Page 22 • The HERALD • 24th October 2024 v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v All aspects of Carpentry, Joinery, Building and Painting. Specialist area is bespoke built-in wardrobes, cupboards, dressers and shelving units. 07948 415982 www.lpcarpentryandjoinery.co.uk @lpcarpentryandjoinery2009 FLAT ROOFING SPECIALISTS All Roof Repairs Tel: 023 8184 5632 Mobile: 07880 508415 Email: steve@braithwaiteroo ng.co.uk THE FLAT ROOF SPECIALIST The Fawley Gunpowder Plot of 1870 by Marc Heighway Marc hosts monthly local history talks, visit: nfhwa.org/events for details. In a previous edition of e Herald, I wrote about how the Drummond Arms Hotel in Hythe had been used as a venue to adjudicate local criminal cases. e ‘Petty Sessions’ were held in one of the rooms from 1857 to 1894, where magistrates judged cases including arbitration, arson, assault, bastardy examinations (ruling on the parentage of a child), drunkenness, poaching, rape, and the . One interesting case brought before the magistrates in 1870 involved references to gunpowder, where a man was almost murdered. Given that Fireworks Night will fall during the period this edition of e Herald is read, it seemed apt to tell you more. On the 22nd of December 1870, David Bundy and omas Bundy, labourers from Fawley, were brought into custody and charged with wilfully and maliciously damaging a door at the home of David Kitcher by causing an explosion with gunpowder. David Bundy was soon discharged, with the county magistrate, Mr. E. N. Harvey, stating that the evidence against him was not strong. However, the case against the second suspect, omas Bundy, proceeded. e complainant, David Kitcher, lived in Fawley and told the magistrates that he had known omas Bundy all his life. He recounted how, on the 26th of November, he was drinking at the Falcon when he was called outside by a man stripped to the waist, ready to ght him. Bundy followed and said to Kitcher, “If you had told on me, the same as you did on Whit eld, I would have shot you, and you deserve to be shot.” is statement referred to a previous case at the Drummond Arms, where Kitcher had supplied information about another man named Whit eld, who had been accused of poaching. ankfully, the situation calmed, and a ght was avoided. A few weeks later, on the night of the 18th of December, Kitcher was at home in Fawley, in bed by 10pm along with his wife and child. Forty- ve minutes later, the peace outside the house was shattered by a voice calling “Kitcher, Kitcher!” He heard his name repeated four or ve times and rose from bed to address the intruder in his garden, but his wife held him back and persuaded him not to. He remarked to her that it sounded like “Joker,” a nickname he used to describe Bundy. Kitcher and his wife then heard gunshots. He jumped out of bed, looked out the window, saw no one, but heard the garden gate close. Upon examining the scene downstairs, he saw smoke in the air, and the smell of gunpowder. Shots had gone clean through the front door at his chest height. A policeman went to Kitcher’s home the next day and counted six gunshot holes and gunpowder residue. Some of the shots were embedded in a mantelpiece opposite the door, and so he cut one out to be used as evidence. en, accompanied by Kitcher, the policeman walked to Bundy’s home, retrieved a pair of the suspect’s boots, and compared them with tracks le in the garden by the gunman, they matched. e policeman later apprehended Bundy on a nearby beach and found him in possession of gunshot that matched the type extracted from the mantelpiece at Kitcher’s house. However, no gun was found. Bundy denied being the shooter and denied owning or using a gun since the Pistols Act and Gun License Act earlier that year had been passed, requiring gun owners to carry a license. Bundy called a witness to support his case, who stated that Bundy had no gun trial was held in Winchester. By the time the trial took place in March 1871, Bundy was charged with ‘wilful damage by gunpowder.’ I am not sure why the charge was not more serious, as it appeared to be attempted murder by modern standards. Unfortunately, I have not been able to nd out why Bundy was tried on this charge, but it could possibly be due to a lack of evidence. On the day of the trial, Bundy walked free. e judge ruled that the case did not fall within the statute and discharged the prisoner with a caution. As we approach Fireworks Night this year, just like that winter’s night in 1870 outside Kitcher’s home in Fawley, the air will soon be lled with the smell of gunpowder and the sound of explosions. But unlike Guy Fawkes’ infamous gunpowder plot of 1605, which inspired our annual reworks celebration, the 1870 plot to harm Kitcher resulted in a court case with a much more surprising and lenient outcome, as I’m sure you will agree. Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators were tried for high treason and were all convicted and sentenced to death. and had not been near Kitcher’s home on the night of the shooting. e crime was considered so serious that the magistrate at the Drummond Arms committed Bundy to be tried at the ‘assizes,’ a higher court. I believe the Hythe Inner Wheel Help Fund New Forest Outreach Support Amy Bradsworth recently visited Hythe Inner Wheel to speak about her new initiative - New Forest Outreach Support CIC. Having spotted a gap le in services when the charity she had worked for, for 15 years stopped a lot of their outreach work, Amy decided to set up New Forest Outreach Support President of Hythe Inner Wheel Jan Hoy presenting Amy Bradsworth with a cheque for New Forest Outreach Support CIC CIC to provide specialised, tailored support for children and vulnerable adults. A er speaking to the Hythe Inner Wheel members, President of Hythe Inner Wheel Jan Hoy presented Amy with a cheque. For more information about New Forest Outreach Support CIC, please visit: www.newforestoutreach. co.uk
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