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General
Boxmoor is a suburb of Hemel Hempstead but its history goes back a long way, certainly as far as Roman times as a Roman villa has been found and excavated in Boxmoor.
Queen Elizabeth I gave two hundred and forty five acres of land around Boxmoor to Robert Earl of Leicester. Robert conveyed the lands to the Boxmoor Trust so that it could be held for the use of the local inhabitants. Even to this day local residents are allowed to graze animals on the common.
Boxmoor was also the site where James Snooks (aka Robert Snooks) the highwayman was executed on 11th March 1802. His grave can still be seen on the moor.
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Boxmoor Common
The last highwayman to be executed in England was Robert Snooks who was hung on 11th March 1802. His grave lies in Boxmoor Common where a small granite headstone can be seen on a triangular patch of land surrounded by main roads. The headstone itself was added in 1901 and is regularly seen adorned with fresh flowers and children’s drawings even until this day. Legend has it that if you dance around the grave three times at midnight and shout ‘Snooks’ he will join you in a Danse Macabre.
Robert Snooks was baptised James Snooks at Hungerford in Berkshire on 16th August 1761 (it is believed that the name Robert Snooks is a corruption of ‘that robber Snooks’). He worked for a while as an ostler at the King’s Arms in Berkhamsted and by 1800 he had moved to Hemel Hempstead. After getting to know the Hemel Hempstead and, consequently, the Boxmoor area he decided to waylay John Stevens who was a post boy employed to carry the mail across the common. Snooks easily robbed John Stevens and could not have believed his luck as one letter alone contained £500 in notes.
Snooks fled to Southwark and would have got away with the crime but for a mistake he made. Some time after the robbery, when the furore had died down he sent a servant girl to buy some cloth and gave her a £5 note. His mistake was that the note was actually a £50 note. This raised suspicion and Snooks fled back to Hungerford. He avoided capture for some time until a former school acquaintance provided information regarding Snooks and he was arrested.
Snooks was found guilty at Hertford Assizes and was sentenced to be hung in chains with the location being chosen by the High Constable of the Hundreds of Dacorum, a Mr. Page who was once Snooks employer at the King’s Arms. The location chosen was Boxmoor but the residents protested about the barbaric nature of the punishment so it was changed to a simple execution.
The day of the execution was declared as a public holiday with virtually everyone turning up to watch. Snooks offered his gold watch to anyone who would ensure he had a decent burial but no one took him up on his offer. Snooks was hung from a Horse Chestnut tree. His coffin consisted of two layers of straw but the locals later regretted this and provided a wooden coffin.
Much later the grave was searched on more than one occasion, it is believed by people looking for his skull for Black Magic purposes. The grave markers, two stones provided by the trustees of the common in 1904, can still be seen twenty metres from the A41 Bourne End to Boxmoor road.
To view a map of the area click on the button below
Boxmoor Common, Snook's Grave
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