Stories
- There is a story that as a result of a fight between the Gang members one night, one of the smugglers number was murdered and the body disposed of down a well at the side of the Inn. It is said that on some nights the sounds of scuffling and a body being dragged outside can still be heard.
- Although the Gang had a brutal reputation, they were not without a sense of humour. One officer who was blindfolded and had his legs bound was told he was to be thrown over a cliff. He managed to cling on to tufts of grass as he fell and hung with his legs dangling for some time. It was not until his blindfold slipped that he realised his feet were a matter of inches above the ground. The 'cliff' was only seven feet (2 m) high.
- Ransley lived at a The Bourne Tap and stories were circulated about there being a ghost which manifested itself as a floating severed head in the old building which served well to keep the curious away.
- Ransley was known for his organisational abilities but stories differ about the man. Some said he was a giant of over six feet, others said he was hardly more than five feet tall, some said he was a likeable rogue, others lived in absolute fear of him. Whatever was the truth, there was no doubt that he could be as ruthless as the situation demanded.
Read more about this topic: The Aldington Gang
Famous quotes containing the word stories:
“There have been many stories told about the bottom, or rather no bottom, of this pond, which certainly had no foundation for themselves. It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We make the oldest stories new when we succeed, and we are trapped by the old stories when we fail.”
—Greil Marcus (b. 1945)
“All my stories are webs of style and none seems at first blush to contain much kinetic matter.... For me “style” is matter.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)