Killer cottage that inspired Thomas Hardy’s Tess
IT MAY look like an idyllic property nestling in the beautiful Dorset countryside, but it has such a grisly past that it inspired one of English literature’s most famous novelists. Rose Crown House, near the village of Marshwood, played a central role in a murder case in the 1850s, and Thomas Hardy based the fate of the title character in Tess Of The D’Urbervilles on what happened to the killer.
Today Rose Crown House is a family home but in the 19th Century it was a pub, opposite which was a cottage where Martha Brown took an axe to her philandering husband John. She was hanged for her crime on August 9, 1856, and among g the 4,000-strong crowd owd watching the execucution that day was as the young Hardy.
‘It stayed with him for a long time and it’s said to be the inspiration for the end of Tess,’ says Barry Allsop, the current owner of Rose Crown House.
Three decades s later Hardy was to write how the heroine oine of his novel – which was adapted for a BBC TV mini-series in 2008 starring Gemma Arterton – stabs to death the man who raped her and, just like Martha, is then hanged for her crime.
The bar of the Rose and Crown, as it was then known, was where John Brown’s body was laid out on a table after neighbours found it.
On July 7, 1856, two days after he died, an inquest was held in the pub – with the corpse still lying on the table. ‘A surgeon was brought in and he found that John had been viciously attacked and had suffered six wounds, probably with an axe,’ Barry says.
‘Martha was arrested and charged with his murder, and a trial took place in Dorchester on July 21.
‘There was quite a lot of discussion that Martha had been subjected to a tremendous amount of provocation with John’s drinking and womanising, and there was a petition drawn up to save her, but to no avail.
‘The couple had a turbulent relationship. Martha came home one day to find him in bed with a neighbour’s wife. John came home drunk a few nights later and she had had enough.’
Barry adds that Hardy’s interest in the execution might have been more than just writer’s curiosity.
‘There are those who say that Hardy found the whole experience rather erotic,’ he says. ‘It was a damp day and Martha wore a tight-fitting black dress that clung to her as she swung in the breeze.’
Rose Crown House’s grim past has little bearing on its present incarnation. ‘It’s an absolutely lovely house – we have wonderfully friendly neighbours and the gardens are magnificent,’ says Barry, who has lived there with his w wife, Marion, since 20 2004. They are the firs first people to occupy the property as a house after it was redeveloped for residential use back in 1997. The four-bedroom property, which is on the market for £599,950 with Parkers, is modern yet cosy and also comes with extensive landscaped gardens. ‘If we were younger we wouldn’t dream of moving, but it’s a big house with big gardens and your energy levels start to dwindle as you get older,’ admits Barry. ‘We’re looking to move somewhere more urban.’
THE sitting room is his favourite place in the house, and he says that on a clear day you can see out to the coast at Lyme Regis and Bridport, and also spot the light winking on the lighthouse at Portland Bill.
In the winter months Barry and Marion like to spend time in the cosy kitchen, which features a four-door Aga. Barry says the kitchen is his wife’s favourite part of the house.
Among the many plus-points of the home are characterful features including exposed beams, Hamstone fireplaces and wooden floors, while a hand-built oak staircase links the three floors.
Three of the four bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, and there are two outbuildings, one of which has power and lighting, as well as offroad parking for several cars.
Perhaps the one downside of the house is that very occasionally groups of hikers using out-of-date Ordnance Survey maps turn up thinking that Rose Crown House is still a pub.
‘I’m afraid they go away very disappointed, especially on a hot day,’ laughs Barry.