Murder Of Elizabeth Shepherd


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bessie_shepherd_stone.jpg

The Bessie Sheppard Stone

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Elizabeth Sheppard was murdered aged 17 on 7th July 1817, as recorded by a stone memorial on the A60, about half a mile north of the junction with the B6020 Kirkby road, and opposite Thieves Wood in Harlow Wood.

Bessie Sheppard stone

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  • 5 years later...

I've always been intrigued by the story of this Papplewick lass who set off on foot to Mansfield in search of employment as a servant. Apparently she was attacked on her return and sadly never made it home. Her attacker, a man by the name of Charles Rotherham, battered Elizabeth with a hedge stake and broke her skull leaving her dead by the roadside.

Rotherham took her meagre possessions and wandered south, staying at the old Three Crowns Inn in Redhill for the night where he was seen trying to sell her shoes and umbrella I believe. The Three Crowns Inn was demolished in the 1930s' I understand. To locate where it was, imagine fairly well straight opposite where The Ram Inn is on Mansfield Road. I used to talk to an elderly Redhill man who's family had once lived on the premises of the Three Crowns Inn. He told me a little tale of he and his young sister descending down into some caves below Mansfield Road from the cellar caves of the old hostelry and emerging in the cellars of The Ram Inn opposite! It seems like the city centre is not the only area with subterranean hideaways.

Bessie' stone still sits there, rather forlornly, ignored and hidden in the undergrowth of the A60 near Portland College. It's very difficult to spot from a passing car and necessitates parking up, perhaps at the college, and rooting around in the long grass a little. It would be nice to see it cleared.

A sad tale that ended up with her murderer, Charles Rotherham being hanged at Gallows Hill in Nottingham.

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I knew there was something else I didn't like about the name Rotherham! Back in the early 1960's 2 of the "Northgate" lads Dick Slater and Gordon Pridmore sent off for Mansfield Dick on a 50cc Itom, Gordon on his moped. The latter broke down and yours truely went to get him on my bike, think maybe a sprung hub triumph, Found him having a rest near that stone, couldn't fix it and he wouldn't leave it, he finished up pushing it all the way to Basford! just a bit of daft memory

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Can someone point out a little more precisely where you'de have to look near the college ?? ( portland college Nottingham Rd (a60)).....would like to go see if we can find it.

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Can someone point out a little more precisely where you'de have to look near the college ?? ( portland college Nottingham Rd (a60)).....would like to go see if we can find it.

Sure Kev. You need to park at Portland College then venture south (turn left) down the side of the main road with the grass verge on the East side of the A60 a bit. If you get to where the road is rising up again you've gone too far mate. Bessie's stone lies in the undergrowth a few feet back from the main road. Give me a shout if you're struggling bud. I will take you there.

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OK Kev , I'l do my best , from what I recall , it's about 400 yards shy of the hospital (Harlow wood????) that's on the left as you head towards Mansfield.

Bloody hell I've just had a look on google earth and it's changed a bit since I was last up there (1995!!) Where did all those houses come from ??

Any way I hope this works , it's around here matey..........LOL (Go on Google earth and use the co ordinates at the bottom of the picture for a clue !!)

ShepherdStone.jpg

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It's changed an awful lot at Harlow Wood in recent years, Ian. (it was on the right as you head towards Mansfield by the way). Once a hospital as we know, it's now a small estate of fairly posh houses. Bessie's stone still lies there in the undergrowth as her epitaph though thankfully.

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I used to deliver to the day care centre on the left (I thought that was Harlow Wood Hospital) They were doing a lot of work at the site on the right , but there's a whole bloody housing estate in there now too !!!

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I remember fiding it once as a young teenager, being dragged out for a "Sunday constitutional"!! then rediscovering whilst walking back to Nottingham as an 18 year old, after missing the last bus from Mansfield!! That was a bit unerving I can tell you!!

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Kev, it's not really 'in' the wood at all. You need to look a few feet back from the road only amongst the grass verge at the side of the tarmac.

Here's what it looks like. It should be a little easier to spot at this time of year before the vegetation starts growing around it.

533627_6b9c12ed.jpg

Map

http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getamap/frames.htm?mapAction=gaz&gazName=g&gazString=SK551564

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Another account from the interesting Ravenshead Newsletter website:

http://www.ravensheadnewsletter.co.uk/history.htm

'Just below Portland' Training, College can be seen a stone at the side of the road marking the spot where a young Papplewick girl was murdered on July 7th 1817. Elizabeth Shepherd left her mother's home in Papplewick about mid-day to try to find a job in Mansfield. Being successful in this she returned home about six-o-clock wearing a pair of new shoes and carrying a yellow umbrella. Early next morning her body was found in a ditch and a large hedge-stake, covered with blood, nearby.

The murderer was quite easily identified as Charles Rotherham, a scissors-grinder of Sheffield. He had been drinking in the Hutt soon after the murder and had spent the night at the Three Crowns Inn, Redhill, where he had tried to sell the girl's shoes and umbrella which he had stolen. He was caught leaning over a bridge near Loughborough. The girl's mother said later that she had passed Rotherham whilst out looking for, her daughter. Rotherham was hanged on Gallows Hill (where the Mansfield Road/Forest Road cemetery is) in Nottingham on July 28th, 1817. The full details of the Bessie Shepherd murder can be found on a penny broadsheet in Mansfield Museum.'

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So the stone has changed from the square one then ???

Also putting a search in takes you to 'amazon' with a guy saying hes written a book saying he thinks the wrong man was hanged.

We'll be off there tomorrow to have a look.

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Top pic the stone is square with the writing in is own setback square bit....the lower pic its triangular and the no longer 'white' writing isnt set in its own sunk in bit

And look at the spelling of Rother'H'am

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Found it today....I looks like to us ( seeing old pics of it ) that at some point it has been turned around as the bank slopes down from the road and you face the inscription carved in the rebated square and the other carving now faces the woods and looks to be more weathered.

Front

StoneFront.jpg

Back

StoneBack.jpg

So both spellings of Rother'H'am are on the same stone.

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  • 4 years later...

When I worked at Harlow Wood Hospital, we nurses always knew this as the Betsy (not Bessie) Sheppard stone.

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A cutting from a newspaper of the time of the murder , note the spelling of Shepherd as against Sheppard as per the stone marker . This in the Cambridge Chronicle 1 August 1817 (warning: a bit gory !)

16279499211_614c89ddb3_b.jpg

A week later from the same paper the report of the execution before a 18- 20,000 crowd

16279499211_614c89ddb3_b.jpg

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