Admirers of Charles Dickens will remember Bill Sykes’s the rascally and cruel character in the novel “Oliver Twist”. But not many people may know that there was an archetype of this literary hero. Bill Sykes – the grandson of sir Francis Sykes who made his fortune in India. Many stories are known about how this English aristocrat made his fortune and not always from a moral aspect. In 1769 he came back from India and became a Member of Parliament, he bought the magnificent estate of Basildon in Berkshire. The history of which went back quite a few centuries giving the owners a classic sense of historical meaning. Continue reading →