The Incident of the Gatecrasher and the Seal Skin Coat

Wethersfield Village Hall in Essex is pleasant old building, an old brewery maltings that was converted for use of the parish in the 1920s. Villagers themselves had helped to pay for the conversion by purchasing shares. Money was raised to board over the concrete floor so that it would be suitable for dancing upon and it was well used. More information can be found on the parish council website here:

http://wethersfield.org.uk/wethersfield-village-hall-2/

The regular dances, and the sense of ownership by local residents, led to a little bit of trouble in 1937, however.

Towards the end of that year, a hunt dance was held which could be attended by ticketed invitation only. A 25 year old girl called Evelyn from Cambridge turned up with a ticket that she said she had obtained from a friend. This appearance of an uninvited guest seemingly rubbed up the organiser, a Mrs B, the wrong way. She was forced to deny that she had been rude to the girl or had deliberately crashed into her during the dancing of a Paul Jones. Mr B, it is alleged, took the bull by the horns however and confronted Evelyn with the words “What the devil are you doing here?”

Such was the upset caused, it resulted in Evelyn taking her revenge by walking off with a rather expensive coat from the cloakroom, which she assumed to belong to Mrs B. The seal skin coat however belonged to a different lady entirely. The whole incident ended up at Braintree Magistrates. Evelyn was bound over and everyone’s evening was completely ruined.

Read about other criminal incidents in public places in my book "Sin at the Cinema" - click here

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