| Date | 14 January 2011 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
| Reference | VP-0119 |
| Volume | Views of the Past |
| Collection | Press Clippings |
Transcript
The strange and tragic tale of the Castle Inn
How a reputation for fine food ended with mass poisoning
WITH the advent of the coaching age, several coaching inns were established at Salt Hill.
One of these was the Castle Inn, which stood close to the Montem Mound – famous for its Etonian celebrations. Many of the boys’ parents would stay at the inn, which was renowned for its ‘Montem breakfasts’.
It is described in an early 19th-century guidebook as ‘a handsome red brick building with a fine centre window projecting well forward…with very picturesque views obtained from the charming garden of this hotel, extending towards Windsor Castle’.
Although the inn was known for its culinary delights, this was far from the case on March 29, 1773. The Gentleman’s Magazine for that year tells the following unfortunate story, which arose after the inn hosted the Commissioners of the Colnbrook Turnpike Trust, who regularly met once a month for dinner.
The meal that evening consisted of turtle soup, perch, fowls, bacon and greens, veal cutlets, ragout of pigs’ ears, mutton, crayfish, lamb with cucumbers, and pastries and jellies for dessert. There was also Madeira and port of the finest quality, supplied in large quantities.
The turtle soup for this dinner had been especially acquired from London for the occasion, and was kept in copper pans for a day or two, causing verdigris – a green pigment which forms when a liquid is left in a copper vessel.
The results were horrifying – five of the gentlemen who ate the meal died within a few hours and, according to contemporary accounts, 19 people ultimately met their deaths.
Among those present was a Mr Walpole Eyre, who owned the whole of St John’s Wood in London. Mr Eyre is buried in Burnham Church.
The only person to escape being poisoned was Mr Joseph Pote of Eton, a publisher in the High Street, who is famous for writing the book ‘The History and Antiquities of Windsor’. He arrived late to the dinner and therefore missed the first course – the turtle soup – and so was spared.
The poisoning was not revealed until a year or two later, and Mr Pote’s escape at the time was considered somewhat mysterious; the public consensus, however, was that the copper pan was the cause of the tragedy.
50 years ago this week…
A woan used the Observer to warn people against the potential danger of riding motorbikes – she had one boyfriend who died in a crash and another who had a lucky escape.
Petra Springer, 18, of Woodward Way, Britwell had enough of motorbikes after her first boyfriend, John Chipperton, was killed in a smash on the Colnbrook bypass in 1959. She was a pillion passenger and spent six weeks unconscious in Upton Hospital. Two years later, on Friday, January 6, 1961, her new boyfriend Tony Wilson, 20, left her home after an evening with Petra’s family watching TV. Moments later, a knock came at the door and Tony stood there, pale and shocked, saying a car had crashed into him.
Miss Springer said: “Tony has now promised me he will not ride again – he had a lucky escape.”
Mr Wilson had turned out of Doddsfield Road into Monksfield Way when he saw a car approaching at speed on the wrong side of the road.
He told the Observer: “I tried to swerve to the offside, but the car driver also swerved back to his nearside and collided with me. I was thrown off.
“The driver got out and said it was my fault, but a woman who came along said it was his fault. I said we had better get the police and then the driver got back into his car and drove off.”
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