Skulferatu #51 - The Multangular Tower, Museum Gardens, York

 

It was my last day in York and having an hour to kill before catching the train home I went for a walk through the Museum Gardens.  There, not far from the entrance stands the Multangular Tower.

 

The Multangular Tower

 

The Multangular Tower is a defensive tower that was part of the Roman fortress of Eboracum.  It stood at the western corner of the fortress and is the last surviving one of eight similar towers that stood along the fortress wall.  The tower got its name from it having ten sides.

 

The tower and the surviving part of the original fortress wall were incorporated into the defences of Medieval York.  The top three metres of the tower and wall were added in the Thirteenth Century when the fortifications around the city were strengthened   The original Roman parts of the tower date from around the third Century.

 

Interior of the Multangular Tower

 

Walls at rear of Multangular Tower

 

Walls at rear of Multangular Tower

 

There is some debate on who originally had the tower and walls constructed, as in whether it was the Emperor Septimius Severus who had his headquarters in York between AD 208 and 211, or Constantine the Great, who was proclaimed Emperor of Rome while in York in AD 306.  We’ll probably never know, but I think everyone can agree that they are bloody ancient, having stood on this spot for around one thousand eight hundred years or so.  The things they must have seen…oh, if only walls could talk.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my stroll around the Museum Gardens, in a gap in the medieval wall around the back of the tower.

 

Skulferatu #51

 

Skulferatu #51 in a gap in the wall

 

Skulferatu #51 in a gap in the wall

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #51

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 53.961702

Longitude -1.086668

 

I used the following sources for information on the Multangular Tower –

 

Historic England – Multangular Tower and Wall Attached to South East

Historic England - Multangular Tower and Wall attached to South East

 

York Museum Gardens

The Multangular Tower - York Museum Gardens

 

Information board on the tower walls

Skulferatu #50 - The Hob Stone and the Plague Stone, Little Hob Moor, Dringhouses, York

 

On an unseasonably hot day I went for a walk through the centre of York and over to the Knavesmire, which was the site of the ‘York Tyburn’ where public executions used to take place, and for those who like to take a punt on the horses, is also where York racecourse is.  From there, sweating in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun like the fat man I am, I crossed over Tadcaster Road and into Little Hob Moor where I stopped under the shade of some trees to cool down and for a drink of lukewarm water from my water bottle.  While there I spotted what I’d come to see – The Hob Stone and the Plague Stone.

 

The Hob Stone and the Plague Stone

 

These two oddities sit next to each other just off the main path through the park and near to a gate that leads into someone’s rather well kept back garden.

 

The Hob Stone

 

The Hob Stone is a coffin lid, probably from the early 14^th Century, that has been set in the ground in an upright position.  Carved on it is the effigy of a knight with the shield of arms of the De Roos family.  This is now so weathered that it just looks like a lumpy, bumpy stone with some holes in it.  On the back of the Hob Stone was an inscription, which is now so worn that it is illegible, however it was recorded as reading –

 

‘This Image Long Hob’s name has bore,

who was a knight in time of yore

and gave this common to ye poor.’

 

Sitting next to the Hob Stone is a flat stone with a basin cut into it and this is known as the Plague Stone.  It dates from 1604 when York was hit by a major outbreak of the plague which killed almost a third of the population of the city.  During this time the poor of the city, who had contracted the plague, were housed in temporary encampments on Hob Moor.  To pay for food and goods they would place their money in the basin of stones such as this, which were filled with vinegar to disinfect the coins.  The 17^th Century equivalent of paying for something using contactless payment…like we’re all doing now because of the Covid.

 

The Plague Stone at the side of the Hob Stone

 

The Plague Stone at the side of the Hob Stone

 

Before continuing my stroll in the head bursting heat, through Hob Moor and back round into the city centre, I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk in a hole in the back of the Hob Stone.

 

Skulferatu #50

 

Skulferatu #50 in a hole in the back of the Hob Stone

 

Skulferatu #50 in a hole in the back of the Hob Stone

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #50

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 53.946615

Longitude -1.103986

 

I used the following sources for information on the Hob Stone and the Plague Stone –

 

Historic England – Hob’s Stone

Hob's Stone, Tadcaster Road, York | Historic England

 

York Civic Trust – Hob Moor, Historic Stray & Local Nature Reserve

Hob-Moor-Historic-Stray-Nature-Reserve.pdf (yorkcivictrust.co.uk)

 

Engole – Hob Moor

Hob Moor (engole.info)

 

Info on brass plaque at site

 

Skulferatu #49 - Nightly Bile Beans Sign, Lord Mayor's Walk, York

 

On my many trips to York I have often passed by the painted sign on this side wall for Bile Beans.

