1/ Leicester, December 1878 (Woman Freezes to Death)
The weather in Leicester this month has been more severe than anything experienced for years and with the frost so intense, the River Soar was frozen for miles and traffic was entirely suspended. About three-thousand people skated on the river. During the skating, the body of a woman who had been frozen to death was found. She left her home on the previous evening and nothing was heard of her until she was found frozen to death.
2/ Ashby-De-La-Zouch, ( Manslaughter at a Football Match), March 1878
3/ Blaby Suicide, March 1895
4/ Leicester, August 1896 (Attempted Suicide with Gunpowder)
5/ Glaston Hall, Rutland, March 1886 (Dead Body in Haunted House)
A man by the rather Dickensian name of James Liquorish was walking near the Old Glaston Hall. He met with some schoolboys from Uppingham School and they went into the ruins of the hall. The lads wanted to see the “Haunted Room”, which was known locally for having the occasional spectral sightings. The young lads suddenly screamed in horror and ran from the building. Liquorish looked around and saw the decomposed remains of a man hanging by the neck from a door lintel. The body was cut down after Liquorish went to get assistance. He was presumed to have been there for a week or so. The body was identified as William Church, a seventy-year-old former groom, and his flesh had been eaten by bats and rats that infested the ruins. (Still there?)
6/ Hinckley Fatal Accident, April 1876
The market town of Hinckley rung a bell with me as I remembered when I was a kid reading about the tombstone that used to bleed, all down to a soldier who stabbed a young man, I think! This one involves a tree felling accident. Joseph Bloxham was busy felling the trees at Hinckley when a helpful chap offered to help him by climbing up and tying a rope around each tree so they could pull them in the right direction. He agreed and he went up a poplar tree, but the tree fell with him on it and its feared he may not live. Worse news was that of a boy, who was nearby, was killed outright and another three children were injured. (Did he survive?)
7/ Breedon-on-the-Hill Murder, August 1886
8/ Grimstone Tunnel Suicide, near Melton Mowbray, July 1899
The body of a gentleman from Kent, Richard Crabbe, was found on the railway line at Grimstone Tunnel. He was going with sister, attendant and valet from London to Ben Rhydding (Bradford-West Yorkshire) for a holiday break. When the train entered Grimstone Tunnel, Crabbe flung open a window and jumped out. The train stopped at the nearest station and a search was made in the vicinity and he was found with his body smashed to atoms by another train going in the other direction. Verdict “Suicide whilst of unsound mind following influenza.” (Grimstone Tunnel is still there and used as a test track!)
9/ Three Swans Hotel Suicide, Market Harborough, August 1893
A gentleman who used to reside in Market Harborough and was a Liberal politician in the town and of Leicestershire killed himself. J.A.Nunneley, who currently lived at Mount Edgcombe Gardens in London, shot himself in a room at the Three Swans Hotel in the town. (Still there on the High Street – It is a Best Western now)
10/ Rothley Temple Fire, February 1899
11/ Granby Coffee House Suicide, Leicester, August 1882
John Warburton was a resident of Chesterfield, who had been engaged to a widow named Wadsworth. He was due to be married on Bank Holiday but he went to his Mum’s house at Spencer Street in Chesterfield. Sound advice from his mother was to go back and get married, so he left for the purpose of getting wed on Wednesday. He lied and went to Nottingham and Leicester. (This could be Nottingham by the way!). While at the Granby Coffee House he put some poison in his coffee and collapsed. He said, “I’m a dead man; I’ve taken oxalic acid, which I bought this afternoon”. On his dead body was a letter stating to his sweetheart “My Dear Pauline Wadsworth” and saying that he “deserved all that would befall him for not keeping my promise”. He also said that certain property in Lancashire should be given to the woman he should have married.
12/ Loughborough, January 1907
A horrific discovery was made at Loughborough in Leicestershire. Three children aged five, three and one respectively were found dead in bed. Their mother had slept with them all night and an inquest was adjourned for the Monday for post-mortem and further inquiries. (What happened ?)
13/ Ragdall, Leicestershire, January 1880 (Now Ragdale)
of the children can survive.
