The Twins
At Symonds Green in
1857 identical twins were born to Henry and Charlotte Fox that were
to become a two man crime wave in the Stevenage area in years to
come and were notorious both locally and internationally. The
twins father, Henry Fox, a Baptist
preacher, farmed ten acres at Symonds Green, whilst their mother
Charlotte Fox was a straw plait maker. They lived in a cottage at
Ten Acre Farm that once stood behind the Crooked Billet public
house. The Foxes were devout members of the congregation of the
Ebenezer Chapel on Albert
Street, hence
they named their sons Ebenezer Albert and Albert Ebenezer Fox.
Despite their respectable background,
the twins turned to a life of crime, principally poaching. By the
age of eleven they were already setting snares and gin traps. The
twins had over 200 convictions between them over their lifetime of
crime and had over fifty guns confiscated. They made sure never to
go poaching together, and often escaped their frequent encounters
with the law by providing alibis for each other. If one of them
ended in court they would often evade justice on the technicality
that the charge sheet was in the name of the other
brother.
There are numerous stories of the
twins exploits. On one occasion Albert paid off a £1 fine from the
proceeds of game poached from the magistrate’s own estate. On
another occasion Albert accepted a sovereign a week and a brace of
pheasants to stay off the land of the lady of the manor, however
Ebenezer did not feel bound by the arrangement!
In 1904 the law made a breakthrough
in forensic science in which the twins played a part. Sir Edward
Henry, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
(1903-1918),
who invented the ‘Henry’ Finger Printing Classification
System, used the twins to prove that an individual could be
identified by his fingerprints. Thereafter their identity ploy in
court failed.
The twins did have a spell of going
straight when they worked as hod
carriers on the new Stevenage Police Station. However, they quickly
became some of the first occupants of the cells they helped to
build!
The twins were popular with the local
law enforcement, largely due to their courtesy and vivid
imaginations which they used to avoid prosecution. This popularity
did not however save Ebenezer from a ten year sentence for grievous
bodily harm when he uncharacteristically lashed out at a gamekeeper
to avoid arrest. His term in custody foreshortened his life. Both
twins ended their days in Chalkdell
House, Hitchin. Ebenezer died on 2
October 1926, aged 68, and Albert died on 20 May 1937, aged 79. The
twins are buried in St Nicholas Churchyard. Only two people were
present at Albert’s funeral, Lady Fellowes and
Hitchin historian Reginald Hine. They
left a wreath of irises with the inscription
Gone to earth old
friend
And lost to mortal view
Good luck to you
where’er you wend
Fresh woods and pastures
new.
The Cache
The cache is located in Hitch Wood.
Ebenezer Albert was once caught in Hitch Wood at dead of
night, however he had managed to hide
his gun and his bag. When he was brought in front of
Hitchin magistrates and asked why he
was in Hitch Wood in the middle of the night, Ebenezer pleaded that
“I was there to meditate upon the Baptist hymn book.” The court
erupted in laughter, much to the annoyance of Ebenezer. Ebenezer
delved into the deep pockets of his poaching coat and after a few
minutes he finally held aloft, amid a cloud of feathers, the
Baptist hymn book which his father had given to him as a
boy.
The cache itself, whilst a micro,
should be easy to find. Please re-hide carefully, as the cache
would be difficult to replace.