IT was no real surprise that Fanny Brown spent a sleepless night on April 12th, 1912. The seventeen-year-old maid had been sharing her double bed for the last five hours with a half-naked man, two small children and a baby. She was also aware of the fact there was a dead body in one of the other bedrooms at Moreton Lodge.

At about half-past eleven, a blood-curdling gurgle had come from the mistress’s room. The Reverend Samuel Henry ran into his wife’s room and then burst into Fanny’s room exclaiming that Mrs Henry had cut her throat. He asked if he could bring in the baby, who slept with her mother, but was covered from head to toe in blood. Fanny quickly found some clean clothes for her and put her to sleep with the two little ones who were already in the room.

“Shall I go for help?” she asked, but the vicar declared that his wife was well beyond help: they should wait until morning when he would travel the three miles into Leominster to fetch a policeman. He then removed his trousers, jacket and waistcoat and curled up at the foot of Fanny’s bed and went to sleep.

About five hours later, the vicar woke, got up, washed, shaved and dressed and confirmed that he was going to Leominster to get some help; in the meantime, he asked Fanny if she would cook him some breakfast before he set off. Before she started preparing a meal, the terrified maid excused herself for a few moments and took the baby to the safety of the Conods next door, where she quickly explained the previous night’s events. After Henry had finished his meal, Fanny enquired as to whether he’d enjoyed it. “Not very much”, was the reply before he went downstairs for a cigarette and took it back up to his study. Very shortly afterwards, four gunshots rang out in quick succession.

In the meantime, Mr Conod had gone on his bike to the police station in Leominster, and in a matter of minutes a policeman, his superintendent and a doctor were at the scene. In the study, Samuel Henry was still alive, with a revolver on his lap and a trickle of blood running down his face. In another room his wife was lying on her bed, with her throat slashed so that she was almost decapitated, and with a small but deep cut on her wrist.

At an inquest, Dr Charles Robinson said there was clear evidence of squashing pressure on Mrs Henry’s nose and that she could not have committed suicide. The death had definitely been caused by the vicar’s own razor, and because there were only two persons in the house who could be suspects, it seemed that the one - Henry must have done the deed immediately after Fanny said she heard him come upstairs. It took a jury just ten minutes to find Henry guilty of murder, but the verdict was overturned when he was found to be under the care of a doctor for mental health problems.

These grisly happenings occurred at point 4 on our walk from Luston to the idyllic hamlet of Eye, next to the Berrington Hall estate. It can be a bit damp underfoot in the environs of Moreton, a “settlement by a marshy place”, but the terrain is completely level and paths are well maintained. Vicar’s wife Bertha Mary Henry is buried in Eye churchyard less than half a mile from the scene of her violent murder. In 1925 the death of a 51-year-old Samuel Henry was recorded in the registration district for the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

Luston and Eye.

Country lane, level fields and views to Croft Ambrey.

3½ mile easy walk. Railway crossing, 5 stiles, 2 f/bridges.

Map: OS 203, Ludlow.

Public Transport: Bus nos. 488, 489, 490 and 491 call at the start.

The Route.

1. Luston. With your back to the Parish notice board outside the Balance Inn, TR down the near pavement, past the bus stop. Cross the brook and TR at Corner House for Eye, Moreton , Aston and Berrington Hall. Follow Eye Lane, with the radome on Titterstone Hill in the distance, for nearly half a mile to reach Cawley Village Hall.

2. Village Hall. Continue around the bend in the road into Eye, across the railway bridge. Opposite Perch Cottage, TL along the wide public footpath through 2 gates, R of a barn. (Lovely views across to Croft Ambrey). Go ahead across long pasture over stile. Go half R in next pasture, through wide gate, over brook, and bear L, aiming just R of farm buildings. Go through gate and kink L and R about 40m to L of farmhouse between barns through gate on to country lane.

3. Field Farm. TR and follow the wide, quiet lane, which takes the same route as the old Leominster-Stourport Canal, for nearly a quarter of a mile back to the road. TL.

4. Moreton Lodge. After a few paces, you will see the home where Bertha Henry met her death in 1912. Carry on up the lane, further into the beautiful hamlet of Moreton. In front of Bunnscroft, TR as if for Moreton Farm along the very wide bridle path. Pass the farmhouse and a pond on the left in the grounds of Berrington Hall, to a point just before a “No Unauthorised Access” gate on the left.

5. Gap. TR through gap along R edge of large field and cross f/bridge. Now aim half left to a gate 150m left of Eye Church. Go through and bear R in pasture. Soon find and cross small stile on right. Go into churchyard, pass to L of church to view Eye Manor and return through churchyard on the other side. (Bertha Mary Henry’s grave?) Retrace steps back across small stile into pasture.

6. Herefordshire Trail. TR. Go ahead through gates either side of farm drive, two stiles either side of railway, along R edge of crop field, over f/bridge, slightly L through swathe in crop field and keep ahead through gap at field division. At other side, pass redundant stile, go up R hand side of meadow, through gate, and TR along pavement back to start point.