In April 1898 three boys appeared at the Harlesden police court. They were Henry Wills (16) no fixed abode, Frank Griffin (16), 90 Roundwood Road, and Thomas Chinnery (14), of 9 Rucklidge Avenue.
In a field at night, they had used a stolen spade to dig what they called a ‘cave’ which was five feet, by 4ft and 3ft deep. The hole was covered by a roof of corrugated iron and zinc sheets with the earth from the hole piled on top.
They had stolen food valued at £1 11s 3d, from Joseph Bayley grocer’s van parked at 94 Burns Road Harlesden. The haul consisted of, condensed milk, tea, coffee, sugar, jam, tinned salmon, sardines, golden syrup, rice, cocoa, oatmeal, candles, and matches.
Then they raided a dovecot in the garden of 20 Charlton Road belonging to Francis Amos Willett, and stole 20 of his pigeons. The boys lived in the cave for over a week, dining well on the stolen food and cooking pigeons in a bucket over a fire.
On Saturday morning 24 March, Francis Willett confronted the boys and accused them of stealing his pigeons. They denied it, and when he offered a 15 shillings reward to find the culprits, they said they would look for them. It was the day of the Boat Race, so they set off to watch the race. But Henry said to the others, ‘We can’t go to no Boat-race, the coppers will be on us’. So, they began to walk to Brighton instead. They had reached Balham when PC Heales saw them hanging around shop doors and thought the boys’ bulky coats looked suspicious. When another constable arrived, they stopped and searched the boys. After finding some of the stolen items, they were detained and sent back to the Kilburn police station in Salusbury Road.
Here Detective Sergeant Tom Andrews questioned the boys. He searched the area they described and in the corner of a field in Church-path Willesden he found the mound of earth. When he raked it over, he discovered the metal roof and the cave containing pigeon bones.
The boys appeared before the Harlesden magistrate Mr William Bird, who bound over Griffin and Chinnery to their parents on condition they bring them back for the next court hearing. But Henry Wills did not have any parents or an address. So, he was put in the care of Mr Charles Gough, the court missionary. Many of the police courts had a missionary from the voluntary organisation connected to the Church of England Temperance Society.
The story of the Willesden ‘troglodytes’ caught the attention of many newspapers. Gough received a letter from a Mrs Wills in Monmouth, who read the story and believed Henry was her missing son who had left home six years ago. Another letter came from a Baptist minister in Wales who thought he knew the parents of Henry Wills. Gough arranged for photographs of Henry to be sent to Mrs Wills and the minister, both of whom then said they did not recognise him.
Mr Pearce the clerk of the court contacted the authorities in Brighton after Henry said he lived there. The Brighton workhouse confirmed that he had been there for seven months, after he was found wandering around the town and sleeping rough on the beach.
At the second hearing on 14 April, Henry said to Mr Bird, ‘I was born in Brighton, and I am sixteen. I know I am 16 because I reckoned up each year. I was 13 when my father died. He lives in the grave (this produced laughter in the court). He did live in Dorset Buildings, Edward Street Brighton. My mother is dead, her name was Alice Wills. I know she is dead because I was at home when she died. I’ve got no brothers or sisters, I am the only child. I never lived with no one. I used to sleep in a lodging house or sleep out. I was run in for sleeping on Brighton beaches. I live on what I earnt by going out with the fishermen. I have been begging since I left the Workhouse.
I have been here to Harlesden about a year before. I come to London and was told Sanger’s circus was out here, so I come to see it and then walked back to Brighton. It took me two and a half days the first time, but I did it in two this time. I slept in a tram at the Harlesden tram-yard the first time. The men did not let me, they did not know it (laughter in court)'.
Because it was their first offence Mr Bird bound over Frank Griffin and Thomas Chinnery to their parents. Henry was sent to a Barnardo’s Home. Unfortunately, we could not find any pictures of the boys.
One newspaper compared the Willesden boys to Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which had been published in England in December 1884.
Coincidentally, Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), later stayed in Willesden at Dollis Hill House during the summer of 1900. He was a guest of his friend Sir Hugh Gilzean-Reid, the Scottish newspaper proprietor who had leased the house since 1897. Twain really liked Dollis Hill House later writing:
‘I have never seen any place that was so satisfactorily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuit’s throw of the metropolis of the world. ….
There is no suggestion of city here; it is country, pure and simple, and as still and reposeful as is the bottom of the sea… Dollis Hill comes nearer to being a paradise than any other home I ever occupied’.
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