The Red Lion c1955, Thursley
The Red Lion c1955, Thursley Ref: T43001
Memories of The Red Lion c1955, Thursley
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Thursley & local memories
Read and share memories of Thursley and Surrey inspired by Frith photos.
Landlord
My uncle, Frank Millard, was landlord and lived there in the 40's with his wife, Linda and their adopted daughter.
Frank had an artificial leg owing to a motor bike accident when he was 18 years of age and living in Ash with his parents and siblings. He was born around the turn of the century.
Maybe some-one remembers him?
Family Tree
Whilst researching my family tree I found that my Great Great Aunt Louisa Shorland and her husband Edwin Shorland were the licencees at the Red Lion, Thursley in the early 1880's
Thursley
I grew up in Hindhead near Thursley in the 1960s and this story was extremely well known locally. On the walk which we did often up to Gibbet Hill above the Devil's Punch Bowl you would pass the Sailor's Stone memorial which told the story of the crime. The Sailor's Stone is still there, as is the unknown sailor's gravestone in Thursley churchyard which, having moved back to the area, I saw just the other day. The perpetrators met their victim in the Red Lion Inn, where they told him that they would keep him company on the road to Portsmouth. At Hindhead, then a bleak and almost uninhabited heath, they killed him and stripped him of all his possessions, rolling the body down into the Punch Bowl, where it was discovered the next morning by a local broom squire. The murderers were apprehended when they tried to sell the young sailor's clothes in a village further down the Portsmouth Road, and were tried, convicted and hanged in chains on... Read more
The Red Lion Inn Thursley
I lived in The Red Lion Inn, Thursley (Bridle Cottage) from the day I was born for approximately 22 years. I was born in June 1961 and I am the oldest child of four. I lived with my parents and grandparents. My grandfather, Tom Briscoe, bought the old pub in 1959 (after it had been closed down, I do not know why the pub stopped trading?) - and he converted the place to a private house. I have such happy memories of an idyllic childhood spent in the big old rambling house with several gardens and surrounded by beautiful fields, trees and common land. The story (in postcards) surrounding the Red Lion Inn about the unknown sailor's death in the Punch Bowl is absolutely true and he is buried at Thursley Church - apparently his murderers were last seen in what became our lounge! We had many visitors over the years - ex-Canadian soldiers came back to show their families where they had stayed and drunk beer during the Second... Read more
The Unknown Sailor Postcard
Whilst going through my mother's things I came across a postcard of a gravestone 'In Memory of' then goes on to show the poem that was written which at the end says it was given by the generous public, on the back where you would put your stamp it says 'please affix halfpenny stamp'. It appears that a love engraving of the villains fighting the sailor at the top of the gravestone then the verse. I wondered if the gravestone was still there today and if the inscription was still readable.
The Murder of A Young Sailor
I've come across a set of 6 postcards that tell the tale of a young sailor who was murdered by 3 other sailors that he met up with in the, 'Red Lion' at Thursley. Apparently the other 3 sailors accompanied him up to 'the Hindhead Hills' and murdered him and dumped his body in the Punch Bowl. Is this a well known story in local folklore?
