Dick Turpin lynched at Chester Rd?

[Kevkonk]

Not sure if there is a Dick Turpin thread already, but someone told me a story which I never heard before and claims it is true.

He tells me that the pub called The Place to Be ( Old Oscott Tavern? now part of Halls Garden Centre) stands on the site of a pub that Dick Turpin dropped by one evening for a quick drink. Somebody recognised him and he was dragged off to where the main Halls Garden site is now and lynched. His body was buried across the road where the Fosseway used to be, but later exhumed when the authorities heard about it and taken back to London.

I know that he frequented that area but I am sure the story is mistaken and it may possibly have happened to a cohort or someone. History tells us he was hanged at York in 1739.

Do you think there is any fact in the story or what may have really happened, the guy claimed he read it in a local history book.

 

[Lloyd]

Seems to be an urban legend, I'm afraid. Doubtless one of many surrounding this criminal.
"On 7th April, 1739, Dick Turpin rode through the streets of York in an open cart, bowing to the gawking crowds. At York racecourse he climbed the ladder to the gibbet and then sat for half an hour chatting to the guards and the executioner. An account in the York Courant of Turpin's execution, notes his brashness even at the end, "with undaunted courage looked about him, and after speaking a few words to the topsman, he threw himself off the ladder and expired in about five minutes."
See https://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/highwaymen/dick_turpin.htm for the full story.

 

[terryb18]

Personally, I have my doubts, however it caused me to read his story on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Turpin which made for an interesting read. Not a pleasant fellow was he?

Terry

 

[beamish]

The reputed grave of Dick Turpin is said to be in Fishergate, York. However, their are some midland connections relating to Turpin. It is said that he stole his horse Black Bess from the Rugegely thoroughfare: The Horsefair - The Horsefair - is still in Rugeley today. Then he spent the night after stealing the horse at the Goats Head public house in Abbots Bromley and that a plaque there testifies to this.

 

[col h]

I doubt there is any truth in the story I read in The Water Orton local paper years ago, about him ' working' Green Lane in Castle Brom, or of him parking his horse at either the Queens Head on the A5 at Tamworth, or the Swan in Kingsbury.

But has anyone else heard that one ?

 

[dek carr]

I believe there is some history with Dick Turpin and the Plough and Harrow on the Chester Rd towards Brownhills.Dek

 

[JohnO]

Not sure if there is a Dick Turpin thread already, but someone told me a story which I never heard before and claims it is true.

He tells me that the pub called The Place to Be ( Old Oscott Tavern? now part of Halls Garden Centre) stands on the site of a pub that Dick Turpin dropped by one evening for a quick drink. Somebody recognised him and he was dragged off to where the main Halls Garden site is now and lynched. His body was buried across the road where the Fosseway used to be, but later exhumed when the authorities heard about it and taken back to London.

I know that he frequented that area but I am sure the story is mistaken and it may possibly have happened to a cohort or someone. History tells us he was hanged at York in 1739.

Do you think there is any fact in the story or what may have really happened, the guy claimed he read it in a local history book.

At last, someone has mentioned this odd, historical (?) anomaly! I've read a great deal about Dick Turpin; and never have I heard any significant mention of the midlands. However, since childhood I have many heard 'stories' of Turpin in, and around the midlands region. My interest came about when I was around 9-10 years old, when out walking with father, somewhere in the south-west of Charlemont, in West Bromwich, we came across a dilapidated stone well-head, set in a wall/hedge...on which was an old plaque, stating that this was the spot where Dick Turpin once watered his horse ''Black Bess'!

However, as I was unfamiliar with the area, I was never able to find the place again. I've since enquired on several 'sites' but no one seems to recall the well/drinking-fountain, or the supposed 'Turpin' connection ..... I had even begun to think I'd imagined it, although the 'circumstancial' tales of his presence seem to support, at least in part, his being in the area.

Does anyone know of this well???

 

[colin walker]

Hi all
col h I think you may be right about him passing through water orton area. I lived in watton lane and when you carry on past watton lane upto the traffic lights. so my history book says . there was a stage coach inn on that corner and it was the main london run . old dick was known to rob the stage coach just past there quite often.
But yes he is buried in york so i believe .
colin

 

[Kevkonk]

Was the Lad in the Lane pub in Erdington supposed to have lodged him one night?

Just found this thread on here....
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3816

Tom King friend and rival to Dick Turpin was born at a farmhouse between Sutton Park and Stonnall.and many stories of the highwaymen are found among the pages of the Aris's Birmingham Gazette one springs to mind as being Robin Hood ish.

Many of them when caught were hung at Gibbet Hill, which was near Oscott College
There was also a Gibbet at Little Sutton common another at Gallows Brook at Middleton


I wonder if Gibbet Hill is at the site of Halls Garden Centre or near Antrobus Rd.....

 

[dek carr]

Kev The Plough and Harrow on the Chester Rd is no more than 1 mile from Stonnall. Dek

 

[Kevkonk]

Chester Road was once the main route from the south to the then port of Chester, the principal port for Ireland and its route through Sutton was notorious in the 18th century for robbers and highwaymen. In 1729 a London merchant was murdered here and his attacker was hanged on Gibbet Hill overlooking Chester Road . The route was turnpiked in 1759.

