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William Shorter, the leader of a group of vicious eighteenth century bandits known as the Wokingham Blacks (see Wokingham), was finally captured at a criminal meeting in the Forest Lodge at Caesar's Camp. The deputy-custodian of Bigshot Rayle had been threatened and his house attacked. So, knowing that most of the gang had already been rounded up, he had informed the authorities of a secret rendezvous he was to have with the culprits at the lodge. The Sheriff and his men just had to lie in wait, and Shorter and his gang were sprung like rats in a trap. He was hanged on the county boundary at Wishmoor Cross.
The Blacks were not the only ruffians in the area. One William Davies, a well-to-do Gloucestershire farmer made regular trips to Berkshire, but he didn't reap corn here. He held up the local coaches and took gold from their passengers, always leaving behind their jewels an other valuables. His neighbours always wondered why his bills were paid in gold. Little did they know he was the infamous Golden Farmer: a man with something of a Robin-Hood reputation. For many a local poor man became accustomed to finding a golden guinea thrust beneath his door on nights when the highwayman had been abroad. The pub in South Hill Road is called the Golden Farmer after him. It is said to stand on the site of an earlier building that William frequented on, what was then, the middle of Ascot Heath. He was eventually caught and hanged in London. His body being hung in chains next to the old pub.
See also Easthampstead Hamlets
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