This article written by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine in January 2023
Happy New Year from the Thursley History Society. Last month, James Mendelssohn wrote about the lessons learned from the devastating fire on Hankley Common this summer, and how we can apply those findings to our own small but fairly spread-out community. We all like to hope that the fires that have ravished our commons in recent years were accidental incidents but this month’s story features a far more sinister turn of events.
I came across this article taken from Old Bailey Proceedings Online, dated 31st March 1879, from the trial of Thursley resident, Alan John Mitchell, who was charged with Arson, with intent to injure. The article is as it was written up in the Proceedings, so there is an element of repetition, but I thought worth including a lot of it, in order to get the full story. The language is of the time!
WILLIAM LILLYWHITE
I am keeper to Mr Robert Webb, Lord of the Manor of Witley, in the county of Surrey. On 9th March I saw some fires burning on the common.
I went to find a friend, Mr Budd. I went in front of the Red Lion public house** at about 10pm. I saw Alan Mitchell there, and heard him use the expression that he would burn the b_____ common* out. I then went and concealed myself a little distance from the Hammer Ponds, about half a mile from the public house. I saw the fires burning from the direction of the public house all along the road. I saw the prisoner and two other men, Keen and Elwyn, coming along the road towards the Hammer Ponds. They came close to where I was watching and I heard Keen say “Don’t do it, Alan, you are a fool if you do, there is someone watching”. The prisoner then stepped back in the road for a few seconds, he then came towards the bushes, a little above where he was the first time, and I moved from the place where I was watching close where he came across, and I distinctly saw him take the matches from his clothes, light them and put them into the bushes, and light the bushes in several different places. The common was burning the six or seven different places at that time. I said to him “Alan, what are you doing this for? Are you not right, now?” He did not make any reply. I told him he would hear of it. Keen came up at the time and said “If we put it out, I suppose that will do?”
Cross-examined
I had been out nearly all of the evening. I left home just before 7 – no fires were burning at that time. There was one fire between 7 and 8, but not in the Milward Manor. Our manor is the Witley Manor, it is all the same. Some call it Witley and some Milward, they are not in different parts, they are both in one. I saw one fire in the Pepper Harrow Manor a little after 7, this fire was nearly a mile from the fire I saw burning at Witley.
WILLIAM BUDD
I live at the Silk Mills in Thursley. I was with Lillywhite on the night of the 9th of March. In consequence of something that he had seen, he asked me to go out with him. I went with him towards where the fire was burning. We hid ourselves in the bushes. I heard someone say “Don’t you do it, Alan”. Then I heard Lillywhite say “Alan, what are you doing that for? I have caught you now”. I can’t tell whose voice it was that said “Don’t do it, Alan”. I did not see anything done by anybody. I saw a fire alight, I did not see who lighted it. I know two Alan’s in the neighbourhood of Thursley. No more. I don’t think so. The two I know are Alan Mitchell, the prisoner, and Alan Elwyn. I did not see Alan Elwyn that night.
CHARLES FREDERICK NORTON (Policeman 50 Surrey Constabulary).
I apprehended the prisoner at the Horse Shoe Inn on 10th March. I charged him with setting fire to the common, the property of the Lord of the Manor. He said “If you want me for anything I did last night, why don’t you summons me, and not take me now?” He said “Will you let me go home to change my clothes?” I accompanied him to his house, and allowed him to go upstairs to change his clothes and I stood at the foot of the stairs. I could not hear him moving about and I went up and then found that he had escaped by jumping out of the window. I next saw him in a lane at the back of the house. I went after him and when he saw me get over the fence, he started running. I ran after him and eventually caught him. He afterwards said, “I know I went down the road last night, but I was drunk, and if I did anything wrong I did, but I don’t know it”.
The proceedings continue on in a lengthy fashion, taking evidence from Frederick Rothwell – the bailiff to Mr Webb, Lord of the Manor of Witley, and witnesses for the Defence including Alan Elwyn and Albert Keen, who “saw nothing” and admitted to “having been in a little trouble, it was not about poaching. I don’t know what it was; I never heard nothing. I have never been in prison, I was convicted and fined for poaching”. Potentially an unreliable witness, might I suggest! Other names mentioned, who were all drinking in the Red Lion that night and went down to see the fires were Robert Walker, Bill Carter, Jerry Dark, Hughy Mitchell and James “Wisdom”. And even though the waters were muddied somewhat by Alan Elwyn claiming that William Lillywhite had been in The Half Moon*** all afternoon, implying his recollection and judgement might have been somewhat hazy, Alan Mitchell was found guilty and sentenced to five years Penal Servitude, which was, according to The Penal Servitude Act of 1857 , imprisonment with hard labour!
*Blanked out in the transcript
**The Red Lion Inn (Bridle Cottage) was on the Old Portsmouth Rd, now a private house.
***The Half Moon pub was situated down the slip road onto the A3, I believe, just before Hammer Ponds.
If anyone has any photos or info on The Half Moon, we would love to see it.
