This question has baffled local historians for quite some time. Indeed, it is an obscure fact that, since the early 19th century, there has been the continuous reputation of a cursed house in that part of Bawtry, near Doncaster. Today, of course, the building is the home of the Slaughter House BC , run and owed by the infamous Bigot-Johnson.
Early records show than in medieval times a fierce and ferocious battle took place on the very spot the property was first built. The battle was so one sided, the vanquished were all butchered in the most gruesome way imaginable. Bodies were dismembered and the pieces were heaped together into one massive pile before being disposed off in a mass grave. The site of course then became synonymous with slaughter.
Then in 1812, or so the story goes, the wealthy Slater family built a magnificent house on the site, from the proceeds of double-dealing, blackmail and outrageous skulduggery. All the locals referred to the building as the SLATER HOUSE, but then in 1819 a terrible event took place. The deranged father took it upon himself to brutally murder all the other members of his family. Tried for murder at Doncaster Assizes, he was brought before Judge Gallows, who had no hesitation in sentencing him to " hang by a rope until his neck breaks ". Rumour had it that a local dim wit inadvertently used slaughter instead of slater , when referring to the house, a name which somehow stuck in the minds of those, who had come to believe that the property was possessed by evil spirits.
Another more plausible explanation, of how the slaughter house name first came into being, arrived in the form of an autobiography written in 1879 by Roger Mehard. He recalls the time when he visited the house after it had been taken over by the Bawtry Hell Fire Club, the owner of which was the boss of a rapidly growing rent-boy agency. As a new and active member, he soon had visions of taking the sado-mas0chistic activities practised there onto another level completely. However, in order to maintain the good name of the club, the founder members decided to sling him out. As his body went flying out through an open window, an illiterate passer-by commented " yer see that.....he's binned slung outta house ......" . Part of that statement got completely misheard by the airborne Roger, who subsequently misquoted it in his book as " banned from the slaughter house ! ".
( Part 2 of this article will appear tomorrow )
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