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”.

19/ High Street, Berwick, (Fatal Explosion) August 1896

visit the scene.

20/ Morpeth Asylum/Cramlington district, (Rich Recluse) October 1886

21/  Mitford- Attempted Murder/Suicide,  December 1870.

22/ Ponteland Brothers Poisoned to Death,  June 1866 (Bushby brothers)

23/ Alnwick Wife Murder,  March 1866

24/ Manslaughter of a Son, Cowpen Quay, Blyth.  December 1906

25/  Fatal Dynamite Explosion, Barrington Colliery.  April 1906

26/  Murder at Hirst Head Farm near Bedlington.  November 1906

27/  Railway Guard Killed at Alnmouth Junction.   January 1907

1/  Belfast Lough Boating Fatalities   April 1892

2/ Port Stewart (Child Abuse/Murder) February 1892

3/ Carlisle Bridge Suicide, Londonderry, July 1914

John Flynn, a patient of Gransha Auxiliary Lunatic Asylum in Londonderry, suddenly attacked some warders with a bill-hook. He cut the throat of one, knocked down a couple of others, then made a run for it. He got outside the building and headed for Londonderry itself while being pursued by some warders on bikes chasing him. Flynn was halfway across Carlisle Bridge when realising he was about to be captured he plummeted over the edge, into the river. All this happened while a large crowd was looking on.

4/ Knockamuckley Church, Armagh, July 1888

William Thompson murdered his brother-in-law, Thomas Thompson at Knocknamuckley church, when about to be married. He was later given the death sentence.

5/ Belfast Lunatic Asylum Murder, August 1863

This is the account of a murder in the Lunatic Asylum at Belfast. The victim was one Thomas Fearon, who was an in-patient and he was strangled while he slept by William Smith, a lunatic in the same dormitory. The keeper unlocked the door at six a.m. and didn’t see anything wrong, but when he passed onto another dormitory, Smith tried to leap out of the window and to the ground below, a drop of twenty feet. The keeper, when he caught him, was informed by Smith that he had killed Fearon. They found Fearon lying on the ground with a piece of cord around his neck. Smith was charged with “Wilful Murder” and sent to the County gaol.

6/ Camlough Wife Murder, Newry, March 1885

Camlough, Newry July 1885

At the Armagh Assizes James Torleyof Camlough near Newry was sentenced to ten years penal servitude for killing his wife in March last, by beating out her brains with stones.

7/ Warrenpoint Train Station Death, County Down, July 1908

A dreadful fatality occurred at Warrenpoint in County Down, when a young woman named Alice Brady who had come from Dublin with her parents and boyfriend as members of a temperance excursion was trying to get on to the train as it arrived at the station. The crowd jostling for position themselves shoved her accidentally between the moving train and the platform. The result was horrific as she fell and was decapitated, in full view of a number of witnesses and killing her straight away.

8/ Forkhill near Newry December 29th, 1885

A farmer named Patrick McParland was charged at Forkhill near Newry, yesterday, with the murder of another farmer, James McParland, whom he attacked with a pair of tongs by beating him about the head. The prisoner was remanded pending the inquest.

Forkhill near Newry December 31st, 1885

Peter McParland charged with the murder of his uncle, John McParland on Christmas night at Forkhill near Newry, was remanded yesterday in consequence of James McParland, son of the deceased, not yet being out of danger. (What happened?)

9/ Belfast Triple Murder, April 1892

10/ Teoum Las, Isle of Man, (Double Infanticide) April 1894

Less than a month ago, Clementina Smith from Liverpool, went to lodge at a labourer’s house. She also seemed to be ill and locals were suspicious that the young woman had given birth. When she was questioned about this she immediately confessed that she had given birth to a set of twins. Police searched the building and found the bodies of a boy and a girl, in a box, with Smith being rushed off to hospital. The post-mortem results have not been released as of yet.

11/ Port Erin Drowning, April 1899

12/ Kesh, County Fermanagh, May 1885

A farmer named Johnson, while cutting turf yesterday near Kesh in County Fermanagh was struck by lightning and instantly killed.

13/ Middleton, County Armagh, (Eaten by Rats) July 1908

An elderly woman named Mrs Scott aged seventy-two, who lived on her own, hadn’t been seen by neighbours for a number of days. They forced their way into her home and discovered her lying dead on the kitchen floor with parts of her face and fingers having been nibbled away by the local rat population.

14/ Armagh Murder, December 1885

An Armagh telegram reports that at an inquest held yesterday at Clay near Keady, a verdict of wilful murder was returned against Thomas Nesbitt, who is in custody for causing the death of Francis McKee in a dispute about the ownership of a cow.

15/ Port Erin Mystery, Isle of Man, April 15th, 1899

16/ Giant’s Causeway Drownings, December 1885

Four fishermen were drowned near Portmoon, Giant’s Causeway, on Wednesday afternoon. While hauling in the nets a heavy sea capsized their boats. They mounted the keel, but before assistance arrived, they were washed off and perished.

17/ Derryleckagh River Fatality, July 1885 (There’s a Derryleckagh Lake?)

A verdict of accidentally drowned whilst bathing was returned on a young man named James McManus, who drowned in the Derryleckagh river near Newry yesterday evening whilst bathing. Several companions made unavailing efforts to save him.

18/ Lough Foyle, Londonderry, August 1885

A young man named Austin, an employee in the factory of Hogg and McIntyre, was drowned in Rosser Bay at Lough Foyle in Londonderry on Saturday evening. The young man jumped out of a boat and dived, but did not return to the surface.

19/ Ramsey Harbour Fatality, Isle of Man, February 1899

20/ Ramsey Harbour Death, April 1899 (Another fall into the Harbour)

21/ Holywell Street, Londonderry, August 1908 (Haunted House?)

Londonderry police are looking into the supposed haunting of a house, which has caused excitement amongst the population. A workman named McFadden and his wife and children, live in a cottage in Holywell Street and were constantly woken by various noises which kept them awake at night. One of the family members claims that they have observed a spectral lady, wearing a grey robe. The family was moved to other premises and the previous tenant came in late one night and told his wife to start packing, as they would be leaving in the morning. (What was it in the end?/A hoax?)

22/ Ballymena, (Girl on Fire) July 1885

Miss Sarah Strahan aged seventeen, who had returned home from a Belfast boarding school for her holidays, has died from burns sustained in consequence of her dress catching fire when standing near the parlour grate. The unfortunate young lady had carried off the chief prizes at the school.

23/ Belfast Suicide, January 1890

24/ Ballycregga Suicide, Isle of Man, May 1885

On Wednesday a most determined attempt at suicide was made by Sarah Hope, wife of a photographer residing in Ballycregga, Isle of Man. She had been low-spirited lately, when on Wednesday she took a gun belonging to a shooting gallery and placing it to her breast, fired. The bullet lodged near the heart and as it is not yet extracted, death must almost inevitably ensue.

25/ Ballakillowey, Isle of Man, February 1864 (Awful Treatment of Lunatic)

A number of years ago a young chap named Waterson was literally scared out of his wits by an apprentice who thought it would be a good laugh to dress up as a ghost, in a white sheet and scare him. He was frightened to such an extent, that for the last seventeen years he was kept in an outbuilding in Ballakillowey on the Isle of Man. The conditions were deplorable and were described thus:- “A filthy cowhouse, the walls damp and unsightly, the cold clay floor not even strewn with clean straw, the morsel there is being old and dank. Barred in, almost excluded from the light, unseen except by some curious visitor, untended, his food lowered down to him, here in this terrible prison he has existed for seventeen years”.

26/ Isle of Man, (Five Drown) March 1885

27/ Belfast Empire Theatre, November 1901 (There’s only one way to find out…..Fight!)

A riot occurred at the Belfast Empire Theatre when the artiste on stage had done his gig and refused to do an encore. Pat Rafferty had sung seven songs and as the crowd applauded, the curtain fell. They wanted an encore and as he didn’t come back on stage, they got violent and a riot ensued. Curtains were torn and an iron stanchion was pulled down then thrown into the stalls. Police were trying to maintain a modicum of control and it was down to them that nobody was seriously injured.

28/ Portadown Manslaughter, March 1885

An inquest was held at Portadown yesterday as to the death of a man named Cooke. Deceased and a neighbour named Brown had an altercation in the street and it is alleged that Brown, after changing his coat and hat, returned with an iron bar with which he struck Cooke on the head twice. The latter died a few hours afterwards from concussion of the brain. Seventeen out of twenty-three jurors returned a verdict of “Manslaughter”.

29/ Belfast Human Remains, February 1894

While excavating foundations at Messrs Steeles establishment, which was completely burned down at the end of 1893, some human remains were discovered. They were two male skeletons, a woman and a child, buried four feet underground. One of the skeletons had signs of blunt force trauma to the head, probably made by a hatchet or similar weapon. They are thought to be remains of people emigrating to Australia, U.S.A.etc, who were murdered for there meagre belongings, about a century ago.

30/ Armagh Railway Disaster, July 1889 (80 died and over 250 were injured)

31/ Douglas Promenade Suicide, Isle of Man, November 1902

A tragic suicide and a gallant attempt at rescue were witnessed off Douglas Promenade on Saturday afternoon. About 3-30 p.m. a middle-aged man named John Duggan divested himself of his coat and shoes and sprang into the sea. A crowd soon gathered and William Crellin, a grocer of Castle Street, plunged in to effect a rescue. He got hold of the drowning man but in the struggle to keep his head above water became exhausted. A lifebuoy rope was thrown to Crellin and by this means he managed to get ashore. Then another man dived into the sea to Duggan’s assistance but he became exhausted and had to be pulled out with the aid of a rope. A third attempt at rescue, however, was made by Walter Weston, a marine engineer, who managed to grasp hold of Duggan. A rope was thrown to him and both men were drawn to the wall of the Promenade, where it was found impossible to land them owing to the heavy sea running. They were accordingly dragged through the waves towards some steps a hundred yards away, but before reaching these Weston had to let Duggan go and he was drowned. Weston just managed to save himself.

32/ Broadway Fire Deaths, Douglas, Isle of Man, September 1895

At four a.m. on Friday, a huge inferno broke out in two large boarding-house in Broadway in Douglas. The fire took hold of the top floor of the building. After the fire was extinguished the fire brigade found the two charred corpses of a couple of domestic servant girls, who were asleep in the attic room. Nobody else was killed or injured.

33/ Finch Road Fatal Accident, Douglas, Isle of Man, June 1899

34/ Belfast, (Icy Grave) December 1885

Last evening a young man named John Howard ventured upon the ice on a sheet of water in a brickfield in the vicinity of Belfast. The ice broke and he sank. A man named James Lavery, who witnessed the occurrence, at once endeavoured to rescue him, but some time elapsed before he was brought from under the ice and by then he was quite dead.

35/ Portrush Murder? October 1909 (Bride Found Dead)

Sophia Thompson, who worked at the Alexandra Hotel in Portrush, was married to a young fella named Hackett who was the son of the huntsman of the North Antrim Hunt, on Saturday. The wedding went well and as family and guests made their way home, the happy couple went to their new home in Portrush. That same evening, Sophia was found dead in the home and police arrested a murder suspect. (Was it Hackett?)

36/ Ardglass Harbour Drownings, February 1885

Four men, named Edward Kelly and Michael Hart of Dublin and John Smith and William Magreevy of Ardglass, were drowned in Ardglass Harbour in County Down, during the storm on Saturday evening, by the swamping of their boat as they were proceeding to place a light on the steam dredge.

37/ Belfast Docks Fatal Explosion, April 1889

38/ Falcon Cliff Terrace Suicide, Douglas, Isle of Man, September 1881

Forty-one-year-old baker Robert Peel Crellin of Liverpool, stood in the porch at No 1, Falcon Cliff Terrace in Douglas and popped a gun in his mouth, then pulled the trigger. His wife had left him in Liverpool about a year ago and moved to Douglas on the Isle of Man for a fresh start in her home-town and she moved into Falcon Cliff Terrace. Crellin decided to pay his ex-missus and kids a little visit. He knocked on the door and tried to gain entry, she held him off, so that’s when he shot himself on her front porch. The next door neighbour saw the body lying there and went to get the police. When they arrived with the doctor, Crellin was already dead.

39/ The steamer “Fenella”, February 1899

40/ Ballynahinch, County Down, (Dogs Kill Owner) March 1892

Abigail McDonald, residing at Ballynahinch in County Down, while attempting on Monday night to separate four dogs that were fighting, was attacked by them and received such terrible bites upon her neck and other parts of her body that she died after two hours of suffering. The dogs which were her own property were afterwards destroyed.

41/ Belfast, January 1884 (Woman Lived as a Man)

A doctor at the Royal Hospital in Belfast got a shock when tending to the injuries of one John Coulter. The poor man died of the injuries and then a post-mortem examination took place. It turned out that John, could, in fact, have been a Jane, instead, as she had worked as a quay labourer and was always dressed as a bloke. She fooled hundreds of people over the years.

42/ Rathfriland, County Down, March 1899 (Self-immolation)

At Rathfriland in County Down, one Sunday night, a married woman named Carter poured a quantity of paraffin oil over her head and clothing and set fire to herself. She was discovered by her brother who put out the flames, but she is not likely to recover. She had been an inmate of Downpatrick Asylum for a considerable period of time.

43/ Londonderry Shooting, January 1885

44/ Lough Neagh, August 1904 (Six Drowned)

Seven men and women set off one afternoon for a pleasure trip in a boat on Lough Neagh and only one of them made it back to shore. William Green of Kinnegoe, owned some pleasure boats on the Lough and his family was visited by two cousins from Belfast and they brought two lads named Catchpole who had come from Guernsey. Frank Green, Miss Dorothy Green and Miss Winifred Green, also set out in the boat. The craft capsized when then tried to turn around and they were precipitated into the water. One by one they sank and drowned, except for Winifred Green, who clung on to the boat keel for approximately four hours. The boat drifted on the Lough and ended up near Avamore Point, where Winifred, who was about a hundred feet from the shore and exhausted, made a swim for it and then managed to crawl back to her house after landing.

Deceased are- Frank and Dorothy Green of Lurgan; Hugh and Frank Green of Belfast; and John Catchpole from Guernsey.

45/ Ballinamallard (Enniskillen) June 1885

previously taken a poisonous dose of laudanum, he at the time labouring under insanity.

46/ Douglas, Isle of Man, (Concealment of Birth) June 1893

A shocking discovery was made in the back garden of the Reverend W.T. Hobson’s, vicar of St Barnabas’s, home. A woman by the name of Ellen Flynn, in her late twenties and a servant at the Athol Hotel, was seen going towards the garden with a parcel and when she was spotted again, she had got rid of the suspect package. Flynn had lobbed it over an eight-foot-high hedge. A witness to the strange goings on stopped her and asked what was in the parcel and she refused to give an answer. Police were told of the occurrence and they searched the said garden. Not surprisingly, they discovered the body of a newly-born infant, wrapped in a towel and then swathed in newspaper. Police tracked her down to the Athol Hotel and put her under arrest to which crime she confessed to. The child, she said, was born the previous morning. Flynn was taken to the hospital, as she was in a weak state of health.

47/ People’s Park Pond Deaths, Lisburn? 1899

A little boy named Rice aged eleven, fell into a pond in the People’s Park in Lisburn in County Antrim on Monday afternoon and was drowned. His sister aged nine went to his rescue and also lost her life.

48/ Belfast Harbour, June 1899

A respectably dressed man, whose identity has not been ascertained, walked in Belfast Harbour yesterday at Queen’s Quay, and before assistance could be rendered, he was drowned.

49/ Lough Erne Fatality, near Kesh (Fermanagh) June 1899

A youth named Allan was drowned in Lough Erne near Kesh in County Fermanagh one Sunday. In diving from a boat while bathing he got entangled in the mud and before his companions could extricate him, life was extinct.

50/ Carndonagh, County Donegal, (Siblings Burn to Death) May 1899

51/ Ballymena, June 1899

Augustus McCusker aged nineteen and Patrick McTrustry aged thirty-five, employees of Messrs James McAllister and Son in Ballymena, were drowned yesterday while bathing in the River Braid.

52/ Londonderry Fatality, May 1899 (Another dies waiting for Lady Balfour!)

53/ Dungannon Fatal Shooting, March 1885

54/ Tullyallon (Guessing its in Northern Ireland, says Dungannon) August 1889

55/ Poyntzpass Railway Station Death, August 1896

56/ Maghera Murder, County Down, May 1888

57/ County Down Murder,  August 1870.

A murder has been committed in County Down, the victim being John Gallagher, bailiff on Colonel Forbes Sleaforde estates. Gallagher was last seen on Friday evening going into a plantation. His body was found next morning with a wound on the head. It is believed he was murdered for the purpose of robbery, a sum of £16 having been taken from his person. No arrests have yet been made.

 

1/ Naseby Wife Murder, April 1883

2/ Finedon, Northamptonshire, January 1894

The bell-ringers of Finedon were ringing out the old year and just about to start the New Year peal, when the top campanologist there, a chap called Moon, keeled over and died. The rest of the service was cancelled.

3/ Kettering Suicide, July 1894

Frederick Parrott, a hawker, was found near a hedgerow in Cherry Hill-Wood, Kettering, with a self-inflicted wound on his throat. The clasp knife was near to the body, suggesting it was suicide.

4/ Towcester, Northamptonshire, April 1899

Several people in the town observed a child carrying, what looked like a doll in its arms, but on closer inspection revealed itself to be a dead baby. The child was taken home, and a horrific sight met them as police entered the kitchen. The mother of the two kids lay dead on the floor, and she was identified as the wife of George Johnson, of Shepherd’s Lane. A post-mortem exam revealed that Mrs Johnson had prematurely given birth to the child while alone. A neighbour, Mrs Boswell had heard the woman’s screams and groans and found the pair in the kitchen, so she ran to get help. Meanwhile, her other daughter had come in and had seen the baby on the floor, thought it was a doll and carried it off. The baby died of lack of nourishment and an early birth, the mother’s death was lack of medical help.

5/ Desborough Level-Crossing Death, May 1899

6/ Kettering, December 1858 (Bridegroom Suicide)

Francis Baxter, the son of a Kettering High Street glass dealer, was due to get married at the age of only 18, to his 16-year-old bride, Sarah Morris, a neighbour’s daughter. The wedding was arranged for Christmas Day, and another couple, who were to share the same apartments as them, would also be wed the same day, a double-wedding! Come the day Baxter never appeared so the vicar performed the ceremony for the other couple, and while he was doing so he sent the sexton to find out what was going on. The sexton came back with the horrific news that Baxter had committed suicide. The bride was waiting in her dress, with the carriage at the door, when she received the news. He had shot himself in the head with a pistol and left a prayer book on the bed pillow where he committed the act. A portrait of his wife to be was next to the bed as well. On Christmas Eve he had gone to his parents’ house, where an argument had got out of hand, the boys father unhappy with the choice of bride and also her youth. When he was found, the body was stiff, and post-mortem stated that he’d been dead quite a few hours. This was confirmed by neighbours who said they heard a gun-shot at five o’clock.

7/ Northampton Gaol, December 1872

John Howe, late Governor of Northampton Gaol, who was sentenced to a long term of penal servitude for complicity in an unlawful operation on the matron of that institution, has been released from Portland Prison in a dying condition.

8/ Stoke Bruerne Murder/Suicide, March 5th, 1885

9/ Stoke Bruerne Murder/Suicide, April 28th, 1885

10/ Molton, August 1845 (Human Remains)

The skeletons of three human beings were found in the village of Molton in Northamptonshire. Some labourers were excavating near the school-house when they discovered the remains of a man, and further digging produced the bones of two more, lying across each other. There is a strong suspicion of murder in this case, and the sexton of the parish was informed, and he collected the remains and gave them a decent burial in the churchyard. This displeased the minister as the vicar had not given permission, and the Church authorities are looking into the matter. (What happened?)

11/ Between Althorp Park Station and East Haddon, August 1892

12/ Northampton, October 1893

A young man by the name of John Merrick, who was in good spirits and had a good relationship with his wife, was discovered in bed with a stocking shoved down his throat. It had been rammed in with great force, and it was gripped with his teeth, and the suicide had happened while his wife went to the shop for breakfast food. Merrick himself is a strapping bloke so the chance of it being murder is extremely unlikely. He must have had a sudden moment of madness when he did the deed.

13/ Kettering Kidnapping, January 1899

14/ Northampton Railway Station, October 1860

Richard Williams, aka Richard Hayward Grove Williams, who gained notoriety as having got the job of a clergyman in Nassington, Northamptonshire under false pretences, committed suicide at Northampton Railway Station, after being captured and arrested by police the previous night. The Welsh-born twenty-something seemed to b******t his way through life and jobs as far afield as Norwich, London and Torquay in Devon. He was nearly always sacked from his employment, but he forged the papers to get the job as curate in Nassington. He took to the job and performed the rites at weddings etc, but in his spare time, he was selling and buying stolen goods from London. When he was found out he fled Nassington, then the authorities started to investigate the man’s shady past. An arrest warrant was issued and he was traced to an address in Catherine Street, Thornhill Square, Islington, and had a short-lived job as a teacher at a college in Woburn in Bedfordshire, but he was sacked last week. Finally, he was arrested at a house near Strand and was to be transported back to Northamptonshire, to await trial. As the train pulled up in Northampton, Henry Webb, the London detective transporting him back, and Williams, got off to change trains. This was the chance he sought, and Williams jumped in front of an incoming engine, killing himself immediately. The question arose of why he hadn’t been handcuffed to the prisoner, but it was so that it didn’t unnerve the fellow passengers on the trains.

15/ St James’s End, Northampton, August 1885

16/ Kettering, May 1852

Sarah Pierce, was an orphan from a good background, worked at the George Hotel as a barmaid. Sarah tried to kill herself by taking oxalic acid. The first job she had was at Mr Mansell’s in Malsor, and she left there due to her reputation being sullied by the sending of two letters to her employers. This preyed upon her mind, and it was this that caused her suicide attempt. The second letter to Mrs Harradine, her mistress, sent for the girl’s aunt, and they were going to confront her. On reading the letter to her, she exclaimed:”I am persecuted to death-I cannot live”. She was then left for a minute to calm down, and when she came back she told her aunt-“I cannot bear it-I have taken poison”. The girl now lies in a precarious condition with little chance of pulling through. There are ongoing investigations as to the sender of the dreadful letters.

17/ Northampton Murder, March 1899

18/   Long Buckley Manslaughter, April 1840

One night at the home of Reverend Gardner and his wife, in Long Buckley, Northamptonshire, a loud bang on the door woke them both. He went to see what the commotion was and could find nothing untoward but saw from his window a couple of men running away from the premises. When he got the bedroom, his wife was lying on the floor unconscious. He tried to revive her but she had died, literally from fright. The perpetrators were apprehended and they were three shoemakers (common in Northampton), who had been on a pub-crawl and threw something at the door. They will now be charged with manslaughter for their foolish antics and have been placed in the county gaol.

19/ Northampton Lunatic Asylum, October 1860 (Boiled to Death)

At Northampton Lunatic Asylum, a female patient killed herself by throwing herself into a copper of boiling water. At the inquest, the attendants were judged to have been totally blameless but were advised that the coppers should be fenced off.

20/  Northampton Children Suffocate in Fire,  November 1870  (St Giles Street)

21/ Infanticide at Northampton Workhouse,  March 1866

22/ Collyweston Wife Murder, October 1866  (on the border of Lincolnshire and Rutland)

23/ Fatal Railway Accident to a Baron,  August 1903.

24/ Railway Murder/Suicide at Kettering,  December 1903.

25/ Northamptonshire Child Murders, November 1903.

26/ Criminal Passes Himself Off as a Long-Lost Uncle,  January 1904.

27/ Boy Murders His Sister, Northampton.   February 19th, 1904.

Wednesday, February 24th, 1904.  (Sororicide in Northampton)

28/  Child Blown Out of Railway Carriage, Northampton.  September 1905.

29/ French Girl’s Body Found in Crick Tunnel, Kilsby.  January 1906

30/ Three Bodies in a Box, Preston Capes, near Daventry.  August 1907

31/ Infanticide at Flore, near Northampton.  August 1907

32/  Murder of a Wife, Northampton.  28th October 1880

29th October 1880

George Litchfield was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife and received five years penal servitude.

33/ Actor Dies on a Train, Blisworth Station.   November 1880

1/ Crostwick Witch,  July 1883

2/ Gurney’s Bank Suicide, Norwich, February 1893

William Wright, a Norfolk farmer, went with his nephew to Gurney’s Bank in Norwich. While the nephew was counting the bank slips, Wright cut his throat with a penknife. He was rushed to Norfolk and Norwich General but died after a few hours. There were about fifty customers, it was the peak time for transactions, so it beggars the question, why there and then?

3/ South Beach, Great Yarmouth,  September 1900 (Body on the Beach)

A bathing attendant found the body of a gorgeous young lady on the beach at Yarmouth. She had a boot-lace wrapped around her throat, in a sort of garotte. Information gleaned about her is that she had come here a week ago from London and she also had a child with her. She went by the name of Mrs Hood, told hotel staff she was a widow and twenty-seven years old. Letters found, suggest that she has friends in Woolwich. (Murder or Suicide?/Was she Mrs Hood?)

4/ Kings Lynn Suicide, November 1893

Short, sharp and sweet. (I put it in for the name) Frederick Smoothly a retired butcher, shot himself in King’s Lynn. He was well-known in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

5/ Yarmouth/North Sea, January 1877 (Six Fishermen Drowned)

6/ Great Yarmouth, April 1899

Another instance of a husband and wife dying on the same day is reported from Yarmouth, where the bodies of an aged couple named Revell and who now await burial. The husband died suddenly during the morning from influenza and the discovery of his body gave his wife such a shock, that she died the same afternoon.

7/ Kings Lynn Manslaughter, December 1885

At Kings Lynn on Thursday, Robert Cozens aged twenty-five years was committed for trial at Ipswich Assizes charged with the manslaughter of Mary Jane Chilvers, a woman with whom he lived, by striking her in the face with his fist.

8/ South Town Station Death, Yarmouth, August 1890

9/ Heacham near Hunstanton, April 1896 (Dog Owner Eaten by Spaniels)

An eccentric old woman who was said to belong to the higher echelons of society, but lived in a hut near the beach with only her four spaniels as company, was found dead in horrific circumstances. The woman firmly believed that her husband had drowned and his body would be washed up, hence the reason for her seclusion. The locals hadn’t seen her for a number of days and police went to investigate. They found she had died of starvation and her beloved to stay alive, had devoured her corpse. The face, arms and chest had all been eaten and even some puppies that were born were also eaten by the starving hounds. The animals were shot by police as they beared their teeth at the officers.

10/ Belton near Yarmouth, March 1872 (Railway Death)

11/ Kings Lynn, May 1908 (Mistaken Identity)

A railway porter by the name of John Stork was involved in a remarkable case of mistaken identity. Stork vanished off the face of the earth, so his sister offered a reward for anyone who knew his whereabouts. A body was then found in a river near Outwell and the sister positively identified the body as that of her missing brother. She paid the reward and then attended the funeral with other relatives. John had been missing well over three weeks and the body looked quite fresh, so there was a doubt as to her identification of him. Meanwhile, another body turns up, found in the Ouse at Wiggenhall St Marys and the papers in his pocket verified the fact that he was the real John Stork. Whoever the first body was, has remained a mystery.

