JAMES GRASBY : Hello and welcome to a new series of the National
Trust podcast. I'm James Grasby, a curator here at the National
Trust. In our first episode of the series, we will be exploring
the lives of a mysterious Gang from the 1930s who had the whole
nation eagerly following their exploits. However, as we'll soon
discover there was something a little out of the ordinary about
these Gang members.
It's the afternoon of July the 17th, 1939 at Gray's Hill Hall
in London and the annual General meeting of the National Trust is
being held, members and representatives gather over tea
and biscuits to approve the accounts for the past financial
year.
However, today there is a little tension in the air with the
spectre of war with Germany looming unbeknown to the people
inside the building, outside on the street, three masked
individuals step out of a taxi cab clutching a metal object. [
MASKED INDIVIDUAL: Actor] Look, there's the door. Let's Go.
JAMES GRASBY : At this point, there is a terrible hullabaloo
as one of the masked intruders hurtles towards country house
expert James Lees-Milne and thrusts the suspicious looking
object into his hands and then vanishes as swiftly as they
arrive.
Milne hurriedly shoves the offending item into the hands of
the trust secretary Donald Macleod Matheson, who then in a
swift exchange pushes it into the hands of the chairman, Lord
Lawrence Zetland [
LAWRENCE DUNDAS, 2ND MARQUESS .: Actor] What is this? [
JAMES LEES-MILNE: Actor] It looks like a metal pineapple.
There's a label on it. What does it say?
LAWRENCE DUNDAS, 2ND MARQUESS .: Open this fruit and you will
find a kernel greatly to your mind.
Well, would you believe a £100 note? I do declare those rascals
Ferguson's Gang have been at it again.
JAMES LEES-MILNE: I say £100. How much have they donated so
far, Matheson?
LAWRENCE DUNDAS, 2ND MARQUESS .: I think this latest gift makes
it £2100. Bravo Ferguson's Gang.
JAMES GRASBY : In the 1930s, a secretive and subversive group
known as Ferguson's Gang made a splash in UK society. Unlike the
well known criminal gangs of the era. The motivations and
identities of this group are not at all what you'd expect far
from engaging in theft and extortion. Ferguson's Gang were
anonymous mask wearing activists who gave donations to
conservation causes in fun and entertaining ways.
What sets this group apart even more was that it was formed
entirely of women.
And we're going to retrace the gang's steps to uncover the
motivations behind these masked marauders and explore the legacy
left behind.
I'm not far from Chippenham railway station and I've come
down onto a very modern industrial state and in front of
me is an enormous building, a temple to archives, the
Wiltshire And Swindon History Centre. And I'm about to step
inside and meet Daz Beatson from the National Trust Archive
Department who has arranged for me to have access to some very
exciting objects.
DAZ BEATSON: Hi, James. Come on through.
JAMES GRASBY : Daz, I'm very pleased to meet you and I
couldn't be more thrilled to be here.
Now, Daz in front of us, buff colored box doesn't look very
promising to me, but what goodies have you got inside
here?
DAZ BEATSON: This is the first volume of Ferguson Gang's
minutes.
JAMES GRASBY : There's a book in front of me, a little sort of
folio with a beautiful impression of a holly leaf I
would guess on the front.
DAZ BEATSON: They referred to it as The Boo.
JAMES GRASBY : The Boo!
DAZ BEATSON: The Boo.
Apparently as legend goes, they actually ran out of space on the
paper. So the K wasn't added to the end of the word. And from
there on in, they were referred to as The Boo.
JAMES GRASBY : Oh, that's sweet, Isn't it
DAZ BEATSON: Totally unassuming on the outside. But inside a
wonderful, wonderful collection of all of the Ferguson Gang
memorabilia, their minutes, their adventures.
JAMES GRASBY : And you opened it up on the first page and there's
a wonderful inscription in beautiful handwriting. This
minute book volume, one of Ferguson's Gang was handed to
the Secretary of the National Trust on the 27th of May 1967 at
a dinner given at Shalford Mill to celebrate the 40th
anniversary. Ferguson's Gang isn't that lovely?
DAZ BEATSON: So as well as the first volume, there is actually
a second volume. This was actually found on a market stall
in London wrapped in a piece of cloth and a member of the public
purchased it and then eventually worked out what it was and
offered it to us.
JAMES GRASBY : What a wonderful story.
DAZ BEATSON: The piece of cloth it was wrapped in is also
something else to see.
JAMES GRASBY : Daz what you've unraveled I was not expecting.
It's a textile made up of a series of panels that was about
six inches square and each of these squares has got a
individual embroidery, a motto, a fabulous picture. What am I
looking at?
