Dark Tales of Portsmouth's Past.

By Helen Charlesworth

In 'Dark Tales of Portsmouth's Past' I invite you the reader to join me on a trip through Portsmouth and Southsea, beginning in 1770 and ending in 1940. We shall visit Portsmouth Point, the original town (now known as Old Portsmouth.) Walk the streets of Portsea and Landport, and venture into the Dockyard, as well as journey further afield to the small outlying villages that have now become part of the city of Portsmouth.
Meet 'John the Painter, ' the only person ever to go to the gallows for arson in an H.M. Dockyard. William Butterworth and Francis Jennison, both convicts on prison hulks docked in Portsmouth harbour, who were hung at Langstone Point for the murder of John Groundwater, one of their overseers at Cumberland Fort. Their bodies then hung in iron frames from a gibbet as a warning to other convicts. Also John Stacey, who carried out the gruesome murder of Samuel Langtry and his niece Charity Joliffe in Prospect Road. See the tragic New Year fire in College Street unfold, in which a mother and her six children perished. Meet Fanny Godding who killed her daughter and then attempted to end her own life after what she described as having lived an unendurable and unhappy life. Read the unfolding of the dreadful explosion at Cambridge Barracks in 1887, in which three men were killed and many more injured. What about poor little George Curley, mauled to death by a bear in Hogg's yard, behind the Rose and Crown public house in Nicholas Street. Frederick Carpenter who accidentally hung himself whilst practicing a trick. Mary Pelham who was murdered in her bed in Blossom Alley. The two little boys who were killed when some houses in Voller Street collapsed, burying them in the rubble. Elsie Matthews, murdered by her father and buried at Copnor, so that he could start a new life with his mistress. Andrew Hutchinson, who choked to death when he swallowed his false teeth. The unsolved murder of Jessie Dagwell. Meet these and many other victims and perpertrators of crime and unfortunate events.............

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09MYVVNNT
• ISBN13: 9798778284340
• Release Date: December 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.0" x 10.0"