Listen to the track:
Bay View Robbery
This is a Tragi-comic Edwardian story about a burglary at Bay View Cottage in Wembury, where two men calmly remove an entire houseful of bedding and household goods over several days, selling items through pawnbrokers. The crime is treated with cheerful efficiency and order, contrasting serious consequences with polite, bureaucratic behaviour. I've tried to tell it in a Gilbert and Sullivan style comic operetta with brisk, jaunty delivery and exaggerated British formality. Hope it works!!
Verse 1
At Bay View Cottage by the water
Where the summer visitors stay
Beds were made in neat perfection
Locks applied in proper way
Fourteen blankets, stacks of covers
Candlesticks and pillows too
All arranged in quiet readiness
For what burglars love to do
Chorus
One load Monday, one on Tuesday,
Blankets off in tidy train,
Take another, take another,
Nothing left but window pane,
Very proper, very orderly,
Nothing reckless, nothing wild,
Robbery conducted neatly,
Tasteful, measured, well-styled
Verse 2
Morning found the house quite spotless
Afternoon the glass was gone
Drawers politely rearranged sir
Doors stood open, job well done
Clock still ticking on the mantel
Cream jug absent, knife still clean
Nothing broken but conventions
And the story of where they’d been
Chorus
One load Monday, one on Tuesday,
Blankets off in tidy train,
Take another, take another,
Nothing left but window pane,
Very proper, very orderly,
Nothing reckless, nothing wild,
Robbery conducted neatly,
Tasteful, measured, well-styled
Verse 3
Summerland and underground kitchens
Tickets traded, favours paid
Sixpence here and sixpence there sir
All the proper forms obeyed
Bayliss hawked the goods with cheerfulness
Swore he never asked from where
Hard to miss a moving bedroom
Turning up for sale mid-fair
Chorus
One load Monday, one on Tuesday,
Blankets off in tidy train,
Take another, take another,
Nothing left but window pane,
Very proper, very orderly,
Nothing reckless, nothing wild,
Robbery conducted neatly,
Tasteful, measured, well-styled
Verse 4
Plympton court convened politely
Guilty pleas were duly made
Who broke in and who sold on sir
Carefully was weighed and weighed
Rogers nodded, Marshall followed
Bayliss studied toe and shoe
Everyone behaved correctly
As respectable men do
Final Chorus
One load Monday, one on Tuesday,
Now the reckoning is plain,
Three long years behind the walls sir,
Nine short months remain,
Very proper, very orderly,
Sentences correctly filed,
Justice conducted neatly,
Tasteful, measured, well-styled
The story behind Bay View Robbery
In early November 1906, a furnished holiday cottage known as Bay View Cottage in Wembury was broken into while unoccupied after the summer season. The cottage belonged to Benjamin Sansom, a local gamekeeper, who let the property to visitors during the summer months.
Between 5 and 7 November, two Plymouth labourers, Alfred Rogers (aged 31) and George Marshall, entered the house by breaking a pane of glass and systematically removed a large quantity of household goods. These included at least fourteen blankets, several counterpanes, pillows, toilet mats and covers, a tablecloth, brass candlesticks, a clock, a bread knife, and a plated cream jug. The total value of the stolen property was estimated at around £10.
The men made multiple trips, carrying goods away in loads and selling them through pawnbrokers and intermediaries in Plymouth. Cornelius Bayliss, a hawker, later sold some of the items and was charged with receiving stolen goods, though he denied involvement in the burglary itself.
The case was heard at the Assizes, where Rogers and Marshall pleaded guilty to breaking and entering. Rogers, who had a long record of previous convictions, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. Marshall, whose record was less serious, received nine months. Bayliss was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour for receiving stolen goods.
The case illustrates how quiet seaside cottages in Edwardian Wembury could become targets once the holiday season ended, and how even a seemingly small rural burglary could involve organised resale networks in nearby Plymouth.