My latest sojourn was nearly foiled by the ineptitudes of South
Western Railways (the adding of '-ern' and replacement of 'Trains'
with 'Railways' not affecting the standard of the service). My train
was delayed for just under half-an-hour, and then on reaching
Basingstoke was to be run fast to Bournemouth. Alighting, having been
promised that there was another service behind, which would now be
stopping at Basingstoke to pick us up, I was not entirely surprised
when said service sped through the station without stopping. However,
another service arrived ten minutes later, and around twenty minutes
later, I was pulling into my destination – Winchester Station.
It would have been at
this station that Holmes and Watson would have alighted in 1890 at
11.30am before meeting their client Violet Hunter at The Black Swan
Hotel
[COPP],
and ten years later on their way to visit Grace Dunbar in Winchester
Prison
[THOR].
They may also have used it to travel to the Winchester Races
[SILV].
Exiting the station, the view of the Cathedral Tower referred to in
'The Copper Beeches' was not visible due to the growth of trees and
buildings in the meantime.
First up was HMP/YOI
Winchester, a fifteen minute's walk away. It was here that Grace
Dunbar was confined awaiting her trial in 'The Problem of Thor
Bridge'. The prison has always had a remand function and in 1900 held
both male and female prisoners. Records indicate that at the time of
Miss Dunbar's confinement about 25-30 female prisoners would be held
at any one time. Female prisoners were housed in A-Block up to the
time when the admission of women ceased in November 1927. However, an
old screen of bars still cuts A-Block off from the rest of the
prison. Thereafter female prisoners were sent to Holloway. However,
in 1995, a unit was specially built in the male segregation block, to
house Rosemary West, during her trial at Winchester Crown Court, the
case having been moved to minimise the upset to victims' relatives in
the Gloucester area
Miss Dunbar was of
course acquitted, but it is interesting to note that no female
prisoner was hanged for murder in the prison between 1895 and 1905.
Winchester Prison also had another famous fictional female in-mate,
as Tess Derbyfield was hanged there for murder in Thomas Hardy's
“Tess of the D'Ubervilles”.
Having dashed in and
took a few photographs of the gatehouse before anyone could come out
and ask what I was doing, I made my way back towards central
Winchester.
Next up, was the
Great Hall of
Winchester Castle (which is the only surviving part of the former
fortress). For centuries, the Great Hall was used to
accommodate courts of law, with its most famous trial being that of
Elizabeth I's military and naval commander Sir Walter Raleigh for
'high treason' in 1603. However, in 1874, a new court building,
designed by T.H. Wyatt, was erected on a site immediately adjoining
the Hall to the east. It would therefore have been in this building
that in 1900, Grace Dunbar formally heard the charges against her
being dismissed. She was never actually tried before a jury for
murder because before that stage had been reached in the proceedings
against her, Holmes had discovered the new evidence which
demonstrated her innocence. Nonetheless, as a defendant who had been
committed for trial, it was necessary for her to be brought before a
Judge in order to be discharged. Thus she would have made a brief
albeit sensational appearances before the Winchester Assizes.
Unfortunately, the Victorian courts no longer
survive, having been built over the ditch of the medieval castle,
subsistence meant that they had to be demolished in 1938, the Assizes
moving back to the Great Hall itself, moving into the new city court
building in 1974. However, the former Judge's bench is preserved in
the Hall, and the arches which would have led to the court building
remain, now with a pair of steel gates imposed in 1983 to commemorate
the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales two years before.
An imitation Arthurian
Round Table hangs in the Great Hall. The table was originally
constructed in the 13th century, and repainted in its present form
for Henry VIII; around the edge of the table are the names of King
Arthur's knights.
Exiting the Great Hall,
I walked to The Black Swan Hotel, which is one of the few hotels or
inns mentioned in the canon by their real names, joining Claridges
[THOR], the Langham Hotel [SIGN/SCAN/LADY], the Brambletye Hotel
[BLAC] and the Anerley Arms [NORW]. In 'The Copper Beeches', Holmes
and Watson had lunch in The Black Swan with Violet Hunter following
her urgent summons.