12/ Diss Infanticide, March 1851

A woman named Maria Clarke who killed her illegitimate son who was only six weeks old at the time, by burying him alive in a meadow near Diss in Norfolk. Clarke was committed for trial on the charge of the wilful murder of her son.

13/ Wymondham Suicide, March 1872

14/ Norwich Murder/Suicide, April 1908

A terrible accident occurred at Welbourne, a small village near Norwich. Ellen Smalls aged thirty-eight and the mother of kids was shot dead by James Green, her cousin, who afterwards committed suicide. Green had been locked up for quite a while, courtesy of Her Majesty’s prison service and it was because he threatened the woman that he was inside. Revenge was the motive then, as he held up the rifle and aimed at her head then pulled the trigger and blew her brains out. Neighbours heard the shot and rushed to the area and spotted Green legging it, but as he leapt over a wall into another field, another shot rang out and Green had shot himself in the head.

15/ Poringland Suicide near Norwich, March 1866

Twenty-two year old Miss Fransham, who kept her brothers house, a Poringland farmer, committed suicide by tying a piece of string to the trigger and then to one of her feet: she then placed the barrel in her mouth and tugging the string with her foot, the barrel exploded and took half her face away. She had been depressed of late.

16/ Hundred Feet Bank, March 1872 (Discovery of Body)

17/ Great Yarmouth Drownings, March 1885

Three men, named King of Norwich, Cullen, a gamekeeper and Cutts of Shotesham, were drowned yesterday by the capsizing of a boat near Yarmouth. They were returning from a coursing meeting.

18/ Caister Golf Club, April 1903 (Dead Golfer Found)

Benjamin Bratley, a golf professional at Caister Golf Club, was found decapitated on the railway near to the golf links. Bratley was supposedly run over by a late train on Thursday night.

19/ Watton Murder, November 1881

20/ Stokesby Murder, December 1900

The cottage of a woman named Kelly, whose husband had been in South Africa and died there from a disease while on active duty, was broken into by a man on Christmas Eve. She must have disturbed the burglar, then in the scuffle, he had stabbed her twice in the abdomen. He ran off and she was left there to die, but she was found and just able to speak. A few moments later she sadly died, so now police were on a murder hunt. One vital clue she gave before passing away was to lead police to arrest a nineteen-year-old labourer in the village, called Cossey. Kelly had a fourteen-week old daughter and was only thirty years old

21/ Stiffkey Wasp Death, September 1909

A well-known farmer and butcher in the area, John Massingham Mallett, died suddenly at his home at Stiffkey near Wells-next-the-Sea. He was sat in an armchair and was stung by a wasp, then he lapsed into unconsciousness and died shortly afterwards. He was an agriculturist and won prizes at the Brewers Exhibition in London, for best barley.

22/ Wormegay Murder, January 31st, 1885

Wormegay Murder, February 5th, 1885

Wormegay Murder, February 17th, 1885

William Everitt, charged with murdering his mother at Wormegay, Norfolk on January 30th, has been pronounced insane and has been sent by the Home Secretary to Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum.

23/ Kings Lane at Lakenham, Norwich, February 1903

A young lad was on his way home to Kings Lane in Lakenham when he saw a girl lying on the ground with her throat cut. He ran to get the police but stumbled over a man at the end of the lane who had a fearful gash in his throat. They were taken to the hospital and the girl was pronounced dead on arrival. They were both identified later as boyfriend and girlfriend, Samuel Nelson aged twenty-three and an ex-soldier and she was Edith Fitt aged eighteen years.

24/ Swaffham, December 1904

25/ Stanfield Hall Murder, Norfolk, November 1848

James Blomfield Rush became the tenant of Stanfield Hall Farm in 1836 and when his wife died suddenly, he advertised for a governess. Step forward, Miss Emily Sandford. He took her back to the farmstead in Norfolk the had his way with her and promised to marry her. Now fast forward to 1848 and he was now in enormous debt and couldn’t afford the rent at Stanfield Hall Farm, so was evicted and slotted into another farm nearby, by the name of Potash Farm. Revenge was being hatched by Rush and he sort of blamed everyone else for his misfortunes and his main candidate for revenge was Isaac Jermy, who owned the Hall and had him turfed out of his farm.

Rush went out on the night of the 28th of November, 1848, and shot Jermy at the front of his residence. The butler ran to investigate as did his son, Isaac Jermy Jermy, and Rush again fired at him, killing him instantly. He also shot and wounded Jermy’s wife and a housemaid. Rush was identified as the murderer and arrested and hanged at Norwich Castle Hill in April 1849. The father was fifty-nine years old, and his son only twenty-seven, and were both buried at Wymondham churchyard.

26/ Norwich Murder/Suicide, January 1901

Samuel Dye was a thirty-seven-year-old labourer who was paralysed in both legs and confined to bed. Mrs Dye had to do some chores one morning and left Samuel in charge of the little one. When she went upstairs, she discovered them both dead with their throats slit. In Dye’s hand was the razor used to kill the child and himself.

27/ Swainsthorpe, Norfolk? 1883

28/ New Inn, Blakeney, May 1890 (Suicide Attempt)

Charles James, the landlord of the New Inn, Viney Hill, Blakeney, had a twenty-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who tried to kill herself one morning. They all had breakfast together, then she ran across the orchard like Usain Bolt and headed straight for an old well they had. The mother saw what she was going to do and ran after her. Elizabeth pulled the covering stone off the well and just as her mother reached her she grabbed her by the hair, but in the struggle that followed, she wrangled herself free and fell into the well. A man named Milson James was lowered down on a rope to rescue her and this he did. She was brought out unconscious, but alive, and the same she was sent to a lunatic asylum. (The New Inn is still there at Viney Hill )

29/ Great Yarmouth Beach, September 1885 (Boy Buried Alive)

30/ Great Yarmouth, February 1898 (Attempted Murder/Suicide)

A man named Steel threw a woman named Maud Bensley out of an upstairs bedroom window, then attempted suicide. The way in which he murdered her is bordering on the psychotic, because he first slit her throat, so deep that it nearly cut the spinal column and then bashed her head in with a wrench then threw the body out of the window onto the ground below, dressed only in her nightdress. Steel then hid on the staircase and slit his throat three times. When police gained entry, Steel was still alive and put up a tremendous fight but he was taken to hospital where he is recovering well.

31/ West Walton Murder, September 1885

32/ Gorleston Beach Suicide, April 1910

A man by the name of George Jarvis Atherton aged sixty years and who had been unemployed for the best part of three or four months, decided to end his life. He got some prussic acid, telling the chemist it was to poison a dog. A very British suicide would be the way to describe this!  He then went home,  had a lovely dinner, then went to Gorleston Beach and swallowed the prussic acid. It was deemed “Suicide” by the jury and he’d taken six times more than was necessary to kill a man.

33/ Great Yarmouth Bridge Disaster May 2nd, 1845

Cooke’s Circus was coming to Great Yarmouth and for a piece of self-promotion, they thought that Nelson the Clown going down the Bure, while being pulled along by four geese would be a crowd-pleaser. Problem was, that too many decided to get a good view-point from the suspension bridge and when the clown and his geese came along, they were clapping and cheering, then it collapsed, sending hundreds into the river. The final death toll was seventy-nine dead.

34/ Norwich Murder, August 1886

35/ Earlham Hall Fatality, Norwich, January 1901

The body of a fourteen-year-old boy, the son of Major Kerrison, was found in the surrounding parkland of Earlham Hall, Norwich. The lad shot himself in the head, as the revolver was still nearby, but although looking like suicide it was deemed an accident. He had gone for some shooting practice and then the tragic incident occurred.

36/ Saddlebow Fatalities, September 19th, 1885 (Not Saddleboat!)

Saddlebow, September 21st, 1885

37/ East Winch Railway Station Fatality, September 1885

A fatal accident occurred at East Winch Railway Station, about nine miles from Swaffham. A groom at East Winch Hall, named George Johnson, was travelling by the express to Norwich, which stops at East Winch only on Tuesdays and when the train was passing the station, where it had been slowed down to 15-20 m.p.h., he leapt out. He was struck by the carriages and so severely injured that he died.

38/ Wells-next-the-Sea, October 1885 (Romantic Story)

39/ Great Yarmouth, May 1863 (Nelson’s Pillar Death)

Charles Marsh, a professional acrobat and his friend, Henry Wharton, decided to climb the 150 foot high Nelson’s Pillar at Great Yarmouth. Marsh had reached the platform near the top and tried to get onto the helmet of the figure of Britannia, when he slipped and fell, hitting the stone floor below and killing himself instantly.

40/ Jolly Farmers Inn, Watton, October 1890 (Singular Accident)

Mrs Semmence, the wife of the landlord of the Jolly Farmers Inn at Watton, fell down the stairs, and then in a million to one chance, she landed on the comb in her hair and the teeth stuck in her head. When a doctor was summoned and the comb fragments removed, the wounds were that deep, that Mrs Semmence’s nerves were shot to pieces and she passed away within a day of the accident.

41/ Norwich Hospital Murders, December 1875

A patient at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, Robert Edwards, went on a mad rampage in the children’s ward next to his, with a pair of fire-tongs and killed four young patients. A verdict of wilful murder was returned, but he was found to be insane and removed to Broadmoor Prison. (Is Hospital still there?)

42/ Caister Lifeboat Disaster, Norfolk, July 1885

43/ Norwich Suicide, April 1859 (Uncle/Niece Relationship)

This one is a bit disturbing, by the simple fact that a young lass by the name of Harriet Hostler killed herself because of a broken down relationship. Nothing weird there, you may think! The love letters explain that she was seeing her uncle, Nicholas Kaven. One of the letters reads:

“You are first in my thoughts in the morning and the last at night. My dearest girl, you must not keep me long waiting; I think you are very long. You shall not be long before you hear from me again and if you will favour me with one of your kind letters, you will oblige your affectionate lover.

Another section went as follows: “I hope you will meet me at the station, at six o’clock on Monday night. I shall be sure to come then. The greatest pleasure I have now is to hope to see your sweet face, my dearest. So no more for the present, from your affectionate lover, Nicholas Kaven.”

Harriet took some laudanum to end her days and that was down to Kaven promising to marry her, then him backing out. The verdict was”Deceased committed suicide by taking laudanum, which was taken in an unsound state of mind, produced by the villainous conduct of her uncle, Nicolas Kaven.”  (Weird!!)

44/ Mattishall Burgh, August 1848 (Child Tied to Cow)

Two ladies were riding down a lane in Mattishall Burgh when they spotted a cow running towards them and a child tied to its tail. They went to the nearest house and got help to stop the beast. Unfortunately, the child was already dead. His body was bruised and lacerated all over. A witness said that the deceased, a ten-year-old lad named Thomas Ireson, had tied the tail around his body, but then the cow had sped off, carrying him with it. Verdict of “Accidental Death.”

45/ Norwich Gaol, December 1885 (Execution goes wrong)

46/ Belton Suicide, Yarmouth, October 1889

A woman named Burrage left her home in Belton near Yarmouth on Saturday with her newly born child, and then threw herself in front of a train on the Great Eastern Railway and was cut to pieces. The child escaped.

47/ Norfolk Coast, January 1885 (Barque Capsizes)

48/ Kings Lynn Football Fatality, November 1896

49/ Yarmouth Boating Deaths,  August 1870

This afternoon Mr George Bussey, of South Market Road, Great Yarmouth, with his wife and child, and Mr Peter Jensen, a commercial traveller from London, who had also with him his wife and child, proceded for a sail in a pleasure boat. About two miles from Yarmouth their boat came in collision with a wherry and was capsized. The two gentlemen were carried off by the current and drowned. The ladies and children were saved by another boat.

50/ Norfolk Child Murders? ( Kings Lynn/Hainford)   December 1870

51/ Fakenham Railway Suicide,   December 1870

An inquest was held at Fakenham, on the body of William Brown, a youth who committed suicide on the Great Eastern Railway. Deceased was in the service of the Rev.M. Atkinson, rector of Fakenham, and Mr Atkinson had reproved him for improper behaviour at church and inattention to his duties. These rebukes seem to have weighed upon his mind, and on Monday afternoon he threw himself before a train and was cut to pieces. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased destroyed himself while in a state of temporary insanity.

52/  Yarmouth Manslaughter,  December 1870  (At the Bush Tavern, South Quay)

53/ Corpse Lay in Bed for 50 days, Norwich.   February 1867

54/ Yarmouth Boating Fatality,  February 1866 (Three Drowned)

55/ Explosion at Walsingham Church, November 1866

56/  Kings Lynn Manslaughter/Murder?  February 1867.  (Attacked at Queen Street, Kings Lynn)

57/ Gorleston Lifeboat Disaster,  January 17th, 1866.

January 23rd, 1866.

Yesterday a meeting was held at the Corn Exchange, Great Yarmouth, for the purpose of considering the best means of affording relief to the nine widows and twenty-four children left destitute by the late lifeboat disaster at Gorleston. £70 had been collected at the local banks, and £11 had been collected at Hopton Church. Sir E.Lacon M.P., sent a donation of £25. About £300 was subscribed before the meeting broke up.

58/  Norwich Explosion Kills Seven Men,  October 1866

59/ Norwich Murder/Suicide,  March 25th, 1867

March 26th, 1867.

The old man John Winter, who is supposed to have murdered his wife at Norwich, on Friday, subsequently inflicting frightful wounds upon himself, died on Sunday from the injuries he sustained. He died in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was from the first greatly enfeebled from the loss of blood and was able to speak very little. He was then attended by three clergymen, and one of them asked if he was sorry for what he had done. The old man answered in the affirmative. An inquest will be held on his body, and the adjourned inquest on the body of the murdered woman will also be resumed on Tuesday. The death of Winter, however, obviously deprives the proceedings of any further interest.

60/ “New Skylark” Boating Tragedy, Great Yarmouth.  October 3rd, 1903.  (The steamer “Birma sliced the New Skylark in two, causing six deaths. The Skylark lost three crew, James Sutton, Arthur Beckett and George Shreeve, plus three passengers, with seven trippers rescued)

October 6th, 1903.  (The Judgment of the Court of Inquiry)

61/ Tried Twice For Murder of Husband, Norwich.  June 23rd 1906

July 24th, 1906 (Rosa Kowen Goes Mad)

Mrs Rosa Kowen, of Norwich, who was twice tried for the murder of her husband, the jury disagreeing on both occasions, has been committed to an asylum. Since her release from Norwich Gaol she had been acting strangely and in consequence of an accident which occurred last week, some friends in London with whom she had been staying, decided to have her placed under restraint. Mrs Kowen has since been moved to London County Council asylum.

62/  Fatal Fight On Board a Steamer, Great Yarmouth Harbour.  December 1907

63/  Suicide in Norwich Cathedral.  November 1880

64/  Wells Lifeboat Tragedy, Well-next-the-Sea.  November 1880 (Out of the crew of thirteen, eleven were lost at sea)

65/  Was it Murder or Suicide, Walsoken (Cambridgeshire border)   November 1880

1/  Cleethorpes UFO, September 1956

I live about a hundred yards from the Prom at Cleethorpes, and hence the reason why this one has always fascinated me since I was a kid. Problem is I’ve been through the local papers and there is no mention of the incident. It was September 22nd, 1956, and hundred’s of people saw a “glass sphere” hovering over the Humber. The RAF station at Manby near Louth observed the object, and it was estimated at 80 feet in diameter and hovering at 54.000 feet. It stayed there for over an hour when the RAF scrambled a couple of jet fighters to check it out, it then disappeared as soon as they closed in. Does anyone know what it was?  I’m not usually into UFO’s and such like, but because it was unexplained and next to my house, I’d like to know a bit more.

2/ Cleethorpes Pier Fire, June 1903

There was a gas explosion in the concert-hall at the end of the pier.

3/ Grimsby/Little Coates, August 1910

A lad from Little Coates, Thomas Edward Walton, nineteen years of age, went with his brother to the Alexandra Dock in Grimsby, for a swim. He got a cramp while in the Dock and was drawn by the current underneath a large raft made of wood which made his rescue extremely difficult, but his brother bravely dived in and tried to find him numerous times, but without success.

4/ Irby/Hatcliffe, May 1917

A young man by the name of Dunham Adlard from Hatcliffe was cycling through Irby next to a traction engine when his front wheel dropped into a pot-hole and he fell in front of the engine and was crushed to death.

5/ Brigsley Suicide, October 1907

Jennie Gladwin had gone to the greenhouse to pick some tomatoes and had been gone some time. When they found her she was hanging from a wooden beam in the greenhouse at Brigsley. (Where in Brigsley?)

6/ Habrough Station/Railway Hotel, July 1865 (Train Fatality)

7/ Cleethorpes Station Fatality, July 1900

An eleven-year-old girl named Lizzie Williams from Thrybergh St, Denaby Main, was on a Sunday School outing to Cleethorpes and was about to get on the train to go home when she was shoved in the back and crushed between the train and platform. She was badly mangled and was taken to Grimsby Hospital, but died of her terrible injuries the next morning.

8/ Admiralty Wireless Station Death, Humberston, May/June 1909

This was at the time, one of the most sophisticated wireless stations in the whole of Great Britain, and the ever-increasing fear of spies wanting to glean information or even sabotage meant security was tight. Two men attacked a member of staff then made a swift escape in May 1909, and then the death of an electrician purely by accident the month after, really made the staff very jittery. The electrician was Michael Cooney from County Wexford in Ireland and he was electrocuted and died on the spot. When the coroner wanted to inspect the transmitting room, where the accident occurred they were refused entry by the Admiralty. They were sending messages to the North Sea ships on manoeuvres and it was top secret stuff. The transmitting room was fully charged, and all windows and doors had to stay shut but the switchboard operator said that certain appliances were not working and Cooney grabbed the door and went in. They shouted at him to stop but he received a shock and was badly charred on one side of his body. It’s thought he touched a live cable by accident. He died before proper medical attention arrived.

9/ Cleethorpes Golf Club Suicide? June 1908

The body of Mrs Jane Wearing aged fifty-eight of 25 Rowston Street, the wife of a retired farmer and baker John Wearing, was found face down in the Humberston Drain about twenty yards from the footbridge, half-way along the golf links. She was found there by a golf caddie named Percy Shaw at around five p.m. on Saturday. Is this the one near the Premier Inn or was the golf course still positioned across the road near where Pleasure Island was? The husband said she had been a bit depressed of late, and had an operation a few weeks ago at Hull and had asked him to write to his daughter in Scunthorpe and ask if he could go and stay with her for a few days. On Saturday morning he went to Grimsby and asked his wife what she would be doing and she replied that she was going for a walk. He returned after an hour and a half and found she had gone out. The neighbour saw her at two o’clock, and she told her she was off for a walk. The lad who found the body was looking for a golf ball when he saw her face down in the Drain near the footbridge. It is believed that she drowned in less than two feet of water, with the question everybody was asking “Was it an accident or was it suicide?”. There were no signs of assault and the wind was blowing hard that day, so it could have been an accident. The position in which she was found, floating lengthways, suggested that she just walked in and drowned herself, but it’s difficult to ascertain for sure. The verdict “Found Drowned”.

10/ Healing Suicide, June 1928

11/ Great Coates, May 1872 (Death Due to Lightning Strike)

A man from Laceby named Webster, was at work in a field in Great Coates with a harrow and four horses, when a storm passed over and he was struck by a lightning bolt. The horses all fell down and Webster received serious burns, and most of his clothes were burned off his body. One of the horses was killed as well.

12/ Cleethorpes/Tetney, March 1898 (Brig Ashore)

A brig has gone ashore near Tetney (Lock?) and the crew have all perished. The lifeboat at Grimsby was out for nine hours and couldn’t get near the Swedish vessel. The Pier had hundreds of family and relatives of the Grimsby fishing fleet wanting news of the vessels out in this storm. The seafront at Cleethorpes was badly damaged by flooding in dozens of houses along the front.

13/ Cleethorpes, August 1899

Mr J.H.Tasker from Grimsby drowned while taking a dip at Cleethorpes. A man from Leicester who accompanied him tried to save Mr Tasker, but he nearly drowned himself and was dragged from the water in an unconscious state, but he was given mouth to mouth resuscitation and he came to.

14/ Laceby, September 1860 (Fatal Accident)

15/ Cleethorpes, June 1908 (Corpse Found on Beach)

A coachman was driving along the sands near the golf course at Cleethorpes at low tide and spotted a man’s body half-buried in the sand near the water’s edge. He told police and they removed the body. The corpse was so badly decomposed that any chance of identifying him is near impossible. Post-mortem results suggest that he had been in the water for at least a year, maybe more. He was wearing a pair of dungarees and some boots, which gives the impression that he was a fisherman who had been swept overboard while at sea.

16/ Admiralty Wireless Station, New Waltham, August 1914 (Spying)

Herbert Jankiewitz was arrested for being on the private property of the King, for the purpose of obtaining information, or spying as it’s better known. He was loitering around the Wireless Station at Peaks Lane in New Waltham and was warned by magistrates in Grimsby not to hang around Government installations at this present time. They search his lodgings and found no evidence of an incriminating nature there. Jankiewitz had been working for a local company for a year or so.

17/ Waltham, September 1914 (Spying?)

A Wesleyan preacher from Manchester who was holidaying in the Waltham area, took some photographs of the Wireless Station at Peaks Lane when he was arrested by police. He was charged at Grimsby then discharged when he claimed he was taking photo’s of the threshing machines in operation next to the Station.

18/ Barnoldby-le-Beck, (Riding Fatality) April 1845

William Smith had an obelisk erected in 1862 in his honour of his terrible riding accident in 1845. He was on a hunt and was huntsman to the Earl of Yarborough, a major landowner in the area. He was thrown from his horse when the beast jumped a ditch further than anticipated and he fell off and sustained serious spinal injuries. He was dragged into a house nearby and given medical assistance and lingered for several days, before finally succumbing to his injuries. The large obelisk marks the spot where he fell and is still there, opposite the churchyard at the top of Chapel Lane.

19/ Stallingborough Murder/Suicide, February 1871

20/ Waltham, December 1829

Thomas Dean Smith of Waltham, aged twenty-five years, was killed by a gun accidentally going off, which blew out his brains.

21/ Immingham, June 1907

70-year-old Mrs Batchelor the wife of a farmer from Immingham committed suicide by hanging herself.

22/ Immingham Docks, July 1914

At Immingham Dock on Monday, a labourer named Joyce was painting a ship, when he accidentally came into contact with a live wire and was electrocuted. Death was instantaneous.

23/ Cleethorpes Suicide, October 1904

An inquest was held upon the cause of death of James George Johnson who was a seaman, who committed suicide. He was landed from his ship due to illness and was taken home, where it was discovered that he had typhoid fever. His condition got progressively worse, and when asked why he didn’t take time off to get well he replied that he had a wife and kids to support and couldn’t afford to take time off. His condition was really bad by now and while his wife was out of the room, he got a pen-knife and stabbed himself in the throat.

24/ Ashby-cum-Fenby, July 1866 (I’m sorry Ashby residents but I’ve never seen an entire cricket team bowled out for less than double figures. Reverend Johnson bowled by Parsons?)

25/ Cleethorpes, January 1908 (Body Found)

John Nuttall a cockle gatherer, found the body of a man, half-buried in the sand on the beach near Cleethorpes. There was nothing on the corpse to identify him but a letter in his pocket was addressed to “J.Slight, s.s.Adelaide, Red Cross Fleet”. It is believed that a fleet of that name sails from Hull.

26/ Aylesby, October 1878 (Kleptomaniac/Drunken Vicar)

There is the story about smugglers such as Thomas Lumley, who in 1826 was fined a staggering £1500 for his illicit operations. He used to put his booty in a barn at Stallingborough near Immingham then move them to the church at Aylesby. This story though is about the vicar of Aylesby, the Reverend W.Rowson, who had a sudden urge to pinch someone’s coat at a Peterborough restaurant in 1878. But early in 1877, he was up in court in Gainsborough on a charge of being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer as well. He was trying to see his children who were in the care of a Miss Travis, but seeing he was drunk, she wouldn’t let him in, but he grabbed the youngest boy in his arms, then proceeded to enter numerous houses, and then the Peacock Inn. He then came back later on and entered the house of Miss Travis where he fell over drunk and swore at the servants. Miss Travis got a servant to go and fetch a policeman, which he did, and when he was arrested, Mr Rowson took a swing at him, punching him in the face. He was fined 40 shillings for being drunk and got 3 months in prison for attacking the police-officer. Was he the vicar of Aylesby while all this went on or had he left the clergy?

27/ Cleethorpes, July 1905

The body of a teenage boy who was drowned at Cleethorpes while taking a dip in the sea, was found later on, then was identified as that of 15-year-old John Walker from Bulwell in Nottinghamshire.

28/ Healing Railway Crossing, October 1864

29/ Little Coates/Grimsby Town Hall, March 1893

During the counting of votes at the Town Hall at Grimsby, Mr C.F.Davy from Little Coates, agriculturist and vice-chairman of the Grimsby Board of Guardians, was seized with a fit of apoplexy (unconsciousness during a stroke). He was taken to an ante-room but died later on that evening. (Did he die at the Town Hall?)

30/ Cleethorpes Murder/Suicide, April 1908

A smartly dressed woman got off a tram in Cleethorpes with a couple of kids in tow and proceeded to walk down to the promenade. She took the baby in her arms and plunged into the water. The bodies were recovered, and whilst this was going on they heard the other child, who was about three years old, and crying whilst hanging on to the Prom railings. They rescued him and managed to bring him around with mouth to mouth resuscitation. (I will try to find a name).

31/ Great Coates, July 1871 (Botched Abortion)

An inquest on the body of Betsy Moore aged twenty-one, domestic servant, was held at Great Coates. Her death occurred one morning when she took a noxious drug taken to cause a miscarriage. The evidence of a fellow servant proved that deceased was four months pregnant and that she had managed to purchase an ounce of a powder called colocynth, the whole of which she swallowed. The Coroner said that in attempting to destroy her child she had killed herself, and as it was the secondary result of a first illegal and felonious act, it was wilful murder. The verdict was felo de se, and the body was buried within 24 hours.

32/ Humberstone, (Mother Nurses Dead Child) April 1861

33/ Cleethorpes Railway Station Death, August 1865

Mr Simons, a shoemaker from Hull, was attempting to get into a train carriage at Cleethorpes Station, at 7-30 p.m., while it was still moving away. Inevitably he missed the carriage and fell under the wheels and was badly mangled. He was badly lacerated between his legs and his spine and ribs were broken. The station master tried to stop him from climbing on the train but he ignored them, and as a result, he leaves a widow and a child. The inquest at the Refreshment Rooms ended with the jury returning a verdict of “Accidental Death”.

