GRIM HEIRLOOM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 13 August 1929, Page 8

GRIM HEIRLOOM.

j OLIVER CR-OAI WELL'S HEAD. 1 tie head oi Oliver Cromwell—or what iw lepulcd to be the head ol ivii&Va.iKl s btj'rd Iro tec-tor—-is lying in a cetnur.yV, L' 0 li vCII tlieyt in a score,t .drawer of a iptinulk rector’s study. Jts owner i,s the J lev. Horace .Ricardo Wilkinson, rector ol W oocl'bri dge, a picturesque old-world town 10 miles from ipswmeh. (writes a special correspondent in the London ‘.Daily Express.”) • t,, ° , correspondent call led at -M r \\ llkinson’s house, the old man 1 Caddy assented to show him the .hejaid or tne, Jlrotector, and while lie planed a. piece of tnnher he related the romantcc uay in which it- came into the possess, ii o f his greet t-gra n elf a tlier, Dr Wi Ikmson, ir*;rc than 100 years ago. He i.escribed how, after the Restoration, the head was impaled on Wesffcminstw Hah lor 'Jo rears. One windy night i,t I'lmv down and was nicked m> bya. sen-' try• .Jt passed through various hands until Dr. Wilkinson recurved it from, a patient. Here the rector broke ofl his liarrat, in order Co produce the ffrim heirlotmi. Doing into lids* study, he opened a door of a large cfiroi.net,' unlocked a secret drawer in a chest, and drew out a heavy oak box. He unlocked tiiis box with another key and removed a large hiark cloth. Then lie ca.iefnliy drew ‘aside the red s?ik covering, ami there wa s the liead of the great Cromwell, liner romantic tigiire in England's History. The rector nicked up the head ;,s tenderly ns if it haul been the head of one of his own anceitsors. He pointed to the iron-tipcoed .spike driven through the top of the skull, and shotted the bole over the eve where Cromwell's famous wart had been.

'■'[ have the documents to prove my rfai-ni and how it came into m • mcatorandfather’is pO'Ssossion. Mr Wilkinson said. ‘‘ft will never go out of the possession of niv family. ’'