Bits Of History Near You

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

Former coaching inn where the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated by a naval officer with a silver-gilt dagger goes on the market for £1.5million after huge transformation

It was Ye Spotted Dogge pub in August 1628 when the nobleman was killed by Lieutenant John Felton

The Grade II listed building, pictured, was once a pub that has been refurbished by current owner Ian Young, who used to attend the school next door and became fascinated with the property in his youth

Felton was disgruntled after being passed over for promotion and was also owed £80 in back pay

The property has been renovated and turned into a house with seller Ian Young calling it a 'labour of love'

The house where the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated by a disgruntled naval officer has gone on the market for £1.5m and it even comes with the weapon used to kill him.

The historic property in Portsmouth, Hampshire, was an inn in 1628 when George Villiers, a good friend of King Charles I, visited and was knifed in the heart by Lieutenant John Felton.

The officer believed he was doing Britain a service by killing the Duke who, as Lord High Admiral of the Fleet, was hugely unpopular following some disastrous naval campaigns.

Felton was hung from the gallows in London and his body brought back to Portsmouth, where it was left to rot hanging in chains.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz56sc9NtUX

[Vico2]

Former coaching inn where the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated by a naval officer with a silver-gilt dagger goes on the market for £1.5million after huge transformation

It was Ye Spotted Dogge pub in August 1628 when the nobleman was killed by Lieutenant John Felton

The Grade II listed building, pictured, was once a pub that has been refurbished by current owner Ian Young, who used to attend the school next door and became fascinated with the property in his youth

Felton was disgruntled after being passed over for promotion and was also owed £80 in back pay

The property has been renovated and turned into a house with seller Ian Young calling it a 'labour of love'

The house where the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated by a disgruntled naval officer has gone on the market for £1.5m and it even comes with the weapon used to kill him.

The historic property in Portsmouth, Hampshire, was an inn in 1628 when George Villiers, a good friend of King Charles I, visited and was knifed in the heart by Lieutenant John Felton.

The officer believed he was doing Britain a service by killing the Duke who, as Lord High Admiral of the Fleet, was hugely unpopular following some disastrous naval campaigns.

Felton was hung from the gallows in London and his body brought back to Portsmouth, where it was left to rot hanging in chains.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz56sc9NtUX

Snazzy looking building DTW

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

Snazzy looking building DTW

Yeah really unusual....used to be open to public.....1600's old coaching inn.....Left te rot in chains eh ???? gruesome sight.

[Vico2]

Yeah really unusual....used to be open to public.....1600's old coaching inn.....Left te rot in chains eh ???? gruesome sight.

I wonder is it haunted. What do you think

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

I wonder is it haunted. What do you think

Ahh I'd say it must be with that kinda history....If walls could talk.

[Kdoc]

It's a beautiful spot. There are a couple of drawbacks to visiting the place: The Killakee road is very narrow and on Sundays, in particular, the congestion on that road can be a nightmare. At quieter times your car is at serious risk of either being broken in to or being just vandalised for the craic. There were plans for a massive development of the area including a tree top canopy walk and interpretive centre and improved car parking. It seems to have been shelved due to objections from environmentalists.

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

It's a beautiful spot. There are a couple of drawbacks to visiting the place: The Killakee road is very narrow and on Sundays, in particular, the congestion on that road can be a nightmare. At quieter times your car is at serious risk of either being broken in to or being just vandalised for the craic. There were plans for a massive development of the area including a tree top canopy walk and interpretive centre and improved car parking. It seems to have been shelved due to objections from environmentalists.

You talkin Hell Fire Club ?....

[KatieMorag]

Full particulars of the Portsmouth property:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50445537.html

Duke of Buckingham murder not mentioned in property details!

[KatieMorag]

Des Res in Barnet; former wc a snip at only 60k

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-63785431.html

[dinny]

Des Res in Barnet; former wc a snip at only 60k


http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercia...-63785431.html

Somebody is taking the piss

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

Somebody is taking the piss

Shit location

[jembo]

Three women from Bideford in North Devon were the last to be convicted of witchcraft in England. David Pilling tells their tragic story.

The town of Bideford in North Devon has an unusual claim to fame, for it was the home of the last women to be convicted of witchcraft in England. The story of how Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards came to the gallows is a tragic one that serves as a dark reminder of England's superstitious past.

By the late 17th century the witch-hunting craze had died down in England. Most witch trials after the Restoration in 1660 ended in acquittal, but the trial of the Bideford 'witches' was exceptional in that it ended with their execution. It was also remarkable in that the condemned women came from a relatively sophisticated provincial town: most witch-hunts occurred in isolated rural villages.

The story of the trial is preserved in the Book of Bideford, written in 1792 by a local historian named John Watkins. Watkins believed that the women were the victims of hatred and ignorance, writing that 'there was always some poor devil, either on account of an unlucky visage, sour temper, or wretched poverty, set up as the object of terror and universal hatred'. It is certain that most of the evidence that condemned the women consisted of malicious rumour and hearsay.

Their misfortunes began on a Saturday in July 1682 when Thomas Eastchurch, a local shopkeeper, told the town constables that he suspected Temperance Lloyd of using witchcraft to cause the illness of a local woman, Grace Thomas. Lloyd was arrested and charged with suspicion of using magical arts upon the body of Grace Thomas and to have communicated with the Devil in the shape of a black man.

Others came forward to add to the list of accusations. One Anne Wakely reported that she had seen a magpie fly to Grace Thomas's bedroom window, and that Lloyd had told her she was sometimes visited by a bird that changed into the likeness of the black man. Eastchurch added some extra spice by claiming that he heard Lloyd confess that the black man had persuaded her to go to Grace Thomas's house to 'pinch and prick' her. Grace claimed that on the night of 1 June she had suffered:

'Sticking and pricking pains, as though pins and awls had been thrust into her body, from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, and she lay as though it had been upon a rack.'

