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The 3rd August 2020 – 3rd August 2021 was Stephen and Yhana‘s first year on YouTube – To celebrate they are sharing one video a day across all of their favourite social media platforms – Facebook Page, Twitter and Website, as well as a daily shout out on their youtube community page. – So please check often incase you missed any of their videos during that first year.
They have also published their very first youtube almanac – Which was released 3rd august 2021.
The book will be available to buy via Amazon shortly – Although you can get a free signed copy by signing up and supporting their journey on Patreon
All Patreon‘s will get a regular mention on YouTube and on their channel publications – As your support is very much appreciated and will help to purchase filming equipment and trips to historical sites, so they can keep their films coming.
Murder At The Coffee House Inn | A Victorian True Story
13 Terrifying True Stories For Halloween | Story One | Murder At The Coffee House Inn
Nobody would have thought a well respected Victorian Cricketer would have so much hate in his heart that he was willing to go as far as murder. But that’s exactly what happened in 1856 in the sleepy Surrey village of Chertsey. His victim never knew what hit her.
In a fit of rage, John grabbed the cricket bat that rested against the bedroom chest of drawers.
Gripped the smooth polished wood and lifted it high in the air. In one violent swoop he brought the solid force down, there was a crack and he paused for just a second. His eyes were red, they bulged and were rabid like a wild dog and he foamed at the corner of his mouth, in a disgusted vile smirk. He had done it.
Welcome to the first of our 13 terrifying stories for Halloween, today we are going to take a deep dive into the life of John Beauchamp, Cricketer of Chertsey and murderer of the coffee house inn. This is a true story, and makes up just one of the dark and twisted tales that exist in my family history. This is murder at its most raw and violent.
John Beauchamp always had a temper, one he just couldn’t control, it had been an issue since childhood.
He was the eldest of five children and their births were all just a couple of years apart. So he felt a huge burden on his shoulders as he was forced to give way to all of his younger siblings that came after him.
He was even expected to support his mother with the everyday day running off the home, something he resented greatly.
This expectation of him increased when he was just eight years old. It was March 1834 and his father also called John died unexpectedly, his mother Mary Ann at the time was eight months pregnant and the grief for her was overwhelming.
She forgot about her children’s sorrow, and the eldest felt it the most.
This new edition to the family was born just a few weeks later on the 5th April 1834 in Chertsey, Surrey and named William.
John and William would never see eye to eye and in a way John disliked him the most.
In some childlike way, he blamed that child for the death of his father.
His father was working more and more just to make ends meet, and to feed his growing family, John believed the exhaustion killed him and this new boy was at blame.
There is reason to suggest that John may have bullied William and at times played out acts of cruelty to this unexpected toddler.
It was not long and Mary Ann, now a widow, destitute, and desperate found love with another. Victorian women had little choice but find a man for support, and the new man she found, was William Taylor. They married soon after meeting and a final child, a girl was born from this union in 1837.
Resentment was festering inside John Beauchamp junior more and more, his step dad, although kind was not ever able to build good foundations with the eldest, there was something different about him, something benign and dark.
With a big passion for sports and a lot of excess energy John Beauchamp threw himself into his favourite pastime, his love for Cricket.
He was fortunate to have been born in Chertsey, Surrey as Cricket was a huge part of the community.
And his passion could have grown into a career as he was already making small waves in the local and national newspapers of the time. That is, if he had a better temperament. John’s anger was always stronger than his control over it.
His deep rooted hatred, isolated him from most of his family for a lot of the time – but he was a rogue and a sportsman and this lure was always going to catch him a beautiful woman or two.
One such woman was Emma Charlotte Baldwin, she was born in Guildford, Surrey in December 1828 and was a few years younger then John. It was love at first sight and they both married not long after meeting on the 15th October 1848 at St Mary’s in Battersea.
The two settled into married life rather quickly and John bought a public house where they both would live, work and bring up their children together. He was now Victualer of the Coffee House Inn, Chertsey, England.
But time was ticking, and John’s true self would soon reveal itself.
The date was 3rd February 1856, in eight years of a somewhat turbulent and abusive marriage two children were born from it, Emma Elizabeth and Mary Ann Beauchamp. These girls as of 1856 were just six and two when the bloodied incident occurred.
The following extract, was recorded and reported in the newspapers at the time.
Chertsey
Alleged Wife Murder
Considerable excitement was created in this town on Wednesday morning, the 6th In consequence of the unexpected death of Mrs. Beauchamp, wife of the landlord of the Coffee House Inn.
John a well-known cricketer not only in the county of Surrey, but throughout England. is one of the most expert bowlers of the present day, he is currently in custody.
The prevalence of statements suggest that her death had resulted from violence received at the hands of her husband. The police instituted inquiries into the truth of these allegations, and the result was that Mr Superintendent Biddlecombe deemed it to be his duty to take the husband, Mr Beauchamp, into custody.
The Inquest into the death took place at the Kings Head Inn, and the jury who preceded to view the body of Emma Charlotte aged 27 found several bruises on the face, although nothing to convey the idea of the unfortunate deceased having met with a violent end.
Both Emma’s mother Phebe and John’s mother Mary Ann gave evidence at the trial, the most compelling came from Mrs Mary Ann Taylor who was in service at the Coffee House Inn when the incident occurred. She heard Emma’s last words, scuffling, shouting and a huge thud on the bedroom floor. But Emma was not dead yet, that took two more days.