14/ Leicester Cemetery, (Funeral Death) December 1879
On Tuesday the remains of Miss Ada Helen Bruin, Councillor Bruin’s daughter, who was accidentally drowned while skating at Groby Pool near Leicester, were interred in the family vault in Leicester Cemetery. Among those present were Mr Bruin, her father and other friends and relations. The coffin was covered with the choicest flowers. Before the remains were conveyed into the cemetery, a painful incident occurred. One of the bearers was Mr Blockley a middle-aged man and who was the manager of Mr Bruin’s establishment in Granby Street. It appears that Mr Blockley was walking by the side of the hearse and had nearly reached the cemetery gates when he fell. He was conveyed to the cemetery lodge where he died in a few minutes. Death was due to heart disease and his body was removed from the cemetery in the hearse which had been used to convey the remains of Miss Bruin.
15/ Leicester Station Body, September 1872
One evening a hamper was received at the Leicester Station and on it was an address that no one knew or had heard of. The hamper was opened to see if any more information could be gleaned as to the correct whereabouts it should be sent, but inside was the body of a small girl whose neck had strangulation marks on it. (Who was she?)
16/ Willesley, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, June 1885
17/ Market Bosworth, May 1885 (Vicar Catches Fire)
18/ Blaby Suicide near Leicester, April 1892
Thirteen-year-old Helen Martin committed suicide under painful circumstances. She worked at a shoe factory and she had complained to the manager earlier in the week that she had been assaulted by two boys who worked there, so, in consequence, he fired them. Some members of the work-staff had ignored her and told her what they thought of her, in no certain terms, and she left the factory despondent and a virtual outcast, so she went to the canal at Blaby and drowned herself.
19/ Taylor Street Corpse, Leicester, February 1899
The body of six-year-old Charles Alson was found in an ash-pit near to where he lived on Taylor Street. He had been missing for nearly a month and his head was smashed in and he was dreadfully decomposed. How he got into the pit or how his injuries were caused is a complete mystery.
20/ Syston Suicide, January 1890
21/ Bitteswell near Lutterworth, January 1899 (Murder)
A grisly murder was committed at Biteswell in Leicestershire. A baker was on his way to work when he spotted flecks of blood in the bakery and then discovered the body of Josiah Hubbard. He died from head injuries which were inflicted by his nephew. He has since been arrested and is believed to be insane. Josiah was a seventy-year-old who kept himself to himself, and he kept the nephew financially. The nephew turned up drunk one evening and he and Josiah had strong words with each other. When found by police he still had blood spattered clothing on and insanity is said to run in the family, as several relatives had died in the Asylum.
22/ Croft Railway Station Fatality, near Blaby, August 1904 (Name?)
A day-tripper from Leicester was killed at Croft Railway Station (now closed) when he tried to run across the track but was run over by a passing express train. Parts of his body were distributed amongst the crowd of people waiting at the station.
23/ Loughborough Murder, August 1885
The man, George Turlington, who was stabbed while going home at Loughborough on Saturday evening, died at his residence at Quorn from his injuries. The man in custody, Andrews, will now be charged with murder.
Loughborough Murder, August 1885
24/ Uppingham, Rutland, September 1889
William Aris, the son of the landlord of the Horse and Trumpet, attempted to murder a girl he liked, then blew his head off. Late one Friday night he fired three shots at Annie Armsby, who was just a domestic servant whom he’d fancied for quite a while and then put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Annie was alive when the paper was written, but I don’t know if she made it or not! Aris was an immature 24-year-old who had a crush on her but when she said she didn’t want to see him anymore and then to be seen by Aris with another man, this is what made him flip and try to kill her. (Did she make it?)
25/ Leicester, April 1899
At the Leicester Police Court yesterday Albert Elijah Woodward was charged with the manslaughter of his mother, who fell in the kitchen on March 30th and broke several of her ribs. Before death, she alleged that the accused pushed her down, but his explanation was that it was an accident. The police yesterday offered no evidence, and Woodward was discharged.
