Remembering two Hungerford policemen murdered in 1876

FLOWERS have been planted at the site of a memorial to two Hungerford police officers, victims of a gruesome double murder.

The incident happened near Folly Crossing, just south of Eddington, on December 11, 1876.

So shocking was the double homicide that several special editions of the Newbury Weekly News were published to cover it.

The murdered policemen were Insp Joseph Drewitt and Pc Thomas Shorter.

The Hungerford Virtual Museum records their bodies were found by colleagues shortly after 10.pm.

It goes on to reveal that, early the next morning, four men were arrested - William Day, his son-in-law William Tidbury, and William's brothers Henry and Francis Tidbury, all from Eddington.

All four were tried at Reading Assizes in February 1877.

The jury found Henry and Francis Tidbury guilty of murder and the two men were hanged at Reading Jail on March 12, 1877.

It was believed the men had been out poaching when the police officers had stumbled upon them and tried to arrest them.

Insp Drewitt had been shot and Pc Shorter was bludgeoned to death with a rifle butt.

Public subscription provided some funds for the families of the two murdered policemen, but Pc Shorter had served under three years with the force, and his widow was not entitled to any official gratuity.

Two iron memorial crosses were erected in the 1920s at the site of the murders.

However the cross in memory of Pc Shorter is at the Thames Valley Police Museum.

In 2015, BBC South Today ran a four-part mini-series entitled 'Murder Most South' which included a segment on the Hungerford police murders, featuring local historian Dr Hugh Pihlens.

In a posting on social media, Thames Valley Police reported that the area around the memorial cross has been cleared this month and daffodil bulbs, donated by Dobbies of Hungerford, have been planted.