JAMES GRASBY : Hello and welcome to a new series of the National

Trust podcast. I'm James Grasby, a curator here at the National

Trust. In our first episode of the series, we will be exploring

the lives of a mysterious Gang from the 1930s who had the whole

nation eagerly following their exploits. However, as we'll soon

discover there was something a little out of the ordinary about

these Gang members.

It's the afternoon of July the 17th, 1939 at Gray's Hill Hall

in London and the annual General meeting of the National Trust is

being held, members and representatives gather over tea

and biscuits to approve the accounts for the past financial

year.

However, today there is a little tension in the air with the

spectre of war with Germany looming unbeknown to the people

inside the building, outside on the street, three masked

individuals step out of a taxi cab clutching a metal object. [

MASKED INDIVIDUAL: Actor] Look, there's the door. Let's Go.

JAMES GRASBY : At this point, there is a terrible hullabaloo

as one of the masked intruders hurtles towards country house

expert James Lees-Milne and thrusts the suspicious looking

object into his hands and then vanishes as swiftly as they

arrive.

Milne hurriedly shoves the offending item into the hands of

the trust secretary Donald Macleod Matheson, who then in a

swift exchange pushes it into the hands of the chairman, Lord

Lawrence Zetland [

LAWRENCE DUNDAS, 2ND MARQUESS .: Actor] What is this? [

JAMES LEES-MILNE: Actor] It looks like a metal pineapple.

There's a label on it. What does it say?

LAWRENCE DUNDAS, 2ND MARQUESS .: Open this fruit and you will

find a kernel greatly to your mind.

Well, would you believe a £100 note? I do declare those rascals

Ferguson's Gang have been at it again.

JAMES LEES-MILNE: I say £100. How much have they donated so

far, Matheson?

LAWRENCE DUNDAS, 2ND MARQUESS .: I think this latest gift makes

it £2100. Bravo Ferguson's Gang.

JAMES GRASBY : In the 1930s, a secretive and subversive group

known as Ferguson's Gang made a splash in UK society. Unlike the

well known criminal gangs of the era. The motivations and

identities of this group are not at all what you'd expect far

from engaging in theft and extortion. Ferguson's Gang were

anonymous mask wearing activists who gave donations to

conservation causes in fun and entertaining ways.

What sets this group apart even more was that it was formed

entirely of women.

And we're going to retrace the gang's steps to uncover the

motivations behind these masked marauders and explore the legacy

left behind.

I'm not far from Chippenham railway station and I've come

down onto a very modern industrial state and in front of

me is an enormous building, a temple to archives, the

Wiltshire And Swindon History Centre. And I'm about to step

inside and meet Daz Beatson from the National Trust Archive

Department who has arranged for me to have access to some very

exciting objects.

DAZ BEATSON: Hi, James. Come on through.

JAMES GRASBY : Daz, I'm very pleased to meet you and I

couldn't be more thrilled to be here.

Now, Daz in front of us, buff colored box doesn't look very

promising to me, but what goodies have you got inside

here?

DAZ BEATSON: This is the first volume of Ferguson Gang's

minutes.

JAMES GRASBY : There's a book in front of me, a little sort of

folio with a beautiful impression of a holly leaf I

would guess on the front.

DAZ BEATSON: They referred to it as The Boo.

JAMES GRASBY : The Boo!

DAZ BEATSON: The Boo.

Apparently as legend goes, they actually ran out of space on the

paper. So the K wasn't added to the end of the word. And from

there on in, they were referred to as The Boo.

JAMES GRASBY : Oh, that's sweet, Isn't it

DAZ BEATSON: Totally unassuming on the outside. But inside a

wonderful, wonderful collection of all of the Ferguson Gang

memorabilia, their minutes, their adventures.

JAMES GRASBY : And you opened it up on the first page and there's

a wonderful inscription in beautiful handwriting. This

minute book volume, one of Ferguson's Gang was handed to

the Secretary of the National Trust on the 27th of May 1967 at

a dinner given at Shalford Mill to celebrate the 40th

anniversary. Ferguson's Gang isn't that lovely?

DAZ BEATSON: So as well as the first volume, there is actually

a second volume. This was actually found on a market stall

in London wrapped in a piece of cloth and a member of the public

purchased it and then eventually worked out what it was and

offered it to us.

JAMES GRASBY : What a wonderful story.

DAZ BEATSON: The piece of cloth it was wrapped in is also

something else to see.

JAMES GRASBY : Daz what you've unraveled I was not expecting.

It's a textile made up of a series of panels that was about

six inches square and each of these squares has got a

individual embroidery, a motto, a fabulous picture. What am I

looking at?

