PE R SPE CT IVE S
A Summer Detective Story Caroline Aston uncovers the mystery of the disappearing ‘Clinker’
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n 1846 the now famous Oakham School was nothing like the place we know today. James Padley who boarded there between 1839 and 1843, gives us a vivid picture in his letters home: the Shambles were then in the market place near the School (they moved to the Castle grounds in 1880) and the Cattle Market was held there too till 1908. Padley also tells us that his schoolmates were not averse to pinching things either, a practice then known at Oakham School as ‘plugging’. Education took place against a background of grunting, lowing, bleating and neighing not to mention a strong odour of farmyard in the air. And in 1846 those pungent smells were joined with a far more intriguing whiff – scandal! In 1840 Lord Willoughby d’Eresby had honoured the Rutland tradition by presenting a horseshoe to the Oakham Castle collection. It had the originality of simplicity as he gave an ordinary shoe from his favourite horse, gilded and mounted, and that horse was called ‘Clinker’. You can still see ‘The Clinker’ in the Castle today, hanging just over the door into what used to be the Magistrate’s Court but the shoe had a 12 year holiday from Rutland and thereby hangs a mystery story. You see, ‘The Clinker’ was stolen in the summer of 1846 and the Oakham police’s first port of call was the School. Boys will be boys and remember what James Padley had said about the fashion for ‘plugging’. Questions were asked but nothing found. Scratching their heads, the police had to put down the Clinker
case as unsolved. They almost certainly thought that that was the end of that – so imagine the incredulity 12 years later in 1858 when a brown paper parcel was anonymously delivered to Oakham School containing some rather poor poetry and ‘The Clinker’! Enclosed with the shoe was a request that a public acknowledgment of receipt be published in ‘The Standard’ newspaper and Lord Willoughby d’Eresby’s shoe was returned to its rightful place in the Castle collection. So who stole ‘Clinker’ and why did they return it after such a long time? It was left to John Barber, author of ‘The Book of Oakham School’, to do the detective work over a century later. According to his theory, the shoe was ‘plugged’ by two brothers who’d been playing cricket in what is now Doncaster Close. They took a short cut back to School House through the Castle grounds and noticed an open window. As a prank they climbed in and decided to steal a souvenir. First choice was the wooden peg over the Judge’s seat where the black cap, worn when pronouncing the death sentence, used to hang! Too firmly fixed to be moved, the next object to catch their eye was ‘Clinker’! It was the work of a moment to take it off the wall, nip back to School House and put it under a loose floorboard where the shoe stayed through the police inquiry. The two brothers went home for the holidays shortly afterwards - and ‘Clinker’ went too. One of those brothers later took Holy Orders and became a Naval Chaplain. But the thought of the theft haunted him. He wanted to return
‘Clinker’ but his brother repeatedly scoffed at him. However, in 1858 he finally agreed. The efficient Victorian postal service brought ‘Clinker’ home. That same year Dr Doncaster, Headmaster of Oakham at the time of the theft, died in Brighton, aged 85. Could it be that this death finally persuaded the other brother that it would be fitting to return ‘Clinker’? We shall never know for sure but we do know that a certain Robert Noble Jackson was at Oakham School when the theft took place, that Jackson took Holy Orders and became a Naval Chaplain before ending his days as a Gloucestershire parson, dying aged 92 in 1920. We also know that when the widow of the Oakham Castle Keeper was reminiscing in 1900 she told of two visiting clergymen who seemed particularly interested in ‘The Clinker’. She had been shocked to hear one tell the other that he’d stolen the shoe many years before! Both men had signed the Visitors Book and she’d been so intrigued that she had ringed the names – and one of those names was Robert Jackson! There’s a delicious end to this tale. In 1910 Robert Jackson was invited to present the prizes at Oakham School Speech Day. He was 82 years old. I wonder if the then Headmaster, W. L. Sargant, knew the inside story of the Clinker escapade? Perhaps his eyes twinkled as Mr Jackson spoke of morality to the assembled schoolboys. And Mr Jackson? I’m sure he appreciated the irony and relished handing out the awards not too far from where ‘The Clinker’ hung in all its glory.
RUTLAND & MARKET HARBOROUGH LIVING AUGUST 2013
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