the room.  He would have looked himself but he was very busy at work and couldn’t make it into the shop.  So we had a look around and it didn’t take us long to gather up some items which we thought might fit the bill.

Matt was very impressed with our choices and even more impressed at the size of the shop and the variety and quality of stock there is here to choose from.  He took all of the items we chose and found a couple of additional items before he left.  The dinner is being held in Kitchener Officer’s Mess at the Defence Academy of the UK in Shrivenham and will be attended by military officers, civil servants and staff from Cranfield University.  I hope everybody has a brilliant time and the props really make a difference to the atmosphere.

Hungerford Arcade has once again been on TV.  This time, presenter Roger Finn of BBC South Today called in to do some filming.  As always, we were delighted to see them. In brief, the story itself is all about shoplifting which was aired on the news on Sunday, 12th March 2017.  Click here to see the news item here

    Hungerford Arcade co-owner, Adrian Gilmour with BBC South Today presenter, Roger Finn  and                                                           of course, the cameraman

Hungerford Arcade met a very interesting gentleman at the weekend, Mr. Neil Macbeth. Neil told us a fascinating story about the old London Stock Exchange.

Neil was a Dealer at the old Stock Exchange in 1970 when it was knocked down.  It was decided that all the marble in the building would be saved and made into cigarette boxes.  To receive one of these beautiful boxes, one had to be a Member of the Stock Exchange.  As Neil was not a Member, he would not entitled to a cigarette box.

As Neil was so impressed with these boxes, his boss said that he will do his best to get him one.  At that time in 1970, Neil’s wages were £16 per week.  The marble cigarette boxes cost £25 each and they were in very high demand.  In fact, they were selling for a premium straight afterwards.  Much to his delight, Neil was lucky enough to get one of these boxes which cost him well over a week’s pay.

The marble cigarette box took pride of place on Neil’s mantlepiece until one day one of his young children accidentally knocked it off and broke it.  It was repaired but not very well.

Every so often, Neil and his wife go to Ramsbury over night and always call into the Arcade and find things to buy.  This time however, the last thing in the world Neil expected to see was an old marble Stock Exchange cigarette box.  Stallholder, Sarah-Jane Harvey could see that he was overwhelmed with his find, asked if there was a story to it and here it is. 

Neil has just sent me this picture of himself with his brand new McLaren Supercar….Wow!!!  Thank you Neil.  Brilliant!

Here is a question.

What links Hungerford with Van Diemen’s Land and a dreadful double murder that occured at Thorpe End (near Melton Mowbray) in 1856?  Well Van Diemen’s Land is now known as Tasmania and in the early days convicts were sent there.

So far so good.

But what is the Hungerford connection?

Was the convict from Hungerford and was he responsible for the double murder at Thorpe End?  And was he sent to Tasmania as a punishment instead of being hung?

If only it was that easy.

The connection between Hungerford and Van Diemen’s Land and the horrible Thorpe End murders is quite simple.  It is a framed likeness of the Thorpe End Toll House in Leicestershire.

On Monday the 20^th of February 2017 at about three in the afternoon, I was in the Hungerford Arcade when I  was shown the framed print of the toll house at Thorpe End.

This immediately aroused my interest.  Under the print there was a short description of the dreadful murders which occurred at the toll house on the night of the 19^th of June 1856.  It reads as follows.

Thorpe End Toll Bar near Melton Mowbray

PULLED DOWN IN 1875 ON THE EXPIRATION OF THE TURNPIKE TRUST

In 1837 this Toll Bar which stood close to the Town near the Thorpe End Bridge, formed one of the scenes in the midnight exploits of the singular and sportive Marquis of Waterford and his noble friends; but on the 19^th of June in 1856 an occurrence of the most fearful nature took place at this Bar in its last and more secluded locality, which was on the Thorpe Road about a mile from the town.

Edward Woodcock, an aged and harmless man, keeper of the gate, was in the darkness of night shot dead, and his young grandson, James Woodcock, as he was supposed to be rising from his bed to assist his poor Grandfather, ruthlessly stabbed by William Brown, known in the neighbourhood as “peppermint Billy”, who suffered the penalty of the law, for being the perpetrator of the two murders.

I would imagine that the print was likely to have been created locally shortly after the crime was committed.  Somehow this item has made its way to Hungerford and ended up in the Arcade.

What is interesting though, is that the convict William Brown (Peppermint Billy) who had just returned from Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) might have been innocent of the crime that he was hung for.  Let’s look at the story from a couple of perspectives.

William Brown (aka Peppermint Billy) was only thirty-seven when he returned from Van Diemen’s Land after being sent there for stealing from his employer.  He had been transported to the other side of the world to serve a ten year sentence (some sources indicate that this was a thirteen year sentence).  It was reported that during his time there he was committed to a lunatic asylum after being certified insane.

When he returned to England in 1856, Brown it was said swore revenge on the person who had helped to send him there.  According to witnesses, he said that he would murder this person to get even.

At first Brown lodged with his brother, John and his wife Ann in Leicester (it was rumoured that Brown and Ann had become lovers during this period).  After this his movements became a little more vague although he visited a servant named Amy Moore who directed him towards the Bake House at Timber Hill owned by her husband, William Moore (who appears to been a friend of William Brown).

It appears that during his journey to see William Moore,  Brown visited a number of local inns where he was heard to enquire (more than once) whether the local gatekeeper was alone during the night.  The statement of William Moore does not indicate whether he was pleased to see his old friend (Brown) or not.  But Brown was given supper and reappeared the following day and was given breakfast.  On this occasion he left with a Henry Reed (a servant of Moore’s) and he helped Reed in the fields before returning for supper.  Brown was then given one shilling and three halfpence (I would imagine that Moore was trying to get rid of him).