DAZ BEATSON: This is the Barbituric Robe. So this is what

the gang used in their ceremonies. And you might have

noticed looking through the minute book that there is

actually a picture of one of the gang wearing it.

JAMES GRASBY : Some of these panels have got a sort of

medieval feel. Others are much more modern. This is a very

graphic device really here of a looks like a Trilithon, two

standing stones. That looks to me to be Stonehenge.

DAZ BEATSON: Yeah, so Stonehenge is very important to the Gang

and an early catalyst for their coming together. And as you'll

see from the panel just below that, they believe that England

was Stonehenge and not Whitehall.

JAMES GRASBY : Let's wind back the clock to the summer of 1927

where we join four young women in their twenties, sitting on

the banks of the river Thames in Tothill Fields. [

1ST FEMALE: Actor} What a splendid spot for a picnic [

2ND FEMALE : Actor] Isn't it just. Now do be a good egg and

pass over one of those delicious looking tarts.

JAMES GRASBY : Also picnicking with them today, is dear friend,

Professor George Macauley Trevelyan, who's currently a

year into his role at the National Trust for places of

historic interest. [

3RD FEMALE: Actor] So how's the job going, George? [

G. M. TREVELYAN: Actor] It's going rather well actually. Now,

are you ladies aware of the latest campaign from the

National Trust to raise funds for Stonehenge? [

1ST FEMALE: Actor] Is that the national appeal that the Prime

Minister is rallying behind? [

G. M. TREVELYAN: Actor] Yes, they want to raise £35,000 to

acquire the surrounding land. As presently, there's an aerodrome

and some farm buildings blotting the landscape.

JAMES GRASBY : The 1920s was a time when the English

countryside faced significant threat from developers as no

formal planning permission was required. And houses and

factories were being built across the land in their

swathes.

Reflecting the strong sentiments of many, a passionate young man

called Clough Williams Ellis was about to write a new book titled

England and the Octopus. A polemic on England's unregulated

urban sprawl.

Maybe just maybe these young picnickers could help thwart

London that mighty octopus and prevent it from extending its

tentacles into the English countryside. [

4TH FEMALE: Actor] Someone needs to stop these property

developers from spoiling the landscape. [

2ND FEMALE : Actor] Yes. Can we do anything to help? [

1ST FEMALE: Actor] We could form a gang and raise funds to help

save the British countryside? [

G. M. TREVELYAN: Actor] Surely you don't mean a criminal gang

with threats, extortion and gangster name. [

4TH FEMALE: Actor] Absolutely not! We need to stay on the

right side of the law, but we could use pseudonyms. [

1ST FEMALE: Actor] In that case, I am innocent and shall go by

the name Bill Stickers. [

2ND FEMALE : Actor] I would like to be known as Sister Agatha

after that day at London Zoo when I dressed up as a nun. [

4TH FEMALE: Actor] I shall go by the name of Red Biddy; I am a

practicing communist after all. [

3RD FEMALE: Actor] I just want to be known as Kate O'Brien the

Nark. [

1ST FEMALE: Actor] Henceforth from this very day, we shall be

known as Ferguson's Gang and must solemnly pledge to

safeguard our anonymity until the end of our days. [

ALL CAST: Actor] To Fergusons Gang!

DAZ BEATSON: We don't know that they actually contributed

directly to the Stonehenge appeal. But if you look back

again into the minute Boo, you'll see a receipt there for

their first ever donation to the National Trust for five pounds.

JAMES GRASBY : That is wonderful. And on the opposite

page is the minutes of the first meeting of the Ferguson's Gang.

And at the top it says Ferguson's Gang, Shalford Old

Mill. I'm gonna head off and see it now. Daz, thank you It's been

wonderful.

DAZ BEATSON: It's been an absolute pleasure.

JAMES GRASBY : The Gang yearned for a project they could truly

sink their teeth into and the perfect opportunity arose when

Bill Stickers and Sister Agatha found themselves on a bus to

Guildford in September 1931 en route to visiting their dear

friend Arthur Godwin Austin.

During this journey, an old water mill caught their eyes.

And in a twist of fate, the mill had been in Arthur's family for

generations. However, plans were afoot to dismantle it.

In a heartfelt appeal over tea. The women persuaded Arthur to

let them rescue the mill.

However, to secure it and fund repairs, the Gang would need to

raise £500. And so Shalford Mill would become the Gang's

headquarters, a place to hide away and plan their stunts in

secret and hold strange initiation rituals.

That was a very nice drive actually from the Wiltshire

History Centre at Chippenham.

