The next day Taffy came to Ann’s he told he was going down to Dorchester his friend Tim and his wife Sheila who I knew for some years had moved down there, he was sure I would get work, also I would have somewhere to stay and so I agreed I was off on another adventure as we headed down to Dorchester he drove his car and I followed him in my Anglia.
When we arrived I found that Tim and Sheila lived on a residential site for travellers called Piddlehinton camp, I met some of the travellers and got on fine, we went for a drink at the local pub and it was a good night.
When I woke up the next morning Taffy had gone and now it was me Tim and Sheila, they also had two young kids and Sheila’s dad lived in the trailer next door.
At first things were okay, I did some tree topping with the traveller lads, I got on good with everyone on the site it was an experience into the life of travellers.
I went down to Weymouth and went for a drink; a ship must have been in because there were plenty of sailors around where I was and we had a good time, I met a lovely girl called Hazel and she agreed to a date, and so I arranged to pick her up and we went to a country pub, she was very witty like me and we had a good laugh and so did the pub, on the way back we stopped in a nice little layby for a while and got to know each other a little better and then I took her home.
Back at Piddlehinton things started to get tough work wise there was just no work to be had and things were tough, Tim and Sheila couldn’t afford to feed me I would not expect it or except it anyway, I was grateful for a bed.
I went up the local pub where I met a friend of Taffy’s who had been introduced me to when we first arrived, called Graham.
Graham new my situation and asked me if I was interested in making money, I said yes and asked the details.
He went on to tell me of a job he had planned to rob a safe at a bookies, I should of known it would be criminal with him being a friend of Taff’s, it was not going to be violent or armed, simply a burglary of a bookies which would be un-occupied and gain access to the safe, it sounded good and so I agreed.
We set off with me following in my car, I got a puncture on a country lane and I never had a spare and so I got in with Graham, things were already off to a bad start.
We stopped at a red light and Graham saw a police car and he got out and ran off leaving me sitting there and the police came up to the vehicle and arrested me because Graham was known to them, they took the items in the vehicle which was listed as going equipped, I hadn’t even committed a physical crime yet.
I am not a good criminal and even worse at lying and so I told them what I was going to do and I was charged with conspiracy to rob and bailed back to Piddlehinton Camp.
I got back to the camp and one of the guys took me to my car and it had been stripped, I couldn’t believe it, now I had no car stuck in the middle of the country, there was a light however because the travellers gave me a souped up Ford Corsair with a racing carb it could shift.
I attended court and was bailed to appear at Dorchester Crown Court at least I was now free to return to Coventry if I wanted, but sadly I rolled the Corsair on a tight bend which it just couldn’t make, I rolled three or four times before ending up on the roof in a field, I had to kick the door open to get out, that was the end of the road for me in Dorchester.
It a case of wherever I laid my hat was my home I had always made my way but now I was picking berries from the side of the road in order to eat, and so I stole a car to head back to Coventry, I had nothing to come back to but it was better than the wilderness I was in, I think I knew I would get busted for it, because it would be obvious from Dorchester to Coventry could only be me.
On my arrival in Coventry I abandoned the car and went to see a friend at his girlfriend’s flat he was not there but she said I was welcome to stop the night which I did and I slept in the same bed and she wore her undies but I never touched her, she seemed disappointed but it would not of been right, in the morning I left and it was not long until I was arrested for the theft of the car, the police officer asked me why I didn’t take the £150 in the glovebox. I didn’t even look, I only wanted the ride home however as the officer told me that money would have got me home and I would not have been caught, I was really a stupid person in many ways, I was remanded in custody for return to Dorchester.
I was sent to Brockhall Remand Centre and from there to Winchester Prison, I found Winchester Prison to be very dirty and I contracted scabies and had to stand in a bath and painted all over, it was disgusting.
Eventually I was transported to Dorchester Prison and interviewed at by Dorset police and remanded until court which I was pleading guilty and I got sentenced to Borstal which was 2years and time spent on remand does not come off borstal but early release is possible for those who behave.
Borstal could be very beneficial for those who want to change their life and are willing to apply themselves but if a person is intent on being a career criminal then they will simply exploit the system.
