Overview
Henry Trigg ( – 6 October 1724) was an English grocer who became famous following his death for his eccentric will which had his body placed in a coffin in the rafters of his barn, which became a tourist attraction. Trigg later became the subject of a ghost story.
Biography and legacy
Trigg was a prosperous grocer with a twin-gabled shop in Middle Row, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, as well as a number of other properties. He was a churchwarden, an overseer of the parish, and an important man locally. It is said that one night, he and two friends witnessed grave robbers at a local graveyard, and they vowed to make sure that this would not happen to them. Trigg stated in his will that his body should be committed for a minimum of 30 years to "the West end of my Hovel to be decently laid there upon a floor erected by my Executor, upon the purlin for the same purpose, nothing doubting but that at the general Resurrection, I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God." before renovations could be carried out on his barn. In 1769, Trigg's niece Ann died, leaving provisions in her will for Trigg's bones to be interred in a churchyard; but this never happened.
In 1774, the house was converted into the Old Castle Inn, There were several fires in the 19th century, most notably the Great Fire of 1807, but Trigg's barn and coffin survived. During World War I, Commonwealth soldiers billeted in Stevenage are reported to have stolen the bones. It was rumoured that the soldiers could be persuaded to part with the bones for a fee but supplemented the supply with the help of a local butcher. A letter to a local newspaper stated that in 1917, a resident went into the barn to look in the coffin and found horse bones. A nearby horse-riding school explained that copies of the will were still being sold and, if word got around that the coffin was empty, it could cause a drop in revenue. The coffin was temporarily removed in 1999 when the barn was refurbished and the owners, National Westminster Bank, demanded that any bones were removed.
The bank closed on 26 October 2015, leaving the property empty. It was sold at auction in May 2016 for £440,000 to Alliance Dental Ltd and was turned into a dental practice, with Stevenage Borough Council granting planning permission for internal and external alterations.