Nothing much out of the ordinary ever happened in the small Victorian village of Hook, Lydiard Tregoze. Until 1854 when an event occurred that shocked the small community to its foundations. William Wright had only lived in the village a few months. No one knew much about him or Ann Collins, the woman who sometimes lived with him. Wright had served in the navy but after his discharge had adopted a nomadic lifestyle, travelling the country, staying in one place only as long as the work lasted. He told how he met fellow traveller Ann Collins some three years previously. By the summer of 1854 the couple and Ann's young daughter were staying in a lodging house in Wootton Bassett. Wright obtained a job as a blacksmith in nearby Hook where he rented a cottage in the village. However Ann was reluctant to join him and when she did she stayed but a short while. She told him she was going to Lancashire to visit her family but Wright soon discovered she had returned to the lodging...