As we wander from town to town living in various locations and sleeping in different beds we always do our very best to explore the local area and visit as many new places as possible. We have been lucky enough to discover an increasingly large number of quaint villages and fascinating towns on our travels and always search for interesting local stories and history.
Sometimes we know what we’re looking for, guided by a leaflet or advised by the local tourist information office, but occasionally we stumble across a story that we had absolutely no idea about. This is one of those occasions.
Visiting the market in Alton, Hampshire
We are currently housesitting in Cheriton in Hampshire which you should know if you’ve been following the blog (if you don’t then I’m shocked) and thought we would pop over to the town of Alton about 30 minutes east to have a look at their Tuesday morning market. Alton seemed like a nice place but didn’t appear to have much history so we headed for the Curtis Museum to see what we could discover.

Two extremely friendly ladies welcomed us with the wonderful news that the museum was free. Our favourite type of museum! A mixture of local and national history was displayed excellently but the story that caught our eye and attention was this.

Sweet Fanny Adams
Now we’d heard the expression ‘Sweet Fanny Adams‘ or ‘Sweet F A‘ as I sure everyone else had but just assumed it was some sort of Americanism that didn’t really mean much. In fact I thought that ‘Sweet F A‘ stood for ‘F*** All‘ and the name could have been some sort of rhyming slang added. We had no idea that it was a real person. Fanny was a little girl that was born in Alton in 1859 and suffered a terrible fate.
On August 24th 1867 eight year old Fanny, her younger sister Lizzie, and best friend Minnie Warner went off to play in the local Flood Meadows not far from their homes in Tanhouse Lane. It was a hot sunny afternoon and as the girls approached the meadow they met a man called Frederick Baker. They had seen him around the village previously so weren’t worried when he offered them a halfpenny to buy some sweets. They played happily in Flood Meadows for an hour or so until the younger two girls, tired and hungry, decided to go home. At this point Baker grabbed Fanny picking her up and carrying her off screaming into a nearby hop garden. The other girls ran home and told Minnies mother what had occurred but Martha Warner ignored their confusing story and sent them out to play.
A couple of hours later when the girls returned to Tanhouse Lane and retold their story to a neighbour who raised the alarm with Fannys mother. The two ladies immediately headed for Flood Meadows where they met Frederick Baker demanding to know what he had done with Fanny. He denied harming the girl and dismissed their worries completely. Being a solicitor and a respected local citizen they took his word and returned home.
Between 7 and 8pm Mrs Adams and fellow neighbours became seriously concerned and headed out to search in earnest for her daughter. At the same time a local labourer, Thomas Gates, was tending his crop in a nearby hop garden when he discovered the head of Fanny Adams impaled on a couple of sticks. Not only had the poor girl been beheaded but she had been completely decapitated with body parts spread all around the field. Bizarrely hundreds of people flooded the area the next day searching for pieces of the body which were then taken to a local house.
Baker had gone to work in the solicitors office as normal but was arrested that evening as the only suspect. Searching him they found two small clean knives and a couple of minor blood stains on his clothes. He pleaded innocence and appeared calm and collected throughout the arrest. A later search of his office discovered his diary in which he had written “Killed a young girl. It was fine and hot.“