34/ Cleethorpes, July 1909

Charles Robinson aged fifty-six, who was a wealthy recluse, committed suicide by hanging himself. A verdict of “Suicide during temporary insanity” was returned.

35/ Combe Street, Cleethorpes, July 1910

Just across the road from Blundell Park lies Combe Street. It was here that Edward Jackson aged sixty, a Freeman Street greengrocer, was discovered hanging from a hook attached to an outbuilding door. A pair of steps tipped over, were next to him, suggesting that he used these to help hang himself. He had a slight tiff with his wife that morning, with his wife saying that he needn’t come back anymore. He had been ill for quite a while and when he was drunk he became morbid and threatened to kill himself on several occasions. He left a note, addressed simply to “The Coroner”:-

“I have had a rough time, I have had gangrene on my foot and lost a toe. Mrs Jackson disposed of the business against my wishes, and her and my oldest daughter have tried all they know to dispose of me, as I am at present suffering from a cold on my chest and from the effects of water being sprinkled in my bed at nights, making it damp, so that I shall get a cold. They have a great wish to get rid of me altogether and that I should not come with them at all. Since I have been with them they have taunted me that I dare not take my life. At last, I took 2 ounces of laudanum a few weeks since, but I was sick and got shut of a lot of it.”   It goes on to say:-  “Mrs Jackson’s ex- husband’s brother had orders to clear me out with threats of killing me if I ‘m not out by Wednesday next. So I am clearing out. I am harassed to death, with one and another of them. Mrs Jackson says I dare not do it- Ed Jackson”.

A neighbour, Benjamin Savory, living at 60 Combe Street, saw him at 10-30 one night and mentioned it was cold and that he should go in. He went out just over an hour later and he was still there so he asked him to come into his house, but he refused. When found hanging in the outhouse, he was cut down. The post-mortem revealed he had been dead for six hours.

36/ Wold Newton/East Ravendale Murder, May 22nd, 1869

June 5th, 1869 (Wold Newton Murder)

George Taylor, at the magisterial investigation, deposed that the prisoner Charles Traves wearing a pilot cloth coat, and to Robert Traves wearing a velveteen coat. Both coats were found on Monday last by this witness. They were hidden under a hedge among the nettles. Police are still searching for the guns.

July 17th, 1869

On the 8th July, the guns were found by some labourers who were weeding a wheat field. They were found near “Twelve Acre Screed”, in amongst some thickly growing ivy by a Mrs Drew. It is about a mile from the murder scene and three miles from where the coats were found. The prisoners, Charles and Robert Traves will be tried at the Lincoln Assizes on the 24th of July for the murder of Enoch Goldey.

July 31st, 1869

The verdict of the jury was “Guilty of Manslaughter- and was sentenced to seven years penal servitude”.

Enoch Goldey was buried at St Nicholas churchyard in Cuxwold with the gravestone reading thus:-

“In Memory of Enoch Goldey, who having volunteered to assist the keeper was cruelly murdered by poachers on the morning of 16th May,1869, aged 24 years.Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is. Erected by Henry Thorold of Cuxwold Hall to his respected servant”

37/ Waltham, May 1880 (Dead Body in Ditch)

38/ Cleethorpes, January 1829 (Eight Drowned)

There were three vessels lying off the coast of Spurn Point when the captains of the three decided to go and spend some time with Mrs Richardson and her family at Spurn Lighthouse. Captain Sales, Samuel Healas, and George Briggs left their respective ships late Sunday morning, and in one boat along with three other men and a boy, all belonging to the “Phoebe”, one of the boats moored, plus another man from another of the boats. They went to Spurn Lighthouse and spent some time with Mrs Richardson and family, then when leaving were heard discussing going cockling at Cleethorpes. Nothing more was seen or heard from them until their bodies began to wash up on the beach at Cleethorpes. It is believed that all eight of the men have been drowned, along with a bag of cockles which was found near to where the bodies were washed up.

39/ Cleethorpes, March 1909 (Abandoned Child)

A young who was supposedly abandoned in the middle of nowhere by his mother firstly, then by a carter who drove him out into the country and left him. An officer from Market Rasen brought the lad into Cleethorpes when he was found wandering the countryside in a daze and suffering from hunger. He told him his name was Thomas Meake, and his father who was a contractor in Clerkenwell, London died six years ago and since then he and his mother had been roaming the country. About six weeks ago they both arrived in Cleethorpes and rented a house where she kept him locked in the attic never letting him out until last week. He was driven out to the Wolds in a milk-cart and then dropped off at a farm, then was picked up by another cart and driven way out into the countryside and dropped off by the carter who told him he be back soon but never arrived.

40/ Habrough, April 1910 (Body on Tracks)

A man’s body was discovered in a mutilated condition on the Great Central Railway at Habrough near to Immingham Docks. He was identified as Arthur Hales, a labourer from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, and he had been to the Brocklesby Races and presumably got lost and was then hit by a train.

41/ Hatcliffe/Brocklesby (Fatal Accident) February 27th, 1869

Hatcliffe ( Death Due to Hunt) March 6th, 1869

Apparently, the hounds of Lord Yarborough didn’t rush past the waggon of the deceased, thereby causing his death. They were approximately half a mile from where the accident occurred, at the time and the huntsmen had no idea that anyone had died until a long time after Robert Wilson had expired. The horses had been scared by the hunt followers. The vicar of the parish had told the Earl of Yarborough about the accident and his Lordship sent £5 to the widow as a token of his esteem.

42/ Waltham, September 1914 (Motor Accidents)

Grimsby skipper John Emery was killed at Waltham when the motor-car which he was driving overturned. His wife and two friends were passengers, and they were all injured, his wife being in a critical condition. Mr Emery had swerved to avoid another vehicle when it tipped over and crashed onto the roadside.

Private Brown of the West Riding Regiment was killed when he fell from a motor-bus in Waltham on Saturday night.

43/ Cleethorpes Drowning, July 1915

Soldiers bathing from a boat at Cleethorpes one Sunday afternoon, noticed that Private John Thomas Ferguson was struggling out in the water. They managed to rescue him but mouth to mouth resuscitation failed and he died on the beach.

44/ Irby Dale Bogle, March 1885

At the village of Irby near Laceby, there were tales of an apparition being spotted in some woods near the village. A young man in the late 19th Century recalls that the village would be disturbed by hideous noises emanating from the woods with the sounds akin to the sound of a woman screaming. The story was that the ghost of a young woman who was brutally murdered by her sweetheart and now haunted the woods and dale near the village and now known as the Irby Dale Bogle.

45/ Humberston (Fatal Accident)  March 1866

46/ Cleethorpes Zeppelin Raid, April 1st, 1916

Without a doubt this was the worst disaster in Cleethorpes and district’s history, when on April 1st, 1916, the Zeppelin L22 dropped bombs on several areas around the town and surrounding villages, with one bomb scoring a direct hit on the Baptist Chapel on Alexandra Road in Cleethorpes, killing thirty-one N.C.O’s of the Manchester Regiment who had just been billeted there. Another of his bombs hit Sea View Street and another landed at the rear of the Town Hall (where the Council Offices are). There is a memoriam in Cleethorpes Cemetery to all thirty-one who died that night.

47/ Stallingborough, July 1875 (Concealed Birth)

Mary Ann Hardy aged 22, servant, was appearing in court for unlawfully endeavouring to conceal the birth of her female child at Stallingborough on the 7th April. She was the cook in the service of Mr Sutcliffe and her fellow servants suspecting she was giving birth to a child called in a midwife, to whom the prisoner acknowledged she had had a child and that it was born dead. The judge said there was no evidence of an attempt at concealment and directed the jury to acquit the prisoner.

48/ Cleethorpes, February 1910

A Swedish woman named Svendsen was summoned for having failed to take proper precautions, to prevent her 6-year-old child being burned to death. They had moved into the house the day before and had no fireguard. The child’s clothing caught fire when she stood near the fire and with the mother trying to extinguish the flames with her bare hands. The child ultimately died of its’ injuries, and the mother’s hands were badly charred.

49/ Goat Hill/Humberston, September 1867 (Does anyone know where Goat Hill is? I found North Goat which is near the Fitties area. Presume its somewhere near Pleasure Island used to be.

50/ Cleethorpes, June 1909 (Two Girls Drown)

A nine-year-old boy named Jack Thomas attempted to save the lives of two 6-year-old girls, Gladys Yates and his own sister, Elizabeth Thomas, who had fallen off a plank of wood which spanned a brick pond in Cleethorpes. Another lad started yelling out and Jack came running up and dived in after Gladys and grabbed hold of her and tried to get her to the bank, but he couldn’t quite keep hold of her, and she drowned. Then he saw his sister’s hat floating on the surface and dived down to look for her, but she too had sunk to the bottom of the pond. He tried again to dive under, but he was exhausted and was in danger of drowning when a man named Toole jumped in and pulled him out.

51/ Healing Manor Ghost-Date unknown

Unfortunately when someone told me about Healing Manor the first thing I now remember about it was the fact that it was used as a place to grow large amounts of cannabis. But if that wasn’t the only strange smell of smoke in this building, then apparently the ghost of “Viscount Portman” was seen and spotted walking the halls and rooms of Healing Manor, and was followed by a smell of pipe tobacco. Then there’s the picture of Miss Lincolnshire outside the building with what appears to be a ghostly figure looking out of a window just behind her.

52/ Waltham Suicide, November 1909

A middle-aged woman named Martha Turner aged48 resided with her mother, brother and sister, at Ivy Cottage in Waltham and decided that suicide would be her best solution. She had been depressed of late and had just had a bout of influenza, but she went to bed one evening in a good mood. The following morning her sister went to the kitchen to make breakfast and she found a note of the kitchen table, which simply said – “You will find my body in the pond at Mr Toplass’s field”. Her brother and a neighbour rushed to the pond and found her there, having drowned herself.

53/ Habrough,(Burned to Death) February 1900

54/ Stallinborough, May 1915 (Stray Bullet Kills Man)

While some soldiers were busy having some target practice at Stallingborough Butts, a young man named Pearce was struck by a stray bullet, killing him. The victim was 25-year old William Henry Pearce from Grimsby, who was on a small vessel in the Humber when he was hit by the bullet. Staff at Grimsby Hospital tried to save him but he died that evening.

55/ Laceby, November 1976 (Car Crash)

Over the years the Laceby bypass has seen lots of accidents and fatalities over the years. This one was 21 year old Stephen White who worked in Scunthorpe but lived in Grimsby, and his Ford Capri smashing into a stationary lorry. The lorry had just pulled out of Laceby village and was waiting in the central reservation to turn right towards Laceby roundabout. He was killed in the collision, but coincidentally his brother in Middlesbrough had a motorcycle accident just four minutes before his accident.

56/ Immingham, May 1914 (Newly-wed Commits Suicide)

26-year-old Walter Stamp, a shunter on the railway, killed himself after being married for only four days. The inquest was held at Immingham with his wife having to be helped into the room, so frail was her condition. Her husband told her that he had managed to save up £60 and the wedding had cost £10, leaving £50 spare. They were moving the furniture into the house when he told to go and get the £50 from upstairs, as the removal had to be paid. She went up to look for it but there was no sign of any cash, and when she told him he shrieked “I’ve been robbed”. A few moments later she went up to see if he had found it but he was laid on the bed with his throat slit from ear to ear. He left her a scribbled note saying:- “Dear Wife. Just a farewell….”. Police think that he had meant to write more than this but heard his wife coming and then cut his throat.

57/ Waltham, February 1886 (Gun Accident)

58/ Great Coates Suicide, March 1876

Henry Kirton Walsh, a farmer from Great Coates aged twenty-three, had a large farm in the village had been despondent of late due to him not accessing entry to a house on his property, which needed repairing. (I wouldn’t kill myself for it though!). He bought some prussic acid from a chemist in the Old Market Place in Grimsby saying he was going to poison a dog. That evening he took the poison and went to his bedroom at his groom’s house at Great Coates, where he was staying. He was discovered in a semi-conscious state by his groom later on when he heard the thud of the body hitting the floor. The post-mortem revealed that he had taken enough prussic acid to kill four men and it was judged as a suicide whilst temporarily insane.

59/ Waltham Suicide, April 1859

On Tuesday last this quiet little village was the scene of great excitement, by a report which proved too true, namely, that Jane Allenby the wife of a labourer, had committed suicide; she was found suspended in the chamber quite dead ; she had been some time very much depressed in spirits and left an infant seven weeks old. An inquest was on Thursday- Verdict “Temporary Insanity”.

60/ Daubney Street, Cleethorpes, June 1904 (Murder/Suicide?)

This is a weird story about 24-year-old Charles Henry Smith, who lodged at 27, Daubney Street in Cleethorpes, with a middle-aged woman named Mrs Prior. Now Mrs Prior had her daughter-in-law, Alice, living with her while her son was at sea on a trawler. Here’s where you think “I bet they were carrying on with each other”, but you would be wrong. Charles married Eliza Brown and the Priors had just bought a grocers shop in Freeman Street and moved there, so they let the house to the Smiths. Eliza Smith and Alice got on like a house on fire and constantly saw each other and it was on one of these visits, that the tragedy occurred. Charles was minding his own business while the two women enjoyed a cup of tea and a gossip. At around 9-15 p.m., Eliza popped to the chippy for everyone and when she returned ten minutes later, she found Charles on the floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his left eye. Alice was still alive, though only just, and had a bullet in her temple, but at 3 a.m. at the local hospital, she expired.   The question that has always remained has been,”Was he seeing Alice behind Eliza’s back? or Was she blackmailing him?  A witness supposedly heard the two of them talking the day before, and Smith angrily growled: “If you do tell, I’ll do it”.

61/ Cleethorpes, August 1878

While coming up the Humber on Saturday, Richard Penny, master of the smack “Major Seddon”, saw a shrimp boat suddenly capsize in a squall, immediately outside the Cleeness Buoy. Mr Penny at once sailed to the place of the casualty but could see no signs of life or property. The boat was cutter rigged and all under sail.

62/ Cambridge Terrace, Cleethorpes, July 1877 (Suicide)

63/ Cleethorpes, June 1884 (Died Washing Windows)

A very serious accident happened to Mrs J.Mumby of Sea-bank Road, Cleethorpes at about 11 a.m. on Friday last week. She was engaged cleaning the outside of a window on the third storey when she made an unfortunate slip and fell to the ground, a distance of nearly thirty feet. A broken thigh, a smashed foot, and other injuries were the immediate consequence. It appears that Mrs Mumby had only just prior to the accident stopped the servant girl from cleaning the window because of danger attending the work, and had undertaken the task herself. The unfortunate woman expired on Wednesday.

64/ Healing/Great Coates, March 1861 (Body on Rails)

At about 7-30 p.m. on Monday, a waggoner named Edward Smith discovered the body of a man upon the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, between the villages of Great Coates and Healing. The body was that of William Gainsborough aged thirty-six, the son of a farmer at Great Coates. He had evidently been struck on the back of the head by a passing engine and thus killed. The deceased was conveyed to his father’s house with an inquest was held at Great Coates on Wednesday. The deceased had been ailing and in a low frame of mind for the last six weeks.

65/ No.124, Grafton Street, Cleethorpes, June 1886

66/ Cleethorpes Railway Station Death, October 1887

Not unusual for Victorian times that train stations had several deaths and injuries in each one, as Health and Safety was not yet invented. The larger ones, such as Kings Cross, Paddington, Euston etc, also had a large number of suicides and bizarrely common, was the posting of dead infants, which used to end up decaying in “Lost Property” offices around the country. The station at Cleethorpes had a few accidents, and these are the ones I found.

An inquest was held at Cleethorpes on Wednesday upon the body of a man called Newmarsh, a lamp-cleaner in the employ of Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company. The evidence showed that deceased was employed on Monday night removing lamps on the top of the carriages of a train, which was in Cleethorpes Station. The train was moving at the time and Newmarsh lost his footing and fell between the carriages. He was frightfully crushed between the buffers and he died almost immediately.

67/ Cleethorpes Railway Station Fatality, March 1870

An inquest was held on the body of John Greenhaigh of Manchester, aged twenty-four. He was employed as a painter by Messrs Peter and William Mitchell of Manchester, who were contracted to paint the stations of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railways, were painting the woodwork on the roof of Cleethorpes Railway Station. The shortened version of the story was that he fell thirteen feet when a ladder was taken away and landed head first causing serious head injuries. He was rushed to Grimsby Hospital where they tried to stem the blood from the vessel that burst in his head. The inquest said that the ladder he fell from was not moved maliciously but done thoughtlessly and indignantly. The man who took the ladder, William Mitchell, was blamed for the accident by the jury. The end verdict was one of “Accidental Death”.

68/ Cleethorpes Railway Station, February 1877 (Fatal Accident)

69/ Weelsby, March 1861 (Body Found)

On Thursday morning, the 14th, the body of a man was discovered lying on the rails of the Great Northern Railway near the tunnel in the parish of Weelsby, about a mile from Grimsby Station. From papers found upon the body after its removal to the mortuary, it was discovered that deceased had served in the army in the Cape Mounted Force, an order of discharge being found in his pocket. The unfortunate man, whose name was Henry J.Ashton, had been seen in Grimsby the previous evening, and it is supposed that he had proceeded to walk along the line and was overtaken by the 8-20 mail to London. When discovered his head was found to be severely cut by the wheel of the engine and also one of his legs.

70/ Dolphin Hotel Death, Cleethorpes, September 1869

An inquest was held at the Dolphin Hotel, Cleethorpes (See above, right-hand side) on the body of Mr Joseph Willan, coal merchant, from Dartmouth Street, Birmingham. He was about 62 years old and came to Cleethorpes on Saturday evening. He arrived at the Dolphin Hotel had a hearty supper and a glass of wine, and went to bed at 7-30 p.m. At nine a.m. on Sunday the chambermaid knocked on the door and asked him about breakfast to which he replied that he would order it when he got up. Again at 1 p.m., she knocked on his bedroom door, but receiving no reply she opened it and found him dead in bed. Apparently, he had heart and liver disease and that a large vessel in the liver had given way and sent the blood into the cavities of the body. Death would therefore be the effect of haemorrhage.

71/ Little Coates, December 1884 (Body in a Well)

An inquest was held at the home of Edward Wardle an engine driver, on the premises of the Grimsby Waterworks Co, on the body of George Smith aged twenty-five, a labourer in the employ of Mr Davy, farmer, at little Coates. Deceased had been working in a turnip field with labourers but had failed to turn up for work on Thursday afternoon, inquiries were made as to his whereabouts and it was ascertained that he hadn’t been seen since 7 o’clock that morning. Mr Wardle was told the bare facts and then remembered seeing a hat in a diseased well on the Company’s premises. The hat was shown to friends of George Smith and they said that it belonged to him. The well, which was twenty feet deep was dragged, and Smith was found at the bottom. It was stated that he used to suffer from staggering fits and that in all probability he had a fit while passing the well on his way to work then plunged in and drowned.

72/ Wollaston Road Murder, Cleethorpes, March 1919

A murder was committed at Wollaston Road, the victim being a 52-year-old woman by the name of Sarah Robinson, who along with a friend Mrs Evans was also attacked. The murderer was a 50-year-old Joseph Woodhall, an ex-soldier from Wigan who had viciously beat them both over the head with an Indian club. Mrs Robinson had set up a soldier’s home (Brighton Street) and Mr Woodhall was her lodger and the two had become very close and he was employed by her to help run things. Woodhall and Mrs Robinson went to see Mrs Evans at Wollaston Road one evening and all three were in the kitchen enjoying a bite to eat when he attacked the both of them with the club. He legged it and left the body of Mrs Robinson drenched in blood and Mrs Evans was left unconscious. They were taken to the hospital and Mrs Robinson died there a few hours later. The police were now on a murder hunt, but in a surprising twist, the murderer, who was bare-footed and wrapped in a blanket, handed himself into the Station-master at Waltham. Sarah Ann Robinson was buried at Cleethorpes Cemetery and the whole sad affair was believed to have been about some money. (Been to the grave- small headstone near a tree, with no mention of her brutal demise)

73/ Cleethorpes Boating Disaster, August 1867

74/ Cleethorpes Boating Disaster, August 31st, 1867

Five bodies out of the nine have been recovered and three inquests have been held. The first at Patrington Haven on the body of Priscilla Thickett aged fifty-three, from Sheffield, whose body was washed up there a day or two previously and was recorded as “Accidental Death”. Four bodies were recovered on Monday; Thomas Platt of Ashton-under-Lyne and the others were the Mr and Mrs Rawlinson of Ryecroft near Ashton-under-Lyne and another female named Louisa Saxon. An inquest was held at Cleethorpes on the bodies of Louisa Saxon and Mr and Mrs Rawlinson and verdicts of “Found Drowned” was returned. The inquest at Maddison’s Hotel, Grimsby, heard evidence that the boat hadn’t been built to carry more than six people. The verdict of Thomas Platt was “Accidentally Drowned-but the jury express the opinion that death was caused by mismanagement of George Irving and this can be little short of the crime of manslaughter and he has had a narrow escape from being committed to the Assizes on a charge of manslaughter. The boat was ordered to be destroyed.

75/ Scartho, May 1861 (Two Deaths)

It is our painful duty to report two deaths in the family of Reverend Williams of Scartho, who lost two sons within a week. One, a fine youth of fifteen years of age, went home from school on Wednesday apparently in good health- indeed he had been playing cricket that afternoon-and on Friday he was a corpse. The other had been ailing some time, died after the day of interment of his brother. The cause of death was a violent fever accompanied by diphtheria. The health of another child is in a very precarious state but hopes are entertained of its recovery.

76/ Suggitts Lane Crossing Death, Cleethorpes, September 1894

A young lady in her twenties named Miss Rheta Betsy Suggitt, who was the daughter of Mr W.S.N.Suggitt of Suggitt’s Lane, a fish merchant by trade, was found on the railway line near her home.She was a teacher at Silver Street School and used to go down to the Pier and Promenade for an hour or two in the evenings. Her father went to smoke his pipe and look out for his daughter (at the level crossing) on her way back along the railway line when he saw a black object on the tracks. He realised it was a body of a woman, and got his neighbour named Robinson to give him a hand in moving her. When the father brushed the hair from the face he saw it was his own daughter. after Robinson had told him”It’s your poor Rheta”. The station-master at Cleethorpes Station, Harry Hewitt, said they wished each other Goodnight when he saw her walking along the platform. Then later, the 9-32 arrived from Hull and he said there was something the matter at Suggitts Lane and thought somebody had been knocked down. When the engine was checked to see if any impact was visible they found human hair on the hand-brake screw. Miss Suggitt’s clothing was torn, but not cut, and there was a fracture of the skull just above the left eye. There were bruises and abrasions all over the body and cuts on both legs, suggesting she had been knocked down by the engine. The jury verdict was the deceased was killed whilst passing over the level crossing near Suggitt’s Lane.

77/ Scartho, September 1869 (Concealment of Birth)

Eight months later in May 1870, Eliza Auckland was back in the newspaper again with this tale of a strange relationship. Try to keep up with me: it took me a while to figure it out.

The women Auckland and Riggall, who were committed on Monday last at Grimsby for extensive shop robberies, besides being sisters, occupy an odd position of relationship. Eliza Auckland’s husband first married HER mother, who was a widow with a family, both prisoners being her daughters. On the death of his wife, the man Auckland married one of her daughters. Thus his wife is his step-daughter and she is stepmother to her sister, who is sister-in-law to her stepfather and aunt to her sister-in-law.    What a bloody rough family that was, in its day!

78/ Near Grimsby, (I’m Guessing a village nearby. Anyone know where?) October 1914

Some Territorials near Grimsby found a man lying in the roadway, then further along the road was a woman bent over a railway gate, and they both had their throats cut from ear to ear. The woman was rushed to the hospital and was still conscious enough to tell police that she was from Woodseals in Sheffield and she was married. She also told them that the man who was present nearby was also from the same place and they had made a suicide pact.

79/ No.72 Montague Street, Cleethorpes, (Burned to Death) February 1895

Burning fatalities amongst children have latterly been most frequent in Grimsby and the neighbourhood. Another case has just occurred, the last victim being John Chapman Budd aged four, the son of John George Budd of No.72 Montague Street, New Clee.

80/ Chapman’s Brickyard, Cleethorpes, March 1881

81/ Laceby, April 1845 (Poisoning)

Jane Bell, from Laceby near Grimsby, was committed to prison on a charge of poisoning her husband with arsenic. (Did she kill him//If so what happened to her?)

82/ Laceby, July 1899 (Traction Engine Fatality)

One Saturday afternoon, a couple of lads were riding on the shaft of a waggon which was being pulled by a traction engine, when one of the lads in jumping off, named Marshall, from Laceby, fell off and the waggon ran over him, crushing his chest and head and killing the boy instantly.

83/ Laceby Poisoning, December 1904

A cottager’s wife by the name of Mrs Rennell, gave her two poorly daughters, a teaspoonful of what she thought was cough medicine, as they went to bed. The next morning, the full horror of what was seemingly a dreadful accident hit home, when she discovered one of her girls was dead, with the other barely clinging to life. Further inspection of the bottle of medicine that she gave them the previous night, revealed it to be… laudanum!

1/ Mitcham, April 1845 (Parish Clerk Suicide)

51-year-old W.J.Clark,parish clerk of Mitcham, hung himself by a rope attached to a beam in an outhouse belonging to his father. Clark had a 22-year-old wife, and he left her and the child they had in bed when he left for work at eight a.m. He didn’t turn up for breakfast, so she got worried, went into his office and found a letter addressed to her. It stated that it was impossible for him to exist any more, and (as is common in most Victorian suicide letters), that he would be dead by the time she read this. The cause of the act is supposed to be down to the fact that he had been fiddling the book’s, in respect of the office of Actuary to the Mitcham Savings Bank, a position which he held.

2/ Wimbledon, February 1910  “You Betrayed Me” suicide note

Gilbert Augustus Rainger was a 70-year-old artist and was down in the dumps due to his wife leaving him.He had been in a lunatic asylum, also bell’s should have rung, and he told a neighbour he would away with himself.He took some cyanide and left three letters…..Weird letters!

“you allowed yourselves to be hoodwinked, and betrayed me, your own father, and put me away, a perfectly sane man, and ruined me, and then, one by one sneaked out of supporting me.If the police had paid you to assist them, you could not have done it better. For 13 years they have shadowed me, and influenced my customer’s, and taken my work from me and brought me to the depths of despair and made me destroy myself.Not one of you raised a finger to guard me against them. I leave you to providence and your own consciences”.

A son said that they had helped all they could, and his pension was due next week.Verdict-Suicide during temporary insanity.

3/ Wimbledon, May 1899  (Chopped too much off with scissor’s, still make out the main story)

4/ Stratford Broadway, Newham, January 1910

A corpse was being transported in a hearse from a hospital to Plashet Cemetery, and bearers were riding on the hearse.The horse suddenly rose up and reared when a car passed by and two men were thrown with some force to the ground. Both men had serious injuries, but one of them, named Defries, died from his injuries later on that day. The other, named Stahl, is in a precarious condition.

