The Scottish Mail on Sunday

The Wicked Lady’s lair

Lurking in the Home Counties, the £4m pile that was home to Britain’s most famous highway woman

- By Fred Redwood

FROM Ronnie Biggs to Dick Turpin and from the Krays to Bonnie and Clyde, some villains, regardless of their horrific crimes, become folk heroes in the eyes of the public. Another such folk hero – or heroine – is Lady Katherine Ferrers, whose supposed deeds as a highway woman have been fictionali­sed in two films, both called The Wicked Lady – the 1945 classic with a bosom-heaving Margaret Lockwood, and a 1983 remake starring Faye Dunaway.

Now the house that is said to have been the base from where the Wicked Lady held up coaches – Cell Park, in Markyate, Hertfordsh­ire – has come on to the market.

Fittingly, even its sale is cloaked in intrigue. It was initially priced at £4million, and agents Strutt & Parker received an offer of £4.25million. But to ensure it gets the best price, the Grade II listed manor house is now being put up for auction in London at The Cumberland Hotel, only a stone’s-throw from the start of Watling Street, the long, old Roman road upon which the Wicked Lady is said to have committed her crimes.

Katherine Ferrers was born in Hertfordsh­ire in 1634, heir to a considerab­le fortune, but her father died only six years later. Her mother remarried but died herself two years after Katherine’s father. Katherine ended up being cared for by the family of her stepfather and was married off to his nephew, Thomas Fanshawe, when still only 13; he was 16.

The story goes that the marriage was a disaster, with Thomas boring Katherine and things supposedly coming to a head at Cell Park one evening when his sister, whom Katherine detested, came to dinner. The meal over, the sister went home and Katherine made as if to go to bed, but instead climbed through a hidden partition to a secret chamber, pulled on buckskin breeches, cloak, mask and a tricorn hat, and jumped on her black horse to set off for Watling Street, where she robbed her sister-in-law of her jewellery.

That was just the start of the legend of the Wicked Lady. Flame-haired, with beautiful green eyes, she is said to have hooked up with Ralph Chaplin, a handsome local farmer by day and a highwayman by night, who brought her the excitement her marriage lacked. Sadly for Katherine, Chaplin was soon caught and hanged, and from then on she became increasing­ly bloodthirs­ty – burning houses, slaughteri­ng livestock and even killing a constable.

Eventually, she, too, was killed. Having been shot on Nomansland Common near Harpenden, she tried to get back to her secret stairway at Cell Park, but was found dead in a pool of blood at the foot of the east wall of the house the next morning.

Dating from 1145, the imposing property was initially a priory for Benedictin­e nuns before being converted into a manor house in 1539. The Ferrers family took it over in 1547 and it was largely rebuilt in 1825.

Although records show that Cell Park was definitely owned by Katherine’s family in her lifetime, local author and historian John Barber points out that there is no concrete evidence that she ever lived there. In fact, when she died, aged 26, she may have been living in London. Mystery surrounds how the Wicked Lady story developed over the centuries but the tale was the subject of a 1944 novel by Magdalen King-Hall – and that story formed the basis of the first Wicked Lady film the following year.

What is certain is that the Fanshawes sold off Katherine’s inheritanc­e and land in 1655, giving her ample motive to go in search of booty. And her view of her husband as a despicable skinflint also has substance: Pepys described Thomas as a ‘rascally fellow, without a penny to his name’.

Today, if you stand in Cell Park’s long, curving drive overlookin­g its 79 acres of parkland, it is easy to imagine thundering horses galloping under a full moon. Inside, the reception rooms are laden with period features. A Jacobean oak staircase leads upstairs to the 11 bedrooms, and one, in the eastern wing, is said to have been Katherine’s.

It was here, in the 1800s, that workmen discovered a secret chamber. Sadly it was empty – they found no tricorn hat, mask or breeches. However, it is still possible to make out the false wall abutting the chimney stack which conceals that hidden chamber.

The question remains, why was it built?

Cell Park, along with its two cottages in 79 acres of parkland, is to be auctioned by Allsop at The Cumberland Hotel, London, on May 29. The reserve price will not exceed £4.25million.

 ??  ?? DRAMATIC SETTING: Cell Park and, left, Faye Dunaway and Margaret Lockwood in the two film versions of The Wicked Lady
DRAMATIC SETTING: Cell Park and, left, Faye Dunaway and Margaret Lockwood in the two film versions of The Wicked Lady
 ??  ?? GRAND: An imposing sitting room at the property, with panels and ornate ceiling
GRAND: An imposing sitting room at the property, with panels and ornate ceiling

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