From Parish Records

Crimes of violence are not unique to the twentieth
century.

A brief survey of the local records of Totton and Eling reveals a number of violent acts some of which appear to have gone unpunished. The story starts with the digging of a tank outside the Church of St. Mary's on Eling Hill. The tank was to be sunk deep outside the Church door that fronts on to Eling Hill. Deep in the ground the contractors found a number of human skeletons. With them was found a coin. On examination the coin proved to be of the late Roman period, about 360 to 370 AD. The Emperor of the time was Jovian. The skulls appeared to have been damaged, perhaps by blows. The date is of great interest as it is the time of the great Saxon Raid on Britain. The Romans only regained the province with great effort. Who were these people? Had they been murdered? Were they Saxon pirates, put to death after capture, or were they captured Roman soldiers? We can never know. If the coin was buried with them deliberately it could have been to pay the ferryman to the land of the dead.

Poaching the King's deer was a practice as old as the Forest itself. In 1257 the King's huntsman, Wassemer, was travelling with his boy from Lyndhurst to Redbridge. Between Ashurst and Fletchwood he was assaulted and killed by Richard and Rocelin sons of Robert de Lyndhurst. They were sheltered at the home of Ralph de Lyndhurst whose daughter Rocelin had married. They also found shelter at the home of Absalom, Ralph's brother and at the home of Richard Le Wayl in the area of Redbridge. The Monks of Beaulieu had also given them shelter. The boy travelling with the huntsman was brought before the and put in prison. The Inquest took place at Rumbridge before Alexander de Monti Forti and the Sheriff, James Le Sauvage. Richard fled but Rocelin turned up to the Court. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hung. All the others were acquitted apart from Ralph de Lyndhurst who was hung. The sorry tale does not end there. Further inquiries uncovered a huge poaching ring, involving the abbots of Beaulieu and Titchfleld and the Priors of St. Deny's and St. Mary's in Southampton. All had to appear before the court at Wilton in 1257. All these worthies received fines ranging from £10 to 1 mark. As usual it was the little
men who paid the price.

Church records also record a number of suspicious deaths. Who was Hector Pierce who was recorded slain in 1616? Who was the soldier found dead at Hartley in 1644. Far more obvious is the epitaph of William Mansbridge in the
cemetery in Eling.

"Stop reader and read my fate,
What caused my life to terminate,
For thieves by night, when in my bed,
Broke up my house and shot me dead".

The Mansbridges were an important local family. Were the murderers ever caught and brought to trial? Did they suffer the ultimate punishment. Again there is a gap in the historical record. Just as tantalising is the sad end of Edward Dudman in 1737. The parish records simply say that he was shot by Mr Coster's maid. Was it a crime of passion or was it an unfortunate accident? Again there is a gap in the historical record. All we can say is that Dudman and Coster are local
surnames.

So we come to perhaps the strangest mystery of ally one that has passed into local folklore. Testwood house, now offices along Salisbury Road, is reputed to be haunted.

The ghost takes the form of a man in a top hat. People working in the offices complained effecting cold and being watched. The story goes that in the 18th. century a coachman murdered a cook. He killed her in the servant's quarters in
Testwood House and dumped her body in a lane nearby. The lane is now called, Cook's Lane. A later version of the story replaces the coachman with the butler. The factual origin of the tale has not been traced, yet it is probable that a real event lies at the centre of the story, an event so powerful that it has been remembered in some form for two hundred years. One wonders if it is the sad story of Edward Dudman, shot by a maid y which has become changed as it has been passed down.

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