5/ Teenage Burglars at Plaistow, Newham, September 1885

  6/ Canning Town Wife Murder, July 7th, 1885

7/ Canning Town Wife Murder,  July 14th, 1885

8/ Raynes Park, Merton, May 1904

Miss Annie Boolt aged forty-five, was classed as a lunatic and was under the care of Dr Bradley, in an institution at Greville Park, Raynes Park, Merton. She escaped and ran to the train line which runs close to the institution and there she was run over by a passing engine and was decapitated. The jury returned the verdict of “Accidental Death”, but suggested that this would never have happened if she had been properly supervised.

9/ Plaistow, Newham, March 1899

10/ Wimbledon (Child Remains) October 1893

Workmen at a sewage farm discovered the decaying remains of a child in one of the receiving tanks. It was taken out, and rather oddly, the staff there decided to cover it in lime and chuck in the furnace, before contacting the appropriate authorities.

11/ Wimbledon (Decomposed Corpse Found) July 1869

A boy was roaming about in a wheat-field near Wimbledon (this was when Wimbledon had fields!), when he stumbled across the corpse of a man lying at the base of a tree, with his throat slit from ear to ear. It was decomposed, and the medical official estimated that he’d been dead about 2 months. He was in his forties and had sat down taken off his tie and coat and calmly cut his own throat with the razor that found next to him.

12/ West Ham, April 1895

Alice Kops was charged at West Ham Police Court with procuring her 13-year-old daughter and Albert Jacobs was charged with committing a criminal offence on the girl. The daughter told how her mother had made her walk the streets to earn money. She had the good sense to run away to her uncle’s house and sought refuge there. Selling your own daughter for sexual favours!

13/ Canning Town? (Children Vanish) October 17th, 1885

14/ Canning Town? October 19th, 1885

15/ Plaistow Murderer, October 1900

William Burnett was hanged at Chelmsford for the murder of his wife at Plaistow in August. Burnett had been living off the immoral earnings from his wife and he suddenly exploded into a rage when she told him to get a job. An argument ensued and he ended up stabbing her all over her body.

16/ Plaistow Fire Fatalities, November 1899

The home of George Kramin was engulfed in flames when the fire was finally extinguished, firemen and police found two children burned to death. They found a third later on and a fourth was discovered with life-threatening injuries. The parents had been out for the evening and left the kids to look after themselves.

17/ Three Mills Distillery, West Ham, July 1901

Four lives were lost at the Three Mills Distillery in West Ham, one of which was the Managing Director of the distillery, Mr Godfrey M.Nicholson. It all happened when a well on the premises was being checked to ascertain how deep it was. It’s near to River Lea which runs through the distillery and hadn’t been checked for ages, so along with Mr Nicholson, some men went down there. A man named Pickett went down the ladder to measure the depth and he shouted up that it was eleven feet deep,  then he suddenly dropped to the bottom. Mr Godfrey Nicholson went to help Pickett, but he too was overcome. Mr Elliott, the foreman went to rescue them and he fell in, then finally, a chap named Underhill went down and became the last victim. It is thought that they had been overcome by foul air and gases down there. They didn’t send any more down after the first four died! Very sensible.

18/  East Ham/Little Ilford Child Murder,  March 7th, 1899

19/  East Ham/Little Ilford Child Murder, March 22nd, 1899

20/ Wimbledon, October 1897

21/  Fatal Fire at Plaistow,  January 1902  (Three Children Burn to Death)

22/ Manslaughter at a Pub in Plaistow,  March 1904.

23/ Electrocuted to Death, Pudding Mill Lane, Stratford.  March 1904.

24/  Fatal Fire at Channelsea Road, Stratford.  May 1906 (Six killed, three of them children)

25/  Shooting Accident, Barking and West Ham Marshes.   November 1880

26/  Tragic Death at Stratford New Market Station.   November 1880

An inquiry was held yesterday by Mr Collier at the East London Hospital as to the death of Joseph Stroud, forty-seven, late inspector of the Stratford New Market Station. On Tuesday last he was coupling some trucks at the Stratford New Market Station, on the Great Eastern Railway,  when one of the chains which he had hold of for support broke, and he fell onto the metals. Before he could regain his feet the wheels of one of the trucks passed over him, causing injuries which resulted in his death. A verdict of “Accidental death” was returned.

27/  Fatal Accident on Plaistow Marshes.  October 1880

 

1/ Southport, (Boy Hanging in Playground) October 1900

A body of an 11-year-old boy was found hanging to one of the parallel bars in a school playground. A female teacher was summoned, but it seems to have been an accident. The boy’s name was Fernihough and the playground is situated in Preston Road, Hesketh Park in Southport.

2/ Liverpool, April 1889 (Smithdown Road Cemetery Suicide)

61-year-old Anthony Purcell, a sea captain, was playing whist at his home, Holyrood House, Salisbury Road in Wavertree and he had seemed in good spirits that night. The next morning he told his wife he wasn’t feeling too good (he had a heart problem) but he got dressed and left the house. He made his way down to the cemetery at Smithdown Road and there he shot himself in the temple while sat on a bench. Purcell was about to go to sea again but he had a considerable property portfolio and wads of cash, so what was the cause for him kill himself? It is thought his ongoing heart condition was a constant worry. He left a widow and four grown-up children.

3/ Liverpool, July 1880 (Anfield Cemetery Suicide)

Joseph Julius Gilmore, a Liverpool shipmaster, left his lodgings and set off for Anfield Cemetery. He was going to visit his wife’s grave who died three years ago. Later on, a cemetery worker saw him in Section Four of the C of E section and he was sat on her grave. He told Gilmore that was against the rules, whereupon he took out a revolver, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger. He died instantly on her grave with his brains blown out.

4/ Liverpool Church Suicide, March 1907

Isabella Tyson, a nurse, went into the Church of St Luke in Great Crosby where she regularly worshipped and sat down on a pew and downed some poison. She was found by the verger a while later, she was unconscious but still had a pulse. She died later on in the hospital. Police came to the conclusion that she was suffering from depression. The verdict was “Suicide while insane”.

​

5/ New Brighton Pier Suicide, November 1874

One afternoon, a black glove was found on a pillar at the end of the pier at New Brighton. Inside was a note that read; “I committed suicide this morning at four o’clock. Mary Johnson, Manchester”. Was it a sick hoax or genuine? Well, it just so happened that on June 16th, 1873, the body of a Manchester man called W.J. Johnson, was found drowned near the pier.

6/ New Brighton, (Beach Suicide) August 1845

A man named Edwards, who was a partner of a Liverpool iron merchant, was found on the dunes at New Brighton. He was on the Cheshire side of the Mersey. A couple of pistols lay nearby, one of them had been fired, so it was suicide. The reason for him shooting himself was down to stocks and shares problems; he sold stock he didn’t have.

7/ Dale Street Skeleton, Liverpool, September 1862

While some workmen were digging up a section of vacant ground on the south side of Dale Street, they struck something hard. Further investigation revealed a skeleton. The bones were on the site of Peter Street where there used to be a row of pubs and brothels, which were hang-outs of the criminal fraternity. It is believed that the skeleton was once a murder victim of one of these thugs.

8/ Lime Street Station, Liverpool, (Baby in a Box) February 1889

 

An amazing discovery was made in the parcel office at Lime Street Station. One of the clerk heard a noise coming from one of the boxes, opened it up and was greeted with the sight of a baby boy. He was in a box addressed to a “Mrs Cranworth, Liverpool. To be left at parcel office till called for.” The child was taken to the workhouse to be fed and changed after the doctor had examined him, and it was his opinion that to keep him quiet he had been drugged. He was originally from the Midlands area.

9/ Liverpool, (Baby on a Tram) May 1888

Another abandoned child story, this time the infant was discovered on a tramcar in Liverpool.The tram had just done its route and transported lots of passengers from the Pierhead to Wavertree and was back at the depot waiting to be cleaned. One of the cleaners was inside the tram when he found a brown paper parcel under a seat. There must have been an odour, because when they opened it, and lo and behold there was a baby girl wrapped in cotton cloth. (Was she alive?)

10/ Liverpool Docks Murder, May 1891

I found the above postcard in my collection, and all it said on the back was “Liverpool Dockers” so I’ve used it for this horrible story from the Docks. A gateman saw a bag floating in the water, which was rather large in size, so he hooked it in and opened it out of curiosity. Inside was a teenage boy with his throat slit and both legs had been amputated at the knee. Clearly, somebody had murdered the boy and tried to chop him up and then dump the remains in Sandon Dock. Police thought that he could have been dumped in the river and that it floated to the Dock. The description of the boy was; four feet three inches tall, brown hair, grey eyes, brown corduroy jacket, black trousers. He had sixpence in his pocket and two brass buttons. (You see how little life means in Victorian Britain?)

11/ Liverpool Triple Murder, August 1890. (The name is Leah Charlton aged 28)

12/ Liverpool Tragedy, June 1891

13/ Liverpool, (Music Hall Death) May 1900

John Walker aged sixteen was killed by a fatal fall at a Liverpool music-hall. He was jumping from tier to tier to try and get a seat at the front, but he fell headlong into the pit and was killed instantaneously. The fall was one of twenty-five feet and the coroner returned a verdict of “Accidental Death”. (Which Music-Hall?)

14/ Toxteth Park, (Concealment of Birth) August 1895

Eliza Thompson aged twenty-six was arrested in County Tyrone, on a charge of concealment of birth. Thompson ran a pub in Toxteth Park where the remains of a four-month-old child were found under the attic floorboards. The tenant who took over the building complained about the stench, she told him it was damp, when in fact it was the decomposing body of an infant.

15/ Toxteth Cemetery Suicide, September 1902

An unknown man committed suicide in Toxteth Cemetery in Liverpool by gulping down a dose of carbolic acid. (Who was this fella?)

16/ Woodchurch Wife Murder, near Birkenhead November 1885

17/ Maghull, (Fireman’s Death) March 1899

18/ St Paul’s Churchyard, Liverpool, (Body-Snatching) June 1894

During conversion work into an ornamental garden, at St Paul’s Churchyard in Liverpool, an empty coffin was found. It was meant to contain the corpse of a former rector of the parish, Reverend Henry Barton, who died around eighty years ago. It is surmised that body-snatchers of the time are responsible for the empty coffin.

19/ George Hotel, Liverpool, (Bride and Widow on Same Day) May 1859

20/ Edge Hill Railway Death, September 1885

21/ Hoylake, (Skeleton Found) August 1868

At the end of August, a skeleton was discovered among the sand dunes of Hoylake. The bones were entire but had no flesh at all or of any clothing. Some nails were found near the body, the sort used on boots. P.C.Garside took possession of the skeleton and police are currently investigating.

22/ Lime Street Station Suicide, February 1875

On the 4th of February, the sound of gunfire echoed around Lime Street Station, Liverpool. An officer, on duty near the place the gunfire was heard, found a gentleman with a gunshot wound in his mouth. His hand had the revolver in it. He was on a train that was due to leave for St Helens at 11-20 and his death was immediate. He was in his early thirties, smartly dressed, with no rail ticket or money found on him, but he had several letters and cards on him, addressed to various places. There was also telegram addressed from the North Western Hotel to a place in Leeds. (Who was the guy?) Could have been German as well.

23/ Bebbington Station (Wirral), (Mutilated Corpse) October 1885

On the Great Western Railway near Bebbington Station yesterday morning, a platelayer on the way to work, found the body of a well-dressed, middle-aged man lying on the line near Trafalgar Bridge, who was terribly mutilated. The head and one leg were severed from the body.

24/ Liverpool, March 1854 (Sad Suicide Note)

This one relates to the suicide of 36-year-old Martha Gaudy, and the reason, as so often the case with Victorian women, was one of disappointment in love. At seven a.m. Sunday, her sister heard the sound of a gun, went to see what was going on and found Martha lying on the floor with a bullet wound to the head. On the table was the following note:

“My Dear Father- Forgive me for the rash act I am about to commit. I cannot live in misery. Adam (the lover) will not come when he promised us. He never performs it. Whenever I see him, he treats me with the greatest cruelty, and I have not had a happy hour for the last two or three years. Never Mind. Grieve not after me. I shall be happier in heaven than being in this world. All that I have to name is not to allow Ned (her brother) to follow me to the grave. The Almighty will reward him for his conduct to me. Adieu forever. Martha Gaudy”.

25/ Atlantic Ocean/Liverpool, (Murder at Sea) October 1884

26/ Liscard Suicide, Wirral, December 1857

Mary Woods, a 66-year-old spinster, went missing from the bedroom of her house at Liscard. Some of the locals had reported seeing a white figure, somewhat ghostly in appearance, walking towards the ferry. In the morning her body was found floating in the river, wearing only a nightie. (Suicide or Somnambulism?)

27/ Peasley Cross, St Helens, (Horrific Train Fatality) June 1909

Lois Smart from Lunts Heath, Farnworth, was catching a train at seven o’clock on Saturday night at Peasley Cross when she was knocked down by an engine and sliced in two. Her brother, John Thomas Smart aged twenty-eight, who was there to see her off, was also struck and had both his legs cut off.

28/ Edge Hill Station, (Train Murder?) August 1899

As the train arrived at Edge Hill Station from Runcorn, a third class carriage was being checked by the ticket collector. In it lay the body of George William Cornwall of West Derby Road in Liverpool. His throat was cut from ear to ear and the head nearly severed from the neck, but there was no sign of a razor or other weapon in the carriage. Robbery can’t have been the motive, as his watch and money were still on him.

29/ River Alt/Formby, (Soldier Drowned) August 1889

30/ St Helens, May 1885

At St Helen’s yesterday, a widower named Pearson was committed for trial charged with having attempted to poison his three young daughters by administering to each a small quantity of oxalic acid. The prisoner appears to have been impelled by abject poverty to desire the death of his children.

31/ Liverpool Stabbing, April 1889

A fireman named McEwan and a seaman named McTighe quarrelled in a street at Liverpool late on Sunday night. No notice was taken of them, but some time afterwards McTighe was found on the ground dead, with a terrible stab penetrating from the shoulder blade into the lung. Police are investigating the affair.

32/ St Helens, (Steeplejack Falls 200 Feet) August 1892

33/ St Domingo Pit, (Two Girls Found) Liverpool April 1880

J.Evans from Vienna Street found the bodies of two full-grown female children in St Domingo Pit. On each girl’s body was a cord fastened around the neck, to induce strangulation. They were both badly decomposed and wrapped in calico and a piece of blue dress material. Police are investigating a double infanticide.

34/ Tranmere, (Victorian Ofsted Cause Suicide) January 1879

The body of Miss Jane Kerr, a schoolmistress at St Mary’s Church of England School, Birkenhead, was found on a beach at Tranmere. Unusually she let the kids go off half an hour early and then left at half-past four. Apparently, she was very nervous about the Government Inspector of Schools doing his visit and this had caused the suicide. When she was found, her body was frozen solid.

35/ Great Howard St, Liverpool, ((Body in the Post) June 1874

The body of a newly-born male child was found in a box at Great Howard Street goods depot. It had been posted from Granton in Scotland and was addressed to an M.Kay in Liverpool, but they could not be found, so it was sent to the goods depot. It was opened due to the horrid stench coming from the box, then the contents were found to be a dead infant. It is thought that the child was born alive but died a couple of hours afterwards.

36/ Pocket Nook Junction, St Helens, (Wall Kills Man) February 1885

37/ Parr Drowning, near St Helens, January 1885

A sad accident occurred at Parr village near St Helen on Wednesday afternoon. James and John Simms aged eight and twelve years respectively, went on the ice of a deep pit to slide. James fell on his back and the ice broke. John lay down at the edge of the hole and clutched his brother. The ice again gave way and both were struggling together. An alarm was raised and John was rescued, but James was drowned.

38/ Oakfield Road, Liverpool, (Headless Child) December 1900

A servant girl was sent to remove a piece of sacking which had been placed in front of a clergyman’s house in Oakfield Road. The sack in the garden was found to contain human remains. Liverpool police examined them and they are of a child, with the head had been cut from the body. (Ever found the culprit?)

39/ Clock Pub Suicide, London Road, Liverpool, January 1879

Thirty-five-year-old John Livesey, who lived at 46, Creswick Street, committed suicide in the Clock public house (Mr.Modsley’s) on London Road in Liverpool. He entered the building and asked for a ginger beer, then he sat down and chatted to the barmaid about how he was meeting a friend there. Soon after, Mr Modsley went into the parlour and saw the chap with his head resting on a table. On raising his head, he seemed to be lifeless, and the doctor confirmed this later on. On his person were found a bottle of cyanide of potassium and a letter addressed to the editors of the Liverpool and Manchester newspapers, which said that he had been unemployed some time and was penniless. It also stated that he wished to say goodbye to his relatives, saying he was “Becoming desperate”.

40/ Birkenhead Suicide, June 1885

41/ Earlestown Drowning, July 1885

At Earlestown on Saturday afternoon, several lads were playing on the bank of the canal belonging to the London and North-Western Railway Co., near the Ship Inn, Newton Common, when one of them, named William Armstrong aged eight years, slipped into the water and was drowned.

42/ Richmond Row Murder, Liverpool, (Solved Four Years Later) August 1866

Around four years ago (1862), a murder was committed in Richmond Row in Liverpool, the victim being a Mrs Reed. The husband, a tin-plate worker was the main suspect but he had vanished from the area. Police in the United States arrested Reed a few weeks ago and it came to light that he murdered his wife four years ago. He had a successful little business, but he and the missus argued over the slightest things and he’d often threatened to “do” for his wife. His story was that he had come home one night and found his wife at a neighbour’s house. She came back after fifteen minutes or so, but the next time anyone saw her she had a fatal stab wound to her body. A Detective from Liverpool police went to New York to bring Redd back to justice.

43/ Sefton Park Suicide, March 1893

A man was found hanging to a beam of one of the bridges at Sefton Park in the city of Liverpool. He was bedraggled and frightfully skinny, so his answer was suicide. Crowds of people flocked to the park eager to catch a glimpse of the place where he committed suicide. He is unknown at the present time.

44/ Dinham Villa, Rainhill Murders, (Frederick Deeming) March 1892

murders.

This one is infamous because it was thought that Frederick Bailey Deeming was a main suspect in the Jack the Ripper killings. He committed the Rainhill murders in July 1891 and was hanged in Australia, for another murder in May 1892.

45/ Liverpool, (Decomposing Child in a Box) February 1893

In December of 1892, a box was sent to Liverpool on the steamer Princess Alice, addressed to a Mrs Black. The usual scenario occurred when an awful smell came from the box, so it was opened. Inside was the body of a decomposed child, wrapped in a Glasgow Herald newspaper.

46/ Liverpool, September 1919 (Murder in a Dream)

Harry Theman of the U.S.steamer, Victorious, shot a young dock labourer named Samuel Emmett, opposite the gates of the Canada Dock. Emmett was at a news-stand when Theman came up and said ” You’re a crook. I have known you for some time”, then he took out a gun and shot the fellow. He was arrested and told police “It’s all right; I shot him”, then later stated, “I had a dream last night in which I saw my dead mother, grandmother and aunt. They told me that if I went into the streets and saw a desperate burglar, I was to shoot him. Then I would go to Heaven.”

47/ New Brighton Drownings, August 1885

48/ Bootle, (Parents Suicide) September 1855

In July 1855, a Mr Holdsworth accidentally drowned whilst swimming at New Brighton and he left behind a widow and five daughters, the eldest was fifteen and the youngest was three years old. Obviously, Mrs Holdsworth was in a state of shock and had been ever since, so as a precaution she went to live with her brother at 7, Lower Mersey View in Bootle. In the paper, it was described that she had an attack of paralysis, (could it be a stroke?), and she became house-bound almost. Mentally and physically she got weaker and weaker. One morning she was left alone for a few minutes giving her the chance to grab a razor and slit her throat. Now the children are orphans and have no provision made for them.

49/ Adelphi Hotel Suicide, Liverpool, November 1851

In mid-November, an American man named Barnes committed suicide at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. The man was here on business, primarily to buy Sheffield steel. He was at the hotel when he became ill and a medical attendant was placed there to keep an eye on him. He somehow got hold a razor, then cut his throat. He was buried in the Liverpool necropolis and his stuff sent back to America. (What room?/ Is it still there?)

50/ Liverpool Exchange Newsroom Suicide, February 1856

A young man named W.Tatham, cut his throat at the Liverpool Exchange newsrooms and died later on at the hospital as a result of his self-inflicted injuries. He was, apparently, under some pressure both financially and business-wise.

51/ St Helens Junction Suicide, August 1885

52/ Albert Pierhead Suicide, August 1893

A smartly dressed man in his mid-thirties shot himself in the head with a revolver at Albert Pierhead, Liverpool. There was no identity on him but he has the look of a foreigner and there was a silver watch, some money, a gold chain and a key on his person. He had a sallow complexion and had a moustache.

53/ Childwall Suicide, May 1852

The parish church clerk of Childwall hung himself in the hearse-house, which adjoins the churchyard, with the rope that is used for lowering the coffins into the ground.

54/ Ashton Street, Liverpool, (Child Remains Found) May 1881

The decomposed body of a child was found in an entry off Ashton Street, Pembroke Place. It was wrapped in a piece of calico and was described as more of a “ball of soot than human remains”. The child’s arms and legs were doubled up, as it was obviously forced into the chimney and it was covered in soot. It had started to smell and then the murderer had taken the body from the chimney and thrown it near to where it was discovered.

55/ River Mersey Drownings, June 22nd, 1885

River Mersey, June 24th, 1885

An inquest was held on the bodies of Mr John C. Green and Mr William Clayton, who lost their lives on Saturday evening through the capsizing of their boat, the Bessie, during a race on the river. The evidence of Mr.William Taylor, the only survivor of the crew of the boat, was to the effect that the boat was struck by a sudden squall and went down before the sheets could be loosed. The verdict, unsurprisingly, was “Accidentally Drowned.”

56/ Southport Fire, November 1885

About eight o’clock yesterday morning, two men passing along Seabank Road in Southport, discovered that a house was on fire. They knocked and got no answer and then entered by a window in the front bedroom. The bed was on fire and on it was a woman fully dressed. They got the woman out of the room but found that she was dead. The deceased was Sarah Elizabeth Heywood aged about fifty. It is supposed that a light by which she was reading had set fire to the bed.

57/ Newton-le-Willows Boiler Explosion Deaths, October 1885

At six o’clock last evening, the inhabitants of Newton-le-Willows were greatly alarmed by a massive explosion at the papermaking works owned by Messrs.Gillespie and Co. Upon examination it was found that a large boiler which worked in the yard had burst with terrific force. Two of the workmen were killed instantly and other men were less seriously injured.

58/ Bootle Murder, September 21st, 1885

Bootle Murder, September 23rd, 1885

For mortally stabbing Edwin Pearson at Bootle on Saturday night, Joseph Flynn aged eighteen, was yesterday committed for trial for wilful murder. The prisoner, in reply to the usual question, declared that he was mad with drink and did not know what he was doing.

Bootle Murder, November 27th, 1885

Two prisoners condemned to death at the Liverpool Assizes- Joseph Flynn, for stabbing a man at Bootle in a street affray and William Boyd for stabbing a man named Kellett at Blackburn, in a public-house affray-have had their sentences respited by the Home Secretary.

59/ Ashton’s Green Colliery, St Helens, (330 Feet Fall) December 1885

At noon yesterday, John Sutch, labourer, forty-three-years of age, who was employed in the sinking of some new coalpits at Ashton’s Green Colliery, fell out of the hoppet down a shaft, 330 feet deep and was instantly killed. The body was shockingly mutilated.

60/ Mersey Mills, (Two Lovers Drowned) December 1885

61/ Temperance Hotel Suicide, Manchester St., Liverpool September 1885

Lucy Ardron was employed at the Temperance Hotel and she killed herself by drinking carbolic acid. It’s quite a sad story actually because she met a young bloke from Edinburgh three weeks previously and they struck it off immediately. He left for Manchester about a week since and she began to fret when she only got one letter from him. Lucy told a member of staff at the hotel that she wanted to die. That same night she found Lucy slumped over, with the carbolic acid next to her. She died later on in the hospital and the verdict was “Suicide whilst suffering from temporary mental derangement.”

62/ High Park Road Suicide, Liverpool, June 1857

An awful suicide took place at Mr Aspinall’s druggist shop, High Park Road in Liverpool. The victim was William Fanaker Lee, twenty-one-years-old and the assistant to Mr Aspinall. He was at work one day and seemed to be drunk and behaving erratically, when he tied a rope around the door handle, then bringing it over the top of the door formed a noose, then hung himself. A servant in the house told of his cursing all the time. The jury’s verdict was “Temporary Insanity”.

63/ Coliseum Theatre Tragedy, Liverpool, October 1878

cleared, the people remaining out of curiosity after the panic had subsided. Major Greig seized the opportunity of exhorting them to calmness when similar alarms might be raised in future.

64/ Birkenhead Post Office Murder, September 1900

An elderly night watchman named Fell was murdered at Birkenhead Post Office and the safe was robbed of £150. The clerks coming in to work on Sunday evening found blood spatters all over the place and a search revealed Fell in the postmaster’s office, with his head bashed in with a poker. The sheer force of the blows broke the poker in two.

65/ Huskisson Dock, Liverpool, ( Sewer Deaths) August 1857

A fatal accident occurred which took the lives of two men. John Kelly aged thirty-five and Dennis Mulloy aged thirty-five as well, both labourers for the Dock Trust, had gone down a sewer to clean a privy which was blocked when they became overpowered by the gas and passed out. They were brought out and taken to a shed and put in a hot bath, but they were already dead.

66/ Upper Pownall Street, Liverpool, (Warehouse Fatality) February 1909

Thirty-six-year-old John Francis Cruse, a porter, was tragically killed at the rice mills of Messrs Heap and Sons in Upper Pownall Street. He was on a lorry when his apron string got tangled in a rope which sacks of rice were being hauled up to the warehouse. He was taken about thirty feet up, then he fell through an open basement, smashing his head on the floor.

67/ Southport, (Death by Corn in Ear) September 1885

68/ Hope Place, Liverpool, (Body in Empty House) July 1884

A shocking discovery was made at an empty house, No.22, Hope Place, Liverpool. It had been empty for a year and two water board employees, Robert Bell and William Morgan, went to check the place, when they found the decomposed corpse of a woman. The police took the body to the morgue and it was nearly mummified. The hands had a currant loaf and a tea flask grasped in them. Laying around was a newspaper from July 1883. It is supposed that the lady poisoned herself in the building.

69/ Boys Refuge, St Anne Street, Liverpool, (Boy in Boiler) March 1881

An inquest on the body of Charles Boyle, nine years old, who was an inmate at the Boys’Refuge in St Anne Street, revealed that while playing in the wash-house he fell into the boiler, about five feet deep. A lad named Lewis said that he was going to get some water to wash his neck when he saw the face staring up at him. The poor chap was literally boiled to death and a recommendation to the Refuge that the wash-house must now be off-limits to inmates.