DAZ BEATSON: This is the Barbituric Robe. So this is what
the gang used in their ceremonies. And you might have
noticed looking through the minute book that there is
actually a picture of one of the gang wearing it.
JAMES GRASBY : Some of these panels have got a sort of
medieval feel. Others are much more modern. This is a very
graphic device really here of a looks like a Trilithon, two
standing stones. That looks to me to be Stonehenge.
DAZ BEATSON: Yeah, so Stonehenge is very important to the Gang
and an early catalyst for their coming together. And as you'll
see from the panel just below that, they believe that England
was Stonehenge and not Whitehall.
JAMES GRASBY : Let's wind back the clock to the summer of 1927
where we join four young women in their twenties, sitting on
the banks of the river Thames in Tothill Fields. [
1ST FEMALE: Actor} What a splendid spot for a picnic [
2ND FEMALE : Actor] Isn't it just. Now do be a good egg and
pass over one of those delicious looking tarts.
JAMES GRASBY : Also picnicking with them today, is dear friend,
Professor George Macauley Trevelyan, who's currently a
year into his role at the National Trust for places of
historic interest. [
3RD FEMALE: Actor] So how's the job going, George? [
G. M. TREVELYAN: Actor] It's going rather well actually. Now,
are you ladies aware of the latest campaign from the
National Trust to raise funds for Stonehenge? [
1ST FEMALE: Actor] Is that the national appeal that the Prime
Minister is rallying behind? [
G. M. TREVELYAN: Actor] Yes, they want to raise £35,000 to
acquire the surrounding land. As presently, there's an aerodrome
and some farm buildings blotting the landscape.
JAMES GRASBY : The 1920s was a time when the English
countryside faced significant threat from developers as no
formal planning permission was required. And houses and
factories were being built across the land in their
swathes.
Reflecting the strong sentiments of many, a passionate young man
called Clough Williams Ellis was about to write a new book titled
England and the Octopus. A polemic on England's unregulated
urban sprawl.
Maybe just maybe these young picnickers could help thwart
London that mighty octopus and prevent it from extending its
tentacles into the English countryside. [
4TH FEMALE: Actor] Someone needs to stop these property
developers from spoiling the landscape. [
2ND FEMALE : Actor] Yes. Can we do anything to help? [
1ST FEMALE: Actor] We could form a gang and raise funds to help
save the British countryside? [
G. M. TREVELYAN: Actor] Surely you don't mean a criminal gang
with threats, extortion and gangster name. [
4TH FEMALE: Actor] Absolutely not! We need to stay on the
right side of the law, but we could use pseudonyms. [
1ST FEMALE: Actor] In that case, I am innocent and shall go by
the name Bill Stickers. [
2ND FEMALE : Actor] I would like to be known as Sister Agatha
after that day at London Zoo when I dressed up as a nun. [
4TH FEMALE: Actor] I shall go by the name of Red Biddy; I am a
practicing communist after all. [
3RD FEMALE: Actor] I just want to be known as Kate O'Brien the
Nark. [
1ST FEMALE: Actor] Henceforth from this very day, we shall be
known as Ferguson's Gang and must solemnly pledge to
safeguard our anonymity until the end of our days. [
ALL CAST: Actor] To Fergusons Gang!
DAZ BEATSON: We don't know that they actually contributed
directly to the Stonehenge appeal. But if you look back
again into the minute Boo, you'll see a receipt there for
their first ever donation to the National Trust for five pounds.
JAMES GRASBY : That is wonderful. And on the opposite
page is the minutes of the first meeting of the Ferguson's Gang.
And at the top it says Ferguson's Gang, Shalford Old
Mill. I'm gonna head off and see it now. Daz, thank you It's been
wonderful.
DAZ BEATSON: It's been an absolute pleasure.
JAMES GRASBY : The Gang yearned for a project they could truly
sink their teeth into and the perfect opportunity arose when
Bill Stickers and Sister Agatha found themselves on a bus to
Guildford in September 1931 en route to visiting their dear
friend Arthur Godwin Austin.
During this journey, an old water mill caught their eyes.
And in a twist of fate, the mill had been in Arthur's family for
generations. However, plans were afoot to dismantle it.
In a heartfelt appeal over tea. The women persuaded Arthur to
let them rescue the mill.
However, to secure it and fund repairs, the Gang would need to
raise £500. And so Shalford Mill would become the Gang's
headquarters, a place to hide away and plan their stunts in
secret and hold strange initiation rituals.
That was a very nice drive actually from the Wiltshire
History Centre at Chippenham.