And I'm just approaching what I think is Shalford Mill down a

little side street. We come through pretty Guildford and

this is a magnificent building. I mean, three stories, brick

built, ground floor, probably timber framed above, tile hung.

I know that it's currently being worked on so there's no public

access.

And I'm hoping to meet Polly Bagnall, who's the author of the

book, The Remarkable Story of the National Trust Gangsters,

and has a very close connection to the Gang.

Now, look, if I go this way, through this little gate.

POLLY BAGNALL: Hello

JAMES GRASBY : You must be Polly

POLLY BAGNALL: Do come on in.

JAMES GRASBY : Through the entrance. Oh, the rushing of the

water and in front of us is an undershot water wheel.

So the water is running under our feet at quite a pace.

POLLY BAGNALL: It is.

JAMES GRASBY : It's got the most wonderful smell. Beyond this

brick wall is the water wheel that we've just passed in front

of us is what looks like an oak shaft. I mean, it's the size of

a large tree. Its enormous cogs and spur wheels and gears.

POLLY BAGNALL: Mind your head, we're going to go up through the

trap door here on the first floor,

JAMES GRASBY : Polly, I get the sense that, you know, this place

pretty well.

POLLY BAGNALL: Well, yes, you're absolutely right. I grew up

here. All my childhood was spent living at Shalford Mill and my

mother who died last year, lived here till 97 years of age. So my

family have been linked to the mill since 1932.

JAMES GRASBY : Polly, I'm longing to hear about your

special connection with Ferguson's Gang.

POLLY BAGNALL: My connection is my grandfather, John Mcgregor.

He was conservation architect and he was contacted in about

the early 1930s by the National Trust and asked if he would look

at this old water mill.

Ferguson's Gang wanted to take on the mill and give it with

money to repair it to the National Trust. And he was super

enthused. They all got on really well and they gave him the title

The Artichoke and he went on to repair several other buildings

that they took on.

JAMES GRASBY : And Polly tell me what these Gang members were

like.

POLLY BAGNALL: Well, the head of the Gang was a woman called Bill

Stickers. Well, that was her Gang name. Her name was Peggy

Pollard and she was superbly bright, went to Cambridge and

she was the first woman to get a double first. I mean, she wasn't

actually awarded her degree until the fifties because women

weren't allowed to have degrees. When when she moved to London,

after Cambridge, she was introduced to Brynnie.

Brynnie was to be Sister Agatha in the gang. So they were the

first two founding members of the gang and then several others

joined.

There was Red Biddy, who was Rachel Pinney. She came from a

very wealthy family. And probably the most conventional

was Joy Gaze, who was called Kate O'Brien the Nark.

Now the person I really like is The Bloody Beer Shop, His

Bludiness or His B. She was the Gang spiritual leader. She

invented these rituals and she had a staff, she smoked a pipe

and she was all together an incredible woman.

SPK_12: But according to my grandparents, they were full of

fun. They were really interested in the history of England. Going

back to Pagan times, they weren't really particularly

interested in modern life. And for them taking on this mill was

an exciting adventure.

JAMES GRASBY : Fabulous.

POLLY BAGNALL: Ok, James. So this is very important this

millstone and the piece of wood around it, this thing comes off

and you can sit five women fairly comfortably in a circle

over the millstone. And this is where they had their meetings.

If you look at this, this is a copy of The Boo, their minute

book.

JAMES GRASBY : March the 26th, 1932. 1st meeting. Present -

Ferguson, Sister Agatha. What's that?

POLLY BAGNALL: The Bloody Beer Shop, Bill Stickers, Kate

O'Brien TN. That means the Nark and Red Biddy. [

BILL STICKERS: Actor] Right. Right. Right. Right. Oh, chaps.

Settle down, settle down.

Welcome to the first meeting of Ferguson's Gang to start off, I

wish to pass a resolution that England is Stonehenge and not

Whitehall [

ALL CAST: Actor] Here, here. England is Stonehenge and not

Whitehall. [

RED BIDDY: Actor] Let's sit down around the grindstone, make some

plans and draw up our constitution. [

BILL STICKERS: Actor] I'll start rule number one. Ferguson's Gang

shall be known as Ferguson's Gang. [

RED BIDDY: Actor] Rule number two, the object of the Gang

shall be to follow the precepts of Ferguson in destroying and

frustrating the octopus. [

SISTER AGATHA: Actor] Rule three, the Gang shall consist of

no more.

JAMES GRASBY : So here they all were sitting on this bench where

we are now.

POLLY BAGNALL: Yes, and you haven't heard how come I said

five women and yet that's six, including Ferguson. Who was

Ferguson?

JAMES GRASBY : Who was Ferguson?

