The tragic story of Millie Wilby…
There are tales of two murders in The Murderers' grisly and macabre history. Philip Cutter discovered that the name, previously thought to be a reference to a murder committed by a prostitute, actually related to another crime. He found out the real murder was perpetrated by an ex-cavalryman who killed his estranged wife, Mildred (Millie).
Dating back to 1696, the property was bequeathed to St. Johns Church on Timberhill by the then Lord Mayor of Norwich Nicholas Bickerdyke with the rent being distributed to the Anguishes Foundation for Girls , founded by Norwich Lord Mayor of 1611, Thomas Anguish, who created a hospital provision for the ciy's poor children - This remains the case to this day.
We can trace our landlords back to at least 1841. (To put that into context, Marks & Spencer were formed in 1884, Morrisons in 1899, Sainsbury's in 1869 & Tesco in 1919). The Gardeners Arms gained it gruesome nickname of "The Murderers" following the events of June 1895. The pubs landlady Maria Wilby had a daughter Millie, was murdered by her estranged husband Frank Miles following an argument the previous evening when Millie was seen walking into the pub with another man.
Frank was tried and convicted to hang for his crime. However his sentance was commuted to life in prison following public outcry claiming he was provoked. Frank died in prision in 1905. Contempary newspaper articles from 1895 are available on the walls of the pub for further reading, or by looking on the 'In the news' pages of this website.
Today, despite retaining the trading name of The Gardeners Arms we are better known as... The Murderers.
Other history: In a 1904 Trade directory it was listed as a Hairdressers as well as a pub. On the 27th and 29th April 1942 the pub was damaged by enemy action whilst Norwich was hit by the German Air force. In September 1991 the pub was extended to incorporate the Murderers Café Bar.
The BBC made a short film about the story of the pub name:
