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Was
there a murder, was there a body?
This
was not one of the 'stories' that the newspapers published in 1856 but
a story I came across in 1979. Unfortunately I cannot remember the source
and would be delighted if anyone reading this web site can track down the
original source.
Bob
Brettle, a famous Birmingham bare knuckle fighter, was in training at Hednesford
in readiness for his championship fight with 'Gypsy' Jem Mace. Two of the
main backers of Bob Brettle were the gamblers Dr. William Palmer and John
Parsons Cook for whose murder Palmer was later hanged at Stafford.
Cook
and Palmer used to meet up each day with Brettle in the Cross Keys Public
House, after his day's training, to check up on their fighters progress.
The Cross Keys at Hednesford is the public house behind which Hednesford
Town Football Team used to play before their move to a new ground at Keys
Park in 1995.
One
night in the Cross Keys there was a big brute of a navvy (a labourer) who
took great delight in playing tricks on people or insolently drinking other
people's drinks. Bob Brettle gradually became more and more fed up with
the antics of the by now drunken and loud navvy and was threatening 'to
sort him out'. Palmer was worried about his prize fighter getting hurt
before such an important fight and told Brettle to leave the bully to him.
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Introduction