POLLY BAGNALL: Well, follow me

JAMES GRASBY : Lead the way.

Polly, we have come to what is really a small, little intimate

bedroom, isn't it? It looks like a little sitting room.

POLLY BAGNALL: This is what we call the gangs room. What you've

got here is you've got some old bunk beds, just two beds. Now,

there were five of them. So they were quite cozy when they slept

the night here.

JAMES GRASBY : Little primus stove for cooking on, bunk beds

to sleep in, a table laid for tea with a pretty embroidered

tablecloth. And look at this, a display case full of goodies.

POLLY BAGNALL: Come and have a look. Here is Ferguson.

JAMES GRASBY : Ferguson?

POLLY BAGNALL: It's a red stamp that says Ferguson. That is all

we know of Ferguson at their meeting.

JAMES GRASBY : How mysterious. Is that a mask?

POLLY BAGNALL: That Is the mask. They delivered money to the

National Trust in masks and capes, which is why a lot of

people thought they were a group of men.

JAMES GRASBY : But why were they so eager to obscure their

identity?

SPK_12: Well, partly they had sort of normal lives outside,

for example, Joy. She worked in a girls school and she had to

probably be quite sort of sensible. And this is something

that Brynie told my mother that it was just fun.

JAMES GRASBY : Polly in front of me. You've got some cuttings

taken from newspapers from the 1930s and the headings are

wonderful. Ferguson's Gang Again £200 for the National Trust.

What about Masked Woman Gives £500to the National Trust.

Mystery Band With Terrible Names Complete Endowment On Beauty

Spot.

This is wonderful stuff.

Polly, give me a sense of where the money came from.

SPK_12: They didn't have money, but Bill's mother, Black Mary,

she actually did donate quite a bit of money to the Gang. But

what was really clever was that they had subscribing members. So

anyone, you me could join the Gang choose our Gang name, but

we had to pay two and six every year for our membership.

POLLY BAGNALL: And that's how they filled their coffers. And

they filled their money tins, saved it, took it in bags,

filled it up- the swag. Drove across London 100 miles an hour

arrived at the office of the National Trust barged their way

through reception there, another £100 towards the repair of a

National Trust property.

JAMES GRASBY : Fabulous.

So Shalford Mill was the first property. Where did they go from

here?

POLLY BAGNALL: Well, Newton Old Town Hall on the Isle Of White

is a beautiful little Georgian building that had been

abandoned. It was covered in ivy and it was just going to turn

back into the fields around it. So, Bill and the rest of the

girls made their way to this little town hall on the edge of

the island and they said, yeah, let's take that on.

SPK_12: So my grandfather, the Artichoke came down and he

oversaw the repairs. And so that was the second building and then

they discovered some old cottages in Oxfordshire, priory

cottages, which had been an old abbey. But in addition to these

three buildings through the enthusiasm of Bill managed to

get a lot of landowners she knew in Cornwall to give tracks of

coastline to the National Trust.

POLLY BAGNALL: So James, this is where the women slept, where

they ate, where they plan their next project. But I'm going to

go and show you something else. Would you like to come and see

the chamber of horrors?

JAMES GRASBY : The chamber of horrors? Polly?

POLLY BAGNALL: Yes.

JAMES GRASBY : Yes, I would.

POLLY BAGNALL: Ok. Follow me

JAMES GRASBY : Lead the way.

POLLY BAGNALL: Be careful. We're going up ladders.

Up here was where they had their midnight rituals. Now,

particularly it was around summer solstice. So I've got a

bit from The Boo here. Would you like me to read it?

JAMES GRASBY : I would love to hear it

POLLY BAGNALL: Ok. 2:55 a. m. July the 1st, 1934. On the

stroke of midnight, the right bloody, the Lord Beer Shop, Bill

Stickers and Sister Agatha assembled with their weapons in

a chamber of horrors.

Solemnly swore the following oath with their hands upon the

Oly Croc. So the oly croc was the mill shaft.

And they're saying, I swear that at whatever cost I for one will

uphold Ferguson's Gang. At two o'clock Ag and Bill went out

into the moonlight and pinched milk from the farm to make

coffee. Then lighting the Etruscan lamb, that's their old

paraffin stove.

The Gang had a beautiful feast all practiced haunting the room

by the light of the moon. So we got the sun coming in but

imagine the moon making shadows on the floor as they danced up

and down prancing and singing and chanting Latin verse.

Then they went to the dawn window and they waited and

watched at 3.5 AM, the first cock went off and soon

afterwards this His B opened the door and window and we watched a

beautiful clear dawn with the presence of Venus and Capella.

