HIGH SPEED RAIL LINK
You may have seen published in the national press recently, the proposed route for a new high speed rail line between London and the West Midlands. The route comes through West Ruislip, bordering Ickenham on its way towards Amersham. Its publication came just too late for inclusion in the most recent edition of the Ickenham Residents’ Association newsletter ‘Ickenham Calling’, but we have been asked by the Association to assure you they will be reviewing the proposals carefully.
A short briefing on the Association’s initial assessment will be given at their forthcoming AGM in the Village Hall (Friday 23rd April at 8pm), when Chairman Rachel Moore will be happy to hear residents’ preliminary views. Whilst the AGM is open to members of the Association, any household not already a member is welcome to join either beforehand or on the night.
Details of the route can be found at www.hs2.org.uk . If anyone has concerns in advance of the meeting, then they can contact Rachel on 01895 613534 or 07710 209272, or via the Association’s email address, which is ickenhamresidents@hotmail.com
ICKENHAM’S HERMIT – THE MAD HATTER?
Over the years Ickenham has had its share of characters but perhaps none as strange as Roger Crab. Born in Buckinghamshire in 1621, by the age of twenty he had adopted the most extreme vegetarian - in fact vegan – diet, consisting of bran broth, turnip leaves, herbs, roots, grass and only water to drink.
He was a member of the Parliamentarian Army for seven years, but incurred the wrath of Oliver Cromwell, probably for political agitation, and was sentenced to death by execution. However, the sentence was never carried out and after two years in prison he was released from the Army and renounced all violence.
In Chesham he set himself up as a seller of hats. A severe head wound he had suffered during his time in the Army may have been to blame for some unorthodox behaviour in these years, and indeed it is thought that Crab may subsequently have been the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland!
After three years he had a religious vision which led him to disband his business, give much of his property to the poor and move to Ickenham. Here he built a small house, took to dressing in clothes made from sackcloth, and lived on just three farthings a week. He continued to pursue his extreme diet which at times unsurprisingly brought him near to death.
Nevertheless, he established a reputation as a herbal doctor, philosopher and astrologer, attracting, according to himself, “a hundred or six score patients at once.” These souls must have flocked from afar for this was probably greater than the entire Ickenham population at the time.
After writing his autobiography, “The English Hermit or the Wonder of the Age”, he went to London to get it published. There for the first time, he was thrown into prison for Sabbath-breaking. On his release and return to Ickenham, he was denounced as a male witch by an Uxbridge priest who believed Roger should be burnt at the stake. Again he escaped this sentence although he suffered several whippings and spent many hours confined in the stocks for repeated Sabbath-breaking.
Crab wrote more books and poetry before finally moving to Bethnal Green, where he died at the age of sixty and was buried in Stepney Churchyard.
MURDER AT THE HALL
Eighty residents and friends turned sleuths when they attempted to solve the murder mystery at Ickenham Hall in February. The event was held in the Compass Theatre with an opportunity to visit the adjacent Ickenham Hall scene of crime.
There was found a body, covered in blood with the murder weapon close by. In various rooms in the Hall were members of the Shoreham family and itinerants, all in period dress. We were also fortunate to catch fleeting glimpses of Ickenham Hall’s infamous ghost (pictured). A somewhat supercilious Sheriff was present to conduct public interviews with the suspects and the audience, working in teams of eight, also had the chance to interrogate the individuals, all of whom had something to hide.
Only one team deduced that the culprit was the maid who, defending her honour, had stabbed the upper class womaniser with a bread knife. After that team had been suitably rewarded, the author of the Scenario, Maurice Ray, announced that the event had raised about £550 to be donated by the organisers, Friends of Ickenham Hall, towards that deserving house’s restoration.