He was next reported resting in the field (where he had previously worked) and was last seen walking towards the Thorpe End Toll Bar.  The actual circumstances of the double murder have faded a little into history but it appears that Edward Woodcock (the gatekeeper) was attacked initially.  Brown’s intention was obviously to rob the gatekeeper of the collected tolls.

Woodcock was shot and this woke his grandson who ran to assist his aged grandfather.

Sadly, the child was stabbed to death and Brown left the scene of the double murder.

My researches do not indicate whether any money was stolen during the attack.

William Brown was arrested a couple of days later and was hung (in public) for his crime on the 25^th of July 1856 at the County Gaol in Welford Road in Leicester.  This was the last recorded public hanging in Leicestershire.  But the fact that Brown insisted that he was innocent throughout does throw an element of doubt into the proceedings.  You might think that this was a guilty man playing his last card but, as I have already mentioned, Brown had previously spent some time in an asylum.  Did this work against him?

My thoughts are that Brown might have not worked alone and that there may have been other assailants.  History places him at the scene but did he fire the fatal shot(s) and did Brown stab the child to death?  One will never know and how reliable were the witness statements?  Did Brown have a history in the area prior to his deportation?  Were there people settling scores with him or was he a convenient stool-pigeon?  He was an ex-convict and did not sound too bright and obviously, he had suffered from mental health problems.

What does disturb me about this case was that although he was placed at the scene of the crime there is a question of the legal proof.  Was he was actually responsible for killing the gatekeeper and his grandson?  The other thing that throws doubt on the case was that Brown always declared that he was innocent.  He even protested his innocence when on the gallows.  There have been a number of occasions where men have confessed to their crimes when faced with execution.  If anything, just to make peace with God before their long journey.  Brown did not do this which I find a little chilling.

There is one last mystery that I have not been able to answer.  That is how did William Brown come to have the nickname Peppermint Billy?  There are the obvious answers but I think the true reason has been long lost in the deep sands of time.

Enough of this doom and gloom!  However interesting it is.  Let’s have some light relief.

We have earned it.

You may have noticed that apart from the account of the murder, the Marquis of Waterford gets a mention even though he was nothing at all to do with the crime.

The Marquis was one of those gloriously eccentrics which these islands seem to produce quite frequently.  Take William Bentick the 5^th Duke of Portland who was so shy that he banned people from his home (Wellbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire).  He also decided to live underground and built a number of subterranean rooms which included an underground ballroom and an underground billiards room.  These rooms and others were connected by fifteen miles of tunnels including one that was a quarter of a mile long which connected him with Worksop Railway Station.

Or the utterly mad Lord Rokeby who so loved the sea that he would spend hours in the water (his servants often had to drag him unconscious on to dry land).

As he grew older this lovely man had a huge tank with a glass top constructed at his home.  As you can guess he filled it with water and spent a great deal of time in the tank.

He took all his meals in this vast pool which rather embarrassed this family.  He also had numerous drinking fountains installed so he could drink water whenever he felt the need.

Lord Rokeby lived to the age of eighty-eight so he must have got something right.

The Marquis of Waterford although not as eccentric as others still had his moments and one drunken escapade in April 1837 had heavy connections with the Toll House where nineteen years later the murders took place.  It appears that the Marquis and some of his friends were returning from the races in a rather poor state of repair.  The toll keeper (not the one that was murdered) would not let them back into the town until they paid the correct tolls.  The Marquis and his buddies took offence to this and nailed the toll keeper into his cottage and proceeded to paint the toll gates red (do not ask me where they got the paint from).

To make things worse this unruly bunch went into the town and proceeded to paint various things red including the statue of a swan outside of a local inn.  When the local police appeared they too were painted red.  The Marquis when he had sobered up, found himself in a bit of bother and was made to pay for the damage he had caused and apart from getting a smacked hand for being a naughty boy that was all the punishment he received.  Contrast this with the punishment William Brown received for stealing from his employer.

As a footnote have you ever wondered how the phrase Painting the Town Red originated?

Well now you know it is surprising what you come across when you are researching an article.

Happy Hunting

Stuart Miller-Osborne

Hungerford Arcade is a very proud sponsor of The Mary Hare School for Deaf Children and Young Adults.  This is a charity run school and you can find out more about them and the Foundation by clicking onto this link . For quite a long time, they have been raising funds in all kinds of ways.  The children have been particularly active and raised lots of money to refurbish the swimming pool at the school which had become quite dilapidated over the years and was in desperate need of a new roof and other major works.  

The difficulty was in raising funds for a refurbishment project.  Had it been for a completely new swimming pool it would have made fundraising that bit easier.  However, having said that, over £400,000 had been raised and yesterday, Adrian Gilmour, Hazel Browne and myself, Rita Kibble had the pleasure of attending the grand opening, representing Hungerford Arcade and Hazel who opened her beautiful garden to the public last summer and raised a lot of money for this project.  It was all a great success. 

It was a fabulous day with Olympic Gold Medallist, Duncan Goodhew MBE making a wonderful speech and then unveiling the plaque to officially open the pool.  Duncan is an English former competitive swimmer.  After swimming competitively in America as a collegian at North Carolina State University, he was an Olympic swimmer for Great Britain and won Olympic gold and bronze medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

After the unveiling of the plaque, Duncan got changed and went into the pool with some of the children (who are themselves medal winners) and coached them.  There was no barrier with deafness, they understood him completely and had a fantastic time. Something they will always remember.   It was wonderful to see and they were all in such awe of him and he of them.

I made a little video and hope that you like it.

Congratulations Mary Hare Foundation and to everyone who helped make this special day possible.