Michael Gardner would be very interested to hear comments on the story.
The Tresham Murder?
Posted on April 6th, by Editor in Community. 10 comments
Bob Suter has uncovered a fascinating story he was told by Michael Gardner, son of Margaret Gardner who lives at Cotswold View.
Read about it at ‘latter-day-news‘.
Michael Gardner would be very interested to hear comments on the story.
Henry writes:
We’ve all been captivated by the Tresham murder story. The kids are doing newspaper reports and wanted posters! We went to try and find the cross this morning without success. I don’t suppose anyone knows if it is still there?
Sadly The Stone disappeared twenty or thirty years ago the wall has been frost damaged and rebuilt several times, It was cracked when the cast was made.
Brilliant to hear that the children are taking an interest and that it has obviously fired their imaginations, great project to think about during these difficult times.How do they think Calvin might have been able to react to the situation has it happened these days, and what d might the police have done differently in modern times?
Bob writes:
Michael thinks the cross might have gone as the part of the wall was rebuilt some years ago but have been meaning to look myself.
So…what do you all think …was he guilty of murder?
Another strange thing about the story is the apparent lack of recognition by the turnpike keeper, surely with the Evans family being long standing residents why was he not acknowledged as a villager? especially with, communities being so tight knit in those days.
Perhaps we should try and create a replica of the cross if Michael remembers what it looked like.
It is something that has crossed my.mind I am sure it would not be difficult to replicate I remember the size quite vividly, 8-10 inches tall around 5 inches wide, not sure how much was let into the ground below. The simple cross design 3 or 4 inches tall set on an equalateral triangle below, engraved like a stone mason’s mark. I Will find out if my friend who did the research and who made a cast.of the original still has it.
A past Wotton resident writes:
What a strange story, and how well researched. It would take one of our television detectives to really work out who was telling the truth, Calvin Evans or the village of Tresham, whose story was remembered by Florence Frankcom.
Of course, according to Evans, there was no mystery. Esau King had slipped and fallen, injuring himself so badly he could not walk. Evans was the useless friend who found him and who tried to keep him warm with lighted matches and then left him to die, haplessly ‘reporting’ the death by tying his collar to the gatepost of his home.
That was his story, after he had given himself time to decide on it, and there was no-one to contradict him. No doubt the doctor’s post-mortem was perfunctory, the Hawkesbury policeman no budding sleuth, and the inquest brief.
But the puzzles are so tantalising! See how carefully Florence Frankcom marginalises Henry Frankcom, the ‘Third Man’, with the phrases ‘this other chap’ and ‘thuck other fellah’. You might think that having a relation with a role in the story would be something to memorialise. But she writes him out altogether, as does Evans. I wonder whether there is something to hide here, and young Frankcom was not, in the eyes of the village, entirely blameless.
It is strange that, on their way home from the pub, Evans should abandon his neighbour, friend, church-going and drinking partner for this young man they had met in the Royal Oak. The three had talked in the pub, and for the mile they had walked together. And yet, at that time of night, in that temperature, he feels the need to stay talking for another twenty minutes, leaving his friend to go home alone.
And ‘Shepherd’ King falls on the road. How likely is that! A man whose working life is walking combe and wold in all weathers. What if he had not walked on, but lurked in the darkness out of curiosity to spy on the other two? And Evans caught him up, quarrelled with him, hit him on ‘the back of the yud’ with a stone?
The village obviously blamed Evans for the death, and translated the coroner’s rebuke into a curse. This punishment would be enough. As Laurie Lee tells in ‘Rosie’, a village would protect its own from the law. But were they right?
Michael also writes:
One of the things which puzzled me is the apparent lack of Police evidence; the body was moved before they arrived on the scene, presumably they would perhaps have cycled from Hawkesbury.
Also were the other customers present in the Royal Oak or the Landlord interviewed regarding the mood of the three men throughout the evening, were they jovial, or did they argue?