26/ Dunton Bassett, September 1885 (Starved to Death)
An inquest was held in Dunton Bassett on the body of a child aged seven months, daughter of a travelling showman named Oliver Gamble. The evidence pointed to wilful neglect of the mother and death having resulted from starvation. A verdict of manslaughter was returned against Mrs Gamble, who was afterwards apprehended and committed for trial on the coroner’s warrant.
27/ Oadby Schol Shooting, April 10th 1899
Oadby School Death, April 11th, 1899
Oadby School Death, April 14th, 1899
28/ Leicester Factory Suicide, April 1892
Frederick Clark, a nineteen-year-old machine hand at Messrs Richards Wool-spinning Factory, shot himself at the factory where he worked. Leicester has seen an epidemic of suicides in the past couple of weeks and this was the sixth case of attempted or actual suicide. (Why all the suicides?/Why at work?)
29/ Milnthorpe Well Suicide, October 1835
A strange suicide if ever there was one! Mr John Belton of Whasset in a bout of depression climbed down a well. His brothers saw him and then tried to coax him out, but he kept on refusing to come out. They heard a splash and he dropped into the water and the brothers lowered a rope, but again he refused to grab hold of it and before they could get down there, he was already dead.
30/ Leicester Railway Murder? August 1886
31/ Old Dalby Murder, near Melton Mowbray, October 1835
George Turner, an innkeeper’s son from Old Dalby was accused of the murder of Henry Wells, a local farmer. They met at a beer-shop just outside Old Dalby and Turner, who was drunk as a skunk at the time, decided to argue with Wells but he didn’t rise up to him, instead bought him a pint to calm him down. Turner lay in wait for him outside and inevitably a fight broke out and a passer-by named Adams intervened. When Adams left them, Turner again started on him and it is probably then that Turner beat him to a pulp. The murderer went home and did a few chores and then sat down to eat with his family. Turner was arrested later on and told police that he’d jumped on the man’s body, cracking eleven ribs and booted him in the head. His injuries were so severe that he died of internal bleeding. Wells was about fifty and his murderer was twenty years younger and was considerably bigger build. The murder was at five o’clock in the afternoon in broad daylight.(Outcome?)
32/ Montsorrel Blasting Quarries Fatality, March 1892
During some blasting operations at Montsorrel Blasting Quarries, Leicestershire on Tuesday morning, an explosion of gunpowder occurred and Edward Holmes, a workman, was blown down by the rock, a distance of eighty feet and killed. Another man named Harper was also badly hurt.
33/ Syston Station September 1885
34/ Leicester Canal Suicide, December 1875
A young Yorkshire lass was staying in Leicester for the Christmas holidays and for some reason she drowned in the local canal. Kate Eliza Wright aged twenty-one and from Pontefract was a few years ago engaged to her cousin from Leicester but her friends didn’t agree with her choice and told her, so the engagement was called off. Since this time she had been depressed and sullen and when she was asked to stay in Leicester by her brother-in-law, she jumped at the chance. When she went missing, the canal was dragged and her body came up to the surface. Two boys later came forward and stated that they saw her jump from the West Bridge, but neglected to mention it to police. The verdict was “Temporary Insanity”
35/ Loughborough Manslaughter, March 1899
A sad shooting accident occurred at Park’s Farm near Loughborough. During the absence of their parents at a market, a boy and girl named Handley began playing with a gun which was hung on a beam in the house. The girl asked if the weapon was loaded and her brother pulled the trigger to find out, with the result that the girl’s head was blown off.
36/ Coalville Murder/Suicide May 1899
37/ Hute Lodge Farm, Earl Shilton, February 1900 (Murder?)
Mr Thomas Clarke who lived at Hute Lodge Farm in Earl Shilton was found in a pond in his grounds. A gash in his throat had been inflicted with a pen-knife but no traces of that were near the body. He was a well-known agriculturalist and had been doing work on the farm that day and was seen conversing with workmen a couple of hours before his demise. He left a widow and ten children.