70/ Southport, (Accidental Shooting) December 1885

71/ Bachelor Street, Liverpool, (Horrific Accident) April 1859

John Jones, a worker at the McFies sugar refinery in Bachelor Street, was killed when he got entangled in the machinery. His legs were torn off below the knees and his ribs and shoulders were crushed. He leaves a wife and family with no provision for their care.

72/ Brownlow Hill Shop Suicide, June 1872

This is a strange suicide! Mr Cross, a leather salesman in Brownlow Hill, went downstairs into the basement to get an item for a customer. When ten minutes had passed and no sign of Cross was apparent, the customer went down to the cellar and found him hanging from a beam.

73/ Maghull Station Fatalities, January 1850

At Maghull Station on the East Lancashire Railway, a train came in with only one carriage. There were far too many passengers in one carriage, so they decided to add another. They moved it to another track and while it was going forwards another was seen to be heading for it. Passengers saw the potential disaster and leaped out, but three were run over and instantly killed.

74/ Liverpool Tram Death, April 1899

75/ Lambeth Street, Liverpool, (Suicide Letter) May 1863

Thomas Slack, a plasterer, hung himself in Lambeth Street. He put a brush handle over the trap-door and hung from that. He recently had a conviction for assault and this preyed upon his mind, as his letter states:  “Dear Wife- I am leaving this world forever. I leave my two children in care of Dr Taylor, St Silas Church, Pembroke Place, Liverpool. Drink and poppery and trade Society as brought ruin upon me. Thos.Slack. I am some ware about 30 years. I can hardly muster the strength to do what I am going to do. God bless my children. Thay are laying a trap for me every ware. Holy Virgin pray for me.”

76/ Liverpool Sister Murder, March 1899 (see No. 105 )

77/ Rock Ferry (Wirral), (Fatal Fall from Rigging) June 1857

Fifteen-year-old Thomas Lang died when he fell from the rigging of the Akbar Reformatory Frigate, which was lying off Rock Ferry. He was buried in Rock Ferry Cemetery, with his shipmates, ninety in all, dressed in white suits. They all had a whip-round for his parents and managed to raise £2, and gave it to them next to his grave. He was a tearaway but the stint on board the frigate had changed his character totally.

78/ Liverpool Wife Murder, July 1889

79/ Stanley Arms Suicide, Manchester Street, Liverpool, March 1861

A man named George Arrow killed himself in the Stanley Arms in Manchester Street in Liverpool. He was about mid-thirties, was a jockey and was from Malton in North Yorkshire. He was in Liverpool under the impression that he was to race here. That never happened and he’d been several times to the Stanley Arms. One night he stood at the bar with a drink, got a glass then filled it with water, then put some powder in it and swallowed the lot. He started to convulse and wretch almost immediately and within ten minutes he was dead.

80/ New Brighton, (Shooting Gallery Death) July 1889

81/ Bee Hotel Suicide, Liverpool, March 1899

82/ Hesketh Park, Southport, (Playground Fatality) October 1900

A boy named Fernihough, about eleven, was found hanging to the parallel bars in a playground at Preston Road, Hesketh Park in Southport. The doctor was called, but he was pronounced dead at the scene and this is thought to be a dreadful accident.

83/ Bidston Hill, Birkenhead, (Corpse in Bushes) May 1893

The skeleton of a man was found in rhododendron bushes at Bidston Hill, Birkenhead. The garden is that of a racehorse owner, Mr R.C.Vyner and it was just covered over in leaves. The garden is used by the public, primarily for picnics, but the corpse had been there for many a year. The clothing and the bones crumbled when moved. (Who was it?)

84/ Everton Fatal Fight, February 1892

85/ Liverpool Free Library Suicide, September 1874

Thomas Raymond Fitzgibbon, thirty-years-old, was lodging at Morrell’s dining rooms on Lime St in Liverpool, when on the 17th of September he went to a reading-room at the Free Library. A person there thought he looked ill and told a keeper that someone was having a fit. He was taken to hospital where he died shortly after being admitted. Police searched his clothing and a few letters were among the belongings, all had the initials “T.R.” or Thomas Raymond. They also found a piece of paper with powder in it, bearing the word “Poison”. Further questioning at the Y.M.C.A.turned up that he was English but just got back from America and that he was depressed due to his unemployment situation. Poisoning by morphia was the surgeon’s diagnosis.

86/ Liverpool Child Murder, August 1892

87/ Mossley Hill near Liverpool, (Corpse Under Bridge) February 1899

The dead body of a man who was terribly mutilated was found yesterday morning, underneath a bridge on the London and North -Western Railway at Mossley Hill. The body is believed to be that of a retired seafaring man aged about sixty, though there was no identification. The supposition is that the man threw himself or fell from the bridge and his neck was broken, in addition to injuries caused by a train going over him.

88/ Liverpool Lamp Murder, May 12th, 1899

89/ Liverpool May 20th, 1899 (See Above)

At Liverpool yesterday, Catherine Levens, a married woman was committed for trial on a charge of the murder of John Tracey and his wife, by throwing a lighted lamp at them while in bed, by which they were burned to death.

90/ Rectory Street, Liverpool, February 1899

At Liverpool yesterday, Catherine Redmond, a middle-aged woman residing in Rectory Street off Wellington Road, was remanded on a charge of killing her husband. The evidence showed that during a quarrel she struck him on the head with a poker, inflicting a fatal wound.

91/ Mill Street Fire Fatalities, Toxteth, February 1899

92/ Liverpool, May 1869 (Three Children’s Bodies Dumped)

P.C. No 346 found the bodies of two little girls dumped in a box of wood-shavings in an entry at the back of Gregson Street. About half an hour later, another P.C. found the body of a newly-born male, lying in a cart at Caryl Street in Toxteth Park. The boy was wrapped in an old piece of rag.

93/ Blowick Station Fatality, near Southport, May 1899

On Saturday morning, a little girl aged five years, named Bessie Thomas, travelling with her parents by a Bolton excursion train to Southport, fell out of the train when nearing Blowick Station. The train was stopped, but when the body was picked up, life was extinct. The girl’s neck was broken.

94/  Stanley Dock Bridge Death,  June 1899

95/ Clippsley Row, Haydock,  May 1899

On Saturday morning a fatal accident occurred at Haydock. The victim was a child named Mary Ann Burnet, the daughter of Earle Burnet of Clippsley Row in Haydock. The child was playing in the gutter and as a steam tram engine was proceeding along Clippsley Row, the child ran into the roadway and was caught by the engine and run over and cut to pieces.

96/ New Brighton, (Body on Beach) May 1899

The discovery of the body of a man which had been deposited by the tide on the beach at New Brighton has caused quite a stir. The body had been in the water a considerable time and a mysterious feature, in this case, was that a rope was tied around the body. Police are searching for clues as to the identity of the man.

97/ Bootle Murder,  November 1902

98/ Liverpool Child Murder, January 1901

Eveline Christofferson, six years old, was brutally murdered in Liverpool. She was found in an ash-pit of a tenement building in Parr Street, found with her throat cut from ear to ear. A lodger from the house has gone missing and he now remains the main suspect police are looking for.

99/ Liverpool Child Murder (see above) January 23rd, 1901

100/ Southport, (Buried Child Alive) August 1850

Ann Ball has been committed for trial on a charge of wilful murder of her infant. She buried the child alive in the sand on the sea-shore at Southport.

101/ Southport, (Boys Body in Attic) August 1888

The body of a young boy was found in an attic of a house at High Park in Southport. The boy’s name was William Tillyer Rhodes aged nine, from Manchester, who had been missing for nearly two weeks. He was visiting the area with his parent’s in Manchester Road in Southport and went with some other kids to Hesketh Park on the 1st August, where they went on the swings together. He stayed behind and was not seen again.

102/ Lewis’s, Ranelagh Street, Liverpool, (Lift Death) March 1895

103/ Mount Cemetery Suicide, Liverpool, August 1835

A traveller by the name of Mercer, who worked for Arrowsmith and Ryder, liquor merchants of Manchester, killed himself at Mount Cemetery. He wrote a letter to his friend saying that he was going to the cemetery to carry out his own self-destruction. When he got there, he took off his coat, waistcoat and neckerchief, hung them on a bush, then went into the shrubbery and slit his throat with a razor. He leaves a widow and four kids.

104/ Liverpool Police Court (Acid Suicide) October 1897

A sensational incident occurred on Thursday morning in a Liverpool Police Court. A medical man named Johnson aged seventy, formerly one of the best-known practitioners in the city, was summoned by his wife for arrears under a maintenance order. After being sentenced to two months in prison, he drank a quantity of carbolic acid and died almost immediately.

105/ Liverpool Sister Murder, March 4th, 1899 (See No.76)

106/ Liverpool Murder, July 1895

107/ Knowsley Hall Suicide, February 1868

Now more famous for the giant safari park that surrounds the Hall, this piece of gorgeous architecture holds a secret from the 1860’s. A servant of Lord Derby’s, named Hignith, was engaged to one of the other servant’s at the Hall and they were to be married very soon. With a few weeks to go to the wedding, Hignith suddenly thought that his bride-to-be was seeing another behind his back. Instead of confronting her about it, he went and slit his throat in his room. Temporary Insanity was the jury’s verdict. (Ask them which room it was next time you’re there!)

108/ Liverpool, January 3rd, 1885 (Norwegian Sailor Murder)

Norwegian Sailor Murder, January 7th, 1885

A coroner’s jury yesterday returned a verdict of wilful murder against Arthur Kavanagh, James McNamara and John Taggart, who attacked a Norwegian sailor and beat him to death in a low part of Liverpool on New Year’s Day night.

Norwegian Sailor Murder, January 17th, 1885

On February 11th they were found guilty of manslaughter and each got twenty-one months imprisonment.

109/ Oakes Street, Liverpool, (Dead Wife Falls on Hubby) August 1903

The daughter of William Shortis dropped in to see her parent’s at Oakes Street, but couldn’t get an answer, so she got a copper to break in. The policeman found William Shortis at the bottom of the stairs in an exhausted condition, beneath the decomposing corpse of his wife. It is thought that they were both going up to bed and she fell down the stairs on top of her husband. Her neck was broken and she was dead. Being extremely elderly, Shortis couldn’t lift his missus off him and stayed there for nearly a whole day. He died soon after at the Liverpool Workhouse and you have to bear in mind as well, that his wife was a hefty seventeen stone.

110/ Watkinson Street, Liverpool, (Wife Murder) February 1885

 

Watkinson Street, Liverpool, February 14th, 1885 (Sentencing)

111/ Imperial Hotel Fire, Lime St, Liverpool, June 1916

A disastrous fire occurred at the Imperial Hotel on Lime Street. The fire broke out in a lift shaft, early on Sunday morning and then spread throughout the building with amazing speed. There were three deaths as a result of the inferno, they are; Annie Quinn, a cook at the Hotel, who burned to death in her bedroom; Jennie Parkinson, housemaid, was killed by leaping from a window on the fifth floor to escape the flames. Then there was a visitor from Dublin, William McClive, who also was killed from jumping from a window.

112/ Greyrock Street, Liverpool, (Coal Cellar Death) March 1894

A man was walking down Greyrock Street when he thought he’d come across a bundle of old clothes on the footpath. On closer inspection, it was a woman stuck in a coal-chute of a house. Police arrived and determined it was a woman named Margaret Ball, who was the housekeeper at the house. She turned up drunk one night and was turfed out of the house and she went away. Ball returned later on and tried to make a sneaky entrance back in, through the coal cellar and there she got wedged in and died from exhaustion.

 

113/  Kirkdale Cemetery Suicide, (Near Aintree Racecourse)  May 1885

114/ Edge Hill Station Fatality, May 1885

On Saturday evening a ticket collector whilst collecting tickets on the London and North Western Railway at Edge Hill Station, slipped from the footboard and falling on the rails, was run over and killed.

115/ Preston’s Distillery Fatality, Liverpool, April 1885

At Preston’s Distillery in Liverpool yesterday, the body of a man unknown and evidently a labourer, was found in a vat of boiling liquor.He had, in getting into the premises, stumbled into a vat and been scalded to death.

116/ Sandhills Fatal Fire, Liverpool, March 1885

117/ Liverpool, (Concealment/Child Murder?) January 1877

This is a strange case, almost as though she wanted to be caught!  Elizabeth Kirkbride, a widow, was charged with concealment of birth of three children. She worked as a school mistress in Penrith, Cumbria, and has been a widow since 1865. She went away from Penrith in June 1876 and left a box at a local inn, saying she’d be back for it. About a week ago the box was opened and inside were the bodies of two kids, one had its throat cut. Kirkbride’s room at Tuebrook was searched and another three dead children were discovered. One was decapitated, while another had a piece of cloth tied around its neck. When questioned she said that they were her kids but she never killed any of them. One of the bodies had been there about ten years, another about five years.

118/ Lower Bank Road Murder, Liverpool, June 1885

119/ Eccleston Hall Suicide, near St Helens, February 1869

A young lady by the name of Elizabeth Nevitt was walking up the avenue leading from Eccleston Hall. when she spotted a young man, later identified as Lyttle, a native of Northern Ireland, standing on a path among the trees. He stared at her as she walked past, she became frightened and sped up her walking pace. He was leaning against a tree and holding a gun in his hand. On passing him she heard a gunshot and spun around to see what happened and saw him drop to the ground, dead. It turns out that Lyttle was employed at a glassmaker and was a warehouseman there. They had to get rid of one of the staff and told him he could be demoted to his old job, or would have to leave altogether. This preyed on his mind, but no one there thought he would commit suicide. (Is the Hall now a group of flats?)

120/ Waggon and Horses Suicide, Liverpool, July 1885

121/ Bootle Quarry Suicide, April 1884

Two boys were walking along the footpath that goes from Breeze Hill to Hawthorne Road and looked onto the quarry that is nearby when they observed the body of a man lying at the bottom. The body was that of a local policeman, Wilhelm van Schaick, and it was dreadfully mutilated. At eight o’clock on Sunday morning, he signed off after being on the graveyard shift at Derby Road police station. It seems from here he went to the quarry and climbed a five-foot-high railing then jumped off the edge of the quarry onto rocks below, a height of over a hundred feet. He seemed to be suffering from insomnia and this had turned him cranky. He was liked by fellow officers and leaves a wife and two children.

122/ Church Street Tram Death, Liverpool, May 1885

123/ Liverpool Murder, November 1885 (See Execution No 136, below)

124/ Bootle Murder, November 1885

125/ Liverpool Zoological Gardens, June 1848 (Killed by an Elephant)

A man and woman were watching an elephant do his tricks, when he suddenly decided not to perform, so the keeper gave him a slap with a birch twig. He picked up the keeper in his trunk, threw him down and trod on him, causing his instant death. The animal was then to be put down with prussic acid, but this didn’t take effect, so he was shot by Her Majesty’s Riflemen. The owner paid 800 guineas for the beast, which was said to be the largest elephant in Europe.

126/ Liverpool Zoological Gardens, December 1843 (Killed By Elephant)

This story seems strangely familiar, in fact, it is almost identical to the above story. The man keeping the elephant, Henry Andrews, aged thirty-eight, was not the usual keeper of the animal. His dead body was found in the pen he was kept in and he had all of his ribs were broken, with a huge elephant footprint on his back and bruising on his head. He had only been in there for fifteen minutes or so and was cleaning the elephant, when, it is supposed, he struck it and the beast retaliated. “Accidental Death.”

127/ Liverpool, (Two Kids Suffocated) August 1885

128/ Tue Brook Lunatic Asylum, (Ex-Vicar Suicide) October 1874

The Reverend William Henry Strong was an inmate at Tue Brook Asylum and had been there for about three weeks. For an ex-vicar, he was very violent and he had to have an attendant to keep watch on him. At dinner, the son of the asylum owner asked James Dent, the attendant, to cut up his meat for him as he wasn’t allowed sharp objects. This was done, but he never remembered this, because the next day he gave him breakfast with a knife and fork next to it. Strong was left alone for a few moments and when he came back, the Reverend had cut his throat from ear to ear.

129/ Liverpool Docks Deaths, August 1885

130/ Garston, Liverpool, December 1885

The magistrates at Garston, yesterday committed for trial a dock labourer named Duffey on a charge of wilfully murdering a man named Wainwright. He was attacked on the night of the election by a party with whom Duffey is alleged to have been concerned and he sustained injuries which proved fatal.

131/ Liverpool, (Dad Dies When Hears of Daughter Stealing) September 1885

At the Liverpool Police Court yesterday, a girl of fifteen named Morton, was charged with stealing a shawl and umbrella from Lime Street Station, also with stealing money from ladies in the waiting-room at Tithebarn Street Station. She was committed for trial. When Morton’s father was informed of his daughter’s arrest, he fell down dead. The girl was admitted to bail in order that she might attend her father’s funeral.

132/ Liverpool Double Infanticide, December 1885

A coroner’s jury at Liverpool yesterday returned a verdict of wilful murder against a domestic servant named McDonald for killing her newly-born child, the body of which was found in a box in the attic of a hotel where she worked. Another child, recently born, which had been strangled with a handkerchief, was found dead in the coal cellar of the hotel. McDonald, on being arrested, acknowledged that both children were hers. (What Hotel was it?)

Her full name was Catherine McDonald and it was at a lodging-house she lived at. The body had been in the box for a year or so.

133/ Hopwood Street Manslaughter, Liverpool, September 1885

134/ Wavertree, (Child Murder/Suicide) October 1850

This is an inquest on the bodies of Catherine Carnall, a housemaid to Francis Hollins Esq. of Cow Lane, and of her infant child, which she had buried in the privy. She then committed suicide by taking vitriol. It seems that she went to Mr Hollins and confessed to the birth, then ran out of the house and made a dash for the pond, but Hollins reached her in time and put her in his parlour. She was let out later to get something to eat from the pantry and it was here she got the vitriol and swallowed some of it. The verdict was “Temporary Insanity.”

135/ Liverpool Pub Suicide, February 1856

David Moffatt aged twenty-one-years, arrived in Liverpool on an Irish steamer and headed straight for a public-house in Bridport Street. The staff noticed that he was agitated about something and he told the landlord that he was the son of the Rev C.Moffatt of Newry and that he’d been a wicked lad and had got his father’s servant up the duff. Friends of his were against him marrying her, so he came to Liverpool to get away. He took a room for the night and when they found him next day he had a huge gash along his throat. He was alive but only just. When asked who had done it to him, he replied “Myself”, then died. Property in his baggage proved that the lad was telling the truth about his family and where he was from. (What pub?)

136/ George Thomas Execution, December 1885 (See No 123, above)

137/ Walton Gaol Suicide, May 1885

138/ Eastham Ferry Drownings, June 1885

 

139/ York Street Tragedy, Liverpool   July 1870  (York Street today (2018) is like a Victorian road would have been)

140/ Earlestown Railway Death, near Newton-le-Willows    September 1870.

At an inquest held in Liverpool yesterday, on the body of a man named Henshaw, a singular case of accidental death was brought to light. According to the evidence, the deceased had been apprehended at Earlstown on Monday night by a servant of the London and North-Western Railway, on a charge of riding without a ticket between Edge Hill and Earlstown, and while endeavouring to escape by jumping on a train just about to start, he fell on the line, and was run over by some of the carriages. He was so badly injured that he died the same night.

141/ Barton Moss Fatal Shooting,  September 1870

142/  Altcar Rifle Range Fatality,  November 1870

On Saturday afternoon two parties of the 64th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers were firing at separate targets at the Altcar rifle range. The weather being foggy, Richard Wheatley, a militia sergeant attached to the corps, went some distance in advance from the usual place to see the efforts of the firing, when by some mishap a stray ball passed through his head and killed him on the spot. The occurrence created a very painful sensation throughout the corps, by all members of which the deceased was greatly respected.

143/  Liverpool Town Hall Death,  October 1870

A painful incident occurred at a conference of ministers and laymen held in Liverpool Town Hall, for the purposes of the “Hospital Sunday” movement in that town. The Rev. T.C. Cowan, incumbent of St Chrysostom’s, Everton, was speaking in support of a motion in favour of special Sunday’s collections when he fell backwards in an apoplectic fit and expired before he could be removed into an adjoining room. A most solemn impression was produced by the event, and the Mayor at once adjourned the meeting. Mr Cowan was about sixty years of age. He was said to have been subject to angina and was told by doctors to avoid excitement and fatigue.

144/ Trapeze Accidents in Liverpool  (Star Music Hall/Gaiety Music Hall)  December 1870

145/  Drownings near Palace Hotel, Birkdale.  October 1870

146/ Dingle Hill Murder   December 8th, 1870

147/ Two Female Servants Murder Their Mistress, Bootle.  December 1902

1/ Prestwich Lunatic Asylum Murder, Bury, September 1882

2/ Elton Vale, near Bury, (Chimney Fall Kills Three) January 1884

3/ Wigan, (Two Lovers Drowned) May 1886

4/ Irlam Lightning Fatalities, Salford, June 1953

5/ Rainsough Sewer Death, Prestwich, February 1885

6/ River Irwell Drowning, Bolton, February 1899

Last evening the body of Stephen Settle aged eighteen of Tong Fold, Bolton, was recovered from the River Irwell at Bolton. The lad had been missing from his home for three days. He was weak-minded and of defective vision and as he was not suicidally inclined, it is believed that he fell into the river which was swollen by recent storms and that his body was carried a mile downstream.

7/ Breightmet Colliery Death, Bolton, March 1899

Francis Guffogg, a collier residing at Tonge, was working at the Breightmet Collieries, Bolton, along with three other men, when a heavy fall of roof took place. Guffogg was buried in the debris and on being extricated was found to be dead.

8/ Trinity Street Railway Station Fatality, Bolton, March 1899

A young man named Fred Atherton of Gorton slipped from the platform on to the line when a goods train was passing when part of the train went over his head and neck, killing him instantly. He had been staying at Blackpool for his health.

9/ Bradley Fold/Darcy Lever Station, (Body on Tracks) May 1899

A tragic accident occurred on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. Whilst a signalman was traversing the line between Bradley Fold and Darcy Lever stations he came across the dead body of an unknown man lying in the four-foot. It is supposed that he’d been struck by a passing Yorkshire excursion train.

10/ Darcy Lever Railway Death, May 24th, 1899

11/ Ladyshore Colliery Fatality, Little Lever, May 1899

A miner named William Berry was killed yesterday morning at Ladyshore Colliery, Little Lever, by some props giving way whilst he was taking a waggon down a jig-brow, the jig catching him and crushing him fearfully. His son, who was working with him had a very narrow escape.

12/ Bolton Wanderers Ground Fatality, (Burnden Park) June 1899

13/ Bolton Deaths, June 1899

14/ Farnsworth Parish Church? (Bridegroom Lynched) June 1877 (Can’t find Tamworth near Bolton. Kersley is Kearsley.)

15/ Manchester/Bolton, (William Cooper Death Sentence) May 1879

The jury found the prisoner guilty, and the judge sentenced him to death.

16/ Bromley Cross near Bolton, (Driver Decapitated) September 1867

17/ Rusholme, (Bodies in Pond) November 1905 (Suicide Pact?)

The dead bodies of J.Barrett, a railway porter, aged twenty-five and his sweetheart Gwendoline Mackey who was only eighteen, were found in a pond near the Manchester Athletic Ground at Fallowfield. A young boy found the bodies and he straight away went to get the police. Could it be a young lover’s suicide pact?

18/ Derby Hotel, Bury, (Double Suicide) February 1899

19/ Bury, (Boiled in Liquor) May 1899

Last evening a liquor mixer named John Turner aged forty-three, residing at Wood Street in Elton, died at Bury Infirmary from shock, consequent on scalds received through accidentally falling into a vat of boiling liquor at Messrs Whitehead’s Bleach Works near Bury.

20/ Radcliffe near Bury, (Canal Corpse) May 1899

The dead body of Ernest Hewart aged eleven, of No.4, Siddall Street in Radcliffe, who has been missing since Saturday, was recovered from the Bury and Manchester Canal at Radcliffe by Isaac Simm, a collier, who pulled him out with a pair of grappling irons. He was found in a canal not far from his home.

21/ Radcliffe near Bury, (Suffocation) May 1899

An inquest touching the death of William Holmes aged eleven, of 42, Lord Street in Radcliffe. Evidence showed that in July last the boy swallowed a small pink stud, suffering severely. He had an operation in November and improved but died suddenly on Saturday night. A post-mortem by Dr Sellers found the stud at the bottom of the windpipe, this had caused suffocation.

22/ The Clough, Radcliffe, February 1892 (Bridegroom Suicide)

Arnold Henry Warden, a Manchester artist, who was wed to Alice Heywood, went and shot himself the same evening. The wedding went well and all went to Mr Heywood’s (Alice’s Dad) residence, The Clough. At 10-30 Warden went to say goodnight to his sister-in-law, then went to the drawing-room, locked the door and then shot himself. Frederick Heywood, the brother-in-law, said that he had a strange look on his face. Warden was susceptible to bad migraines and had suffered a fall recently. Apparently, he was in a great mood at the wedding, singing and dancing, but something clicked in his brain and that’s when he decided to blow his brains out.

23/ Oldham Suffocations February 7th, 1899

24/ Oldham Suffocations, February 8th, 1899

 

25/ Wheat Sheaf Inn, Oldham, (Debauchery Death) April 1899

26/ Outwood Colliery, Prestwich, (Fall in Shaft) February 1899

A shocking accident occurred at Outwood Colliery when William Lowe, a 45-year-old single man of 57, Buildings Row, Ringley, was killed by falling down a shaft (No 3), a depth of 120 yards. He was a banksman and along with an under manager, Lomax of 52, Seymour Street, Radcliffe, was off to examine the shaft, which is used as an air shaft and to reach which the men had to pass along a covered passage which was in complete darkness, when by some means he missed his footing and fell to the bottom.

27/ Prestwich Asylum, (Lunatic Stomach Contents!)  January 1876

A post-mortem examination of a lunatic who died at the Prestwich Asylum, led to the discovery of no fewer than 1800 indigestible items in his body. There were 1600 shoemakers tacks, six four-inch nails, nineteen three-inch nails, eighteen two-inch nails, nine brass buttons, bits of buckles, pebbles, string, shards of glass, a piece of lead and a leather strip.

28/ Agecroft Colliery Explosion, Pendlebury, February 1899

Agecroft Colliery, February 11th, 1899

Yesterday Samuel Brenton, who was injured whilst blasting in the Agecroft new sinking of Messrs Andrew Knowles and Sons, died in Salford Hospital. This is the third death from the accident. Brenton was supposed to be improving until a day or two ago and the inquest of the other two men had been adjourned in the hope of his being able to attend and throw some light on the cause of the accident.

29/ Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton (Salford), February 1899

Richard Thomas aged fifty-two-years, was killed at the Wet Earth Colliery of the Clifton and Kersley Coal Company at Clifton. The deceased man and his sons worked together. While he was in a stooping position, a fall of coal and dirt took place and buried him. His sons escaped. The verdict of the jury was “Accidental Death.”

