True Sussex story behind Olivia Colman's new film Wicked Little Letters told at Littlehampton Museum

​​The true story behind Olivia Colman's new film Wicked Little Letters, involving two neighbours in Littlehampton, is told in a new exhibition featuring photographs from the 1920s.
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Littlehampton Museum is delighted to open the new micro-exhibition in the reception area, exploring the true story behind the Wicked Little Letters film.

The falling out of two friends living in Western Road, Littlehampton, in the 1920s led to a fascinating and bizarre series of events, involving libellous letters, false accusations, and prison sentences.

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Curated by one of the museum volunteers, and featuring local characters and places, the Wicked Little Hampton exhibition reveals details of the real-life case, the police investigations, the multiple trials and the convictions.

Olivia Colman filming in Arundel for the film Wicked Little LettersOlivia Colman filming in Arundel for the film Wicked Little Letters
Olivia Colman filming in Arundel for the film Wicked Little Letters

Sean Lee, chair of Littlehampton Town Council’s community resources committee, said: "At times, this case is scarcely believable, with its twisting ‘whodunnit’ plot, but it is all true and set against a backdrop of town life in Littlehampton in the 1920s.”

The free exhibition opened on Saturday, January 20, and runs until March 26. More details can be found online at www.littlehamptonmuseum.co.uk

Edith Swan, played by Olivia Colman, was the youngest of nine children and attended East Street Girls School, where she was notably good at essay writing.

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She lived with her parents, Edward and Mary Ann, who were both brought up in the area and had lived in Western Road for a number of years.

Littlehampton Museum is delighted to open the new micro-exhibition in the reception area, exploring the true story behind the Wicked Little Letters filmLittlehampton Museum is delighted to open the new micro-exhibition in the reception area, exploring the true story behind the Wicked Little Letters film
Littlehampton Museum is delighted to open the new micro-exhibition in the reception area, exploring the true story behind the Wicked Little Letters film

Edith was engaged to a soldier, who was away on duty, and took in laundry to earn a living. She also helped to run a savings club at the Surrey Arms, in Western Road.

Rose Gooding, played by Jessie Buckley, moved in next door to the Swan family with her husband Bill and children Dorothy and William just before Christmas 1918. She and Edith quickly became friends, though the other members of their families had little to do with each other.

It is not clear why the women later fell out but trouble had been brewing over use of the communal back yard and a shared shed. It was a row on Easter Sunday between Rose and Bill that was overheard by Edith which may have ended the friendship.

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Edith reported Rose, a domestic who had Dorothy out of wedlock, to the NSPCC in May 1920 and soon after, a series of increasingly abusive and obscene postcards and letters were sent to people in the area, including Edith, the owners of Victoria Dairy and the New Inn Hotel.

View some of the libellous letters at Littlehampton MuseumView some of the libellous letters at Littlehampton Museum
View some of the libellous letters at Littlehampton Museum

It was suspected that 29-year-old Rose was sending them and she was sent to prison in December 1920 after being privately prosecuted by Edith. When Rose was released in January 1921, the letters immediately started up again and she was convicted for a second time in March 1921.

But Rose was innocent and after the Home Office intervened in April 1921, a full police investigation was launched. The truth was that Edith had been responsible all along.

Rose's convictions were quashed but when Edith went on trial in December 1921, she was found not guilty due to an unsubstantiated claim about the police inspector.

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Even then, the libellous letters did not stop, so the General Post Office began monitoring the post office and postbox in Norfolk Road. Edith was finally caught when she used a marked postage stamp to send one of the letters. She was tried again in July 1923 and this time, she was found guilty and sent to prison for 12 months.

Edith died in March 1959 in North View Home, East Preston, a residential home run by West Sussex County Council, having previously been the site of the workhouse.

Rose and Bill stayed in Littlehampton, though they moved to the centre of town. She died in East Sussex in December 1968 at the age of 79.