The Whirlwind
Despite its location in the rather ordinary town of Reading, and the encroachment of some ugly modern architecture at its boundaries, the graveyard surrounding Saint Laurence church has a quiet charm. To one side is the pretty Hospitium of Saint John, once the pilgrims’ dormitory of the twelfth century abbey. In Spring there are daffodils, primroses, and cherry blossom, and it is an agreeable place to be. Nonetheless Henry West would undoubtedly have preferred not to have arrived there quite so early in his life.
In 1840 the Great Western Railway, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, arrived in Reading. This was its terminus until a year later when it reached Bristol. The building of the line had not been without tragedies: men had died making the sixty feet deep, two mile long cutting at Sonning. But by March the track was complete. Six days before Reading station was due to open Henry West, a twenty-four-year-old carpenter, was working on the roof of the station lantern. A freak whirlwind tore off a section of the roof, and Henry West was killed.
The horizontal wooden grave board which denotes his burial place was erected by his fellow workmen. A wooden marker of this type is relatively unusual but, softer and more muted than the more common stone markers, it seems an appropriate choice for a young man.
Of course, timber weathers more rapidly, and the grave board was renewed by Henry’s brother in 1862, and by his niece in 1924, until in 1971 the town council took responsibility for it.
Who lost his life in a WHIRLWIND at the GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY STATION, READING
on the 24th of MARCH 1840 Aged 24 Years
After detailing his age and the circumstances of his death, the board bears a verse:
Sudden the change, in a moment fell and had no time to bid my friends farewell,
Yet hushed be all complaint, ’tis sweet, ’tis blest, to change Earth’s stormy scenes for Endless rest,
Dear friends prepare, take warning by my fall, so shall you hear with joy your Saviour’s call.
It is not a sentiment which I can share, I think a young man of twenty-four might have favoured a few more stormy scenes, but perhaps it offered some consolation to his friends and family.
The Highwayman
Chew Magna in Somerset provides a more rural but far from rustic setting. Despite a population of little over a thousand, the village boasts four pubs, one with a Michelin star, a seafood restaurant and bar, a café, a wine shop, a delicatessen, a butcher, a small supermarket, a bakery, florist, gift shop and pottery. Large period houses line the high street. There is nothing new about this affluence: the Bishops of Bath and Wells established a summer palace here, and Chew Magna grew rich on the medieval wool trade. Later Bristol merchants built their houses here. No surprise then that there were always rich pickings for those on the wrong side of the law.
In Saint Andrew’s churchyard, William Fowler’s headstone recalls the violent death of the thirty-two-year-old farmer at the hands of a highwayman. Like pirates and smugglers, highwaymen tend not to be so romantic in reality as they are in stories. In 1814 William Fowler was shot on Dundry Hill as he returned home from Bristol. Following an inquest held in the Pelican Inn, Benjamin Bennett was found guilty of his murder and imprisoned in Ilchester gaol.
William Fowler’s headstone reads,
Sacred
To the Memory of
Mr. WILLIAM FOWLER
of this Parish, who was
Shot by an Highwayman
on Dundry Hill
June 14th, 1814
Aged 32 years
Also of GRACE his wife
Who died Augst. 25th 1839
Aged 55 years
Little else is known of William Fowler although Chew Valley Films have produced a short film, Death on Dundry, dramatizing the incident, and a follow-up detailing the recent restoration of the grave.*
The Biddax
More is known of Richard Roskruge, buried in the churchyard of Saint Anthony in Meneage in Cornwall in 1797. As his stone recalls he was killed by a blow to his head with a biddax, which sounds disturbingly like a plot line in Midsomer Murders.
THIS STONE
Is dedicated to the Memory of
Richard Roskruge
who was
Killed when in the Execution
of his Office as Surveyor of the
Highways by a Blow on his Head
with a Biddax. 14th August
1797 aged 66
Years
Roskruge had been appointed as Surveyor of Highways by the parish. Parishes were designated with keeping their roads in good repair, and to this end every man owning land valued at more than fifty pounds was required to provide labour and tools for six days every year. The Surveyor was responsible for organising this, and it did not make him popular.
Indeed, it led to a quarrel with John Rashleigh, a neighbouring farmer who was responsible for the biddax, a Cornish name for a pickaxe or mattock, attack. Roskruge did not die immediately and was able to identify his attacker who he claimed, “had a corrosive (a grudge) against him.” Rashleigh however fled the scene and was never caught or charged.
Roskruge’s widow chose his epitaph:
Ah! Rueful Fate! Beneath in dust I lie,
Doomed by a cruel ruffian’s hand to die:
By a merciless blow he struck my brain so sure
That death ensued and lo! I am no more.
But this is not what we see on the grave, for the vicar, Reverend Polwhele, persuaded her to accept the more conciliatory:
Doomed by a neighbour’s erring hand to die
For him my spirit breaths from heaven a sigh,
O! while Repentant Prayers the dead atone,
Be mine to waft them to the Eternal Throne.
Thirty years later Roskruge’s wife was buried beside him; there was only just space to squeeze her name on at the base of the stone, so sadly there are no more edifying verses.**
*The film can be seen on YouTube, Death on Dundry, Chew_Valley_Films.
**For more detail see: “A discourse preached at the parish church of Manaccan in consequence of two melancholy events on the 27th August 1791,” a sermon which the vicar had printed. The second melancholy event was a violent storm four days after the murder.
https://www.cornishbirdblog. >the-murder-of-richard-roskruge