 

[Kevkonk]

Thanks dek, seems like there was some overlap as theses highwaymen knew each other so must have met within the radius of this area, so I guess the stories get muddled over time about the highwaymen hanged at the 'Gibbet', by the way is a gibbet the same as a scaffold?

Gibbet Hill, in the north-west of the area, is named after the gibbet from which Edward Allport was hanged for the murder of London silk dyer John Johnson in the area on 28 March 1729.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldmere#cite_note-higgins-6 Although this site is no longer referred to as Gibbet Hill, and was undeveloped until (at least) 1906,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldmere#cite_note-higgins-6 the toponomy has survived in the name of Gibbet Hill Wood; an area which is identified as "an area of potential archaeological importance" due to "surviving archaeological remains".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldmere#cite_note-veseyward-10

 

[Kevkonk]

The New Oscott Village complex just built seems to be the location of the Gibbet, (this area has tales of hauntings) the over 50's complex of 260 properties, Is this the reason why people are not rushing to buy or rent? I may be wrong but it seems to be in the right area.......

 

[gingerjon]

Old Dick must have liked is ale as he also stopped at the Irish Harp Chester road Aldridge it's a wonder he could ride Black Bess LOL

 

[Nicholas]

Many aspects of the story that is mentioned here features in the matter that I had previously been trying to research on the same region concerned: https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28536

I have put together the meat of an article on the subject, but haven't quite finished it as yet....

Tom King is rumoured to have been caught and burned in Sutton Park according to some legends, but - as with much of this sort of thing - it appears to be utter twaddle in the end.

Dick Turpin apparently jumped the toll gate at Brownhills too - despite the fact that it wasn't supposedly erected until quite a while after his death!!

Regards,

Nick

 

[cornwall col]

Yes Dick Turpin was executed in York and his grave remains in the city - as far as his connections to the Midlands are concerned he certainly drank at the Queen's Head on Watling Street in Wilnecote witch is now part of Tamworth. The pub stands on relatively high ground and would have given a decent view over the surrounding countryside

 

[Kevkonk]

Dick TiePin was another unknown highwayman who would wear a tiepin and use it to burst childrens balloons at parties, a very evil man, he would also go around fairgrounds popping them, and even used to chase after rag and bone men's carts bursting them all no matter what colour....It was thought it punctured a plastic bag with a goldfish in it and the poor fish was saved by a quick thinking kid from Birmingham who used a water pistol to fill one of his welligogs with water and chuck the fish in it and took it home to his mom who put it in the tin bath in front of the fire, while her husband who was taking a bath at the time put a blindfold around the fish's eyes to avoid embarrassment all around.......

 

[fatfingers]

Ever considered that he may have been killed and buried on Chester Rd, but the powers that be ( or had been ) would have still wanted to make an example, so hung and buried someone else to save face ?

 

[Nicholas]

Dick TiePin was another unknown highwayman who would wear a tiepin and use it to burst childrens balloons at parties, a very evil man, he would also go around fairgrounds popping them, and even used to chase after rag and bone men's carts bursting them all no matter what colour....It was thought it punctured a plastic bag with a goldfish in it and the poor fish was saved by a quick thinking kid from Birmingham who used a water pistol to fill one of his welligogs with water and chuck the fish in it and took it home to his mom who put it in the tin bath in front of the fire, while her husband who was taking a bath at the time put a blindfold around the fish's eyes to avoid embarrassment all around.......

I will have 5 pints of what KevKonk is on please, barman!!

Ever considered that he may have been killed and buried on Chester Rd, but the powers that be ( or had been ) would have still wanted to make an example, so hung and buried someone else to save face ?

Ahhh - I love a conspiracy theory Fatfingers!!!

Regards,

Nick

 

[Dave M]

Muffins Den Mere Green


Muffins Den


B75 - Grid reference SP132991


Use the grid reference on the Ordnance Survey website - Get-a-map.

Muffins Den was a hamlet on Slade Road and is shown on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map as comprising a handful of buildings on the south side of the road, north of Bodicote Grove. One of the buildings was a Baptist chapel built in 1775 but no longer there. The 1861 census shows there to have been a farm house and several labourers' cottages. There was also an inn, the Plough & Harrow, the predecessor of the current pub.

Muffins Den is also the name of a house here believed to have been built during the Middle Ages though much altered. It was allegedly a haunt of Dick Turpin. Born in Essex in 1705, Turpin was a notorious highwayman who is known to have been active in the Midlands, especially the East Midlands, and many old pubs boast unproven associations with him. Turpin was captured at York and hanged there in 1739. The house, which is thought to have been built in 1487, has only Local Listing, which gives it no statutory protection, and was threatened with demolition in 2002.

The origin of the name is unknown. A muffin is a round light bread bun usually dusted with flour that is often eaten at breakfast or tea. It is first found recorded in 1703 as moofin. However, the word was also used with sexual connotations from the 17th century and is still found in American slang meaning a loose woman or prostitute. A den is a wild animal's lair; the word when used of people has the implication of an illicit hiding place.

However, Muffin is also a surname, generally, though not exclusively, found in counties south of Birmingham,