I started off at Portland Borstal which had a hard reputation however I had put a request in for transfer closer to home in order to receive visits and so I was not at Portland for very long, I had also been classed for an open borstal because I was nonviolent and no threat to the public. My first stop on my way was at Usk Borstal in Wales and then eventually to Hewell Grange in Redditch all this happened over a period of months. Borstal training was based similar to the military which I was use to anyway and is about learning discipline and a trade to help in the outside world and contribute to the community.
I fitted in well and got on with everyone and I signed up for a Concreting Construction Course with the City and Guilds at the end of it, so long as you pass the test.
Hewell Grange is a country house in Tardebigge, Worcestershire, England. "One of the most important late 19th century country houses in England", the mansion was built in 1884-91 by George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner for the Earl of Plymouth. Constructed in the Jacobethan style, it was "perhaps the last Victorian prodigy house." It is a Grade II listed building. The park had been developed round an earlier house on the site by both Capability Brown and Humphry Repton and is on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The lake is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
The land was originally part of the estates of Bordesley Abbey. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the property passed to Thomas Windsor Hickman.
The estate remained a seat of the Windsor-Clive family (who were made Earls of Plymouth) until it was sold to the state in the 20th century. There are several ruins of earlier houses on the estate, and a large number of listed buildings, structures and statues. [4]
Robert Windsor-Clive (1857–1923) commissioned Bodley and Garner to build the current house in 1884–91.
The House is of Cheshire Red Sandstone with a tile roof. It is of an Elizabethan E-plan, modelled on Montacute House, Somerset. The exterior is Jacobethan, of three storeys, the interior Italianate. The house is dominated by the massive Great Hall, comprising half the total space of the house. The elaborate decoration is largely "well-preserved." The Chapel in the porch contains carving by Detmar Blow.
The house was used as a Borstal from 1946 to 1991, when it became HM Prison Hewell Grange, a Category D open prison.
I was walking down a hallway outside leading to the washrooms when an officer jumped me from behind and pulled me to the floor, I got up and went to go for him but was stopped by the guys, it was a totally unprovoked attack by an officer, what is it about me that the authorities don’t like?
I decided I was going to leave, I know it was an open borstal but it was located in the country side so you wouldn’t get far by walking out the gate and the doors were locked in the evening.
There was scaffolding up the side of the building due to repairs being carried out on the roof and chimney two friends said they wanted to come with me I had a key made for transport and I told them we were going after supper.
This was a dramatic escape form an open borstal, after supper we headed up the stairs and out a window onto the scaffolding which we climbed down and headed off across the fields avoiding the roads, we picked up the canal and stayed on the canal till we came to a house which my friend took the key to take the car when we heard people coming out we backed off into the field my friend had left the key in the ignition, we heard the people talking and they called the police.
This was a moonlit night and so I got the lads to huddle up in a dark corner I saw the police officer stepping in the field only feet from us but we remained unseen and so he thought we were long gone, when the police left I spotted a barn and so I led the lads to the barn and we climbed up the back and settled for the night, I opened a bale of hay so I was totally covered and slept as snug as a bug in a rug.
The next day we climbed down the back to avoid the farmer and back to the canal we had a little tuck money and we came to a small shop and I brought some biscuits and rationed them to keep the edge off our appetite eventually we found a car and drove back to Coventry where I had an friend in Wood End who the police did not know of and so would not look for me there, I told my friends this is where we split up, they were well fed and set off in good shape, I had my own plans to move on to London the next day, they were recruiting guys with military experience to become mercenaries, and so I was to become a mercenary.
About 2am the police arrived and arrested me, the others had been caught and one had directed them to where I was and was sitting in a police car when they led me out, the next day when we were being transported back to the Grange the officers were trying to provoke me into violence against my friend by telling me how he had grassed me up… what is it with these people? They wear a uniform entrusted to uphold the law and yet they are worse than the people they arrest.
Back at the Grange the Governor came to see me, he had decided not to ship me out but I would continue at the Grange but would lose any remission and have to serve full time and so I continued my sentence and passed my City and Guilds.