# Dick Turpin's horse



## Mehefin (28 November 2011)

This is a slightly random question:

Am I correct in thinking that the name of Dick Turpin's horse was Black Bess? What I really want to know is what happened to her after Dick Turpin was executed?


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## cumbriamax (28 November 2011)

I believe that he was rumoured to have owned/rode a horse named black bess, but also heard that this is fiction as there is no evidence to back it up.as for what happened to his horse- no idea!lol!


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## fallenangel123 (28 November 2011)

Right I am dredging up something from the edge of my memory and I'm sure it'll be corrected.
 Dick Turpin tried to make an epic getaway from London to Nottingham comes to mind. Sadly Bess died short of his destination allowing Turpin to be caught. People swore that he must have had more than one horse even to get as far as he did, but during an archeological dig a horse skeleton was dug up, believed to be Bess. Thing was the chest cavity was huge which would have allowed massive heart and lung room so she 'could' have done it.
 Could be totally wrong of course!! (usually am)


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## jennywren07 (28 November 2011)

the story i know (note the story part) is he had a horse named blck bess that he rode from London to york in a night escaping everyone who chased him - jumping a hay cart and a road blockade and swimming a vast river - She then died as the clock chimed morning in york

pretty sure that ones fiction though lol


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## Tinsel Trouble (28 November 2011)

It's really interesting!

Dick Turpin performed a major heist on a road near London. He was wanted throughout the country so in order to provide himself with a suitable allibi he raced on Black Bess to Nottingham (i think...) which would have normally taken several days to get to. 

Black Bess reputedly had a heart attack en-route and inorder to maintain his allibi he stole a horse and completed his journey. 

One of the twists is a local farmer found an exhausted  black mare and recurperated her and bred some foals, but the skeleton of a horse has been found on the old road, but who would have burried a horse there is anyone's guess- Dick Turpin would not have had the time!

I love the story of Dick Turpin!!


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## Kat (28 November 2011)

jennywren07 said:



			the story i know (note the story part) is he had a horse named blck bess that he rode from London to york in a night escaping everyone who chased him - jumping a hay cart and a road blockade and swimming a vast river - She then died as the clock chimed morning in york

pretty sure that ones fiction though lol
		
Click to expand...

That's the story! 

There was a documentary not so long ago that examined whether this could have happened and they had a top endurance horse on a treadmill to see whether it was feasible. 

They couldn't really come to a firm conclusion as they had to look after the horse they were testing whereas in the story Dick would have ridden hard, and taken risks with his horse, and indeed the story includes the horse breaking down and dying at the end. 

However given that it is 200 miles, it is pretty likely that the story is at least exaggerated. Afterall if he did it is 12 hours he would have had to have averaged 16mph for the whole trip, so given some breaks and some difficult terrain he would have needed to have travelled significantly faster for a good proportion of the journey.


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## Kat (28 November 2011)

Oh and at some point on the journey he stopped off at our local pub for a swift half......


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## Kobie (28 November 2011)

The story of DT and B Bess round these parts is prolific as is Guy Fawkes. My old  yo/boss once lived in Allerton. It is said that Dick and Bess stayed in their stables over night, and from then on no mare would settle in the stable Bess was in but a gelding/staillion had no problems in that stable at all.


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## Tinsel Trouble (28 November 2011)

Just done some research into this (interweb... take it or leave it) 

Most of the hype surrounding "Dick Turpin" was due to a pamphlet hastilty compiled following his trial and execution at Your Racecourse in 1793, that and a victorian novel called Black Bess and the Knight of the Highways... 

Actually Richard Turpin (aka Richard Palmer) was a horse theif and a highway man, fell out with a gang he was part of, got fed up of living rough in Epping Forest, shot someone by accident so ran away to York where he lived off his ill-gotten gains hunting with the landed gentry, and nipping over the border to Lincolnshire when he wanted to steal some livestock and horses. He shot his Landlord's cock (as in hen- direct quote!) and was imprisonned whilst the authorities looked into his income source- he was then tried and hanged as a highway man. The man who owned Black Bess and the story of rushing to York is attributable to John Nevison!

"However, the popular Turpin legend contains not a grain of truth. In reality, Turpin's fictitious great ride was made by 17th-century highwayman John 'Swift Nick' Nevison, who early one morning in 1676 robbed a homeward-bound sailor on the road outside Gads Hill, Kent. Deciding he needed to establish an alibi, Nevison set off on a ride that took him more than 190 miles in about 15 hours. In addition, it was only at the very end of his life, while waiting to be hanged at York racecourse, that Turpin exhibited any of the swaggering nonchalance, heroism, or derring-do usually attributed to him. Prior to that, both his existence and his criminal ventures had been squalid, to say the least" 
http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/highwaymen/dick_turpin.htm


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## La Fiaba (28 November 2011)

I've got a horse called Black_water_ Bess, wonder if they're related....(she is pretty fast and her average walking speed is about 16mph so I guess it's possible )


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## Hippona (28 November 2011)

Tinsel Trouble said:



			Just done some research into this (interweb... take it or leave it) 

Most of the hype surrounding "Dick Turpin" was due to a pamphlet hastilty compiled following his trial and execution at Your Racecourse in 1793, that and a victorian novel called Black Bess and the Knight of the Highways... 

highway man. The man who owned Black Bess and the story of rushing to York is attributable to John Nevison!


http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/highwaymen/dick_turpin.htm

Click to expand...

Indeed....there is a place near me Called Nevison's Leap....complete with pub of the same name and Blue Plaque on the sandstone 'cliff' wall....apparanty he leapt accross a gulley on his horse...


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## noblesteed (28 November 2011)

When I was a kid there was a series called Dick Turpin and he had an accomplice called Swift Nick. I loved it and was delighted when my husband bought me the series on DVD!! I always wanted a horse like Black Bess. Obviously the program was heavily dramatised but very exciting. I don;t think he did his famous ride in it though. I read about that ride in a book when I was a kid but can't remember which one... it was one of those Horse & Pony books with extracts from horsey novels in!!!
There was also a program on the discovery channel I think, with Vic Reeves telling the story of Dick Turpin... That was on a few weeks ago.


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## Doncella (28 November 2011)

Harrison Ainsworth wrote a gothic novel called 'Rookwood' which featured a highly romanticized Dick Turpin, Black Bess and the ride from London to York during which the mare dies.
In reality Dick Turpin was a nasty little sh?t.


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## Mehefin (28 November 2011)

Thanks everyone, that's really interesting! Does anyone happen to know what breed she was? I have in my mind that she was a Welsh Cob, but that may be completely wrong...


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## Doris68 (28 November 2011)

This takes me back many years..  My late dad used to say "Giddy up, Giddy up Bonny Black Bess..."  Will check if this is some sort of poem.  Interesting thread!


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