British Inn Signs and their Stories by Eric R. Delderfield

However, they never engaged in those activities together and were thus able to provide alibis for each other which baffled and confused the local police. Henry farmed 10 acres of land while their mother, Charlotte Fox, was a straw-plait worker.Įven though they had a respectable family background, the twins turned to a life of poaching. The twins were born in 1857 in Symonds Green and were named after the Baptist Ebenezer Chapel on Albert Street, Stevenage where their father, Henry Fox, was a lay preacher. Infamous, at least in the Stevenage area, these devious twins were renowned for their prolific poaching activities which resulted in them committing over 200 detected crimes between them. The Fox Twins (Image copyright Stevenage Museum) The pub now stands near Monks Wood where the Fox twins committed most of their crimes. They regularly trespassed and Albert had 120 convictions, while Ebenezer’s was 80.

They even shared the same names – Ebenezer Albert Fox and Albert Ebenezer Fox. The twin Foxes on this sign at Stevenage, Hertfordshire, were, I was told, poachers with a remarkable alibi – no one could tell them apart. Apparently during the last century the twins led almost identical lives. Titled ‘Double Trouble’ and from ‘B.D.R.’ of London, S.W.5., the photograph accompanying the letter shows the ‘Twin Foxes’ not to be the animal but identical twin brothers, the infamous Albert Ebenezer and Ebenezer Albert Fox.

In amongst the ‘Yours etc… Letters and Pictures to the Editor’ section I found the following letter. Thus it was that I was rifling through a packet of old documents I acquired, initially only to secure an ancient darts rule book, when I came across a cutting from Reveille for the week ending 6th March 1971.

Inspiration for the pieces I write for the Pub History Society Newsletter (now Pub History) often arrives via an odd cutting found amongst a collection of old papers that I have purchased or found wedged between the pages of an ageing pub tome bought from one of the numerous second-hand or charity shops I visit on my travels every year.

British Inn Signs and their Stories by Eric R. Delderfield