30/ Pendlebury, (Hit by Rock) March 1899

An inquest was held on the body of Henry Yates aged thirty-five, a collier, late of New Street in Pendlebury. The deceased was employed at the Wheat Sheaf Colliery and on Wednesday whilst in the mine, a large piece of stone fell on him from the roof. He was badly injured and died the same day. A fellow workman named John Wardle stated that he thought the roof was sufficiently propped. Jury’s verdict”Accidental Death”

31/ Rochdale Workhouse Ether Explosion,  March 1899

32/ Littleborough Drowning, Rochdale, June 1899

33/ Manor Road Fatal Fire, Altrincham, April 1899

34/ Ancoats Snowball Fatality, March 1899

35/ Stand Street, Ancoats, (Child Neglect) April 1899

36/ Ashton-under-Lyne Town Hall, (Decomposing Corpse Discovered) January 1878

A shocking discovery was made at Ashton Town Hall, where small rooms on the upper floors are used to store ballot boxes etc.and are used very little. A lady went up there one day and was overcome by a horrendous stench. When searching about looking for the cause of it, she stumbled upon the corpse of a man in a corner. The man was dressed as a navvy and was decomposed beyond recognition, with the time of death estimated at several weeks. The room was last used in November 1877, for a municipal election. The name of the deceased is unknown and the verdict was “Death from Starvation.”

37/ Copperas House Pit Fatality, Ashton-under-Lyne, March 1899

38/ No.38, Murray Street Murder/Suicide, Higher Broughton, March 1899

39/ Lower Chatham Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, (Frenchman’s Suicide) May 1899

40/ Smedley Lane, Cheetham, (Fatal Accident) February 1899

41/ Clifton Junction, Salford, (Children Deaths) March 1899

42/ Eccles Child Suicide, November 1859

An 11-year-old lad named Cameron was sacked by his employer, so he went home and told his Mum. She gave him a mouthful and told him off about his behaviour and she also stated that ” Your father will kill you when he get’s home”. This scared the living daylights out of him and rather than face his father’s wrath he went to the yard and cut the clothesline, he then tied it to the kitchen ceiling and hung himself.

43/ Lyceum TheatreFatal Accident, Eccles, February 1899

44/ Heaton Norris Junction Fatality, April 1899

 

45/ Ellenbrook Station, (Killed at Level Crossing) February 1899

46/ Hollinwood Station, (Fatal Accident) April 1899

47/ Peak Forest Canal Drowning, Hyde, May 1899

48/ Royal Oak Inn Fatal Fight, Leigh, May 1899

49/ Slattocks near Middleton, (Death in Canal?) March 1899

50/ Egerton Street Murder/Suicide, Mossley, April 1899

51/ Newton Heath Mysterious Drowning, June 1899

52/ Northenden Trap Fatality, May 1899

53/ Old Trafford Murder, April 1899

 

54/ Pendleton, (Caught in Machinery) February 1899

A collier named John Dobson, who resided at Whit Lane. Pendleton was in the act of crossing the engine brow at the colliery of Messrs.Andrew Knowles and Son Ltd in Whit Lane when he fell. He was caught in the engine rope and was wound around the drum. When picked up he was quite dead.

55/ Pendleton, (Child Murder/Suicide) April 1899

56/ Radcliffe Fatal Accident, February 1899

On Saturday morning an accident occurred in a hayloft at the premises of Messrs.Rigg Brothers, carriers, Crook Street of Radcliffe, to a boy aged ten named William Ainsworth, of 19 Crook Street, Radcliffe. He was playing with some friends in the hayloft when he was drawn between a revolving shaft and the ceiling. The engine was stopped and he was taken to Bury Infirmary, sustaining serious injuries.He died soon after. His father is away in America.

57/ Radcliffe, (Accident or Suicide?) March 1899

58/ Bridgewater Canal, Sale, (Boy Drowns) February 1899

On Sunday morning Peter Hobson aged nine, who lived with his parents in Roebuck Lane in Sale, was drowned in the Bridgewater Canal. He was going to Sale along the canal bank to get some newspapers, having a small canvas bag to put them in. He put the bag on his head, then accidentally walked into the canal. His elder brother aged eleven, who was with him,  raised the alarm but when the little fellow was taken out of the water he was dead.

59/ Salford, (Corpse Eaten by Rats) November 1882

A carter made a shocking discovery while passing under No1.Railway Arch, Greengate. He found something lying on the road and when he got closer, it was revealed that it was the body of a man. The corpse was doubled up, head under the breast and the flesh on the neck, hands and face, having been eaten by rats. The neck appeared to be broken and in his pockets were nine shillings, three Roman Catholic medals and other bits and bobs. There was nothing to prove identity.

60/ Salford, (Mysterious Drowning) February 22nd, 1899

61/ Salford, (Heart attack?) March 25th, 1899

George Wilson, a negro, was committed for trial at the assizes on a charge of having caused the death of Jane Kiernan, a married woman, at a lodging-house in St Stephen Street on Saturday last. Evidence from a woman who lived at the house said deceased suffered from heart disease and that the least excitement or a blow such as was alleged to have been given by the prisoner would accelerate her death.

62/ Hope Hospital Fatal Accident, Salford, April 1899

63/ Salford Child Murder, April 1899

 

64/ Weaste Child Murder, Salford, May 1899

65/ Salford, (Lurry Boy Fatality) May 1899

66/ Salford, (Double Suicide Eaten by Rats) August 1897

In a Salford hayloft, the bodies of a young couple were found in an appalling state of decomposition. A carbolic acid bottle lay beside them and it is believed that they both agreed to suicide, in a sort of pact. This was some weeks ago, as the bodies had been nibbled at by rats and there wasn’t a lot left of them.

67/ Salford, (Teenage Revenge Suicide) June 1888

16-year-old Charles Marshall was spotted in the street with a tea-cup in his hand and said to a woman he was familiar with that he’d taken some vermin killer. He was rushed to Hospital but he died from strychnine poisoning on the way. A letter addressed to his Mum ended with the solemn words ” You will let me go out for a night now”.

68/ Mode Wheel, Salford, (Policeman Drowned) June 1899

69/ Linnyshaw Colliery Fatality, Salford, June 1899

70/ Shawclough Station Rail Fatality, Rochdale, May 1899

71/ Portwood, Stockport, June 1899

The death by drowning of a married man named George Ridgway was reported to the coroner. Ridgway who was a piecer aged twenty-nine, living in Pool Lane at Portwood, went to the river Goyt near his home to bathe. He was presumably seized with cramp, for he became quite helpless and shouted “Save me” several times. No assistance being at hand, he was drowned in nine feet of water.

72/ Stockport Fatal Fire, June 1899

73/ Stockport, April 1850 (Bridegroom Suicide)

George Redfern, who worked at a Stockport pub, killed himself on his wedding day. Instead of getting wed, he popped into several pubs for a wee dram of Dutch Courage and in one pub he asked the barmaid if she wanted to get married. He went back to his lodgings, told his landlady that he would never get married, then he shot himself in the head. His body lay on his bed and was badly mutilated and the pistol he used set fire to the bed.

74/ Swinton, (Death of a Carter) May 1899

75/ Tameside Pit Fatality, (Dukinfield) May 1899

A fatal accident has occurred at the Astley Pit, Dukinfield. James Newton, a collier of Waterloo, was working in the Peacock Mine when a fall of roof occurred. Some soil and a stone weighing two hundredweight (16 stone), fell on his chest. He was extricated and found to be seriously injured. He was conveyed home on an ambulance and medically attended but died yesterday.

76/ Bridgewater Colliery Fatality, Walkden, June 1899

77/ Wigan, (Brandy Deaths?) December 1909

A publican took a number of men into the cellar to make arrangements for Christmas and they cracked open a barrel of brandy, then began swigging. Four men have died since, one in a pub, another went to bed in a hotel and was found dead the next morning, with a third found dead in an outhouse and the fourth died at home.

78/ Aspull near Wigan, (Murder?) April 1907

The body of a farmer, who lived at Aspull near Wigan, was found dead at his house. A couple of mates were going to his house and when they walked in he was laying on the floor, face downwards. His head had been smashed in and it seems as though an accident was not possible, due to the severity of the fractures. Verdict: “Wilful Murder against person or persons unknown.” (Who was it?)

79/ Wigan Drowning, March 1899

A man named Holding found a body floating in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal near the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company’s locomotive shed at Wigan. He was identified as William Holmes aged forty-eight, of Mitchell Street, Newtown in Wigan. Holmes was an engine-driver and left the locomotive shed at three o’clock. There is little doubt that owing to the dense fog, he walked into the canal and was drowned.

80/ Wigan, (Boy Mutilated) March 1899

A youth named Thomas Wild of Lindsay Street in Wigan, was killed at the Wigan Coal and Iron Company’s Steel Works, Wigan. He was engaged letting waggons down an incline when he was caught between some waggons and a wall, his body being terribly mutilated.

81/ Moss Arley Mine, Ince, (Colliery Fatalities) June 1899

82/ Wigan Tram Death, February 1899

Eighty-year-old Annie Carr of Hindley, died from shocking injuries sustained by being run over by a tramcar, she was dreadfully mangled and was pronounced dead shortly after the accident.

83/ Wigan, (Colliery Roof Collapse) March 1899

A fatal accident has occurred at Pearson and Knowles colliery, Wigan. The victim was William Derbyshire aged forty-six, a collier, of Victoria Street in Ince. He was using a pick when a fall of roof occurred and partially buried him. He was extricated as quickly as possible by his brother and another man but expired straight away.

84/ Wigan, February 1899

Whilst shunting operations were being carried on at the St George’s siding of the Astley and Tyldesley Coal and Salt Company on Wednesday evening, John Howarth aged twenty-seven, of John Street in Tyldesley, was crushed against a wall and fatally injured.

85/ Wigan, (Man Buried Alive) February 1899

An accident resulting in the death of Richard Cox, a collier aged twenty-five, of Lower Lemon Street, Tyldesley, occurred at the Cleworth pit of the Tyldesley Coal Company. Cox stated to a man named Eckersley that he was going to knock props out and shortly afterwards there was a heavy fall of dirt and stone from the roof, Cox being completely buried under it. When extricated he was dead, the body being fearfully bruised.

86/ Wigan, (Three Die in Sewer) June 1899

87/ Withington Church Suicide, January 1870

A body of an elderly man was found on a tombstone in the churchyard at Withington. A pistol lay by his side and with a massive wound to the head, suggesting suicide. The deceased was Mr G.Macbeth, a tailor from Stockport Road in Manchester. He had been behaving strangely recently and it supposed that the recent death of his children, had caused his deep melancholy under which the rash act was committed. (Which tomb?)

88/ Withington Child Murder, February 1899

89/ Manchester Football Club, (Captain Dies Playing) December 1902

George Horwood, the captain of Manchester Football Club, died from his injuries he sustained in a footy match on Christmas Day. It was during extra-time when Horwood and another player collided and Horwood fell directly on his head and died of concussion of the brain. The verdict was “Accidental Death.”

90/ Holly Mount Convent, Tottington, (Nun Suicide) July 1893

Catherine Kepple was a nun who was staying at a convent in Killarney, but she started showing symptoms of insanity, so was ordered to be whisked off to a hospital in Belgium. Firstly she was brought to Tottington and while here she threw herself out of a third-floor window, dying instantly.

91/ Davyhulme, Trafford, (Child Body Parts) April 1895

An awful discovery was made at Manchester Sewage Works at Davyhulme, whilst workmen were going about their usual business they came upon a child’s leg. The leg looked like it had been ripped from the trunk and Manchester Police are looking into the matter. The top half of the body has not been found.

92/ Bolton, (Girl Scalded to Death) July 1889

A girl named Walker died at Bolton Infirmary from injuries received under strange circumstances. She was standing near an exhaust pump belonging to the engine room of a cotton mill, when the steam was suddenly let off, the result being that she was enveloped in steam and so scalded that her injuries terminated fatally.

93/ Rishton Lane, Bolton, (Doctors Wife Suicide) June 1889

94/ Bolton, (Sweet-Tooth Suicide) January 1887

A young schoolgirl named Wharnby, who had told off for owing money for sweets, killed herself at Little Hulton near Bolton. A passer-by found her clothes next to a pond along with some cake!(Sweet tooth!) near her Dad’s house and her body was found later on.

95/ Atherton near Bolton, (Robbery/Murder) July 1889

96/ Victoria Theatre of Varieties Fatality, Bolton, August 1891

A shocking fatality occurred at the Victoria Theatre of Varieties in Bolton. The performance had finished when an attendant named Chris Birch was on the balcony, covering it up with a cloth when he overbalanced and fell head first into the pit causing severe spinal injuries. He was a single man and thirty-five-years-old, but weirdly not one person saw the actual fall and he never let out a scream. (Is it still there?)

97/ Bolton, (Boiled to Death) April 1892

The body of a man whose identity is unknown was found in the hot water lodge of Messrs Thomas Cross and Co., bleachers of Mortfield. The chap had been literally boiled to death and it was also thought to have been an act of suicide, the reservoir being away from the road.

98/ Eltonfold Landslip, near Bury, October 1896

99/ Bury, (Caught in Machinery) December 1833

Alice Crossley, a widow, died a violent death under the following circumstances. Alice worked for a Mr Nicholas Hoyle as a winder in his woollen mill and she worked in the basement area. At three p.m. on Monday afternoon she descended the excavation on the outside of the back part of the building to clean her window. While doing this, her shawl got tangled in an iron shaft that ran through a gap in the window, to turn the machinery in the mill, and it wrenched her neck tightly to the shaft. She was rotated round with such violence that death was the obvious outcome. A painter working nearby tried to help her, but if he had tried to untangle he too would have met the same fate. The engine was stopped and she was cut free and taken home, where “after a faint sob, she expired.”

The shaft was travelling at sixty r.p.m. and as she was a tall girl, her limbs flailed around like a rag doll and she was badly mutilated in the accident. The verdict was “Accidental Death.”

100/ Stretford Child Murder, January 1921

101/ Angel Inn Suicide, Oldham, July 1857

The landlord of the Angel Inn at Oldham, William Heginbotham, committed suicide on Sunday night by hanging himself from a kitchen roller towel.

102/ Oldham Station Suicide, May 1892

Fourteen-year-old newsboy, Ernest Jones, killed himself by throwing himself under a passing train at Oldham Station. Jones had been reading “pernicious literature”, which I can’t work out if it’s porn or occult material. Anyway, before he died, he told a mate of his “This is the last time you will see me alive.”

103/ Oldham Workhouse, (Body in Cistern) June 1871

A thirty-six-year-old man named Richardson, who used to be a painter, was admitted to the imbecile ward at the Oldham Workhouse. He been on the bottle for quite a while and had been suffering from delirium tremens (shakes from alcohol withdrawal), and had threatened to kill his wife and himself on a few occasions. Richardson and another bloke, who was in the same condition as he was, was left to keep an eye on him but Richardson went missing. It was thought he’d escaped and gone on a bender to the pubs. After a couple of weeks went by a nurse told the governor that the water was had a strange stench and inmates were getting sick as a result. He told them to clean the cistern, so they went to examine it and found a man’s legs protruding from it. It was rotten and gave off a chronic odour and was identified as that of Richardson. Due to his threats of suicide, they assumed it was self-inflicted, and also down to his delirium tremens, he thought he’d be better off dead.

104/ Oldham, June 1876

Mrs Dodd was on a downer since her sister committed suicide around six months ago. She was kept under watch, but one day she sent a servant on an errand and while he was out she hung herself from the bed-rail with a silk scarf. Wanted to be with her sister?

105/ Royton Matricide, near Oldham, August 1892

Patrick Gibbons, a labourer, was sentenced to death for the murder of his mother at Royton near Oldham. The prisoner lived with his father and mother and on July 9th, when under the influence of drink, quarrelled with his mother, who was afterwards found with her throat cut.

106/ Oldham Coalpit Suicide, March 1852

Spencer Suthers, a cotton spinner, living at Oldham, killed himself by leaping down a coalpit which was owned by Messrs.Evans, Barker and Co. He suffered from rheumatism and was only in his late fifties and it was the pain from this that made him go to the mine in the morning. While the men were near the pit mouth, he clasped one of the two ropes of the cage, then leapt into the abyss. The pit is 150 yards deep and he landed upright, while on his descent one of his legs was cut off, coming into contact with the lift cage top. Four men went to his aid but he was already dead. He leaves a widow and three children.

107/ Burns Mill, Heywood, (Crane Fatality) August 1892

108/ Heywood Tram Deaths, Rochdale, June 1897

Two boys were killed in tram accidents at Heywood. The boys named Wood and Moffitt were run over on the Bury, Heywood and Rochdale tram system within quick succession of each other. Wood was dreadfully mutilated, his brains were scattered all over the pavement. Moffitt’s suffered severe spinal injuries and was already dead when he prized from underneath the tram.

109/ Littleborough, Rochdale, (Brother’s Suicide as Sister Throws Child in Canal) September 1861

Concealment of birth was a common crime in Victorian England, but the outcome of this one caused more than one death. A lass named Hill, bore the illegitimate child at Littleborough. She was one of two sisters and had a brother too. When this brother found out that his sister had tossed the dead child in the canal, he, stricken with grief, drowned himself in Manchester. The mother of the child was charged with concealment of birth.

110/ Horse Shoe Inn Fatality, Rochdale, December 1858

A nasty accident took place at the Horse Shoe Inn at Rochdale, when James Schofield was helping to put a hearse under a cover, he was squashed between the vehicle and the wall and died a few hours later.

111/ Rochdale, (Lad Mutilated in Machinery) January 1834

Fifteen-year-old Thomas Rhode worked in a factory as a woollen feeder at Mr Schofield’s factory, Canal Side, Rochdale. A strap from the engine came off and trying to put it back himself, the strap caught hold of his ankle and carried him up. Rhodes screamed out for help and a couple of workers went to his aid, but he was taken around the drum and was forced through a ten-inch gap and his head and legs were ripped off and his innards spread about.

112/ Ashworth Haunted Vicarage, Rochdale, November 1907

The Rev.J.E.Floyd, who is the vicar of Ashworth, had been hearing strange voices at the vicarage and now the local belief is that it is haunted. At 1-30 a.m. some sounds were heard by the entire family and the voices of three or four people arguing were clearly audible. This was interrupted by the calming voice of a woman saying “Home Sweet Home!”, then after that a mumbling voice was heard. Inquiries have turned up nothing as of yet. (Zack Bagans where are you?)

113/ Belfield Hall Suicide, Rochdale, August 1835

Edward Clegg Esq. of Belfield Hall near Rochdale killed himself at his home. It appears that inquiries were being made into the affairs of J.Schofield Esq., his father-in-law. Clegg had some interest so he sent offers of help to his solicitor on how he could bail him out, or vice versa. The offer was rejected and this made him angry and twisted, so he went to Belfield Hall and told his missus “It’s all over. It’s all over!”, legged it upstairs and slit his throat. Mrs Clegg tried to stop him and she got a few razor slashes for her trouble. (Now Clegg Hall- restored?)

114/ Crofts Bank/Patricroft, (Fatal Ice Accidents) January 1885

115/ Victoria Street Music Hall Tragedy, (Twenty-Four Dead) July 1868

The music-hall in Victoria Street, known as “Ben Lang’s” was the scene of a great calamity on Friday night. It was a benefit performance and it was during this, that some lads in the pit area stood up on the benches. To stop themselves from falling they grabbed hold of a gas pendant, this snapped off and then the gas began to escape. Cries of “Fire” got the audience into a mass panic and people were trampling and treading on each other in a bid to get to the exits. There was a huge crowd on the stairs and this gave way, throwing them on to the stone floor below. When the carnage was surveyed they pulled out twenty-three dead bodies and dozens of injured. After the word got around, literally thousands gathered, some rubber-necking and some to find relatives or friends who may have been there. A boy died the following day from concussion of the brain, making the death toll twenty-four.

116/ Deansgate Fatal Accident, February 1885

117/ Spread Eagle Hotel Suicide, November 1888

This is one of quite a few that feature on this website that still exists and the Spread Eagle Hotel is on Wilbraham Road.

A man entered the hotel, told them he’d be staying for a week or so and gave the name of Morris. He had been there nearly a week and on the morning he was given some refreshment, then he went on his way. He wasn’t seen until that night when his door was pried open and he was there, sitting in an armchair with a gun in his hand and a large hole in his temple. A letter addressed to his brother asked him to tell his wife what had happened, suggesting this act was premeditated. His real name turned out to be William Morris Pugh. (Does anyone from the Hotel know anything about the room number?)

118/ Exchange Station Fatal Accident, (Closed 1969) April 1885

119/ Carter Street Child Murder, Chorlton-on-Medlock, April 1885

120/ St Ann’s Square Suicide, November 1871

At about five a.m. on a Sunday morning, a young lass threw herself from a window at Mr Furniss’s jewellers, opposite St Ann’s Church. The victim was a niece of the shop-owner and she landed on the flags below the shop. Death was instantaneous. She had been in a lunatic asylum recently and also depression had been a problem. (What was her name?)

121/ Crown Inn, Rusholme, (Drayman Crushed by Barrel) May 1885

122/ Ancoats, (Torture then Murder) April 1905

The body of a youth was found in an abandoned house at Ancoats. Post-mortem results reveal that the lad was tortured; his mouth was filled with paper and tied with a handkerchief to prevent the boy screaming. His face was smashed in with a brick, which was found near the body and was daubed in blood. Later on, the mother of the victim identified him as Thomas Smith of Wood Street,  Clarendon Street in Chorlton-on-Medlock. He had been missing for about a week, but no reason can be assigned for the crime committed on the poor boy.

123/ Rochdale Canal, (Two Bodies Found) June 1885 (Chorlton Street – next to Manchester Met.University)

124/ Gorton Child Murder, June 1885

125/ Lower Broughton, (Rotten Male Corpse Found) April 1890

A group of boys were playing near the factory of Messrs.Dewhurst and Co., Hough Lane in Lower Broughton when one them climbed on the roof which is divided and slope towards the centre, forming a gutter and here found the remnants of a male corpse. It had been there for some time, it was badly decomposed and post-mortem results say he been dead for several months. He was estimated to be thirty-five-years-old and quite short in stature, about five feet tall.

126/ Victoria Station, Manchester, (Fatal Accident) September 1885

Victoria Station, Manchester, (Boy Crushed) September 1885

An inquest was held yesterday on the body of Ernest Stanley, eight-years-old, who lived with his parents at 59, Edward Street, Lower Broughton. On Tuesday afternoon, just before two o’clock, he accompanied his brother, a lad of fourteen, to Victoria Station. Whilst playing on the metals in the old London and North-Western portion of the station he was crushed by some waggons which were being shunted and was killed. “Accidental death.”

127/ Rochdale Canal, Ancoats, July 1885

128/ Clarendon Inn, (Body in Cellar) June 1885 (Used to stand where Manchester Met.University entrance is now. Closed in 1964.)

129/ Gorton, May 1909 (Man’s Head Blown Off)

William Lees, a sixty-six-year-old from Gorton, who was a labourer at an engineering works, was discovered with the top of his head blown off, done by some liquid explosive such as nitroglycerine. He woke up at five a.m. and went down the stairs, then his wife heard a muffled explosion. The force was great enough to smash all the kitchen windows. When she found her husband, he was sat down but with the top of his skull missing and a bottle of liquid on the floor, with the man’s fingers missing on his hand. (Deliberate or Accident?)

130/ Gorton Tank Works, (Deadly Explosion) September 1885

131/ Victoria Station Fatality, Manchester,  November 1885

132/ London Road Station Fatality, (now Manchester Piccadilly) October 1885

133/ Manchester Post Office, (Infant in Box) April 1891

On the 24th of April, a parcel was posted from Westgate-on-Sea near Margate and addressed it to “Mr Warton, No.2, Grove, Ambleside”. There was no such address, so it was placed in the “Dead Letter” department at Manchester Post Office. The package was opened and inside was the body of a new-born infant. The box it was wrapped in was a lady’s boot box and the marks on it could lead to the identity of the sender.

134/ Moss Side Child Murders, June 1885

135/ Edward Street, Moss Side, August 1902 (Haunted House)

An electrical engineer and his wife and family moved into one the houses on Edward Street in the Moss Side district of Manchester. They kept hearing strange noises in the night, taps running, doors banging and furniture being moved around accompanied by a groaning sound. The neighbours thought he was barmy, but when he took them in to experience the haunting they soon changed their minds. While the mother was singing a lullaby to her child one night, the figure of a man was seen coming along the lobby. When she turned away and then turned back, he’d disappeared. The woman’s sister has observed a small boy in the same lobby. Locals say that nobody has lived in the property for more than a couple of weeks.

136/ Strangeways Prison Suicide, December 1885

137/ Pendlebury Suicide, (Salford) March 1894

The body of twenty-four-year-old Robert Whittle from Moss Lane, Pendlebury, was found in a clay-pit. The bizarre thing about this story is that he wrote his suicide note on a starched cuff. It read:

“Dear Father and Mother, sisters and brothers- Don’t weep for me. I have been wronged. you will find my body in that hole opposite Tom Jones’s hen-cote. Goodbye. Bury me beside mother in Ringley Churchyard. You will find more about me at Cardwell’s Old Beerhouse. Don’t think I’m insane. I am all right. You will find two pounds in the lower drawer of my bedroom, which will help you to bury me. Goodbye- ROBERT WHITTLE.”    (The sentence about “being wronged” is said to refer to his sweetheart.)

138/ Hope Street, Salford, (Oil Lamp Death) January 1885

139/ Hope Street, Salford, (Four Crushed by Ten Ton Box) September 1909

At George Leek and Sons, Hope Street, a number of men were hoisting a ten-ton moulding box when something gave way and the box fell and crushed to death four workmen. The box was lifted and they were taken to Salford Royal Hospital. Two of the men, Catlow and Dutton, were dead on arrival, with the other two, Dimlow and Leek dying half an hour later. Dead were:-

John Dutton, 27, foreman of Seedley; Robert Catlow, 51, labourer, from Salford; Thomas Dimlow, 19, labourer, Salford; and James Henry Leek, 31, moulder, from Seedley.

140/ Blackleach Lodge, Little Hulton, Salford, (Ice Fatalities) January 1885

An inquest on the bodies of William Baxendale Partington aged eight and Frank Williamson aged six, who lost their lives on Wednesday by the breaking of the ice on Blackleach Lodge, Little Hulton. They were both sliding when the ice broke and they were drowned before they could be rescued. Verdict “Accidental Death.”

141/ Regent St.Ragged School, Salford, (Tea-Party Fatalities) January 1885

142/ Eccles, (Ice Fatality) January 1885

A young man named William Henry Ashworth of Patricroft, at between nine and ten last night was skating on a frozen pond at Fox Hill when the ice broke, he sank and was unable to reach the bank. There were seven or eight other people on the pond at the time. It was some time before his body was recovered.

143/ Eccles, (Child Burns to Death) January 1885

A child named George H.Gratrix, aged two years and five months, residing in Ellesmere Street in Patricroft, has met with a shocking death. On Saturday night he was playing in the kitchen and while trying to reach a piece of cake pulled over the table, on which stood a paraffin lamp. In the fall the lamp was broken and it set fire to his clothes and burnt him shockingly about the head, arms and face. He died later at Eccles and Patricroft Hospital.

