DICK TURPIN – AKA JOHN PALMER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The British love a romantic outlaw – at least until they are the victims of one – and they lap up legends about his exploits.  Robin Hood is probably the most famous example because he robbed the rich and – supposedly – gave to the poor and a visit to Sherwood Forest usually goes down well as it did recently (http://diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com/2018/08/back-to-sherwood.html).  We did not have time for Sherwood on this trip but had a few hours in the York before heading for Scotland, so I strolled over to the grave of Dick Turpin, a petty thief who became a romantic highwayman in the mid 1700s. It was not far from our hotel and I bumped into some of the group while photographing his gravestone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After his execution Turpin’s body was stolen by grave snatchers, who would have sold it to doctors, who were desperate for corpses to work on.  His popularity meant that it was retrieved and reburied, however, and it remains there, an occasional stop on a tourist guide’s walking tour of York.