 

Nightly Bile Beans sign in York

 

Nightly Bile Beans sign in York

 

I always visualised Bile Beans as being an inferior alternative to those produced in a delicious tomatoey sauce by Mr Heinz and thought the tag underneath about keeping you ‘healthy, bright-eyed and slim’ was along the lines of the rhyme we all knew from school.  You know the one –

 

‘Beans Beans, they’re good for your heart

The more you eat the more you fart

The more you fart the better you feel

So, eat beans with every meal.’

 

It turns out though, that Bile Beans weren’t something you had on your toast or with a pie and mashed potato but were rather a quack medicine.  They weren’t beans in the way we think of them, as the beans being referred to were actually bean shaped pills.

 

Bile Beans were the invention of a charlatan and con man called Charles Edward Fulford, a Canadian who had moved to Australia.  Fulford had worked for a time in a pharmacists and had obviously seen that there was money to be made in medicine, potions, and cure-alls.  While in Australia he teamed up Ernest Albert Gilbert, who ran a stationary business in New South Wales, and they decided to set up as medicine and pill manufacturers.   Their first foray into the world of miracle cures was ‘Gould’s Tiny Tonic Pills’.  These were purported to cure everything from ‘female weakness’ to ‘influenza’ to ‘lack of ambition’.  However, the pills were not a success, so Fulford came up with another formula and a new name – ‘Chas Forde’s Bile Beans’.

 

Bile Beans were advertised as having been created by Charles Forde, an eminent and skilled scientist.  He had carried out research into a natural vegetable substance used by the Aboriginal people to keep themselves healthy and through this research had come up with a wonder pill to cure many ailments.  Charles Forde did not exist, both he and his research being made up by Fulford.   

 

An advert for Bile Beans in the Belfast Telegraph - 13 May 1904

 

Through a huge advertising campaign under the catchy slogan of ‘Bile Beans for Biliousness’ (Yeah, Beanz Meanz Heinz is so much better), the sale of Bile Beans took off and soon they were being sold all over the world.  In 1899 Fulford and Gilbert opened a factory in Leeds to produce their quack product and kept on with their huge advertising campaign.  Amongst the various claims made for Bile Beans were that they would cure constipation, indigestion, piles, anaemia, headaches, loss of appetite, heavy colds, rheumatism, liver trouble, bad breath, could rid the bowels and blood of impurities and could help you stay slim.

 

An advert for Bile Beans in The Quiver – February 1909

 

So, what did this wonder drug do and what was really in it you may ask?  Well, it would appear that the pills acted as a laxative and according to analysis when they were examined for the British Medical Council, they contained aloin (plant extract used as a laxative), cardamom, peppermint oil, wheat flour and extract of colocynth (colocynth being a tropical fruit also called bitter apple, which also appears to have laxative effects).

 

As the success of Bile Beans grew, they attracted several imitators.  One of these being George Davidson, who was producing a product in Edinburgh called Davidson’s Bile Beans. 

 

An advert for Davidson’s Bile Beans in the Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser - 18 December 1908

 

In 1905 Fulford and Gilbert sought an injunction against Davidson to stop him using the Bile Beans name claiming the name was a registered trademark that they had acquired.  The evidence was then presented to the Court of Session in Edinburgh where it was admitted to the Judges hearing the case that Charles Forde did not exist and the formula for the pill was written by Fulford, who was not an eminent scientist and had made no research into the Australian herbs he claimed made up the ingredients of the pill.  When the case had concluded a written judgement was made by the Judges, who ruled against Fulford and Gilbert, stating in rather scathing terms that – ‘…the complainers (Fulford and Gilbert’s) trade was a fraudulent trade, and that no action ought to be entertained by the courts of Scotland to protect it or the name used in connection with it…’

 

However, despite the ruling against them, Bile Beans continued to be sold up until the 1980s, when the product was withdrawn from sale and manufacture ceased.

 

Both Fulford and Gilbert became rich men through the sale of Bile Beans and other dubious products.  When Gilbert died in 1905, aged 30, he left an estate worth around £31,000 (nearly £4,000,000 in today’s money) and when Fulford died in 1906, aged 36, it was reported that he was worth over £61,000 (around £8,000,000 in today’s money).  Given that they both died in their thirties, it would seem that their product didn’t do much good in keeping either of them healthy and bright eyed.

