suggested he was brushing things away from his face.
It is not recorded how long the jury took to decide that the prisoner was insane at the time he committed the act. The judge would not accept this verdict until he had established that the jury had in fact found him guilty of the killing. The jury agreed this but added the important proviso that the prisoner was insane so as not to be responsible according to law for his actions.
Sentence was delivered. Under the terms of the Criminal Lunacy Act which had come into force as recently as 1884, Arthur Gilbert-Cooper had escaped hanging. However, he was to be detained at her Majesty’s Pleasure. A few week’s later, a short sentence tucked away in the East Anglian Daily Times announced that the curate of Cretingham had been sent to Broadmoor.
8
FINALE
The case is closed, the book is shut, but for the reader there is the niggling question – ‘what happened after that?’ How soon did the villagers at Cretingham settle back to the even tenor of their lives; how long was it before the vicar’s murder and the curate’s incarceration in Broadmoor ceased to be a topic of conversation over the teacups and tankards?
Unfortunately, there is now no one left to tell us of the events of the months which followed. The Framlingham News however, related that barely two months after the fatal deed for which the muffled bell of the church had tolled, the bells of St Peter’s Cretingham rang out loud and clear. A date-touch peal of 1887 changes in plain bob methods was rung in one hour and twelve minutes at the beginning of December. The ringers, conducted by G. Wightman (father of Annie) included another Wightman, John Self, Thomas Coates (husband of the woman who had assisted at the Revd Farley’s laying out) and the 13-year-old James Durrant.
By April of the following year, the Revd Henry Brown had been appointed vicar and village life was presumed to be back to normal. However, over the intervening years, the murder has aroused sporadic interest and legends have flourished. Among these has been the occasional sighting of a ghostly figure wandering in the grounds of the vicarage in the early hours of the morning. Those who have seen it believe it to be the curate returning to the scene of his crime. Others say he is searching the grounds for that missing razor.
The house itself has spawned mysterious happenings. Inevitably, the story grew that the bloodstains remained on the bedroom floor, resisting all attempts at removal. There are tales of keys being suddenly dislodged from the locks on the doors of the two rooms involved in the case, unexplained noises and doors being opened and closed by unseen hands.
The great hurricane of October 15 1987, which caused havoc in much of Suffolk, has also added to the legends.A hundred years to the day (give or take a couple of weeks!) the fierce wind brought one of the trees in Cretingham churchyard crashing to the ground. Was it some kind of omen, it was asked, that a branch smashed off part of the Revd Farley’s headstone?
The question which is most asked is what became of Mrs Farley? As the vicar’s widow, she would have been required to vacate the vicarage, it being, as it were, a tied house that went with the job. It is doubtful she would have wished to remain in Cretingham anyway, given the circumstances, but where did she go?
In his will, made within days of his marriage to Harriet Louisa, the Revd Farley named her as his sole beneficiary: ‘To my dear wife Harriet Louisa the whole of my property household goods plate and life policies that I now have or may become entitled to for her own use and disposal. . .’ The only proviso was that the £100 he had borrowed from his son, Thomas’s Trust Fund be repaid from his estate. A codicil added to the will in 1884 stated that he had already repaid the loan with an additional £50 interest. This left Harriet Louisa beneficiary to his personal estate, which for probate purposes
It is not recorded how long the jury took to decide that the prisoner was insane at the time he committed the act. The judge would not accept this verdict until he had established that the jury had in fact found him guilty of the killing. The jury agreed this but added the important proviso that the prisoner was insane so as not to be responsible according to law for his actions.
Sentence was delivered. Under the terms of the Criminal Lunacy Act which had come into force as recently as 1884, Arthur Gilbert-Cooper had escaped hanging. However, he was to be detained at her Majesty’s Pleasure. A few week’s later, a short sentence tucked away in the East Anglian Daily Times announced that the curate of Cretingham had been sent to Broadmoor.
8
FINALE
The case is closed, the book is shut, but for the reader there is the niggling question – ‘what happened after that?’ How soon did the villagers at Cretingham settle back to the even tenor of their lives; how long was it before the vicar’s murder and the curate’s incarceration in Broadmoor ceased to be a topic of conversation over the teacups and tankards?
Unfortunately, there is now no one left to tell us of the events of the months which followed. The Framlingham News however, related that barely two months after the fatal deed for which the muffled bell of the church had tolled, the bells of St Peter’s Cretingham rang out loud and clear. A date-touch peal of 1887 changes in plain bob methods was rung in one hour and twelve minutes at the beginning of December. The ringers, conducted by G. Wightman (father of Annie) included another Wightman, John Self, Thomas Coates (husband of the woman who had assisted at the Revd Farley’s laying out) and the 13-year-old James Durrant.
By April of the following year, the Revd Henry Brown had been appointed vicar and village life was presumed to be back to normal. However, over the intervening years, the murder has aroused sporadic interest and legends have flourished. Among these has been the occasional sighting of a ghostly figure wandering in the grounds of the vicarage in the early hours of the morning. Those who have seen it believe it to be the curate returning to the scene of his crime. Others say he is searching the grounds for that missing razor.
The house itself has spawned mysterious happenings. Inevitably, the story grew that the bloodstains remained on the bedroom floor, resisting all attempts at removal. There are tales of keys being suddenly dislodged from the locks on the doors of the two rooms involved in the case, unexplained noises and doors being opened and closed by unseen hands.
The great hurricane of October 15 1987, which caused havoc in much of Suffolk, has also added to the legends.A hundred years to the day (give or take a couple of weeks!) the fierce wind brought one of the trees in Cretingham churchyard crashing to the ground. Was it some kind of omen, it was asked, that a branch smashed off part of the Revd Farley’s headstone?
The question which is most asked is what became of Mrs Farley? As the vicar’s widow, she would have been required to vacate the vicarage, it being, as it were, a tied house that went with the job. It is doubtful she would have wished to remain in Cretingham anyway, given the circumstances, but where did she go?
In his will, made within days of his marriage to Harriet Louisa, the Revd Farley named her as his sole beneficiary: ‘To my dear wife Harriet Louisa the whole of my property household goods plate and life policies that I now have or may become entitled to for her own use and disposal. . .’ The only proviso was that the £100 he had borrowed from his son, Thomas’s Trust Fund be repaid from his estate. A codicil added to the will in 1884 stated that he had already repaid the loan with an additional £50 interest. This left Harriet Louisa beneficiary to his personal estate, which for probate purposes
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