And I'm just approaching what I think is Shalford Mill down a
little side street. We come through pretty Guildford and
this is a magnificent building. I mean, three stories, brick
built, ground floor, probably timber framed above, tile hung.
I know that it's currently being worked on so there's no public
access.
And I'm hoping to meet Polly Bagnall, who's the author of the
book, The Remarkable Story of the National Trust Gangsters,
and has a very close connection to the Gang.
Now, look, if I go this way, through this little gate.
POLLY BAGNALL: Hello
JAMES GRASBY : You must be Polly
POLLY BAGNALL: Do come on in.
JAMES GRASBY : Through the entrance. Oh, the rushing of the
water and in front of us is an undershot water wheel.
So the water is running under our feet at quite a pace.
POLLY BAGNALL: It is.
JAMES GRASBY : It's got the most wonderful smell. Beyond this
brick wall is the water wheel that we've just passed in front
of us is what looks like an oak shaft. I mean, it's the size of
a large tree. Its enormous cogs and spur wheels and gears.
POLLY BAGNALL: Mind your head, we're going to go up through the
trap door here on the first floor,
JAMES GRASBY : Polly, I get the sense that, you know, this place
pretty well.
POLLY BAGNALL: Well, yes, you're absolutely right. I grew up
here. All my childhood was spent living at Shalford Mill and my
mother who died last year, lived here till 97 years of age. So my
family have been linked to the mill since 1932.
JAMES GRASBY : Polly, I'm longing to hear about your
special connection with Ferguson's Gang.
POLLY BAGNALL: My connection is my grandfather, John Mcgregor.
He was conservation architect and he was contacted in about
the early 1930s by the National Trust and asked if he would look
at this old water mill.
Ferguson's Gang wanted to take on the mill and give it with
money to repair it to the National Trust. And he was super
enthused. They all got on really well and they gave him the title
The Artichoke and he went on to repair several other buildings
that they took on.
JAMES GRASBY : And Polly tell me what these Gang members were
like.
POLLY BAGNALL: Well, the head of the Gang was a woman called Bill
Stickers. Well, that was her Gang name. Her name was Peggy
Pollard and she was superbly bright, went to Cambridge and
she was the first woman to get a double first. I mean, she wasn't
actually awarded her degree until the fifties because women
weren't allowed to have degrees. When when she moved to London,
after Cambridge, she was introduced to Brynnie.
Brynnie was to be Sister Agatha in the gang. So they were the
first two founding members of the gang and then several others
joined.
There was Red Biddy, who was Rachel Pinney. She came from a
very wealthy family. And probably the most conventional
was Joy Gaze, who was called Kate O'Brien the Nark.
Now the person I really like is The Bloody Beer Shop, His
Bludiness or His B. She was the Gang spiritual leader. She
invented these rituals and she had a staff, she smoked a pipe
and she was all together an incredible woman.
SPK_12: But according to my grandparents, they were full of
fun. They were really interested in the history of England. Going
back to Pagan times, they weren't really particularly
interested in modern life. And for them taking on this mill was
an exciting adventure.
JAMES GRASBY : Fabulous.
POLLY BAGNALL: Ok, James. So this is very important this
millstone and the piece of wood around it, this thing comes off
and you can sit five women fairly comfortably in a circle
over the millstone. And this is where they had their meetings.
If you look at this, this is a copy of The Boo, their minute
book.
JAMES GRASBY : March the 26th, 1932. 1st meeting. Present -
Ferguson, Sister Agatha. What's that?
POLLY BAGNALL: The Bloody Beer Shop, Bill Stickers, Kate
O'Brien TN. That means the Nark and Red Biddy. [
BILL STICKERS: Actor] Right. Right. Right. Right. Oh, chaps.
Settle down, settle down.
Welcome to the first meeting of Ferguson's Gang to start off, I
wish to pass a resolution that England is Stonehenge and not
Whitehall [
ALL CAST: Actor] Here, here. England is Stonehenge and not
Whitehall. [
RED BIDDY: Actor] Let's sit down around the grindstone, make some
plans and draw up our constitution. [
BILL STICKERS: Actor] I'll start rule number one. Ferguson's Gang
shall be known as Ferguson's Gang. [
RED BIDDY: Actor] Rule number two, the object of the Gang
shall be to follow the precepts of Ferguson in destroying and
frustrating the octopus. [
SISTER AGATHA: Actor] Rule three, the Gang shall consist of
no more.
JAMES GRASBY : So here they all were sitting on this bench where
we are now.
POLLY BAGNALL: Yes, and you haven't heard how come I said
five women and yet that's six, including Ferguson. Who was
Ferguson?
JAMES GRASBY : Who was Ferguson?
