Monopoly set played by the Great Train Robbers using real money after £2.6m heist emerges on Antiques Roadshow... But did they use the get out of jail free card?



Monopoly set that convicted Ronnie Biggs and co turns up after 50 years

The careless Great Train Robbers left their fingerprints all over the set



It has just been discovered in police archives gathering dust

Experts from BBC show The Antiques Roadshow valued it at just £200



A Monopoly set played by the Great Train Robbers using real money while lying low at a farm has emerged 50 years after the infamous £2.6million heist.

The tatty board game came to light after it was brought to the Antiques Roadshow for valuation, revealing the little-known story of its part in the 20th century's most notorious robbery.



It was discovered by police in a farmhouse hideout days after the brazen hold-up on a Royal Mail train in 1963.

Heist: At the time there was no other crime to rival that of the audacious Great Train Robbery. It netted the gang £50million at today's prices

Little bit of history: The farmhouse scene has been recreated at Thames Valley Police Museum

Hands off my stash: The Great Train robbers were rumoured to have used real cash stolen from the job to play the board game with Clues: Ronnie Biggs and his accomplices left their fingerprints all over the Monopoly set, which eventually led to their convictions

The train had been travelling from Glasgow to London but was set upon at Ledburn in Buckinghamshire by the gang, who had tampered with signals.

The robbers stormed the train and took all but seven of 128 highly-prized sacks. In today's terms they made off with the equivalent of nearly £50million.

Following the robbery the gang, including ringleader Bruce Reynolds, Buster Edwards and Ronnie Biggs, retreated to a nearby farmhouse to hide from the police.

While they were there they played the board game to pass the time using real money to buy the streets, houses and hotels.

It proved to be their undoing. When the police turned up at the farmhouse, the 15 robbers made their escape, but in their haste they left the Monopoly set - with their fingerprints all over it.

Gamble: The robbers played this Monopoly set while they hid from police in a Buckinghamshire farmhouse

Notorious: The late Buster Edwards pictured here at his flower stall in Waterloo in 1994

Prints lifted from the game formed a major part of the evidence against the gang, helping to convict them.

Also recovered from the site were chequebooks, a driving licence, a diary and a real five pound note.

The Monopoly set was saved from police archives and put on display at the private Thames Valley Police Museum. Experts from the BBC's Antiques Roadshow valued to Monopoly it at £200.

Ken Wells, former curator at the museum, said: 'In 1963 a Royal Mail train was held up in Buckinghamshire and £2.6million was stolen.

' Knowing they would need somewhere to hide after the hold-up, the criminals had purchased a farmhouse where they could lie low. While they were there they killed time by playing Monopoly, among other things.



Hideout: Leatherslade Farm in Buckinghamshire, where the notorious gang laid low to escape the clutches of the police

Haul: The robbers made off with 171 bags stuffed full of cash, which they used to play Monopoly with. The set can be seen here among other evidence found at the farmhouse

'Meanwhile the police had decided to search properties within a 25-mile radius of where the robbery took place.

' When the lair was eventually discovered police found the robbers had made a hasty getaway.

'The farmhouse had been stocked full of food supplies and bedding by the robbers.

' It is rumoured they paid a someone £12,000 to clean up the evidence behind them but when police arrived they found fingerprints all over the Monopoly set.

' Legend has it the robbers used real money in their Monopoly games but when police treated the Monopoly money various fingerprints appeared.

Busted: Go to jail, move directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200. Ronnie Biggs, left, the most famous of all the train robbers, with Bruce Reynolds, right, the gang's leader Rogues' gallery: Gang member Charles Wilson (left) pictured after his arrest. Wilson was later shot dead in Marbella, Spain. Buster Edwards (right) famously made a getaway to Mexico, only to return a few years later ' Along with other evidence found in the farmhouse, the fingerprints found on the Monopoly game helped convict the robbers. ' The crime was the biggest of the 20th century - nothing like that amount had ever been stolen and the lengths of the sentences were fairly unheard of too. ' A lot of the artefacts ended up dumped in a cellar at the police college.

'Thankfully someone had the foresight to say "hang on, this is a little bit of history" and saved the Monopoly set. I am glad they did as it is very interesting and is of great historical importance.'



