Grisly mantraps made in the Black Country

AMONG the many trades of the Black Country, Wednesfield specialised in mantraps to act as deterrent to poachers.

Such landed gentry as the Earl of Dudley, no less, used these contraptions on his estate at Himley Hall in the 1700s. Indeed, his personal gamekeeper was known as “Man Trap” Griffiths, who left these devices around the estate to catch unfortunates. One such case saw a poacher from Wall Heath have his leg almost amputated by one. Amazingly, Griffiths followed the trail of blood and found the man in his home, whereupon he was arrested and charged. His fate was transportation to Australia.

A rather gory sequel to this event occurred some years later, around Christmas 1807, when Griffiths went missing and a search was organised to find him. He was finally found and the grisly sight that confronted his colleagues was that of his head crushed in the very man trap he had designed!

However, not all was so clear, as his body bore other injuries where it had been hacked at with a sickle, which was later found with blood stains. This became know as “The Wall Heath Murder” On closer examination tracks were found which suggested that the person leaving the crime scene had a wooden leg! Was this the man seeking revenge who had returned from his seven years transportation down under? No – in fact that man had died in Perth, Australia, six years before.

The mystery may have been solved in 1827 when “Old Man” Bossock, the poacher’s father, died in his Packwood Lane lodge. The house was then demolished and the workers made a chilling discovery of a smoke blackened wooden leg hidden in the chimney breast!