She claimed to have suffered a similar attack on 30 June and afterwards seen a cat wander into Eastchurch's shop. The cat, she suggested, was another manifestation of the Devil.

Lloyd denied using magic to harm anyone, but fell into confusion as Grace Thomas claimed to have the marks of nine pin pricks in her knee and Lloyd admitted to driving a pin into a piece of leather nine times. Two more women, Grace Barnes and Dorcas Coleman, also claimed to have suffered tormenting pains from Lloyd's witchcraft, and eventually she admitted to all charges. She also admitted to causing the deaths of three citizens of Bideford and blinding another in one eye.

Two more Bideford women, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards, were denounced by their neighbours, having been noticed in the company of Lloyd when all three were begging for food in Bideford. They were arrested and incarcerated with Lloyd, and crowds gathered to stare at the three suspects as they languished in the town lock-up.

Lloyd was sent to Exeter gaol on 8 July 1682 and was joined by Trembles and Edwards on the 19th. There they awaited trial for over a month until the justices arrived at Exeter. By now the city was seized with curiosity about the witches and the streets rang with tales of their supernatural powers. All kinds of miracles were attributed to them and public hysteria was at fever pitch: Roger North, brother of Lord North, one of the judges due to preside over the trial, feared that "the country people would have committed some disorder" if they were acquitted.

The trial that took place on 19 August was, like all witchcraft trials, not conducted by the usual means. Witchcraft was considered a crime apart and suspicion alone was adequate grounds for accusation. Being absent from the scene of the crime was not a sufficient alibi, and it was permitted for children to act as witnesses. Proof that could lead to conviction consisted of the discovery of an unnatural mark on the suspect's body, accusation by a fellow witch, or evidence given by those who had supposedly witnessed the suspect making a pact with the Devil.

All of these were relevant to the trial of the Bideford women - for instance, Temperence Lloyd was accused of having unnatural teats on her body for the Devil to suckle - but burden of proof was unnecessary for all three freely admitted their guilt. The presiding judge, Sir Thomas Raymond, allowed his will to be swayed by the emotional atmosphere in the court and raised no objection to the jury finding the suspects guilty of all charges.

At no time did the women attempt to deny the fanciful charges against them. Instead they seemed to veer between weary resignation, terror at the situation they found themselves in and genuine conviction that they were capable of witchcraft. Watkins wrote that they were 'perhaps petrified' and 'helpless against spite, ignorance and incredulity', while Roger North commented that 'they had a great skill to convict themselves. Their description of the sucking devils with saucer-eyes was as natural that the jury could not choose but believe them'.

Though they had been condemned, there was still a possibility of reprieve, but this was quashed when Lord North wrote to the Secretary of State and urged him that the executions must go ahead. If they did not, he warned, there was the risk of a popular uprising and of making it seem that the law was denying the existence of witches, which might give rise to the old practice of illegal witch-hunts. So even though the State had the power to save three innocent women from being put to death, political motives decided otherwise.

Once sentence of death had been passed, the women were sent back to Exeter gaol to await execution. Their deaths took place on 25 August 1682 at Heavitree just outside Exeter. As the women stood on the platform of the gallows and were berated by a clergyman for their crimes, their reason suddenly returned. They denied all the charges against them, but it was far too late.

Before they were hanged they were granted a request to sing part of the Psalm 40. Possibly they chose it for the following appropriate lines:

For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so I am not able to look, they are more then the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.'

Susanna Edwards was the first to be hanged, followed by Mary Trembles. When Temperance Lloyd mounted the scaffold she was observed to be apparently unconcerned about her impending death. The sheriff of the county asked her whether she believed in Jesus Christ, to which Lloyd replied simply: "Yes, and I pray Jesus Christ to pardon all my sins."

A plaque commemorating the tragic deaths of the Bideford witches can be viewed today on the wall of Rougemont Castle in Exeter.

http://www.devonlife.co.uk/people/the-bideford-witches-of-north-devon-devon-s-fascinating-history-1-1632356

https://www.exetercivicsociety.org.uk/plaques/devon-witches/

1 The plaque on the castle wall commemorating the executions of the Devon Witches in the 1680s

2 Gallow cross or “Heavitree Drop” Exeter, site of the executions

3 The early Norman gatehouse of Rougemont Castle.

[KatieMorag]

wonder why they didn't deny the charges till they were on the scaffold? Weird.........

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

Palmerston's Forts / Follies All around us here.

The Forts are part of the defensive ring built in the 1870s to defend Portsmouth Dockyard from attack by an invading French army.

The Forts were sanctioned by Lord Palmerston who realised that recent engineering developments put the Royal Navy at risk for the first time in over a century of dominance at sea.

He saw that the newly developed steam powered ships could cross the Channel and land a large army somewhere on an otherwise unfortified part of the coast before the Royal Navy could intervene.

Then, marching along the coast, they could occupy Portsdown Hill and shell the Dockyard using the newly invented rifled guns that had a far greater range than earlier smooth bore cannon.

As the Nuclear Deterrent of their day and with the help of some strategic publicity the Forts achieved the aim of deterring a French invasion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmerston_Forts,_Portsmouth

Pic 1 = Horse Sands Fort.
Pic 3 = Fort Nelson (National Armouries).
Pic 4 = Fort Widley.

[jembo]

Great story DTW. I used to pass Fort Widley quiet regular an my way to Havant and Haling Island. I had one of my holiday lets on Shortwood Road Haling. Used to stay at the Royal Oak or the Bear hotel Havant.