A Surprising Legacy. Ernest Swain

      Copyright Ernest John Swain.

      The right of Ernest John Swain to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

      All the characters in this book are fictitious and are purely of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

      This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition (including this condition) being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      First published in the United Kingdom in 2008 by E. J. Swain publications.

      eBook conversion by Vivlia Limited

      978-0-9574852-0-4 (Paperback)

      978-0-9574852-1-1 (ePub)

      978-0-9574852-3-5 (Mobi)

      In the hills of the Staffordshire Moorlands during the late 1700s and early 1800s, counterfeiting coin and forgery of bank notes was rife.

      Displaced by the Enclosures Act, Amos Carlisle wanders the countryside and soon becomes embroiled in distributing the counterfeit coin.

      Meanwhile Sarah Fletcher finds herself homeless with a young child to support, and after begging for food finds herself in prison.

      Their lives become entwined and the adventures that befall them incorporate myths and legends of that moorland area at a time of great poverty and harsh living conditions.

      Sergeant Nadin sets out to break up this gang of counterfeiters and forgers and brings matters to a head forcing Amos to make some serious decisions.

       by

       Ernest Swain

       About the author

      The author was the eldest son in a family of six children raised in a mining community.

      He joined the Police service, first as a cadet and eventually becoming a Special Branch detective, working together with MI5 and briefly with the American Secret Service. He was a firearms operative and was privileged to provide ‘special protection’ for Her Majesty the Queen and most other members of the Royal Family. This took him into palaces and stately homes. He also provided protection for such dignitaries as Ladybird Johnson (widow of President Lynden B. Johnson of America) heads of State such as Chairman Hua Kuo Feng, of China, and for the Ex Director General of MI6/Supremo of the Security Forces in Northern Ireland, Sir Maurice Oldfield.

      During his service he received several commendations from Judges of Assize and Crown Courts and from Chief Constables, for his diligence and bravery in cases which included facing armed criminals.

      Upon retirement he purchased a secluded hill farm, high in the Pennines of the Peak District National Park, which to some extent, inspired his writings. He is an accomplished organist and has a lifetime of experience with working horses, from Shires and Clydesdales to the lighter carriage horses that have been a major past-time.

       A Synopsis

       A Surprising Legacy

      A Surprising Legacy is a work of fiction.

      Set at the end of the 1700s, it is a tale of romance, hardship and a dangerous flirtation with a counterfeit coin racket that is entwined in folk-lore, myths and legends that abound this Godforsaken and lawless moorland area.

      Amos Carlisle is a young man forced to lead an itinerant lifestyle because of the implementation of the Enclosures Act. He travels the countryside in his vardo (a gipsy caravan) pulled by his mare Maggie, picking up casual work.

      He is drawn to the remote and bleak village of Flash in the Staffordshire Moorlands where life in general is hard and winters extreme. Pulling him back to this place is the excitement generated by the risk of being involved in a counterfeit coin racket.

      Sarah Fletcher, raised in an orphanage was placed in ‘service’ at the home of wealthy people at an early age. Her treatment there was harsh but she fell in love with the son of her employers and became pregnant with daughter, Ruth. The relationship is not acceptable to her employers and a commission is purchased in the army for her young lover in order to separate them. Unfortunately he is killed in action in the New World.

      Sarah finds herself destitute with a child to support. She begs for food and is gaoled as a vagrant. At this point Amos finds the child, Ruth, hiding in a barn and cares for her. When Sarah is released from gaol she joins Amos in his caravan. Together they experience ghostly happenings, a violent robbery, cock-fighting, bare-knuckle fighting, become involved with a mining tragedy and a death caused by an illegal abortion.

      Amos narrowly escapes discovery and arrest with his counterfeit coin, but his nefarious enterprise is abandoned when Sarah hears news of the legacy she and Ruth have inherited in the will of her former lover. Plans for their marriage are being laid.

       Prologue

      A Surprising Legacy is a work of fiction, and the town of Halsmere is fictitious also. However, the story is mainly set in and around the village of Flash in the Staffordshire Moorlands and incorporates legends and myths that are folk-lore in that area. The characters are all fictional and not based upon any person living. If there is a resemblance to any person it is purely accidental and unintentional.

      Flash, at the end of the 1700’s was a wild and barren place. The whole area was an area of heath, stone walls and black commons with scarcely a tree to be seen (Wm Beresford 1864). An early volume of ‘Companion for Travellers’ reported that Stage Coach robbers working along the Leek to Buxton turnpike escaped through Flash into the hills. It became a popular place for cock-fighting, dog-fighting and bare-knuckle fighting or prize-fighting, as it was easy to walk over the boundary into another county should there be any intervention by the law.

      Sir George Harpur-Crewe, Lord of the Manor of Quarnford, of which Flash village is part, inherited the estate in 1819 and wrote in his diary;

      “Quarnford….appeared…. the very end of the civilised world….the village of Flash was dirty, and bore marks specifically of poverty, sloth and ignorance. The clergy were little better than the peasants. One was found living with his half-naked children in a miserable cot by the mountain side. Another was a constant occupier of the ale-house bench, and of rough and uncouth manners, while the third was a clever man, but of whose moral character there was no good report. The only doctor was a vulgar sot who subsequently committed suicide.”

      Counterfeiting of copper and silver coins was a lucrative business in this area and was achieved by the adaptation of the button presses that were a feature of many homes. It was estimated at one time that of the coin in circulation throughout the country a large percentage was counterfeit. Meg Lane End farm is believed to be one of many places where counterfeit coin was produced and recently button presses were recovered from a well at the farm. The coins were generally produced through the winter months and were then distributed during the summer by itinerant pedlars who hid the coin in the hollowed out axles of their carts. They were variously described as “hillside terrorists”, “higglers”, and “twanners”. Many of these miscreants, became known throughout the areas in which they travelled, variously as “Flash Harry” or “Flash Jim”, or whatever their name might be.

      G. P. Dyer, Librarian & Curator at the Royal Mint wrote; ‘Counterfeiting of copper coins was undoubtedly a serious problem in the eighteenth century, and in our view the larger of the two Meg Lane presses certainly looks capable