38/ Barwell Suicide, March 1899
Miss Gertrude Sarah Moulds, a shoe manufacture’s daughter from Barwell, committed suicide in a grisly manner. She locked herself in her room and then instead of slitting her throat from ear to ear, she went from chin to breast-bone. She had been bed-ridden recently because of nervous debility.
39/ Anstey Manslaughter, May 1899
40/ Sutton Cheney, September 1842
A wheelwright and assessor of taxes for Sutton Cheney, William Evatt, had been despondent for some time. When the income tax papers were sent to him, he suddenly became worse (has that effect on most of us!), stating that the workload was too much. According to his friend, Mr Webster and his housekeeper, he just went into meltdown and appeared to be a madman. One morning he was found hanging by the neck from a beam in his room. “Temporary Insanity” was the verdict.
41/ Cottesmore Hunt Kennels near Oakham, Rutland September 1896 (Murder/Suicide)
This was down to two stablemen arguing with each other, then getting violent, one of them struck the other causing death. The two men were Francis Rodgers and Charles Packer and it was Rodgers who struck Packer with a poker. He battered him three times with the implement, shattering the skull. Evidence afterwards suggested that just one of the blows would have killed him outright. Rodgers was arrested and taken to Oakham Police Station and it was here he tried to hang himself in his cell. He crafted his clothing into a rope then hung it from the cell bars on the window, but he was discovered just in time and cut down. The poor chap who was killed had only been there a couple of weeks.
42/ Criterion Restaurant, Leicester, July 1885 (Two Dead)
43/ Moria Colliery Deaths, Ashby-de-la -Zouch, September 1832
Eight men at the Moria colliery near Ashby-de-la-Zouch were ascending the coal-pit when the engineer forgot to stop the engine when they got to the pit-mouth and as a consequence, they were drawn among the machinery with two being killed immediately and various others injured. They were dragged over the wheel and thrown to the ground with immense force a height of thirty-three feet. A verdict of manslaughter was brought against William Jewsbury the engineer and he was placed in gaol to await trial.
44/ Leicester Murder, July 1919
Annie Bella Wright a 21-year-old rubber worker, was found dead in a country lane near Leicester on the 5th of July. The method of murder was a gun that fired from five yards or so away, while she was cycling by. The bike was next to her but she hadn’t been assaulted. A man on a green bike was seen cycling with her on the night of the murder and police are looking for him.
45/ Ravenstone Suicide, May 1891
46/ Loughborough Abduction, September 1885
47/ Silsby Child Murder, near Leicester May 1874
At Silsby, about seven miles north of Leicester, the body of a two-year-old child was found near the village with its throat cut. The supposed murderess is the mother, Sarah Newby, who is the mother of four children, three of which cannot walk. The dead child was Mary Newby, one of the twins and it was partially disabled. On Monday night at around midnight, she reported the child missing from its bedroom and P.C. Allen was sent to investigate. She said she put the kids to bed at eight p.m., then went out to see a friend and when she returned fours later she was gone. The body was found days later with its throat slit and lying in a ditch near to the mother’s house, also with its bowels cut open. The mother was chief suspect and taken to Loughborough Police Station and when police checked her room, they found spots of blood in the child’s room. This suggests that the little girl was murdered in her sleep and then an attempt was made to dismember the body and get rid of the remains, but instead was dumped in a ditch nearby. (Guilty of Murder?)
48/ Shepshed Suicide, May 1871
An unknown man committed suicide at Shepshed, about sixteen miles from Leicester. He was well-dressed and looked like a preacher when he entered the Jolly Farmer pub one night and ended up staying the night. The landlady tried to wrangle some information from him, but he remained silent. On Sunday he had breakfast and left the building and only a couple of hours later, some workmen found him face down under a bridge that crosses Iveshead brook. (Who was he?)
49/ Gynsill Lane Fatality, Anstey, April 1899
50/ Ketton Suicide, Rutland, November 1864
A bizarre case of suicide only a few days after getting married! The unnamed woman was married to her second husband, this was despite having five kids in tow as well, but went and bought threepence worth of “Battle’s Vermin Killer”, which as I’ve stated before had probably killed more humans than vermin. With a blob of treacle, she mixed the poison and then ate it. This is where it gets sad, because now she hears the kids crying and she suddenly has the feeling that she wants to remain on earth, so she gets a neighbour, and they tried to make her sick and expel the vermin killer/treacle mixture, but despite efforts, she was dead within the hour.