It was suggested during this inquiry that Charlotte may have been a heavy drinker, I would guess it was her way to deal with the emotional and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of John. It is also conceivable that John may have suggested this, as a way to make her death seem more accidental. Whichever the case maybe, Her true cause of death would finally come to light during the autopsy.
In a fit of rage, John grabbed the cricket bat that rested against the bedroom chest of drawers
Gripped the smooth polished wood and lifted it high in the air. In one violent swoop he brought the solid force down, there was a crack and he paused for just a second. His eyes were red, they bulged and were rabid like a wild dog and he foamed at the corner of his mouth, in a disgusted vile smirk. He had done it.
He hardly heard her words as she begged him to stop. “Don’t, Don’t” she cried. They were the last words that 27 year old Emma Charlotte Beauchamp would ever say. The force of the blow had caused such a serious injury that she was unable to speak, breath properly, swallow and within a day or two. Emma would be dead.
But her death was slow, under the care of Mary Ann Taylor it was reported that she heard constant gargling noises from her throat, as though she was chocking slowly, unable to breathe, unable to talk, swallow.
Her body finally fell limp, and her skin went clammy and cold. Emma had succumb to death.
The Coffee House inn, no longer exists in Chertsey and the building is long gone. They are all long gone. Emma, John, Mary Ann, Phebe, William. What happened that eventful day and why John killed his wife is a secret they have all taken to their graves.
John Beauchamp was eventually convicted of Manslaughter, as it was believed he did not mean to murder his wife. But his career was over, family members changed their surnames and most of them left to begin new lives elsewhere.
But does Emma Charlotte Beauchamp still haunt the village, do passersby ever hear her whimpering last words.
“Don’t, Don’t, John Don’t”.
- Published: 19 October 2020
- Location: Great Leighs, Essex
- Duration: 15:01
- Photography – Stephen Robert Kuta / Yhana Kuta
- Written by – Stephen Robert Kuta
Music –
- Tales of the Uncanny – by Prozody
Music Licensed by Epidemic Sound
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac
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On the 30th of January, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). In the following weeks, the virus quickly spread worldwide, forcing the governments of affected countries to implement lockdown measures to decrease transmission rates and prevent the overload of hospital emergency rooms.
The United Kingdom implemented lockdown on the 16th of March, 2020 and from this date and up until the 3rd August, 2021 the UK had suffered three national lockdowns which all included Restrictive measures on border controls, closing of schools, markets, restaurants, nonessential shops, bars, entertainment and leisure facilities, as well as a ban on all public and private events and gatherings. In between these lockdowns we saw tier systems and heavy restrictions on how we all lived our lives.
We all decided on different approaches on how we spent that free time as many people were on Furlough as their businesses were shut, only key-workers carried out their working duties. Although I continued working as a key-worker, I still had a lot more free time as Yhana was not at school.
Both Yhana and I spent those first few months experimenting with tiktok and photography, we explored our home village of Great Leighs and took some incredible photographs as spring and eventually summer took hold.
Tiktok was a short-lived adventure for us, although we enjoyed it all the same — tiktok like so many Social Media platforms had exploded during the pandemic but none more so then YouTube.
In 2020 alone YouTube had more than 9 billion views globally
66% of people used YouTube to develop a new hobby in 2020, and a whopping 94% of people in India used YouTube to learn to do things themselves, Whilst Globally, 82% used YouTube to the same. What were they learning to do, exactly?
• Views of beauty tutorials increased nearly 50% in 2020.
• There was a 90% increase in bike maintenance and repair videos.
• Daily views of videos with “raising chickens” in the title increased 160%.
• Videos related to learning guitar saw 160 million views from mid-March to mid-April.
• Videos about container gardening saw 6 million views in the same period.
• There was a 215% increase in daily uploads of videos related to self-care.
• There was a 458% increase in daily views of videos about making sourdough bread and a 200% increase in daily views of recipe videos for bubble tea.
• Videos of how-to videos for home haircuts also spiked in April.
Even though these giant increases in YouTube views began as early as March 2020, it took Yhana and I up until August of that year to begin our own channel, and Yhana’s encouragement certainly helped on that matter.
So it began, 3 August 2020 – We went out and filmed our very first video. To be honest I wasn’t sure what our plan would be for our channel, I had a rough idea of what kind of content I would like Yhana and I to make and as a historian I looked at the channel as a way to record at least one year of our life, not just any year either, but our life during the Covid-19 Pandemic. So for me, it was a great way to record a piece of social history.
This book in front of you developed from that period of our lives also, and is a showcase / diary / almanac of all the videos we created, many of the photographs we took, the treasure hunts we went on and some of the incredible finds we discovered just a short walk from where we lived. In truth, those finds would never have been discovered if it wasn’t for lockdown.
So for prosperity, social history, a window into our lives during the Covid-19 pandemic and a transparent visual look at what its like to create a YouTube channel in that first year including channelytics, descriptions of videos, thumbnail artwork, viewer comments and more.
We have written this full guide, our first joint book –
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac.
The book is available to buy through Amazon and via all good bookshops.
LINK BELOW –
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