“The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no
distance from the station, and there we found the young lady waiting
for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch awaited us upon
the table” - Watson [COPP]
The hotel was certainly welcoming, as although Miss Hunter had to
return to The Copper Beeches by 3pm when the Rucastles were going
out, Holmes and Watson delayed until 7pm before joining her there,
possibly because having enjoyed their lunch at The Black Swan, they
decided to remain there and have their tea before setting out.
The hotel claims a long
and distinguished history in the life of Winchester. The first
mention of it as an inn goes back to 1703, where it probably occupied
only a small part of the later site. In Victorian times, before the
opening of the railway in 1840, the hotel was the principal stopping
place for the old road wagons bringing heavy good in and out of
Winchester. After the transformation brought about by the advent of
the railways, the hotel, adapting to the times, used to send vehicles
to meet the trains and became well-known as catering for the
businessman and the traveller. At the time of the Winchester Assizes
(such as those at which Grace Dunbar would have appeared in 1900),
its rooms were crowded with lawyers, journalists and hangers-on from
the nearby courts. It was never a luxury hotel, but it was a
comfortable one and something of a Winchester institution. At the
time of Holmes and Watson's visit the establishment was presided over
by Walter Chapple who had bought it in 1884.
The hotel remained
until 1935 when it was demolished for road widening and replaced by
Black Swan Buildings, which included the carved swan from the
original hotel. In 1945 it fell to pieces and members of the public
raised £55 needed for local craftsman Edwin Laverty to carve a new
swan. This lasted until February 2012, when the new landlords removed
the swan. Following a public outcry it was reinstated but it became
apparent that the carving was irreparable. A further replica swan was
therefore produced, and the old swan was presented to the Winchester
City Museum.
In October 2013,
following a long campaign by local historian, Chris Webb, a plaque
was installed indicating the previous building's literary
significance. The £200 polished steel plaque (which proved
impossible to take a good photo of given its shinyness), which was
funded by Winchester City Council, reads:
'The black swan
above you is a replica of one which once adorned the Black Swan Hotel
that stood on this site from the 19th century until 1935 when the
hotel was demolished and replaced by Black Swan Buildings. The Black
Swan Hotel was ‘visited’ by Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the
Copper Beeches'.
My next point of
call was the Cathedral
itself, where I finally managed to get a photo of the tower
which dates to the twelfth century, and remains the most striking of
the building. However, due to a lunchtime Organ Recital, it was
necessary to come back for my visit inside.
Walking to the nearby
Bus Station, I caught a very posh bus (with free wi-fi and USB
chargers on the back of each seat) to nearby Otterbourne, and the
main candidate for 'The Copper Beeches' itself, the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Rucastle, their governess Violet Hunter, and servants Toller and
his wife.
The
building identified by both Peter
Horrocks and David
L. Hammer is 'Elderfield', ironically given the criminality of
Mr. Rucastle, currently
the location for a rehabilitative community programme run by the
Kainos Community, in partnership with Langley House Trust. The
programme aims to help men coming from prison to live crime-free.
Those who take part engage in a core programme based on cognitive
behavioural therapy which challenges patterns of thinking and
behaviour that previously led to criminal lifestyles. Participants
also take part in a structured programme which incorporates victim
awareness, community enterprise, training and social value projects
which serve the local community. Participants develop their skills to
increase employment opportunities for when they move on to
independent living. Therefore, again I had to dash off a few photos,
whilst ensuring that no residents appeared in them.
Catching the bus back
into Winchester, I paused briefly for lunch before returning to the
Cathedral, which has another literary connection. Jane Austen was
buried in the Cathedral in 1817 at the age of 41, but her original
memorial stone makes no mention of her books. However, a brass plaque
was erected in 1872 to redress the omission in the north side aisle,
as well as a memorial stained-glass window and an illustrated
exhibition detailing Jane Austen’s life, work and death in
Hampshire, is now displayed beside her grave.
In the 12th century, a
magnificent illuminated Bible was made for the monks to use in their
daily worship. One of the four volumes of the Winchester Bible is on
public display. By the early 1900s, there were fears that the east
end of the Cathedral would collapse, after centuries of subsidence.
Deep-sea diver, William Walker, worked under water in total darkness
for six years to stabilise them. Today, after 12 centuries, this
great Cathedral church remains the seat of the Bishop of Winchester
and centre of the Diocese of Winchester.
After a quick browse of
Winchester shops, I returned to the Station, where with a minimum of
problems, I made my way home.