51/ Desford Railway Tragedy, October 1881
52/ Syston Drowning, July 1889
53/ Syston Railway Station Death, February 1892
54/ Melton Road, Leicester, January 1916 (Chauffeur Killed)
55/ Uppingham, Rutland, July 1887
A man named Cort, a well-sinker was engaged at the new waterworks at a great distance underground when the brickwork and an enormous amount of rock suddenly collapsed and killed him immediately.
56/ Barrow-upon-Soar Murder, September 1870 (66? 68 North Street, now the Lime Tree Nursery, was the Trap, ex Lime-Kiln)
57/ Coalville Explosion- Three Deaths, August 1870.
58/ Leicester Axe Murder? December 1870 (Did Margaret Noon survive?)
59/ Leicestershire Railway Deaths, December 1870 (Kibworth Station & Swannington)
60/ Thringstone Child Murder, January 1866
61/ Fatal Explosion at Leicester (King Street) June 1866
62/ Death on the Railway, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. November 1866
63/ A Woman Frozen to Death at Aylestone, January 1867
64/ Murder of a Policeman, Sileby near Loughborough. May 1903.
July 25th, 1903. Execution of Sileby Murderers.
Double Execution at Leicester- Both Men Protest Their Innocence. Thomas Porter and Thomas Preston, shoe hands, were hanged at Leicester Gaol on Tuesday morning for the murder of Constable Wilkinson, at Sileby. Both men walked to the scaffold and proclaimed they were innocent. Death in both cases was instantaneous. Both men had given respectful attention to the chaplain’s ministrations.
65/ Leicester Man Slits Girlfriends Throat, July 1905. (Was it at Grosvenor Street in Leicester?)
66/ High Street Suicide, Melton Mowbray. January 1906
67/ Boy’s Suicide in the Canal, Leicester. December 1907
68/ Fatal Fall From a Tree, Teigh near Oakham. July 1907
The coroner, Mr V.G. Stapleton, conducted an inquest on Tuesday, at Stamford Infirmary, upon Edward Exton, farm labourer, of Teigh, near Oakham, when he was admitted to the institution on July 13th, suffering from a broken leg. Richard Watchorn, a farmer from Teigh, and Edward Rawlings, a farm labourer from the same place, gave evidence that deceased when leaping off the branch of a tree, lost his balance and fell. Dr Evans said death ensued from tetanus, as the result of injuries. A verdict of “Accidental death” was returned.
69/ Rotting Corpse Found in a Wood, Ryhall, near Stamford. March 1907
70/ Fatal Cycling Accident, Tinwell, Rutland. July 1907
71/ Murder/Manslaughter at Newbold Verdon. October 4th,1880
Thursday, 4th November 1880
In the case of William Arnold, a coal miner, charged with the wilful murder of Elijah Statham, at Newbold Verdon, on 26th of September, whose trial we reported yesterday, the jury returned a verdict of “Guilty of Manslaughter”, and his Lordship today passed a sentence of seven years penal servitude.
72/ Murder of a Female Child, Wigston. November 4th, 1880
Thursday, 11th November 1880
The High Sheriff of Leicestershire has fixed upon the 23rd of this month, for the execution of Elizabeth Stacey, laundress, convicted of the wilful murder of her illegitimate child at Wigston. A petition to the Home Secretary praying for a commutation of the sentence has been signed by several thousand people, and there is a strong feeling against the extreme penalty of the law being carried out.
73/ Body on the Railway Line, Syston. December 1880
Yesterday morning the body of Mr John Golightly, inspector of bridges on the Midland Railway, was found in a mutilated state on the line at Syston, near Leicester. The deceased, who was nearly seventy years of age, was well known all over the line. He was walking to inspect a new bridge, when, in avoiding one train, he stepped in front of the newspaper express and was cut to pieces.