Ferguson's Gang - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ferguson's Gang was an anonymous and somewhat enigmatic group that raised funds for the National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

during the period between the late 1920s and the outbreak of the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The group is believed to have consisted entirely of young women, who hid their identities behind masks, unusual pseudonyms, and mock-Cockney

Cockney

The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

communiques.

The gang was influenced by Clough Williams-Ellis

Clough Williams-Ellis

Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC was an English-born Welsh architect known chiefly as creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales.-Origins, education and early career:...

's publication England and the Octopus, which denounced insensitive building and ugly development. They determined to save what they could. Their donations enabled the purchase of Shalford Mill

Shalford Mill

Shalford Mill is an 18th century watermill located on the River Tillingbourne in Shalford, near Guildford, Surrey, England. Since 1932 it has been owned by the National Trust....

, in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, and Newtown Old Town Hall

Newtown Old Town Hall

Newtown Old Town Hall is the town hall of the former mediaeval and later rotten borough of Newtown on the Isle of Wight in England. Newtown is now a small village, and its town hall is owned by the National Trust....

, on the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

. They also funded the purchase of stretches of the coastline of Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, Priory Cottages at Steventon

Steventon, Oxfordshire

Steventon is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, about south of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred to Oxfordshire.-History:...

in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

(now Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

), and supported appeals for money to purchase land in Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, the Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

and Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

. In total they raised the sum of £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

4,500, a considerable sum for the time.

As an example of their methods, in 1933 a fully masked Red Biddy deposited a large sack of Victorian coins to the value of £100 on the Trust secretary's desk. In 1935, one of the 'gang' was interviewed by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, and turned up at Broadcasting House

Broadcasting House

Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...

wearing a mask.

Members of Ferguson's Gang included Bill Stickers, Sister Agatha, Red Biddy, Erb the Smasher, Kate O'Brien The Nark, Silent O'Moyle, See Mee Run, Gerry Moham, Black Maria, and the Lord Beershop of the Gladstone Islands & Mercator's Projection. To date, only one member of Ferguson's Gang has been publicly identified. When the Oxbridge

Oxbridge

Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

scholar and adopted Cornish

Cornwall

bard

Bard

In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...

Margaret Steuart Pollard

Margaret Steuart Pollard was a scholar of Sanskrit, a poet and self styled bard of the Cornish language. She was a member of Ferguson's Gang, a secret society of supporters of the National Trust....

died at the age of 93 in 1996, her obituaries revealed that she had been Bill Stickers.

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