Ganging up on the residents of Kingswood's Cock Road.

(From Bristol Evening Post)

MANY of the residents of Kingswood will have heard of the notorious Cock Road Gang.

It was almost entirely made up of members of the Caines family. They terrorised the good folk of the area from the early 18th century right up until 1834, which was when George Caines - who had been arrested almost immediately after burgling various silver and gold items from Dyrham Park mansion - was transported for life to New South Wales, Australia.

With his departure, 60 years of one extended family's lawlessness seemed to have come to an end.

Throughout Georgian times Kings Chase, which had once been part of the ancient Kingswood Forest, had a reputation as one of the most unruly and lawless places in the country. In those days it was beyond the jurisdiction of the Bristol magistrates and ignored by the authorities in far-away Gloucester.

It was reported in a Bristol newspaper of 1786 that 10 people from the area had gone to the gallows within a three-year period. We would not consider many of their crimes so serious today - protection racketeering, sheep and pig stealing, pickpocketing, etc - but in those days, many of these so-called "minor" offences carried either a lengthy prison sentence, transportation or the death penalty.

But it was the sheer number of criminals in one area that really disturbed the authorities.