POLLY BAGNALL: Well, follow me
JAMES GRASBY : Lead the way.
Polly, we have come to what is really a small, little intimate
bedroom, isn't it? It looks like a little sitting room.
POLLY BAGNALL: This is what we call the gangs room. What you've
got here is you've got some old bunk beds, just two beds. Now,
there were five of them. So they were quite cozy when they slept
the night here.
JAMES GRASBY : Little primus stove for cooking on, bunk beds
to sleep in, a table laid for tea with a pretty embroidered
tablecloth. And look at this, a display case full of goodies.
POLLY BAGNALL: Come and have a look. Here is Ferguson.
JAMES GRASBY : Ferguson?
POLLY BAGNALL: It's a red stamp that says Ferguson. That is all
we know of Ferguson at their meeting.
JAMES GRASBY : How mysterious. Is that a mask?
POLLY BAGNALL: That Is the mask. They delivered money to the
National Trust in masks and capes, which is why a lot of
people thought they were a group of men.
JAMES GRASBY : But why were they so eager to obscure their
identity?
SPK_12: Well, partly they had sort of normal lives outside,
for example, Joy. She worked in a girls school and she had to
probably be quite sort of sensible. And this is something
that Brynie told my mother that it was just fun.
JAMES GRASBY : Polly in front of me. You've got some cuttings
taken from newspapers from the 1930s and the headings are
wonderful. Ferguson's Gang Again £200 for the National Trust.
What about Masked Woman Gives £500to the National Trust.
Mystery Band With Terrible Names Complete Endowment On Beauty
Spot.
This is wonderful stuff.
Polly, give me a sense of where the money came from.
SPK_12: They didn't have money, but Bill's mother, Black Mary,
she actually did donate quite a bit of money to the Gang. But
what was really clever was that they had subscribing members. So
anyone, you me could join the Gang choose our Gang name, but
we had to pay two and six every year for our membership.
POLLY BAGNALL: And that's how they filled their coffers. And
they filled their money tins, saved it, took it in bags,
filled it up- the swag. Drove across London 100 miles an hour
arrived at the office of the National Trust barged their way
through reception there, another £100 towards the repair of a
National Trust property.
JAMES GRASBY : Fabulous.
So Shalford Mill was the first property. Where did they go from
here?
POLLY BAGNALL: Well, Newton Old Town Hall on the Isle Of White
is a beautiful little Georgian building that had been
abandoned. It was covered in ivy and it was just going to turn
back into the fields around it. So, Bill and the rest of the
girls made their way to this little town hall on the edge of
the island and they said, yeah, let's take that on.
SPK_12: So my grandfather, the Artichoke came down and he
oversaw the repairs. And so that was the second building and then
they discovered some old cottages in Oxfordshire, priory
cottages, which had been an old abbey. But in addition to these
three buildings through the enthusiasm of Bill managed to
get a lot of landowners she knew in Cornwall to give tracks of
coastline to the National Trust.
POLLY BAGNALL: So James, this is where the women slept, where
they ate, where they plan their next project. But I'm going to
go and show you something else. Would you like to come and see
the chamber of horrors?
JAMES GRASBY : The chamber of horrors? Polly?
POLLY BAGNALL: Yes.
JAMES GRASBY : Yes, I would.
POLLY BAGNALL: Ok. Follow me
JAMES GRASBY : Lead the way.
POLLY BAGNALL: Be careful. We're going up ladders.
Up here was where they had their midnight rituals. Now,
particularly it was around summer solstice. So I've got a
bit from The Boo here. Would you like me to read it?
JAMES GRASBY : I would love to hear it
POLLY BAGNALL: Ok. 2:55 a. m. July the 1st, 1934. On the
stroke of midnight, the right bloody, the Lord Beer Shop, Bill
Stickers and Sister Agatha assembled with their weapons in
a chamber of horrors.
Solemnly swore the following oath with their hands upon the
Oly Croc. So the oly croc was the mill shaft.
And they're saying, I swear that at whatever cost I for one will
uphold Ferguson's Gang. At two o'clock Ag and Bill went out
into the moonlight and pinched milk from the farm to make
coffee. Then lighting the Etruscan lamb, that's their old
paraffin stove.
The Gang had a beautiful feast all practiced haunting the room
by the light of the moon. So we got the sun coming in but
imagine the moon making shadows on the floor as they danced up
and down prancing and singing and chanting Latin verse.
Then they went to the dawn window and they waited and
watched at 3.5 AM, the first cock went off and soon
afterwards this His B opened the door and window and we watched a
beautiful clear dawn with the presence of Venus and Capella.
