Murder Stones.
Brading, Isle of Wight, England

Louis de Rochefort's Skeleton

Other
Inscription
No inscription - an exhumed skeleton, displayed as an exhibit rather than a stone.
Context & sources

DIFFERENT CATEGORY - not a stone at all, but an exhumed skeleton kept and displayed as a museum exhibit; found via a search of Historic England's own listings for the word 'murdered'. The building at 46 High Street, Brading, Isle of Wight (a C16 timber-framed house, later the Oglander family's town house, then an inn called The Crown in the C17, and by the 20th century Osborne Smith's Wax Museum) has a skeleton said to have been exhumed on the site and identified - on thin evidence, per every source checked here - as Louis de Rochefort, a French spy reportedly murdered there in 1640 when the building was The Crown Inn. The story and the skeleton became a fixture of the wax museum's 'chamber of horrors' displays, covered by the BBC when the museum's contents went back on public display in 2018. No further detail on who killed Rochefort, why, or how the identification was made has been found - this rests on local tradition and museum showmanship rather than documented investigation.

References Further research needed

Needs an in-person visit

  • Rectory Mansion, Brading - reportedly hosts a mini exhibition on the old wax museum and its exhibits, including Rochefort's story; not visited or detailed further here.
Field notes
Town
Brading
County
Isle of Wight
Country
England
Coordinates
50.6839, -1.1489
Year
1640
Condition
Unknown
Contribute

Know something we don't?

Submit a correction, an extra detail, or a photo for this record. Reviewed by hand before it's applied.

Reviewed by hand before publishing — no automated posting.