 

An advert for Bile Beans in the Aberdeen People's Journal - 11 February 1939

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk in the hollow of a crumbling brick in the wall below the sign.

 

Skulferatu #49

 

Skulferatu #49 in hollow of a crumbling brick below the sign

 

Skulferatu #49 in hollow of a crumbling brick below the sign

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #49

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 53.963638

Longitude -1.078886

 

I used the following sources for information on Bile Beans –

 

Bile Beans for Inner Health by Raymond C. Rowe

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Medicine 17(3-4):137-140

2003

 

The Maitland Weekly Mercury, Saturday 18 December 1897 (Gould’s Tiny Tonic Pills advert)

The Maitland Weekly Mercury, 18 Dec 1897 - Trove (nla.gov.au)

 

More Secret Remedies.  What they Cost and What they Contain.

British Medical association

1912

 

Reports of Patent, Design and Trade Mark Cases, Vol XXIII, No 31

Bile Bean Manufacturing Company v. Davidson

1906

 

Leeds Mercury – Friday, 13 April 1906

Will of late Ernest Albert Gilbert

 

Daily Mirror – Friday, 13 April 1906

£30,000 from Patent Medicine

 

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Saturday 10 November 1906

A Patent Medicine Manufacturer’s Bequests

 

Bile Bean adverts from –

Belfast Telegraph – Friday, 13 May 1904

Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser – Friday, 18 December 1908

The Quiver – February 1909

Aberdeen People's Journal – Saturday, 11 February 1939

 

Value of Gilbert and Fulford’s estates in today’s money calculated using the bank of England’s Inflation Calculator

Inflation calculator | Bank of England

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skulferatu #48 - Dick Turpin's Grave, St George's Graveyard, York

 

I first discovered Dick Turpin’s grave many years ago on a damp, February evening.  I think I was in York on some work related business and was staying in a nearby hotel.  After a few beers I went outside for a sneaky cigarette and on walking around the corner of the hotel found myself in a small graveyard.  Most of the stones were laid flat in the ground with the exception of one at the far end of the cemetery.  I walked over to see which local worthy merited having the only standing tombstone and found that it marked the grave of the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin.  All I knew of him was the legendary (and very untrue) story of his ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, to enable him to have an alibi for a crime he had been involved in.  I imagined him as a character much like Adam Ant in the video for his song ‘Stand and Deliver’, a handsome and slightly androgynous man, dressed in fancy clothes, a bit of makeup and being quite charming as he relieved rich travellers of their ill gotten money and valuables.  A bit of a Robin Hood character.  Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the truth does not live up to the legend.

 

St George’s Graveyard, York

 

The grave of Richard ‘Dick’ Turpin

 

Gravestone of Richard ‘Dick’ Turpin

 

Richard Turpin was born in 1705 in Essex and was a butcher by trade.  In the 1730s he became involved with a gang of Essex poachers known as the Gregory Gang, probably by helping them sell on and dispose of the deer they had hunted and killed.  As the crimes of the gang diversified, Turpin joined with them in a series of violent and brutal housebreakings and robberies.  These crimes caused such an outrage that in 1735 the Duke of Newcastle offered a £50 reward (around £11,000 in today’s money) for information leading to the capture of the culprits.  Several members of the gang were caught, and they quickly betrayed and named Turpin and the other gang members.  Turpin and the remaining members of the gang went on to commit several more robberies, but with most of them soon captured by the authorities, Turpin fled and for a while kept a low profile.   

 

In 1737 Turpin joined up with two other highwaymen and committed a series of robberies around the Waltham Forest area.  After being involved in a fatal shooting, Turpin again fled, this time to a hideaway in Epping Forest.  There he committed several more robberies.  Then, one day while he was out and about in the forest looking for someone suitable to rob, he came across Thomas Morris.  Morris recognised Turpin and presented his blunderbuss at him with the intention of capturing him and handing him over to the authorities.  Turpin, however, did not particularly fancy facing the law and the hangman yet, so he quickly dived behind an oak tree, drew his guns and shot Morris dead.  Then, before he could escape the scene, Turpin heard others approaching, drawn by the noise of the shooting.  Unable to flee, he hid himself in a Yew Tree and remained there for almost two days while he waited for those searching for him to move on.  Eventually, when all was quiet, he made his getaway. 

