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The Walnut Tree Inn

During the mid-nineteenth century, a card game took place between a band of smugglers at The Walnut Tree Inn in Aldington. The gang, which included the infamous George Ransley and his two sons, used the inn for their headquarters, and while awaiting news of incoming illicit contraband, card-playing was a good way to idle away the hours. However, during the game, some cheating is said to have taken place. One of these rough men whipped a sharp-bladed knife out of his belt, grabbed a hunk of his victim's hair in his fist and slashed his throat from ear to ear. Blood spurted from the wound like a fountain and the poor man slumped into a heap. Naturally, the rest of the smugglers ran off, leaving the murderer to stow away all the money left lying on the table and dispose of his victim's lifeless body. There is some difference of opinion about whether George Ransley was the actual murderer - from contemporary accounts of his hot temper he would certainly have been capable of such a crime.

Nowadays, footsteps can be heard stamping across the floor of the inn — could this be a manifestation of the murderer's progress while disposing of the body down the well? One can imagine the trail of blood across the wooden floor and the set of tracks made by the victim's boots as he was dragged away. The disposing of murdered bodies down wells caused them to smell bad, and the water ended up poisoning anyone foolish or desperate enough to use them. This is the reason why most people at the time drank weakened beer, known as 'small beer'. Mosborough | Barnsley | Barnsley | Bartholomews | Bickley | Bolton | Buckinghamshire | Chester | Cornwall | Derbyshire | Devon | Dumfries | Eastwood | Eckington | Ecton | Holywell | Ireland | Norfolk | North Yorkshire | Northampshire | Northumberland | Nuneaton | Oxfordshire | Oxfordshire | Pluckley | pontefract | Ringlestone | Ringlestone | Ringlestone | Ringlestone Road | Scotland | Sheffield | Shipwrights | South Yorkshire | Sussex | sussex | Wilton Row |