Jeremy Potter

The Primrose Hill Murder

Constable & Co., 1992.

They were exploring the bushes and brambles in a field at the foot of Primrose Hill some two or three miles from the City when Bromwell spied some objects scattered on the ground beside a hedge: a belt, a stick, a pair of gentleman's gloves and the scabbard of a sword. Further searching revealed what appeared to be the body of a man sprawled face downwards in the neighbouring ditch

On the 17th October 1678 two men out hunting for hedgehogs had chanced upon the corpse of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, a prominent magistrate. It transpired that the murder had been committed elsewhere and the body brought to Primrose Hill to be dumped. Construed as part of the 'Catholic Plot', it swiftly became a national scandal. The means by which the corpse was transported to such an inaccessible spot were much debated. In a pamphlet published in 1681 (A Letter to Miles Prance), quoted in Thomas Coull's The History and Traditions of St. Pancras (1861), the area was said to be 'surrounded with divers closes, fenced in with high mounds and ditches; no road near, only some deep dirty lanes, made for the convenience of driving cows, and such like cattle, in and out of the grounds; and those very lanes not coming near 500 yards of the place.'

Medals were struck to commemorate the event, one showing the victim walking with a broken neck and a sword in his body. On the reverse St. Denis is shown bearing his head in his hand, with the inscription 'Godfrey walks up hill after he is dead; Denis walks down hill carrying his head.' The murder has remained an unsolved mystery, and in this historical whodunit the author puts forward his theory as to the cause and the circumstances.