JAMES GRASBY : The hauntings sound such fun. I mean, what
wonderful free spirits they were.
POLLY BAGNALL: But there were some occasions when they needed
a man. The BBC did these appeals and the National Trust wanted to
do an appeal and they asked Ferguson to come and give the
appeal. In August 1935, Peggy, commandeered her brother and he
agreed to stand in for Ferguson. [
BBC RADIO PRODUCER: Actor] Ferguson. You're up next and in
3, 2, 1. [
BOBBY GLADSTONE: Actor] I am Ferguson of Ferguson's Gang. I
appeal to you tonight for the National Trust.
JAMES GRASBY : Meanwhile, Bill and the rest of the Gang were
gathered around the radio. [
BILL STICKERS: Actor] Shhs, everyone. Bobby is on air. [
BOBBY GLADSTONE: Actor] You can do something yourselves. Whether
like Ferguson's Gang, you call at the offices of the Trust in a
mask and deposit a sack of bullion or join the Trust as a
subscribing member. [
SISTER AGATHA: Actor] Well done Bobby. Bravo!
JAMES GRASBY : So Polly, what was the result of that
broadcast?
POLLY BAGNALL: Well, it was phenomenal. It really was. They
raised a lot of money. They increased a lot of members, but
it was the notoriety. Everyone was listening. So, the National
Trust which was a small organization was inundated with
new members and they raised a significant amount of money for
appeals. So it was really putting the National Trust on
the map.
JAMES GRASBY : Polly, you gave me a lovely tour of the mill and
we now come downstairs into your sitting room. The sitting room
of your childhood home. And in the background window opening on
to the great mill wheel that powered this whole place. What a
place to grow up.
POLLY BAGNALL: Yeah, we were incredibly lucky, we had a very
free and open childhood. How I got into all this was that the
National Trust had had a small group of Americans come to
Surrey and they said, we'd love to see the room that Ferguson's
Gang used. My mother said, oh, Polly, can you sort out that
room and just sort of make it look a bit more like it was when
the Gang were there.
Then I started getting into the history of it and asking my
mother about the Gang. She knew a lot about the feeling of the
Gang but not actually about the facts. She knew all their real
names, and that was gold dust because no one apart from she
and her sister were the only living people who knew who all
the Gang members were.
And through that Sally Beck, the writer and myself as the
researcher spent four years uncovering the whole story and
then putting together in a book. So it tells you, you know, more
of the facts and really interesting information about
all of the women involved.
JAMES GRASBY : So, Polly, what brought the Ferguson Gang to an
end?
POLLY BAGNALL: I think it was a timely end for them. There's a
record of their last meeting here, which is in 1956, and
rather than the nice fountain pen writing, it's written in
ballpoint pen and they say we're all getting old in years. You
know, some of us is losing our teeth and it was harder for them
to climb onto the bunk bed to go to sleep.
I think they felt that their reason for existence, their
raison d'être, was no longer there anymore. They'd done their
work, they didn't need to meet as a proactive campaigning
activist group.
JAMES GRASBY : And Polly, I'm longing to know when they
disbanded, dd they keep the secret of who they were?
POLLY BAGNALL: Of course, well, all except for Bill. Peggy
couldn't keep quiet. She did reveal eventually in 1996 the
year she died that she was Bill Stickers of Ferguson's Gang.
JAMES GRASBY : And it feels like a fitting end to the story.
Wonderful story. What do you think the Legacy is of the
Ferguson game?
POLLY BAGNALL: They started in 1927 before there was any
register for buildings at risk, before there were any acts that
stopped development like the Green Belt. And this group of
women, they really valued city life. They loved partying in
London and the Slade Art Balls.
But they loved the countryside as it was darkness night where
they could look at the stars.
They love these buildings that tell us so much about the
history of this country, and that's what they wanted to
preserve. They wanted to make a distinction between city and
country. They didn't want the tentacles of the octopus just
extending everywhere. And that is their Legacy. We have a
Britain that values open space and access to all.
JAMES GRASBY : We hope you enjoyed this episode about
Ferguson's Gang. To catch every episode of our new series.
Please follow the National Trust podcast on your favorite podcast
app. We genuinely appreciate your ratings and your reviews.
While Shelford Mill is not open to the public at present, you
can still experience the Legacy of Ferguson's Gang by taking a
walk along the Mayon and Trevescan cliffs in Sennen,
Cornwall or by visiting the Old Town Hall on the Isle Of Wight,
alternatively, simply enjoy a stroll at one of the National
Trust's many green spaces.
If you'd like to find out more about the gang follow the links
in the show notes. And until next time from me, James Grasby,
goodbye.