144/ Bridgewater Canal Drowning, July 1885

John Frederick Crowley aged seven was drowned at Bridgewater Canal bank, near Royle’s Farm. He was rescued and attempts made to resuscitate him for twenty minutes, but he eventually died. He had been gathering flowers. The verdict was “Accidental Death.”

145/ Regent Road Bridge, Salford, (Body in Irwell) March 1885

146/ Salford Hospital Suicide, April 1885

147/ Waggon and Horses Inn Suicide, Back Bridge St.,  July 1885

148/ Clifton Hall Colliery, Pendlebury, (Fatal Accident) August 1885

149/ Mode Wheel, Salford, October 1859 (Woman Posing as Man for Forty Years) HOW!

The coroner at Salford got the word that the body of a man had been discovered at Mode Wheel on the Irwell. At first glance, the body was that of a 50/60-year-old male and it was found by a man named Yates at the Mode Wheel Works in an upright position in the sluice leading from the Irwell. He got another person, James Moyles, to help him get the body out and take it to the Swan Inn at Pendlebury. Mary Gorton of the Swan Inn said this was the guy who spent a couple of hours drinking there, smoked his pipe, then left stone cold sober. Before leaving he asked what time the gates of the lodge leading to Mode Wheel were closed, but he seemed upset to the landlady. The man was known as Henry Stokes, but HER real name was Harriet Stokes and had lived as a man for forty years or so. Employed as a bricklayer for several years, helping build houses, chapels and warehouses in the area. The body was examined by two women and it was confirmed she was a woman. Apparently, she even married a woman quite a while ago and lived as husband and wife in Quay Street in Manchester.

150/ Salford, (Fatal Street Row) December 1885

151/ Oldfield Road, Salford, (Woman Killed by Bull) December 1885

152/ Marple, Stockport, (Infant Mutilated) February 1881

The corpse of an infant was found under the railway viaduct at Marple by a group of lads. It was wrapped in a Punch newspaper and had one arm broken, the skull was bashed in and a big hole in the back of its head, through which the brains had gone. Police are investigating the possibility that it had been thrown from a Manchester train.

153/ Stockport Railway Station Fatality, September 1885

On Friday night a domestic servant named Martha Bennett aged twenty-three, living at Hill Top in Cheadle Hulme, tried to get on a train at Edgeley Station at Stockport whilst it was in motion. She slipped and fell between the train and the platform, receiving such injuries from several carriages passing over her that she died in the Stockport Infirmary early Sunday morning.

154/ Tiviot Dale Railway Station Death, Stockport, April 1885

155/ Peak Forest Canal Suicide, Stockport, September 1885

156/ York Street, Edgeley, Stockport, (Miracle Cure Side-Effects) January 1885

George Henry Barlow, a forty-nine-year-old clerk, killed himself by shooting himself in the temple at his house in York Street, Edgeley. His wife said he had seen an advert for a medicine that “reduces corpulency”. He bought some and he lost nearly five stone, but his nerves became frail and this was the cause of his self-destruction.

157/ Hulme Child Murder, November 1885

black cap, sentenced prisoner to death. The Court adjourned to this morning.

158/ Sandy Lane, Stockport, (Fatal Mill Fire) December 1885

159/ Stalybridge Pub Suicide, Tameside, December 1895

Linton Ives, a professional singer, went into a pub at Stalybridge and killed himself by drinking an amount of opium. He had been a soldier, then a baritone singer of good renown, and was now in the Livermore troupe of minstrels. (What pub was it?)

160/ Near Smallshaw Bridge, Tameside, (Railway Death) August 1885

161/ Stalybridge Mineshaft Suicide, February 1855

An innkeeper named Edward Lilly from Stalybridge killed himself by walking to a coal-pit and falling backwards into the mine shaft, around a 100 yards deep. His business was on the rocks and his drinking had got heavier and suicide was suspected of him, as he mentioned it beforehand.

162/ Miles Platting, (Railway Death) October 1885

163/ Fairfield Infanticide, Tameside, December 1885

An inquest was held an inquest on the body of a newly-born male child found in the Manchester and Ashton Canal at Fairfield. A piece of twilled sheeting was tied tightly with a piece of tape around the child’s neck and the loose part of the sheeting thrown over its head. Post-mortem testified that death was from strangulation and a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.

164/ Hulme Hall Road, Trafford, (Canal Drowning) June 1885

165/ Altrincham Fatal Accidents, November 1885

166/ Bolton Druggists Explosion, (Three Dead) July 1866

Next to him Michael Canavan. Both are badly burned about the middle of the body, Cross is not expected to live.

167/ Bolton, (Machinery Death) September 1885

On Monday an engine minder named Amos Yates aged thirty-three, of Tonge, employed at Toothill Bridge Bleach Works, Breightmet, was loosening a crank when the key slipped and he fell into the wheel pit and was carried around by the fly-wheel several times and he was quite dead when the engine was stopped.

168/ Bolton, (Abandoned House Suicide) October 1885

An inquest on the body of Thomas Bailey aged thirty-three, who worked as a newsagent. He was troubled owing to financial difficulties, went to Manchester on Friday, then returned to Bolton during the day but did not go home. Early next morning he was found in an unoccupied house, hanging from a rail. He had climbed through the back window, adjusted the cord and jumped from a pair of steps after tying his hands together.

169/ Rothwell Reservoir Fatality, Bolton, December 1885

On Sunday afternoon James Yates, a piecer, eighteen-years of age, of 10, Howard Street, Bolton, was skating on the Rothwell Reservoir between one and two o’clock. The ice being unsound it broke. Yates was immersed in the water and drowned. The reservoir is connected with the bleachworks of Messrs T.Cross and Co, Mortfield and is a dangerous place for skaters, the water being constantly drawn from underneath the ice for bleaching purposes.

170/ Knowles Mill, Bolton, November 1885

At the mill of Messrs.G.Knowles and Sons, Bolton, William Smith, the engine tenter, living at 94, Waterloo Street, heard the engine making a peculiar noise. He was proceeding to shut off the steam when the crankshaft broke and the piston drove out the end of the cylinder. The place instantly filled with steam and Smith was so badly scalded that he died soon after. The mill will now be stopped for a fortnight, throwing 225 hands out of work.

171/ Halliwell Child Murder/Suicide, near Bolton, April 1885

172/ Farnworth, (Ice Accident) January 1885

173/ Bury Ice Fatality, January 1885

On Wednesday evening Frederick W.Wyer, about nine years old, was sliding upon the ice on a lodge of water belonging to the Bury Papermaking Company, Gigg Mills, with two other boys when the ice broke. He fell in and was drowned. Although he sank only two yards from the edge his body was not recovered for two hours.

174/ Ainsworth, (Fatal Wrestling) August 1885

175/ Radcliffe Suicide, August 1885

176/ Oldham, March 1885

James Taylor, an engineer at the Textile cotton mill near Oldham, met with a dreadful accident. He was oiling the governors attached to the engines when his jacket was caught. His body was drawn between two pinion wheels. He was dreadfully injured and died almost immediately. The cog wheels were broken and the accident necessitated a total stoppage of the mill machinery.

177/ Oldham Wife Murder, June 5th, 1885

178/ Book Street, Oldham, (Four Children Die) March 1885

179/ Saddleworth, (Driver Killed) July 1885

180/ Middleton Junction, December 1885

Yesterday morning the body of a man was seen floating in the Rochdale Canal at Middleton Junction and it was found to be that of Thomas Skellern, master painter and plumber of Middleton, who left home at six o’clock yesterday morning to attend to some business at Middleton Junction. It is supposed that whilst going along the towing path he lost his footing owing to the slippery state of the ground caused by frost.

181/ Hollinwood, (Three Men Killed) May 1885

182/ Heywood, Rochdale, (Messy Suicide)January 1894

An Irishman named Freeman was found in the Queen’s Park at Heywood with half his face blown away with a shotgun. The blunderbuss was found nearby and pieces of his skull were fully forty yards away. Brain matter was also discovered some distance away. He was a native of Ballina, where his widow and kids still reside.

183/ Smithy Bridge Suicide, near Rochdale, January 1885

The body of Abraham S. Wild, a flannel merchant from Wardle near Rochdale had been missing since the 8th of December. His body was found on Wednesday evening in the Rochdale Canal at Smithy Bridge. There were no marks of violence upon the remains.

184/ Castleton Child Murder, February 1885

185/  Rochdale, (Fatal Joke) July 1885

186/  Greenfield, (Two Lads Drowned) July 1885

187/  Strangeways Hall Colliery, near Wigan, (Fatal Explosion) February 1885

188/  Winstanley Hall Fatality, near Wigan,  August 1885

189/  Bradford Colliery Fatality, Manchester, April 1899

190/  Milton Street Triple Murder, Bury, December 1884

191/ Train Suicide, Manchester.  July 1870

On Friday an inquest was held at the Oxford-road Inn, Manchester, on the body of Mr. E.T. Heslop, of Sale, stock and share broker, formerly a member of the Stock Exchange, Manchester, who shot himself in the forehead while travelling in a train on the Manchester, South Junction, and Altrincham Railway between Sale and Stretford stations on the previous day. Financial difficulties had preyed heavily on the mind of the deceased, and the jury returned a verdict to the effect that he shot himself in a fit of temporary insanity.

192/ Boothstown (Sunstroke Death)  July 1870

During the oppressive heat of  Tuesday a girl, three years of age, the daughter of Mr Crompton, of  The Greyhound Inn, Boothstown, near Bolton, was seized with sunstroke and died immediately afterwards. Several persons have fainted in the harvest field near Warrington from the extreme heat, but they have since recovered.

193/ Little Lever,  September 1870

During a severe thunderstorm which passed over the neighbourhood of Bolton on Tuesday afternoon, a travelling pedlar, named John Morris, was struck by lightning and instantly killed, in Marsh Fold Lane in Little Lever.

194/  Orrell Station (Tunnel Deaths)   September 1870

 

195/ Portugal Street, Manchester (Weaving Shed Collapses)   September 1870

196/ Alexandra Music Hall Accident,  September 1870

An accident occurred on Monday night by which a dancer was severely burnt, at the Alexandra Music Hall, in Peter Street, Manchester. A new ballet had just been performed for the first time, and a set scene towards its close was being completed by raising Miss Lucelle, the leading danseuse, into view in the centre of the tableau, when the support on which she stood slightly lurched, and she fell forward upon a row of gas jets, by which her muslin dress was at once ignited, and she was severely burnt. She was conveyed home in a cab.

197/  Openshaw  (Three Children Killed)  August 1870.

On Thursday night, three children were killed in Openshaw, near Manchester, by a singular accident. Five children were playing in a large sand-hole near the railway works, when the side fell in and totally buried three of them-namely Hannah Timperley aged ten; William Wild, aged seven and Thomas Owen, aged four. The other children, one of them a brother of the boy Wild, were also partially buried, and so much injured that they were not able to get themselves out or raise an alarm for nearly an hour. Some little time elapsed before the buried children were recovered, and then they were all dead.

 

198/ Manchester Fatal Shooting,  September 1870.

 

199/ Pendleton Colliery Fatality, Salford.   August 1870. (Engine driver named William Cooper got drunk and fell asleep while at work. Thomas Collinson tried to jump free when Cooper was awoken and put the cage in motion but was crushed beneath the cage. Cooper was put on trial for manslaughter. He got three months imprisonment)

 

200/ Brynn Hall Colliery Explosion, near Wigan.   August 20th, 1870

 

Brynn Hall Colliery Explosion   August 25th, 1870. (The final death toll was twenty)

201/  Salford Wife Murder,  November 1870

December 8th, 1870  (The Verdict)

Edward Greatley was charged with the murder of his wife at Salford on November 12th. The prisoner and his wife were heard arguing on the day in question, and the woman was seen to come out of the house with her nose bleeding and a severe wound on her head. She went to a neighbour’s house where she died on the 20th of November. It is alleged the wounds were caused by a poker. Evidence was circumstantial, except a statement made by the deceased, which the prisoner contradicted at the time it was made. Mr Justice Brett, in summing up, said this was not a case in which the jury could, according to law, reduce the crime to manslaughter. It was either murder or not guilty. They consulted together, without leaving the box, and returned a verdict of Guilty. The judge then sentenced him to death in the usual solemn form.

202/  Withington Wife Murder, December 1870.

203/  Winstanley Colliery Accident,  December 1870

204/  Irlam-o-th’-Heights Murder,  December 1870

205/ Wigan Railway Fatality,  May 1902.

A fatality occurred on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway at Wigan, on Saturday, the victim being Richard Young, aged thirty, of Baldwin Street in Wigan. Young was a goods train guard and was engaged in shunting operations at Wigan Station. It is supposed he was knocked down by waggons and run over. When found he was alive, but so seriously injured that he died soon afterwards.

206/ Oldham Volunteers Attempted Murders,  April 1902.

207/  Execution at Manchester (Henry Mack)   December 1902

 

Hubbard’s Hills Deaths, Louth, Lincolnshire.

1/ September 1862

An old and respected citizen of Louth, Mr James Parker, clerk to the income tax inspectors, having been missing since seven a.m., with friends and relatives worried about his mental and physical condition was discovered at Hubbard’s Hills. The body was in the stream at the base near the new reservoir. The coroner, Thomas Sharpley, held an inquest at the Fleece Inn when evidence was given which satisfied the jury that the deceased was not responsible for his actions. A verdict of “Temporary Insanity” was accordingly returned.

2/ May 1879

The body of little George Patrick Benton aged six years was accidentally drowned in the reservoir of the mill in Hubbard’s Valley one morning. The body was taken to the parents’ house in Crow Tree Lane where the jury would later inspect it. The child fell in at the corner of the new bridge leading to the Water Company’s engine house. Mr Teesdale, the steam and water mill owner,  was told that there was a young lad in the water at about twelve o’clock. The body was taken out, and medical assistance was summoned. The older brother aged eight, said they had both gone to get some water for their father and a youngster was playing with a boat on the stream near the Water Company’s main pipe when the lad’s foot slipped and he fell in. The brother shouted to a miller but he couldn’t hear him so he ran to get a neighbour named Crisp, as the mother was at the Union seeing about relief. When they found him he was quite dead, as he had been in the water ten minutes or so. The verdict was “Accidentally Drowned”.

3/ March 1884

The body of a newly born baby girl was found in the mill dam at Hubbard’s Hills. The people who found it thought it was in Hallington but it didn’t matter too much where the inquest was held. The coroner wasn’t sure if the infant had been born alive or not. Joseph Sykes spotted the little bundle while he was sat on the asphalt bridge against the waterworks. They hooked it in and opened it, to find the dead female infant inside. He said the child was not in the decomposed state that the jury saw it in and its head was under its arm and the nose flat to its face with the legs doubled up. The surgeon said she was well-nourished and had no signs of violence upon it. The umbilical cord was torn and not cut. From the blood spots on its lungs and the state of the brain, it was probably suffocated and was born four to five days ago. There was no doubt it was a case of foul play.

4/ (Sad Death of a Lunatic) January 1888

5/ Greyhound Inn, Louth, December 1833

A tragic accident occurred as the landlord of the Greyhound Inn was removing a coat, which belonged to a customer when a loaded pistol in one of the pockets discharged its contents into his body. He died on the spot, almost immediately.

6/ Louth Canal, February 1909 (Ice Skating Fatality)

Miss Ida Brewer was drowned on the Louth Canal when the ice gave way while she was skating on it.Sidney and Oswald, her two brothers, and a lad called Ernest Shearsmith, also fell in but were pulled out. Rather coincidentally, Miss Brewer, had told a friend that she had made a will “just in case she drowned”.

7/ Ship Inn, Louth,  (Man Boiled to Death) November 1833

James Bullivant, a brewer to Mr W.Jackson of the Ship Inn, Louth, was a bit chilly one night, so he lay on the cover of the brewing copper to gain some warmth but it caved in and he plunged into the boiling liquid. He lingered until the next day when he finally expired from the dreadful scalding.

8/ Louth, May 1882

Edward Carrott, a retired farmer, committed suicide. The family had a history of this type of thing, as his father drowned himself in the River Lud about thirty years ago and his wife also killed herself by drowning about four years ago. He cut his throat with a razor. The verdict was “Temporary Insanity”.

9/ Unknown House in Louth. Anybody know where this is? (A.James, Ramsgate House, photographer)

 

10/ Turk’s Head/ King’s Head/Humber, October 1867

Joseph Tuxworth from Walkergate in Louth, formerly an ostler at the Turk’s Head (ostler-looks after the horses at an inn but now the brewer at the King’s Head Hotel) left Louth to go on an excursion to Hull Fair on Friday the 11th and hasn’t been seen since. His friends fear that he has met with his death and with this headline appearing in a Hull newspaper it made them believe it was him.

“Yesterday, the body of a man about fifty years of age was found floating in the Humber near Earles Cement Works. He was wearing a pair of torn trousers, white shirt, and boots. The arms and legs appear to have been broken. The body is not yet identified.”

The body is believed by friends to be that of the missing man but cannot be 100% positive.

11/ King’s Head Hotel Fatality, October 1867

One afternoon a dreadful accident occurred to a man named Thomas Johnson, who was temporarily engaged as the brewer at the King’s Head Hotel in Louth. He was attending to his avocation when he accidentally fell from a ladder into a quantity of boiling beer, which had just been drained from the copper into the cooler. He was severely scalded and removed to his own home when after lingering in the greatest agony for four days, death terminated his sufferings.

12/ Turk’s Head, Louth, (Brewer Falls in Boiling Liquid) May 1859

13/ Woodman Inn Suicide, Louth, July 1890 (Now a funeral parlour!)

 

Louth Railway Station (Accidents and Suicides)

14/ December 1856

A fatal accident occurred at Louth Railway Station when the Reverend William Mason aged fifty-eight, of Bilsby near Alford, was stood on the platform with his daughter waiting for the return train when an engine came through the station and caught him by the coat. He was entangled in the crank and was dragged underneath the moving train and then dashed upon the platform. The Reverend was killed on the spot.He leaves a large family.

15/ March 1901

Henry Jenkinson, an engine cleaner, was crushed to death at Louth Railway Station on the Great Northern line. He was standing by the buffers on a siding when some carriage buffers caught him.

16/ December 1905

Benjamin Sindall, a guard on the Great Northern Railway, was killed by a train at the same moment he was waving and shouting at a woman, whom he believed to be in danger at a level-crossing.

17/ September 1870 (Suicide)

John Odling, around sixty years of age, placed himself across the rails on the up line of the Great Northern Railway at Louth. Sergeant Wilkinson went round to his house the week before, to see about an attempted suicide and he found Odling with blood coming from his neck and he was soaking wet. He told the policeman that he fell into the beck. There was no definite evidence as to whether he meant to kill himself but he was depressed and only living on three shillings and sixpence a week from the Union. A platelayer saw him about a mile from Louth walking the line towards Fotherby and he never said anything to him. He was ordered to stay off a friend’s premises due to some kind of misconduct, plus the likelihood of being done for attempting suicide he decided to do it properly this time.

18/ Louth Railway Station Suicide, August 1879

 

 

19/ Louth Railway Station (Fatal Accident) August 1885

Thomas Goulding, a shunter, was killed at Louth Railway Station while the carriages were being shunted, he was knocked down and they ran over his body. His body was placed in the waiting room. The accident occurred just outside the north end of the station and probably happened when the deceased rode from the platform on one of the coaches, then fell backwards onto the tracks, with two or three coaches going over him. It happened at 1-30 a.m. and several people said he’d been drinking. he was thirty-one years of age and leaves a wife and one child.

20/ Near Louth Station February 1875

John Twigg, a relieving clerk in the employ of the Great Northern Railway Company who lived in Lincoln, was killed near Louth Station as he tried to catch a moving train, when he fell over and was run over by it. He ran for about a hundred yards after the train and got past the bridge, then he fell and went under the carriage. He was insensible when found and carried back to the station having been badly mangled. Fracture and dislocation of the ankle, gashes on his leg, plus he was suffering from shock. A doctor decided to amputate his leg and he was given chloroform and he finally died in hospital from his injuries the following day.

21/ Missing Police Inspector, Louth, October 2nd, 1880

Missing Copper November 6th, 1880

Inspector Smith of the County Constabulary, who absconded from Louth a short time ago, is now in custody in Lincoln. He was apprehended whilst in bed at a house in Arthur Street, King’s Road, Chelsea, by Supt.Jarvis of Grimsby and placed in a Metropolitan police cell. As it was said he would commit suicide before he would be taken back to Lincolnshire, every precaution was observed; his coat, vest, shoes and braces were removed and he was left on a wooden bench with a rug for a blanket until next morning. He was brought before Lincoln magistrates on Monday and remanded. He will probably be committed for trial at the assizes, which take place at Nottingham next week. (What happened to him?)

22/ Upgate, Louth, (Prostitution) February 1880

23/ Green Lady of Thorpe Hall, (Ghost/Haunting) January 1884

24/ Louth Union Workhouse September 1880

George Robinson, alias “Cheeks” and William Chapman were both inmates of the Workhouse and both under medical treatment in the sick ward. Robinson was there for heart disease. A quarrel took place between the two of them, walking sticks were waved and used, bad language flowed out and Chapman had a black eye. It was all about some money given to another inmate named Hill, given to a man named Wright for waiting upon him. After the initial fight, they got up and were at it again. Chapman was shoved over and Robinson went to sit down. After a few minutes, the colour went out of the face of Robinson and he was found to have died. No doubt it was due to his heart disease that he expired so quickly.

25/ Willows Lock Corpse, Louth, April 1869 (Between Keddington and Alvingham)

An inquest was held at the house of Alfred Ticklepenny, Louth Park, on the body of 23-year-old James Davey, mate of the sloop “Hawk” who was drowned in Willow’s Lock at 9-30 a.m. one morning. He was drawing up the dam of the gates to let water into the lock when the handle slipped all of a sudden and he fell into the river. The force of the current rushing strongly into the lock, he was dashed against the gates and washed in therewith. The lock is very deep and had no appliances to render help, he sank and his body was not recovered until 30 minutes later. “Accidental Death” was the verdict.

26/ Louth Parish Church Fatality, February 1880

27/ Louth Suicide by Poisoning, May 1871 (Stealing a Postage Stamp and Rioting in Grimsby)

25-year-old Sarah Graves, a domestic servant, poisoned herself with her body being viewed by the jury at her sister’s, Mrs Dale on Grimsby Road, nearly opposite St Mary’s Lane. She pointed out that her sister had come to her from Alvingham and she’s been working as a servant in Grimsby with Dr Holland. She was accused of stealing a postage stamp which had been marked by the doctor. She was fired and she had gone to her sister’s in Louth to look for a situation there and to buy a new dress. The woman at the register-office, Mrs Brogden, said she’d have nothing to do with her anymore and she left extremely upset. Next thing she knew she could hear her upstairs, let out a scream and she told her sister she had taken poison. The doctor arrived at 4-30 p.m. and she was dead by 6-30 p.m. The chemist admitted to selling her a packet of “Battle’s Vermin Killer”. Mrs Brogden said tried to find her a situation at Alford but a letter from Mrs Holland, telling her to wipe her name from her books, changed her mind. Her boyfriend then went to Mrs Brogden’s and asked about what had occurred, when she gave him a copy of the “Lincoln Gazette” and he said he’d finish with her as well. The verdict was “Sarah Graves administered poison to herself, that contained strychnine, while in a state of unsound mind. (See also Grimsby No. 72)

28/ Ticklepenny Lock Suicide, Louth, June 1886

48-year-old Charles Turner, a groom of no fixed abode but formerly of North Somercotes and Louth, met his death by drowning himself in the Louth Navigation just below Ticklepenny Lock in the parish of Keddington. He went out to look for work as he was unemployed and went to stay at the Livesey Arms in Ludborough, with a relative, Mrs Hewson, but came back to Louth unsuccessful. He then went to stay with another relative, a grandmother called Mrs Hewson who ran the Woolpack Inn pub in Louth. Turner had left his children with her when the wife had died and on this occasion, he seemed really disheartened and said he’d be better off dead. The coroner gave the verdict that “Charles Turner threw himself into the Louth Navigation in Keddington and was drowned, at the same time he was not of sound mind”.

29/ Wesleyan Chapel Death, Eastgate, Louth, April 1876

30/ Norfolk Mill Suicide, Louth, August 1874

A young woman aged twenty-seven, named Sarah Ann, the daughter of Mr David Bee, a saddler, who was married about four months ago to William Cloughton Allen, a confectioner from Leeds formerly of Louth, was found drowned in the lock-pit near Norfolk’s Mill at 7-15 p.m.

It appears she left her home and was last seen alive by friends on the previous night (13th August), just after eight o’ clock and not returning during the night information was given to police, who found her drowned in the place mentioned. She had come home from Leeds for the benefit of her health, all because she kept getting severe pains in her head. She was due to return to Leeds with her husband, who had come to Louth to accompany her to Leeds but she “committed suicide while in a state of unsound mind” according to the jury’s verdict.

31/ Spring Gardens, Louth, June 1877 (Death of a Child)

The death of an unnamed female child of Eliza Wilson, a single woman of Spring Gardens. There had been tons of gossip about how the child died circulating around Louth but thankfully the inquest put pay to these rumours. Eliza Wilson gave premature birth to the child on a Monday night or early Tuesday morning, with her birth accelerated by the violent treatment that her husband dished to her with regular slaps and punches. The woman who attended the birth, Isabella Brown, believed that it was stillborn and that the mother had two black eyes when she arrived and took care of her. She told of how the child was fairly crushed and it neither breathed nor cried when it came out. It knees and ankles appeared to be broken also and it did not fall on the floor at all. The post-mortem suggests that the child was probably dead, approximately five to six days previously.

It sounds to me as the husband punched her in the stomach, causing death to his own daughter!

32/ Louth Navigation Canal, (Drowning Accident) June 1886

 

33/ Louth Workhouse Suicide, January 1883 (Workhouse entrance was the Hospital entrance now)

Mary Ann Swaby was a 48-year-old inmate of Louth Workhouse who was found hanging by the neck, stone cold dead at six a.m. one morning. She had been at the Workhouse since April, a good eight months or so and who suffered from depression, but was showing signs of getting better. She had been in the sick ward ever since arriving in April. Swaby told her room-mate that she was going to the toilet late one night and the next time she heard about her, she was dead. The nurse who found her, Elizabeth Russell, found her hanging from a balustrade with her feet three inches from the floor. The handkerchief with which she hanged herself was twisted and not tied in a knot.

34/ Ryley’s Brickyard, Louth, August 1884 (Two Boys Drowned)

In a piece of waste ground lying between Eastgate and Monk’s Dyke Road is known as Ryley’s Brickyard, which was the scene of a double tragedy. Clay was obtained from the pit to make bricks and this is now filled with water, which is approximately forty feet deep in places. It is an ideal bathing spot for young boys and girls in the area and during winter and when it freezes over it attracts skaters and sliders. The boys had gone there on the 20th August, just after dinner time and Charles Brumhead, the younger of the two brothers, aged twelve, went in first and was seen to be struggling by his brother, thirteen-year-old David Brumhead, who was just getting undressed. David plunged in to save him. Hogarth who was nearby feared that both would be drowned if he didn’t help, so he dived in. He pulled out David and when he went to go back for Charles, he again saw David back in the water. Both boys sank like stones and the verdict was returned as “Accidental death”.

