Jack photographed this wonderfully theatrical inn sign at Hopcroft’s Holt on the Oxford road from Banbury.
The inn had a long history as a coaching stop and was associated with the 17th-century highwayman Claude Duval. In 1754 the landlord and his wife were murdered there, adding another dark chapter to its history.
The hangman’s noose hanging from the sign seems entirely in keeping with the inn’s old coaching-road and highwayman associations — and was probably exactly the sort of detail that caught Jack’s eye.