As far as Theydon Mount was concerned the big story of 1949 was the news that Hill Hall was to become a ‘prison without bars,’ and the story received wide-spread coverage in the papers. However there were other stories from Theydon Mount.
By order of the Trustees.
Part of the Hill Hall Estate
THEYDON MOUNT
EPPING
3 miles from Epping and 20 miles from London.
COLEMAN'S FARM
An exceptionally well-equipped DAIRY AND MIXED FARM with Brick-built Farmhouse, Modernised Farm Buildings including Accommodation for 67 cows, and about 297 Acres of Arable and Pasture Land, Let at £375 per annum.
PEAK'S FARM
A Fertile Small Mixed Farm of 139 Acres, let at £174 per annum.
Also
184 ACRES OF WOODLAND
containing a large number of small and medium clean straight coppice grown Oaks as well as a considerable number of sizeable Ash and other Trees. and
A SMALLHOLDING AND 7 COTTAGES
which
KEMSLEYS
WILL OFFER FOR SALE BY AUCTION IN LOTS
(unless previously sold)
AT THE COCK HOTEL, EPPING
On MONDAY, 10th OCTOBER, 1949, at 3.30 p.m.
Particulars, Plans and Conditions of Sale may be obtained from the Solicitors, Messrs. LAWRENCE GRAHAM & Co., 6, New Square, Lincoln. Inn, W.C.2; or from the Auctioneers, 164, Bishopsgate, E.C.2, and 10, Western Road. Romford. Essex.
From the Herts and Essex Observer - Friday 30 September 1949
Dawn search caught two
By dawn to-day squads of police using torches and co-ordinated by wireless had recaptured two of the three good conduct prisoners who escaped from the prison without bars at Theydon Mount. They were Harold Pryte and Jack Josephs. Pryte was recaptured when police closed in on a copse near Epping just before midnight. He was serving a two-year sentence for theft. Josephs, who was caught later, was sentenced for shopbreaking and theft.
Police and wood choppers were watching copses and thickets as the search for the third man. William Henry King, in prison for receiving, was continued by daylight.
All three escaped yesterday from Hill Hall Farm. They had originally been in Chelmsford Gaol, but had become members of the working party at Epping because of their good conduct.
Essex Newsman - Tuesday 05 April 1949
The Good Conduct Ghost of Hill Hall
By Maurice Fagence
THEYDON MOUNT, Essex. Friday.
It’s all very well for the Home Office to turn Hill Hall - hilltop Elizabethan mansion dominating 200 square miles of bleakest, loneliest Essex - into a prison without bars for Chelmsford Jail's good conduct men.
But what is the ghost of the Grey Lady going to do about it?
That is what the stolid yeomen of this scattered hamlet, many of whom have seen the sad gentle figure, want to know.
Let the Home Office dismiss local village opposition to the scheme with a wave of the hand if it likes. No community. say the villagers. likes the idea of having a prison, even a prison without bars, planted in its midst.
But the Grey Lady, with her unbroken history 350 years of haunting and who probably merits the title of Britain's Premier Ghost, is another matter. She even haunted the nurses' bedrooms when London Hospital's maternity section was evacuated here during the war.
Mrs. Bingham, the mansion's lodge-keeper said to me.
“The matron saw her time and again, and if she sees a ghost there is a ghost.
For centuries the Grey Lady has walked round the bloodstains on the floor where seven men. all brothers, died in a fight to win her favours.
Countless people have seen the ghost of Hill Hall, my own husband among them. Something forced him out of his bed one night, made him walk to a window in far-away part of the mansion to light a cigarette.
The ghost walked by. Next morning there was a half-smoked cigarette on the window-ledge to show it was not a dream.”
May be women
Mrs. Bingham, her husband, the chief gardener Mr. Prior, and north county Mr. Chapman, one of the oldest and most hard-headed workers on the estate all ask: “And what are Chelmsford prisoners even good conduct prisoners, going to do about a ghost?”
To which Mr. Prior adds: “And what is the ghost to do about finding herself the only un-convicted person, except the officers in a prison establishment”
Especially if, as Mr. Chapman believes the prisoners will all be women.
When I reached the mansion, grey-uniformed male prisoners were clearing up the grounds – wearing red stars of good conduct men, and I thought very worried looks.
They had already heard the full story of the ghost.
Both on looks and history Hill Hall deserves a good ghost.
With daggers
It was built around about 1500, presented to a Royal Standard bearer, Henry de Essex, and taken away again when the worthy ran away from the enemy.
It was enlarged by Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth – who visited it regularly, and whose bed, carpets and curtains still remain.
Then came the ghost.
Sir Thomas’s seven sons all wanted the same little lady in Grey, fought with daggers till everyone was dead.
Their bloodstains are said to appear on the floor of the room in which they fought. All the local people I have quoted so far claim to see them, although hard-headed Mr. Chapman says, “It might well have been damp.”
And the ghost – “gentle, sad” – wanders regularly a’nights.
From the Daily Herald - Saturday 08 January 1949
Stole from Employer
German P.o.W. Sentenced
for Theft of Chickens
A German prisoner-of-war who pleaded guilty, to stealing four hens from his employer at Royden, was sentenced to two months' imprisonment at Harlow Petty Sessions, on Saturday. He was Heinz Plaumann, 22, of 116 P.o.W. Camp, Theydon Mount.
Det.con. Steward said that on January 27 he was driving a police car through Epping Upland and in the headlights saw Naumann standing in the gateway of the church. Nearby was a bicycle with a bag over the handlebars. On examining the bag witness found it contained four dead hens, Plaumann admitted having taken from Mr. E. Camp's farm at Roydon where he worked.
Captain Gray, officer in charge of 116 Camp, said Plaumann had not been in trouble before and, to the ' best of witness’s knowledge, his conduct had been good. "But," said Captain Gray. "My commanding officer takes a serious view of this and asks the Bench not to be too lenient as order has to he kept in the camp. If the prisoner had been dealt with by the military authorities it would probably have meant a court martial.”
It was stated that Plaumann joined the German Army in 1943 and was taken prisoner in September, 1944. He had been in England since April 1946.
Mt Plaumann had nothing to say, but the German interpreter asked for leniency and stated that as Plaumann was due for repatriation he could not understand why he had done it, for he was "not a bad chap."
Herts and Essex Observer - Saturday 07 February 1948