35/ Spring Gardens Suicide, Louth, August 1905

 

36/ Louth Navigation Canal Suicide, March 1884

James Ingoldby aged twenty-four was found drowned in the basin of the Louth Navigation Canal. He had probably committed suicide due to lack of sleep and being very poorly. He suffered from a delusion and on top of this, plus he was partial to a drink or two. The delusion was that Sergeant Smith had sent him a paper and this had preyed on his mind very much. The deceased had often mentioned that he would rather be dead than live on like this, and the fact that he had an accident when he was six years old that caused him to have seizures but they left him as he got older. A man by the name of Jackson found the corpse along with a hat and a butcher’s coat, so he hooked the young man to the bank. The verdict was one of suicide.

37/ Newbridge Hill, Louth, June 1870 (Fatal Accident)

A fatal accident occurred at R.J. Nells Great Northern Cake Mills, Newbridge Hill, Louth, to the engineer, Thomas Sutterby, who was found dead on the floor of the engine-house, at about 2-45.p.m. Nobody witnessed the dreadful accident. It is believed he was oiling the engine and got his arm entangled in it, and on extricating himself, he was hit on the head by one of the governors (large iron balls by which engines are regulated) and knocked down on the pump which supplies the boiler with water. His head was gashed quite badly and had a broken arm. He was left alone for about an hour, before the accident, so it could have occurred somewhere in that time span. He was pronounced dead at the scene and sadly he leaves a widow and three children.

38/ Cemetery Lane, Louth, April 1876 (Burning Fatality)

39/ Louth, (Fatal Gun Accident) September 1860

An inquest was held at the house of Mr Schofield of Wood Lane, on the body of John Schofield aged sixteen, who lost his life in a terrible accident. A lad named Woolhouse who worked for Mr Luck, was engaged in frightening away the birds from a wheat field one Sunday, with a gun charged only with powder. Schofield went up to the lad and took a handful of pebbles, then putting the butt on the ground and putting his hand over the muzzle, he carelessly flicked the trigger. The gun went off, passing through his hand, then his chest. He was killed at the scene. The verdict was “Accidental Death”.

40/ Willows Lock, Louth, January 1882

Just for a change, there is another case of somebody killing themselves by drowning in the town of Louth. William Barton decided to end it all at Willows Lock when he spotted by witnesses to plunge straight into the canal. The inquest was held at Mr Ticklepenny’s house at Keddington and it was said that he committed the fatal act not too far from there. He was seen rushing past the gardens at Holmes Lane heading to Keddington in a real hurry. The doctor of the deceased said he came to him complaining of sleepless nights and the doctor had twice treated him for delirium tremens (shakes alcoholics get after withdrawal). Charles Marshall saw him coming down from the Alvingham Road by the side of the river, then put his hand on the side of the lock, then leapt in. Everybody who saw him that day said he looked like a man on a mission, and in a real hurry. This was definitely a case of “Suicide whilst of unsound mind”.

41/ Newmarket, Louth, December 1871 (Woodshed Suicide)

42/ Spital Hill, Louth, (Off South Street) (Child Mansaughter?) January 1877

This story was regarding the death of an illegitimate child of Eleanor Brown of Spital Hill. The little infant, Charles Butters-Brown was only seven weeks old and whose mother, Eleanor, was the mother of several other illegitimate children. This was the only one under an inquiry. They lived in a wretched hovel in Spital Hill and Charles had been ill for a few days so she had put it to bed to rest then went downstairs, returning after twenty minutes, when its breathing seemed low. She ran to a neighbours house and they came in and Eleanor said she thought it was asleep and shook it. After half an hour, the little mite was dead. By all accounts, it was a sickly child and gave it five drops of Godfrey’s (presumably some type of oil/linctus) and bizarrely took the label off the bottle the previous day to the child’s death. The father, Charles Butters, gave such ridiculous answers at the inquest he was warned several times by the coroner. He was drunk as a skunk when he was there. The doctor who examined the body said there were no marks of violence on it, but a couple of scars and he believed he died of natural causes.

43/ Spital Hill, Louth, (Death of Baby in Hovel) May 1878

The inquest here was regarding the body of the unnamed male child of 21-year-old Rachel Smith, who died under painful circumstances. A neighbour of Rachel Smith’s, Mrs Winters also of Spital Hill, popped in to see her as she was aware that she was pregnant. What met her gaze, was the newly-born child on the floor and Rachel Smith all alone in the house. The child was alive and Mrs Winters picked it up, but the little one died fifteen minutes later. Rachel was a single woman and the house was a real dump and Mrs Winters knew she was pregnant but wasn’t aware she was so close to giving birth. The body of the child was shown to the jury and the tiny box it was in was passed around for them to view. Mrs Winters said that her husband was the steward for the houses and that the girl had told her she was three months off her confinement but said she wouldn’t go the Workhouse, as her sister in Grimsby would take care of everything. Rachel had been walking the streets the previous night with nowhere to go and Mrs Winters put her in the accommodation she was in now. She saw her in a corner saying “For God’s sake, fetch me a bed” and she thought that she would be a mother in a moment or two, so she went to get someone but when I came back she moved her dress and the baby was underneath it, on the floor.

No blame could be attached to anyone for the death of the child, said the coroner, although her awful living conditions didn’t help.

44/ Hutson’s Yard, Eastgate, (Starving Woman) June 1870

45/ River Lud, Louth, (Infants Body Found) December 1871

An inquest was held on the body of a male child which had been found floating in the River Lud, near to Mr Newman’s mill at the Riverhead, by a man named William Padley. From the decomposition of the body, it could not be ascertained whether the child had ever breathed. A handkerchief and a piece of flannel in which the body was wrapped are now laid at the police station for the purpose of identification.

46/ Jolly Sailor Inn, No. 47 Eastgate, Louth January 1875

Charles Cooke aged thirty-nine, of Cooke and Sons, wine and spirit merchants of Boston, died suddenly at the house of Mr F.Erett, the Jolly Sailor Inn at Louth. He was on a short visit to Louth and was taken ill the previous night when a doctor was called for. He was taken care of by the Erett’s and felt better the next morning. He left alone in his room to rest some more, but when visited later on, he was found lying dead in bed. The post-mortem examination of Cooke’s body stated that death was from a large clot of fibrin in the right ventricle of the heart, causing faintness and exhaustion. (What is No 47 Eastgate now?)

47/ Eastgate Child Fatality, Louth, April 1865

48/ Louth, October 1880 (Pensioners Suicide)

75-year-old Charles Atkinson, a former groom to Dr Bell for many years, committed suicide by poisoning himself with arsenic. The deceased killed himself at his lodging house in South Street Cottages, Spital Hill in Louth. Mrs Peters went to see him as he’d been ill and her five-year-old boy took a cup in his hand and he screamed at her not to let the boy touch the contents. When asked what was in it he replied magnesia, to make him feel better. It was actually filled with cold tea and some sort of powder. He later told her that he was about to die and could she help him upstairs to bed. Mrs Peters didn’t call for a doctor but his grandson instead. Mr Ennals, the doctor, came at seven o’clock and stayed until he died later on that evening. The grandson, 17-year-old Charles Atkinson, said that he was depressed about having sold his home and moved into lodgings. He took an ounce of laudanum in May but the doctor managed to save his life on that occasion.

49/ Spring Gardens, (Terrible Living Conditions) April 1879

“Unfortunate” women was a Victorian term for prostitutes and Spring Gardens behind the Turks Head was particularly rife and was a seedy part of Louth. The inquest was held at the Turks Head on the death of an illegitimate child of  Alice Emma Grant of Spring Gardens. The mother of the child had been leading an immoral life and lived in Spring Gardens, a well-known place to all of doubtful repute. The child was born one morning with a midwife there and died within twelve hours. It seemed a bit suspect hence the coroner’s jury were asked to make an appearance. The coroner thought the child was a weakly one. The midwife said she had been twice before to Alice Grant’s, to deliver a child and the first was stillborn, the next died within three weeks. Death was due to natural causes.

50/ Louth Canal Suicide, December 1861

51/ Monks Dyke, Louth, (Child Drowned) June 1877

The lifeless corpse of John Thomas Davison aged two and a half was discovered in Monk’s Dyke one Saturday morning. He had gone out to play with another lad of the same age. They wandered along Monk’s Dyke for a considerable distance and when opposite Ryley’s brickyard, he fell in the water. His little friend ran home crying but could not say anything. The parents lived in North’s Yard and the invalid mother had to have help at home from a woman named Snowden, so life was tough, as her husband only worked on the railway. She sent a 13-year-old girl to help Mrs Davison that day and she fell asleep. Next, she heard her little boy was drowned. When police got to the scene of the accident the young boy had been lifted out of the water and was on dry land, but with an apron thrown over the body. The dyke was in a terrible condition and extremely unsanitary. The boy named Abel, who raised the alarm, was washing his two puppies when he saw the body of the boy lying on its back in the dyke. The verdict was death by drowning, with no blame attached to anyone.

52/ Louth Navigation Canal, Keddington, June 1878 (Girl Drowned)

11-year-old Sarah Brown was found in the Louth Canal having drowned there. She was “fostered ” by Mrs Larder at Keddington, who had her there for seven years, having been boarded out by the Guardians of the Louth Union. At the front of the house is a massive field which leads to water’s edge but had no fence. A neighbour heard a cry of “Help” coming from the water and she ran down and saw the girl, then she ran to get Mr.Larder. When they got there they could only see the fingers of girl, in the centre of the canal. Alfred Ticklepenny, (a busy man in the town!) went out in a boat and got her out but she was already dead when they reached the bank. Sarah used to go fishing for sticklebacks, but Mrs Larder was in the dark about this. Apparently, she fell in the water a few years ago and Mrs Larder forbade her to go near it again. She had been truant a few times but on the whole, was a good kid. This was adjudged by the jury to be nothing more than a tragic accident which resulted in the young girl drowning.

53/ Pye’s Lane Suicide, Louth, August 1875

 

54/ James Street/Ticklepenny’s Lock, Louth, December 1869 (Townsman Vanishes)

George Ward was a well-known inhabitant of Louth, but he went missing on November 17th and was seen to labouring under the impression that his property would be confiscated and that he would be left in poverty. His housekeeper observed him at his house in James Street near Ramsgate, burning documents and papers just before his disappearing act. For the past three weeks the main talk around town, is “Where the hell is he?”. Rewards were offered, the canal dragged and relatives in other towns written to, asking if they’d seen him. He was finally discovered in Ticklepenny’s Lock, when it was dragged, with the body taken to the Woolpack Inn, Riverhead and placed in an outhouse. His corpse was in an amazing condition and the coroner had just received that day a most vile and scandalous anonymous letter implicating certain people in his disappearance. When discovered, the face was caked in mud and in his pockets were a comb, seven keys, a knife, handkerchief and rather oddly, a pair of nutcrackers. There is no doubt that the body had laid in a hollow made by machines that scoop out the mud from the canal bed and there must have been thirty of these machines pass over, thus embedded the corpse in the mud. The letter the coroner got, said that he’d been murdered and left to decompose until all traces of violence had vanished, then he would be lobbed into the river. The deceased had been playing dominoes with a friend of his, Mr Cox, but his behaviour seemed odd. The housekeeper said that he became suicidal a couple of years and had been watched. He thought he had no money but had just banked £300 and believed he had no watch, when in fact he had four of them. All in all, he was losing it! The verdict was that he was found dead in the canal, on the 7th December and the cause of death was drowning.

55/ Eastgate, Louth, April 1870 (Suicide by Poison)

56/ Spital Hill, Louth, (Enveloped in Flames) March 1876

Alice Maud Mary Elam, nearly four years of age, met with an awful accident which caused her to be severely burned and this would ultimately end her life. The mother, Elizabeth Elam, lived at Spital Hill and had one day popped into next door’s house and left little Alice alone with a young boy. While she had been gone for five minutes she looked out of the window and saw her daughter enveloped in flames in the street. The flames were extinguished and she was whisked off to hospital. The young lad who was with her, her brother, John, said that she had lit a piece of paper and her dress caught fire by accident. She ran into the street which fanned the flames and before he knew it, she was engulfed. Alice died of her appalling burns the next morning. There was a recommendation that every dwelling-house should have a fire guard and this would help save the lives of dozens, if not hundreds, of child victims who died in the same way.

57/ Market Place, Louth, (Fatal Accident) August 1869

69-year-old Francis Markham was a well-respected member of the community in Louth, and who worked as a bricklayer for J.Motson Thompson, a builder in the town. Francis was on the top of some scaffolding, in front of the shop which used to be Mr Allen the confectioners and adjoining those of Cosworth’s grocer in the Market Place, which had been bought by him, and was now being renovated. He overbalanced while up there and fell down on the pavement below, smashing his head on the tiles and breaking the spout in the adjoining premises, Dawson’s butchers, then he landed in the street. He had terrible gashes and lacerations to his head and within half an hour the poor chap had expired. The fall was around a thirty feet drop and the son explained that his father’s eyesight was beginning to let him down and he had suffered a mild attack of sciatica recently. The verdict was one of “Accidental Death”.

58/ Westgate Suicide, Louth, October 1870

 

59/ Louth Navigation Canal, (Child Drowned) July 1875

Eight and a half-year-old Joseph Proctor was found dead, floating in the Louth Navigation Canal. The father, Thomas Proctor, said he had been sent to Mrs Nell’s garden to fetch some vegetables in a basket. At the spot he was discovered, he must have bent down to get a drink from the spring and somehow, whether, by the wind blowing him in or a dizzy spell, he ended up in the water. He was found near a stone trough into which water is conducted from a spring in order to supply vessels, adjoining the wall of the canal basin. The verdict was “Accidentally drowned”.

60/ River Lud, Louth, Child Drowned) May 1874

Another drowning of a small child in the town of Louth. I’m surprised there were any kids left in Victorian times, as they were either burned or drowned in some tragic event every month or so. This was William Arthur Little, whose father was the superintendent of Louth Gasworks and he ended up drowning in the River Lud. He was playing with three other kids in the back-yard, two who were about seven and the other about the same age as William, three and a half years old. They wandered off together and he was found near the water-mill adjoining the gas-works, where he was pulled him out of the water, then handed to his father who took him inside. He bathed him in warm water and rubbed him with salt (?) in order to revive him, all to no avail. Apparently, the River Lud was in a right state, the banks were falling apart and it was filthy, but again it was a verdict of Accidentally Drowned”, which seems to a very popular one in Louth.

Eastgate, Louth, Early 1900’s

61/ Eastgate, Louth, (Near White Swan) June 1877 (See postcard above)

 

62/ Eastgate, Louth, January 1890 (Suicide by Hanging)

health, but rather despondent. She complained of her head a good deal. He thought she was suffering from temporary insanity at the time she committed suicide. The jury returned a verdict of “Suicide whilst temporarily insane” and the Coroner prepared an inquisition to this effect.

 

63/ Louth Murder, (Peter Blanchard) 7th March 1875

Possibly the most infamous murder in the history of Louth. Peter Blanchard aged twenty-six, a tanner, had been seeing 22-year-old Louise Hodgson for about four years but a sudden pang of jealousy interfered in the relationship. He confronted her when she was leaving the Free Methodist Chapel in Eastgate when they walked to her father’s house. Later on, an argument broke out and he stabbed her in the chest. Louise was dead within a few minutes and police caught up with Blanchard within the hour. The father lived in New-market and he stabbed her in the passageway at the side of the house.

March 13th, 1875

The funeral of Louise Hodgson took place at Louth Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon, in the presence of 1200-1500 spectators.

The prisoner left Louth by the 6-24 a.m. train, bound for Lincoln, with around 400-500 persons waiting on the platform ready to watch him leave. At the principal stations through which the train passed, crowds had gathered to catch a glimpse of the murderer. He was safely lodged in Lincoln Castle within 36 hours of the commission of the murder.

March 20th, 1875

At Lincoln Assizes, Friday the 12th, an application was made on the part of the defence of Peter Blanchard, charged with the murder of Louise Hodgson at Louth. The testimony was rather peculiar as regarded the epileptic fits and their influence on the mind of a prisoner.

64/ Louth Murderer Execution, August 1875

65/ Charles Street area, Louth,  May 1877 (Brother of Louth Murderer)

A boy named Henry Blanchard whose parents reside near the brickyard in Charles Street, died very suddenly on Thursday morning last. He was out playing in the fair on the previous night and appeared to be enjoying himself very much. The deceased was between twelve and thirteen years of age and was the brother of Peter Blanchard.

66/ Louth Prison Death, (House of Correction?) October 1869

41-year-old Henry Barnes was a prisoner in Louth gaol and died from an epileptic seizure one morning. He was there under four charges of the Vagrancy Act by magistrates in Louth and at Grimsby. He was put to work on the tread-wheel, but by order of the surgeon he was excused hard labour and put on a third class diet of food. Knowing about his seizures he was placed in a cell with two other inmates, Elliott and Horrocks. Since the suicide last year (See below), there was a communication fixed to each cell window by means of a bell, used to alarm warders in case of illness or a suicide attempt. The other cellmates saw him writhing about in a violent fit, then he rolled out of bed and fell to the floor. When the turnkey arrived in the morning he was found dead.

67/ Louth House of Correction Suicide, December 1868

Teenager Santy Beverley was slapped into prison on a charge of robbery with violence in Grimsby and was brought to Louth to serve his time. He’d been here before on charges of drunkenness and assaulting his parents at Grimsby. To sum him up, he was a bone idle habitual criminal and he had threatened to kill himself many a time and tried to commit suicide twice. The cell was in an old part of the prison and was in a wretched state. He asked a fellow prisoner what sentence he thought they’d get but he was told to shut his mouth. When breakfast arrived a warder found him hanging by the window and he was cold to the touch, with rigor mortis setting in. He tied a scarf to the window and hung himself that way.

68/ Louth Canal, Keddington, (Body Found) July 1866

69/ Louth Canal Suicide, September 1880

Another day and another person in Victorian Louth gets fed up with life and jumps into the canal to end it all. This one was Thomas Swaby aged thirty-one, from Louth. John Robinson was off down to the Canal for a quick dip and saw some men with a rake fishing around the canal. One of them told him that Thomas Swaby had drowned, as he’d found his hat and coat, so rather obligingly John put on his trunks and dived in to find the body. He brought it to the surface, while his coat pockets were searched and in them was a letter, some photos and handkerchief. Alfred Ticklepenny was out and about again! He said he saw deceased at 8-40 a.m. near Keddington Lock. A mate of his said that he had stayed with him the night before, then left at eight a.m. with nothing to eat or drink. Another witness said he stopped at the place a woman drowned herself some time ago, stood and pondered for a while, twiddling with leaves in his fingers. Swaby had twenty-five photos of women in his pocket, most of them public characters, with the letter mentioning family arguments but little else. The brother of Thomas, Isaac Swaby, told the jury that he got very morose when he’d been drinking and lately he had been knocking it back as if was going out of fashion. He had also threatened suicide when he had been on the ale. The verdict was “Drowned himself whilst in a fit of temporary insanity”.

70/ Spring Gardens Death, Louth, (Squalid Conditions) September 1875

Thomas Burke, an Irish labourer aged forty-two, accidentally fell down the stairs at his lodgings in Spring Gardens and killed himself. When the jury went to visit the house to examine the staircase, they were overcome by an unbelievable stench. The wife, Mary Ann Burke, said they lived at Spring Gardens with six children, the eldest was ten years old. He had been to the Black Horse for a drink and he came in, she pulled off his boots and got him into bed. Later on, while she was outside talking to somebody she heard him fall and he muttered, “Mary Ann I’m killed; I’m done for”. He seemed paralysed and had blood coming from his nose. She tried to get a drink to his lips but within twenty minutes he was dead. When the surgeon arrived he was quite dead, thinking that the cause of death was due to dislocation of the neck. The deceased and the family had lived in these squalid conditions for the past five years and this was reported to the Sanitary Officers and notice was given to cleanse the premises.

71/ Titley’s Brickyard (Charles St/Holmes Lane) October 1886

David Daniel Rawlings, country letter carrier,

72/ Louth Canal near Keddington Lock (Sad tale this one) May 1879

If you’re one of those people into the paranormal, then I suggest you get your E.V.P. box and go down to the canal at Louth, as there must be dozens of spirits floating about here. Another suicide! This was in broad daylight, afternoon in fact. Benjamin Sanderson was in his garden when he spotted the female walking briskly on the footpath when she next appeared to be jumping into the canal. He got the garden rake and ran to help her. He followed the noise of the screams and being elderly he didn’t dive in after her, but tried as best he could. She sank in a couple of minutes in one of the deep parts of the canal, maybe 7-8 feet deep. Mr Ticklepenny at the next lock, was called for and he dragged the area and about an hour and a half later she was discovered. There was a piece of paper in her purse with the following lines written on it:

“We yet may meet again .- Though sorrow’s clouds are o’er us now, And I must soon depart, Perhaps for years, in foreign lands, To roam with aching heart, We still may hope that happier days, In store for us remain, And though we part in anguish now, We yet may meet again. Oh well I know, when far away, You oft will think of me, What truth is in my gentle voice, And breathes ” I live for thee”, Yet faithful still in every clime, If rained to higher station, Though distance may divide us now, We yet may meet again”.

Police discovered that it was the body of 37-year-old Elizabeth Alcock, living at 11, Nichol Hill in Louth. Her husband was a good for nothing waster bordering on alcoholic and violent with it. Elizabeth brought in most of the money by charring and washing, which he spent in pubs. There were five kids to feed and clothe as well. A man, Allan Atkin, whom she did charring work for, said she seemed more despondent than ever when he saw her last. This was on account of her husband being drunk again, then she mumbled, “I wish I was dead”. The husband was next up and he said they’d been married eighteen years and had five children, the youngest was five and the eldest was sixteen. They mentioned about his lack of work, how they managed, and so on. The husband went to see if his wife was at Atkin’s house but she wasn’t. (Did he think there was something going on between them?)

The verdict was one of suicide whilst of unsound mind, but they also added that this was brought on by the ill-treatment at the hands of her husband. Poor lass!

73/ Batty’s Passage, Maiden Row, Louth, March 1875 (Illegitimate Child)

Arthur Codd was the four-month-old child Anne Codd, a domestic servant, who died suddenly on Tuesday, March 2nd. It was so sudden the coroner was a bit weary of the circumstances that led to his demise. Arthur was the illegitimate child of Anne Codd who was working elsewhere, so used to pass the child on to others to look after him. One such person was a woman named Flears, of Batty’s Passage, Maiden Row. When the jury went to visit the place where the child’s body was at Flears house, this was written about it:

The room the jury visited is one of the most wretched dens in the Borough. Damp, dark, and miserable. Many stables and even pig-sties are a palace compared to this abode of wretchedness, for which the unhappy tenant pays one shilling a week. The owner of the property, a man named Brocklebank, had a visit from the Sanitary officers, in order to close the same for human habitation, was considered necessary by some of the jury”.

Flears said that Anne brought the child for her to nurse about a fortnight ago. She paid me three shillings and sixpence a week. When she came to visit on her day off, she was told that he was ill. She said he’d be alright and not to worry about it. The baby wouldn’t eat one day so she gave it some…..GIN ! and then put it to bed. Later on, she went to check and the little fella was dead.

The mother said that it had a case of “the frog” (?) a while back and hadn’t been the same since that. Basically, the young lass was getting no help from the father of little Arthur and her Dad was dead so she had to muddle through in life. It was left by the jury to return a verdict of “Death by Natural Causes”.

74/  Walkergate/Maiden Row, (Fatal Accident)  October 1871

75/  Eastgate, Louth, (Cart Runs Over Man) June 1878

A terrible accident occurred in Eastgate when two horses and a cart, belonging to W.H.Smyth, of Elkington Hall, being driven by Henry White and his son, when near the Post Office the horses were scared by the sound of two buskers playing the cornet and a euphonium. The horses reared up and bolted down Eastgate and White was holding the reins trying to calm them down. They passed the Packhorse Hotel and they knocked over a grocer’s stall and here White fell off and was run over the chest. White got up but was sat down on a chair and given a brandy. The owner of the waggon, W.H.Smyth, was passing by and stayed with his waggoner then, later on, took him to hospital. The fatality occurred further on down the street, when a wheel of the cart flew off, it hit the curb in front of Mr Colam’s shop. Mr Colam was up a ladder and got out of the way when the wheel smashed into Mr Somerton’s window. At this precise time, Matthew Bell came out of Jesse Hall’s shop when the wheel ricocheted and went straight into his chest. He was on the floor, blood oozing from his ear, and quite unconscious. It was put down as an accidental death, but it was the buskers playing without permission that startled the horse and set this series of near misses and close shaves in motion.

76/ Willows Lock, Louth Canal (Female Fished Out) September 1877

51-year-old Betsy Carritt was found dead in the Louth canal near to Willows Lock. Her husband, Edward Carritt, saw her on Saturday afternoon when she went to the Market, which was quite a journey for a woman of her age. Later on that evening a man came and told him that he could hear his wife screaming. They got a lantern and went to search for her. They went to Ticklepenny’s and got the drag, but in the meantime, her corpse had been found in the canal. She was pulled out around 9-30 p.m., with the basket of food in the centre of the lock. She had been for a wee dram at the “Marquis of Granby” around eight p.m., coupled with her short-sightedness, that the husband said she suffered from and also being tired and it being dark, these things contributed to her accidental death.

77/ Norfolk’s Lock, Louth Canal,  December 1870

78/ Lee Street Suicide, Louth, August 1886

 

79/ Louth, (Fathers Suicide) March 1884 (See Number 30 also)

An old man named David Bee aged sixty-nine years, hanged himself in his own home. This was the father of the lass who drowned herself in 1874 near to Norfolk’s Mill on the Louth Canal (see number 30). Mrs Bee was obviously in a terrible state, having lost her daughter a decade ago to suicide, then finding her husband swinging from a rope in the kitchen, she wasn’t very well. Mrs Bee said he’d been despondent for many years now and it seemed as though he was just waiting for life to end and going through the motions. A neighbour named Charles Joseph Archer cut him down and tried to give him some brandy, but he was dead. His feet were touching the ground and he was in a stooping position if he’d stood upright his feet would have been on the floor. The doctor certified that when he arrived Mr Bee was already lifeless. He had severe ligature marks where the cord had dug into his neck. He also added that Mr Bee suffered from epilepsy, having two or three seizures and also from melancholia (depression). The verdict of “Suicide whilst of unsound mind”.

80/ Vicker’s Lane, Louth, (Death While in Labour) April 1864

Syncope- temporary loss of consciousness caused by a fall in blood pressure.

The Bridges that are listed are as follows:- Barnes, Battersea, Blackfriars, Hammersmith, Hungerford, Kew, Kingston, Lambeth, London Bridge, Putney, