During the dark hours of Saturday 12th December 1891 a heinous crime was committed. The weather was treacherous, rain pelted down whilst the trees danced in the wind. This was perfect weather for poaching, and as events unfolded, the night would end with the murder of two innocent men going about their everyday business.
The Murder of Phuddephatt and Crawley
The battered bodies of the two men were discovered at approximately 11am Sunday December 13th 1891. The bodies were those of William Phuddephatt who was employed as a gamekeeper and Joseph Crawley. They were found just 150 yards inside the Buckinghamshire county border, at the edge of Stocks Wood close to Ashridge.
When the two men failed to return that morning, the head gamekeeper along with a helper instigated a search of the area as soon as visibility allowed. The first sign that something was amiss was the discovery of a great coat believed to have been that belonging to Joseph Crawley. Suspicions deepened with the discovery of Puddephats’s coat nearby.
The Buckinghamshire Manhunt Commences
The small search party made the gruesome discovery just minutes later when they came across the blood soaked bodies of the two missing men, along side the remains of a broken gun. Their injuries were horrific. Phuddephat had been brought down by a crushing blow to the back of his head, while his colleague, Crawley, sustained a debilitating blow shattering his right arm before being bludgeoned to death.
The search party was in a quandary. Although it was evident that tracks lead off across the fields in the general direction of Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire, the weather had been so appalling that accurate tracking of the perpetrators was out of the question as much of the evidence had been washed away. It was decided that the two dead men should be removed from the scene and taken to their home village of Aldbury before the search continued.
Suspicion as to who had carried out this terrible deed fell on three men living in nearby Tring. Their reputation amongst local folk as habitual poachers was well known and eyewitness’s placed them in the vicinity of the woods where the murders took place. It wasn’t long before the names of the three suspects were known; they were Eggleton, Rayner and Smith.
As the police approached, a disturbance in the village allowed the three men to escape arrest. Smith ran off during the affray and hid in his house, refusing to leave its relative safety, only to be arrested as he left for work the following Monday morning. For those hunting the other two members of the gang, the trail was proving difficult to follow. The desperado’s had been seen heading towards the vast forested tracks that covered much of the Chilterns at that time. A cat and mouse chase lasting a period of eight days and nights had begun!
The first confirmed sighting of the desperate duo was by a farmer and his shepherd on a Wendover farm. Quickly the hunt was transferred to the area where the farmer reported seeing two men behaving strangely. The two men were becoming increasingly adept at playing hide and seek with the authorities as further sightings were made in the area, primarily High Wycombe but as far away as Oxfordshire.
Eggleton and Rayner had secured temporary employment as threshers, (a method by which wheat and other small grain is removed from its chaff and straw,) it is a seasonal job employing casual labour. And it was here that they were finally arrested.
Surprisingly the pair were quickly released as their height didn't match that which had been circulated in their descriptions. Quickly the two men left Oxfordshire and hurried back to Buckinghamshire via Denner Hill and Hughendon.
Pathology and forensics, by today’s standards was very much in its infancy, but the police were able to determine that the murder weapon was a blunt instrument. To be a little more precise it was believed to be a gunstock and the decision to drag the nearby canal in search of the murder weapon was taken.
By the following weekend the police were scouring Chesham following a large number of sightings of the two men in that area. Eggleton and Rayner hide overnight in a local barn, only to be arrested by Constable Payne of the Buckinghamshire Constabulary as they emerged.The two fugitives were taken under heavy guard to Aylesbury where crowds of people had gathered to meet the train at the station.
The Trial of Eggleton and Rayner
The trail took place at the end of February 1892. All three defendants were charged with murder. The trial brought to the forefront the unpopularity of the Game Laws of the time. In particular the animosity felt by many landowners who demanded stiffer penalties for convicted poachers in an attempt to protect the game that they bred on their land, bred to provide a good days sport, not to put meat on the table.
On delivery of the verdicts, Smith was found guilty of manslaughter and received a sentence of 20 years. Eggleton and Rayner were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death and transported to Oxford Gaol to await their sentence.
In spite of a public outcry at the severity of the sentences, the order of the court was duly carried out. Eggleton and Rayner were hung on the morning of Thursday March 17th 1892.
Public hanging continued as a form of entertainment and spectacle in Britain often drawing huge crowds until 1868, at which time it was decided that subsequent hangings would take place within the confines of the prison walls.
Sources.
- Buckinghamshire County Museum
- Bucks Herald news archives
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