Paddington Boar: Discover West Berkshire’s other legendary stolen statue near Newbury

Drunk squaddies pinching a statue from its pride of place to widespread outcry.

You’d be forgiven for thinking of the two RAF engineers recently sentenced for stealing Newbury’s beloved Paddington Bear statue.

But no. Some 381 years before the ‘Paddington Two’, Civil War soldiers were also up to no good.

On the eve of the Second Battle of Newbury on October 26, 1644, Oliver Cromwell – later Lord Protector (slash puritan overlord) of England, Scotland and Ireland – stayed the night at The Blue Boar Inn on the Wantage Road just west of Chieveley, today the Crab and Boar.

His troops camped nearby at North Heath.

READ MORE: On this day 380 years ago, the Second Battle of Newbury was fought

Earlier that July, Parliamentary forces seized control of northern England at the Battle of Marston Moor, considered one of the largest battles ever fought on English soil.

After the battle, they billeted at the Royalist stronghold of Ripley Castle near York, enjoying the (reluctant) hospitality of Lady Ingilby.

While there, they were charmed by the two wild boar sculptures – painted blue – Lord Ingilby had commissioned in Italy.

So, they took one with them when they began their long march south.

And before facing off against the Royalists at Shaw and Speen, it stayed with them at Chieveley.

Except after the battle, they never returned for it.

Perhaps Cromwell had forgotten or gifted it to the inn.

Maybe he had bigger things to worry about, like how the Parliamentarians had seemingly let the King slip away to safety in Oxford despite having the Royalists surrounded.

Or perhaps the Roundhead troops who had taken it to begin with had fallen on the battlefield.

Whatever the case, the boar statue has remained at the ancient inn ever since and given it half its name.

The other boar remains in Ripley, but is no longer situated in the castle grounds.

It was donated to the village by a later Lady Ingilby in 1907, incidentally located close to The Boar’s Head inn.

The Ingilby family’s connection to boars started in 1357, when Thomas Ingleby saved King Edward III from being gored by a boar Robert Baratheon-style during a hunting trip in the royal forest of Knaresborough.

To convey his gratitude for saving his life, the king knighted Ingleby on the spot and added the boar’s head to his family crest.