JAMES GRASBY : The hauntings sound such fun. I mean, what

wonderful free spirits they were.

POLLY BAGNALL: But there were some occasions when they needed

a man. The BBC did these appeals and the National Trust wanted to

do an appeal and they asked Ferguson to come and give the

appeal. In August 1935, Peggy, commandeered her brother and he

agreed to stand in for Ferguson. [

BBC RADIO PRODUCER: Actor] Ferguson. You're up next and in

3, 2, 1. [

BOBBY GLADSTONE: Actor] I am Ferguson of Ferguson's Gang. I

appeal to you tonight for the National Trust.

JAMES GRASBY : Meanwhile, Bill and the rest of the Gang were

gathered around the radio. [

BILL STICKERS: Actor] Shhs, everyone. Bobby is on air. [

BOBBY GLADSTONE: Actor] You can do something yourselves. Whether

like Ferguson's Gang, you call at the offices of the Trust in a

mask and deposit a sack of bullion or join the Trust as a

subscribing member. [

SISTER AGATHA: Actor] Well done Bobby. Bravo!

JAMES GRASBY : So Polly, what was the result of that

broadcast?

POLLY BAGNALL: Well, it was phenomenal. It really was. They

raised a lot of money. They increased a lot of members, but

it was the notoriety. Everyone was listening. So, the National

Trust which was a small organization was inundated with

new members and they raised a significant amount of money for

appeals. So it was really putting the National Trust on

the map.

JAMES GRASBY : Polly, you gave me a lovely tour of the mill and

we now come downstairs into your sitting room. The sitting room

of your childhood home. And in the background window opening on

to the great mill wheel that powered this whole place. What a

place to grow up.

POLLY BAGNALL: Yeah, we were incredibly lucky, we had a very

free and open childhood. How I got into all this was that the

National Trust had had a small group of Americans come to

Surrey and they said, we'd love to see the room that Ferguson's

Gang used. My mother said, oh, Polly, can you sort out that

room and just sort of make it look a bit more like it was when

the Gang were there.

Then I started getting into the history of it and asking my

mother about the Gang. She knew a lot about the feeling of the

Gang but not actually about the facts. She knew all their real

names, and that was gold dust because no one apart from she

and her sister were the only living people who knew who all

the Gang members were.

And through that Sally Beck, the writer and myself as the

researcher spent four years uncovering the whole story and

then putting together in a book. So it tells you, you know, more

of the facts and really interesting information about

all of the women involved.

JAMES GRASBY : So, Polly, what brought the Ferguson Gang to an

end?

POLLY BAGNALL: I think it was a timely end for them. There's a

record of their last meeting here, which is in 1956, and

rather than the nice fountain pen writing, it's written in

ballpoint pen and they say we're all getting old in years. You

know, some of us is losing our teeth and it was harder for them

to climb onto the bunk bed to go to sleep.

I think they felt that their reason for existence, their

raison d'être, was no longer there anymore. They'd done their

work, they didn't need to meet as a proactive campaigning

activist group.

JAMES GRASBY : And Polly, I'm longing to know when they

disbanded, dd they keep the secret of who they were?

POLLY BAGNALL: Of course, well, all except for Bill. Peggy

couldn't keep quiet. She did reveal eventually in 1996 the

year she died that she was Bill Stickers of Ferguson's Gang.

JAMES GRASBY : And it feels like a fitting end to the story.

Wonderful story. What do you think the Legacy is of the

Ferguson game?

POLLY BAGNALL: They started in 1927 before there was any

register for buildings at risk, before there were any acts that

stopped development like the Green Belt. And this group of

women, they really valued city life. They loved partying in

London and the Slade Art Balls.

But they loved the countryside as it was darkness night where

they could look at the stars.

They love these buildings that tell us so much about the

history of this country, and that's what they wanted to

preserve. They wanted to make a distinction between city and

country. They didn't want the tentacles of the octopus just

extending everywhere. And that is their Legacy. We have a

Britain that values open space and access to all.

JAMES GRASBY : We hope you enjoyed this episode about

Ferguson's Gang. To catch every episode of our new series.

Please follow the National Trust podcast on your favorite podcast

app. We genuinely appreciate your ratings and your reviews.

While Shelford Mill is not open to the public at present, you

can still experience the Legacy of Ferguson's Gang by taking a

walk along the Mayon and Trevescan cliffs in Sennen,

Cornwall or by visiting the Old Town Hall on the Isle Of Wight,

alternatively, simply enjoy a stroll at one of the National

Trust's many green spaces.

If you'd like to find out more about the gang follow the links

in the show notes. And until next time from me, James Grasby,

goodbye.