Northumberland

1/ Scremerston Gun Fatality, August 1879

A sad gun accident resulting in the death of a young girl took place at the village of Scremerston, three miles south of Berwick. It appears that a boy, fourteen or fifteen years of age, left his father’s house with a loaded gun with the intention of frightening some crows. Some little girls followed him, among them one named Mary Landell aged twelve, the daughter of a farmer in the neighbourhood. While the boy was endeavouring to get through a hedge, the gun accidentally went off. The muzzle at the time was close to Mary’s head and the charge struck her behind the right ear, killing her on the spot.

2/ Haydon Bridge Child Murder, March 1865

3/ Tritlington Hall, Morpeth, (Human Remains) August 1899

The skeletons of a mother and child were discovered at the bottom of a well, in the courtyard of Tritlington Hall. The well is approximately twenty feet deep and is the main source of water to the castle. (Who were they?)

4/ Hall Farm, Tritlington, (Brothers Kill Each Other) May 1910

Another one from Tritlington! This was the tragedy of the farm occupier, John Dungait, forty-years-old and his brother, Robert aged thirty-eight, being found dead in a field. There appears to have been an altercation between the two brothers. They were partners until about a year ago when the youngest brother Robert moved to Ganeby Grange at Bedale in North Yorkshire. He came back to Morpeth to get a couple of horses from his brother but John had only left one. Robert rushed over to Hall Farm to see John and this when they must have both stabbed each other in a scuffle. John was stabbed in his neck and Robert, grasping a knife in his hand, had a gash across his throat. Their mother lives in the village and has now needlessly lost two of her sons over a horse.

5/ Whitfield Fatality near Hexham, June 1895

6/ Seghill Colliery Murder, November 1903

Twenty-one-year-old miner, John Kennedy lived with his seventeen-year-old wife at Barrass Row, Seghill. One morning her neighbour, the deceased’s married sister, heard the sound of a gun firing, so she ran round to their house. There on the floor lay her sister dead as a dodo with her throat slit and gunshot wounds to the head. Kennedy tried to kill himself by inflicting the same wounds as he had given to his young missus, but a policeman stopped him in his tracks. Kennedy yelled out “Let me die with her”. The gun was found nearby as was the razor and he had shot his wife three times in the head. They had a three-week-old child and hadn’t been married long.

7/ Berwick Boating Fatalities, February 1885

On Saturday afternoon, the Mary Ann, a fishing boat from Berwick, was swamped while crab pots were being hauled in. The owner, Andrew Beadnell and his three sons were drowned. Two of the sons were married.

8/ Holy Island Head, (Crew Missing) April 1892

A terrible storm of snow and wind raged at Berwick-on-Tweed during Saturday night. It is feared that the steamer Holmbrook, of Newcastle, carrying a crew of twelve hands, has foundered off Holy Island Head, about ten miles south of Berwick and that all hands have perished. One body has been washed ashore. Part of a vessel and her masts are visible.

9/ Hirst Head Farm Murder, Bedlington, September 1906

10/ Blyth/Bedlington, (Suicides?)May 1904

A couple of strange deaths occurred in Northumberland in May 1904. The first was Sarah Bell, a married woman from Bedlington Station, who was found dead in a water barrel at her home. The next was that of William Main a colliery worker from Bedlington, whose corpse was discovered on Blyth Sands on Sunday morning. Sarah had been Main’s house-keeper and a couple of days since she had been accused by Main’s brother of stealing cash from him. Main sacked her and in consequence of this Mrs Bell spent a couple of nights sleeping in the wash-house. The verdict was that Mrs Bell had killed herself, but why as to why Main died they returned an open verdict, as they had no clue as to why he ended up in the sea.

11/ Hartford Colliery Cage Fall, July 1909

The fall of a pit-cage caused the deaths of four men at Hartford Colliery, Northumberland. At nine a.m. they were being lowered down the shaft, when the pit-cage suddenly gave way and fell two hundred feet to the bottom, killing all four of the workmen.

The dead men are -Frederick Robinson aged thirty-five, married, a fitter; Anthony Clark aged fifty, married, a labourer; William Dixon aged twenty-eight, single, a labourer; and John Stordy aged twenty-four, married and an electrician.

12/ Greenhaugh Axe Murder, June 1897

A lady named Spencer, whose husband was a man of independent means, was murdered by her old man while they walking in a wood at Greenhaugh near Bellingham. He went on a frenzied attack on her with an axe. He is in his mid-thirties and now in police custody. It is believed this was the act of a man who suffers from insanity.

13/ Hartley Colliery Tragedy, January 16th, 1862

14/ Blyth (Suicide in Pond) September 1904

The body of a young woman was discovered in a pond near Blyth, by some children who were playing nearby.They went to get help and some men returned with them to the spot and pulled the body out. It points to murder due to the fact that a handkerchief was used as a gag. She was a beautiful young lady in her early twenties, fair hair and a gold ring on her finger. The clothing consisted of a brown velvet bodice, black skirt, white straw hat and new boots. Later she was identified as Isabella Twist, a twenty-year-old servant. It was deemed to be “Suicide” from the simple fact that she left her purse on the table at her brother’s house, suggesting she didn’t intend to come back and retrieve it.

15/ Newbiggin,(now in Northumberland) May 1885

16/ Rothbury near Morpeth, (Dynamite Suicide) April 1891

William Ramsey, who worked in a quarry and lived at Rothbury near Morpeth, committed suicide by going into his back garden, then put a stick of dynamite on top of his hat, lighting the fuse and let the explosives cure his headache. It blew his head to pieces, but the face was barely touched by the resultant explosion. The 60-year-old had obtained the dynamite from his place of work.

17/ High Street Fatal Fire, Berwick, January 1885

18/ Burton, Northumberland, (Fiance Hangs Himself) November 1865

When someone is due to get married, and then keeps repeating phrases such as “I only wish it was over” and “I do not know how I shall face it”, you kind of know that something isn’t quite right. Twenty-four-year-old Robert Spanee hanged himself by a rope to a beam in a hayloft at Burton, rather than go through the wedding ceremony. He also muttered the words “I would be such a speak and disgrace”, meaning that he thought the girl he was going to marry was pregnant. The inquest was ironically held on the day he was going to get married and the verdict was that he “had killed himself in a state of unsound mind”.