Website produced and maintained for the Hungerford Historical Association
by Hugh Pihlens

You are in [Places] [Combe Gibbet]

Combe Gibbet is a double gibbet standing 25 feet (7.6 metres) high on the summit of Inkpen Beacon, about four miles south of Hungerford, but clearly visible from the town in fine weather. It marks the boundary between Inkpen and Combe, and stands in the middle of a neolithic long-barrow.

The true facts however appear to be that there lived at Combe a labourer named George Bromham, a married man, and a woman Dorothy Newman, who had apparently formed an illicit association, and to further their plans decided to remove the man's wife Martha out of the way.

"They waylaid Mrs. Bromham and her son Robert close to where the gibbet now stands and beat them to death with staves."

"From extracts from the Western Circuit Gaol Book" . . . they were convicted at the Assizes "which began on 23rd February 1676 of the murder of Robert, son of George Bromham and of Martha, wife of said George Bromham, each with a "staffe", and were ordered to be hanged "in chaynes near the place of the murder".

Research by Barry Roberts (NWN 3.5.79) refers to an account by W.H. Hudson, tells the story differently again: "The story is of a poor widow with two sons, who dwelt in Combe at the latter end of the seventeenth century. She fell in love with a Woodhay man, a farmer. Alas the farmer was a married man and divorce in those days, being by Act of Parliament only, was only available to the nobility. Undaunted, the farmer chose to resolve the situation in a time-honoured manner, and murder his wife."

"The method he chose to use was as original as it was horrible. Driving his unsuspecting wife to market in Newbury one day, he enquired, apparently idly, whether she had ever seen a hornets nest."

"She had not, and so, as they passed through a lonely stretch of the track, he showed her one which he had discovered a few days earlier. Her curiosity was her undoing."

"As she stood looking at the hornets nest, he seized her from behind and thrust her head among the enraged insects, holding her down until she had been stung to death."

"This done, he placed her body in his cart and took her home, well prepared to play the part of the bereaved husband shocked at the terrible accident that had befallen his wife."
^ top ^
"With his wife's death accepted as an accident, he visited his lover in Combe one evening, to report on the success of the plan. As they discussed the deed in the front room of the widow's tiny cottage, her eldest son lay awake in the back room, listening in horror. Suddenly he heard his mother tell her lover to see if the children were awake, and, if they were, to do away with them in case they had overheard."

"In desperation, he feigned sleep as the farmer looked into the bedroom, so saving his life. The next day he told the schoolteacher and his mother and her lover were brought to justice."

"While the guilty pair waited to be hanged, an administrative dispute arose as to which parish should bear the cost of the hearing, as the crime was a conspiracy which could not be proved to have been planned exclusively in either Combe or Inkpen. At last a compromise was reached, and the two parishes agreed to share the expenses and to hold the execution at the highest point on the border between the two parishes, where it crossed the Inkpen Beacon. A date was set for the event and, as was usual in those days, a crowd of thousands assembled on the Beacon to see justice done and enjoy a holiday."

The records show that they were hanged for the murder of Newman's children, making no mention of George's wife Martha.

"It may be that the traditional story preserves a garbled version of the events. Perhaps George Browman (sic!) did murder his wife with the aid of hornets. Perhaps he got away with it, pursued only by parrish gossip. Perhaps the reason for the murder of Dorothy Newman's children was that they did come to know of their mother's complicity in the crime and did not have the wit to feign sleep."

The original gibbet of 1676 lasted an unknown length of time, but the second gibbet was erected in 1850 to replace the rotted original. This was struck by lightning, and was replaced by number three in 1949. However, that one lasted only one year, and number four was erected in 1950.

Since then the gibbet has been sawn down by vandals on two occasions, in 1965 and 1969, both events believed to have been in protest against hanging.

The fourth gibbet blew down in gales during the winter of 1977-78, where the stump had rotted. This was re-erected on 1st May 1979.
^ top ^
Arrangements for the re-erection had been made by Mr. Kenneth Bastable, agent to Mr. John Astor, the landowner on whose property the monument stands, and who paid for all the preparations for the re-erection. (A condition of the lease of Eastwich Farm is that the tenant should keep the gibbet in good repair).

An oak tree had needed to be felled, then sawn up by a firm in Hermitage, and finally some carpentry work had to be done to join the new wood to the original base. This had been carried out free of charge by the late Mr. Percy Carter, whose father worked at Edwards Sawmills, and had made the gibbet in 1950, and his nephew Mr. John Green, in their Inkpen builder's yard.

A seven foot deep hole was dug by Combe man Mr Derek Hutchins, and Mr Green supervised the erection on 1st May, a day of rain, mist and wind, which made the operation harder. Norman Painting, owner of Inkpen Garage, loaned the equipment, and his son Dennis and Chris helped to guide the gibbet into position, helped by Reginald Racey of Combe, and William Carter of Inkpen. Also present as a witness was Mr. R.A. Bulpit of Burghclere, whose ancestors have lived in Combe since before the original gibbet was erected.

Follow this link for a transcript of the Newbury Weekly News coverage of the 1979 re-erection of the gibbet "Return of the gibbet".

Back to Top