 

In June 1737 a reward of £200 (around £44,000 in today’s money) was offered for the capture of Turpin for the murder of Morris.  A pardon was also offered to any of his accomplices who could lead the authorities to him.  At this time a description of Turpin was given describing him as being ‘…about thirty years of age, by trade a butcher, about five feet nine inches high, of a brown complexion, very much marked with the Small-Pox, his cheek bones broad, his face thinner towards the bottom, his visage short, pretty upright, and broad about the shoulders.’  So, not much like Adam Ant then.

 

After carrying out a few more robberies in and around Epping Forest, Turpin, obviously beginning to feel the heat, left the area and made his way up to Yorkshire.

 

In Yorkshire Turpin masqueraded as a horse trader named John Palmer and stole horses to sell them on.  He made friends with several of the locals and often went out hunting with them.  One day, on returning from hunting, he spotted his landlord’s game cock strutting around in the street next to his lodgings.  Being a bit of a psychotic creep and a bully, Turpin thought it would be fun to shoot it, so drew his gun and blew it away.  One of the landlord’s friends saw him do this and remonstrated with him.  Turpin then threatened to shoot him too.  The landlord, on being told of what had happened, obtained a warrant, and had Turpin detained.  Turpin then appeared before three Justices of the Peace and was committed to the House of correction at Beverley.  The Justices of the Peace were suspicious about how Turpin had made his money and suspecting that it may have been through criminal activity, they made enquiries about him.  It was soon established that Turpin was suspected of carrying out thefts of both horses and sheep.  As horse theft was a capital crime that could result in the death penalty it was decided to transfer Turpin to be held at the more secure location of York Castle.

 

While in prison there, Turpin wrote to his brother in law in Essex.  However, he refused the letter, and it was returned to the post office where James Smith, who had taught Turpin to read and write, saw it.  He recognised the handwriting and travelled to York where he identified John Palmer as being none other than Dick Turpin.  For this Smith was given the £200 reward that had been advertised for the capture of Turpin.

 

On the 22^nd of March 1739 Turpin stood trial at York for the theft of several horses.  He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

 

On Saturday the 7^th of April 1739 Turpin was taken in an open cart through York to the place of execution at Knavesmire.  It was noted that he behaved with ‘amazing assurance’ and bowed to the spectators gathering to watch him hang.  As he climbed the ladder to the gallows it was noticed that his right leg trembled, and he stamped down to stop it.  He then spoke to the hangman for a few minutes and confessed to him that he was the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin and recounted some of the robberies he had been involved in.  On finishing his chat with the hangman, Turpin threw himself from the ladder.  He then died after about five minutes and his body was left to hang for several hours before being cut down.

 

Turpin’s corpse was taken to a local inn at about three that afternoon and was buried the next morning in St George’s Churchyard.  Shortly after being buried, it was reported that his body had been dug up and stolen.  There was a huge outcry about this, and the body snatchers and Turpin’s corpse were soon found.  Turpin’s body was quickly reburied, and this time was covered in quicklime.

 

And that would be the end of that, or so you’d think, but now there is some doubt that the gravestone really does mark the grave of the notorious Dick Turpin.  It is thought that the stone, placed at the grave a couple of hundred years after Turpin’s death, was put there more as a tourist attraction and that Turpin would have been buried in an unmarked grave.  Whatever the truth is, I don’t know, but I’ll take it as being the place where Dick Turpin is buried…probably.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my wanders around York to the grave, in the hollow of a tree overlooking the graveyard.

 

Skulferatu #48

 

Skulferatu #48 in hollow in a tree overlooking Dick Turpin’s Grave

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #48

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 53.954961

Longitude -1.076049

 

I used the following sources for information on Dick Turpin –

 

Wikipedia – Dick Turpin

Wikipedia - Dick Turpin

 

The Trial of the Notorious Highwayman, Richard Turpin

By Thomas Kyll

Wikisource - The Trial of the Notorious Highwayman Richard Turpin

 

Derby Mercury – Thursday, 30^th June 1737

 

The Newcastle Courant – Saturday, April 21, 1739

 

The Yorkshire Post – Wednesday, 5^th July 2017

 

Tourist information sign at site

 

Values of rewards in today’s money offered for capture of Turpin calculated using the bank of England’s Inflation Calculator

Inflation calculator | Bank of England