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Poaching Punch-Up


Poaching in Dorset in the 1800s was a crime chiefly driven by the rural poor’s  need for food. It represented a conflict between landowners who claimed exclusive rights to the valuable game on their estates and the poor who felt a traditional right to access food. Encounters between poachers and gamekeepers were often violent and convicted poachers faced severe penalties. Man-traps were frequently left in place to capture poachers.

A desperate poaching affray took place in September 1893 on the estate of Lord Wolverton at Iwerne Minster. Four men who had set nets in a rabbit warren were surprised by an equal number of gamekeepers. The poachers were armed with bludgeons and this all took place around 2 o’clock in the morning. Gamekeeper to Lord Wolverton, Tom Lane said the keepers were first attacked with sticks and he was struck by a heavy blow to his head. They were then stoned but after some hard fighting the four poachers were finally captured. The poachers were in possession of six rabbits and a further two were later discovered.

The local population often did not regard poaching as a serious crime but the unfortunate consequence of an unjust system. In many ways, poaching was quietly admired. Many of the gamekeepers were former poachers which made them particularly unpopular.

When the eight men appeared at Shaftesbury Police Court, they were all wearing head bandages. One of the poachers, named John Smith (40) who had his arm broken in the affray was later sentenced at the Dorset Assizes to 13 months hard labour. The others, named Thomas Brown (29), Richard Thorpe (36), and George Williams (52) were all sentenced to 15 months hard labour. All had pleaded guilty but claimed they had not been armed with weapons.

The Bridport News of 3rd November 1893 unsympathetically reported ‘as they stood in the dock they were as rough a looking lot as could be got together.’

In earlier years individuals could be hanged or transported for poaching. In January 1823, Thomas Jeffries was sentenced in Dorchester to be transported for a period of seven years. While previously the Black Act (1722) made armed and night poaching a capital offence.
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