Taken to Winchester Prison, Baker was tried and convicted of murder based on further forensic evidence and the testimony of a young boy who claimed that he saw Baker washing blood from his hands in the river. a crowd of over 5000 people watched Baker hang on Christmas Eve. Determined never to forget poor Fanny the community of Alton collected enough money to erect a headstone to her memory in Alton cemetery.
Not quite the end of the story
That should have been the end of the story but a strange turn of events caused Fannys name to go down in history. Two years later, in 1869, tinned mutton was introduced as new rations for the English navy and was apparently so awful that the seamen joked it was the remains of Fanny Adams. This expression stuck and the term became slang for bad meat, leftovers, stew and eventually anything that was worthless. The tins of mutton became known as ‘Fanny’s‘ and are still referred to that way in todays navy.
The phrase soon filtered into general society where it came to refer to something not worth having or even having nothing at all. This also developed into ‘Sweet F A‘ of course which is as common today as it has ever been.
It’s tragically sad that this poor girl’s name lives on but her story has been forgotten.
So we headed out to find Alton cemetery and soon located Fannys final resting place where we paid our respects. A sad but fascinating story that we’ll never forget.
Sorry it’s such a tragic tale, not too depressing I hope? We found it so interesting but just in case you’re feeling a little sad here’s a happy shot of me and a couple of young girls ……………..
05/03/2019
Well that was an interesting, sad and gruesome tale and one I won’t forget either. The two girls looks
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Sorry, I hit send before I had a chance to finish, the comment should say “the two girls look nice and friendly” 🐕🐕
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Itchy trigger finger eh? The ‘girls’ are adorable and very friendly.
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How ghastly. Like you, I’ve heard the expression but never thought about what it actually meant.
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We’ve heard it for years but never realised the history and assumed that most other people didn’t either.
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That’s a bit of a shocker, Jonno! Poor little lass! 😦 😦
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Yeah sad tale but we just had no idea that Sweet FA came from there. Thought it was an expletive.
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I had no idea what it meant! What a horrible story.
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Same here. You often hear it especially in the States where I’m sure they don’t have a clue where it’s from.
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What an awful tale. If I’d had to guess I’d have thought Fanny Adams would have been famous for being rich and precocious, not for having been the victim of a grizzly murder. Mum would often say, “who do think you are – Fanny Adams?”, if I was putting on airs and graces.
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That’s exactly what my Mum used to say too which is why we were so fascinated in the sad story.
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Like you, I knew the phase but had no idea behind the meaning. Fascinating story. Thanks for sharing.
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It’s used a lot isn’t it and I’m sure no-one knows the true history behind it.
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This is so awful, the poor little girl, so sad. I too have heard the term Fanny Adams, but never knew where it came from. It always seemed to be in relation to Fanny Adams being bad. How sad that her name is used in this way. Thank you for writing about this Jonno, now I know
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Fascinating story isn’t it although it’s a bit sad. We like a bit of local history though.
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No, I had no idea. Like you, I had assumed it was just a ‘convenient’ phrase.
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So strange isn’t it? My Mum used to say it a lot and I’m sure she didn’t have a clue what it meant.
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I love language!
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Very interesting. I live only 30 minutes away from Alton and have never been to the museum. Something me and the hubbs must do.
Will you be doing any of the lovely walks? Itchen Way and the Wayfarers Walk are good. Or even a bit of the South Downs Way.
When we did the South Downs Way we broke it up into sections so we could walk for the day and then go home. We prefer our own bed. But we did have to stay overnight in Eastbourne on the last day. Very enjoyable walk.
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You should go down and see the museum it’s fairly interesting for a free one. Not sure we’ll get to do any serious walks as the dogs are only small and can’t be left for a huge amount of time, plus the weather hasn’t been great has it?
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Definitely not what I call walking weather either. Hopefully it will change.
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Fingers crossed next couple of days will be better as we’re only here until Wednesday.
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Cheers Jon. I knew it meant Fanny Adams but now I know why. What a macabre story. It’s the sort of thing you expect to hear today but not to have happened in the 1860’s.
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Good story isn’t it?
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How sad that the girl’s name has been used in such a way. She deserves to be remembered in a much nicer way, her life worth so much more than that. That aside, it’s an interesting story to a saying we all know and have used over the years!
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It is sad isn’t it that she’s remembered in such a disparaging way. Something to tell people in the future though if they use the saying.
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Most definitely!
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Great article, really enjoyed it. You were not far from Ron and me, wish you’d called in, would have loved to see you
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Thanks Diane. Didn’t realise you were near here though.
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If you return to this area you might enjoy the walk between Alton and Chawton.
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We did see that but just ran out of time. I think we may be back though. Hopefully.
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Interesting blog Jon!! Nice beard also…
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Thanks Ben. Sort of a winter beard, gone now (for the time being)
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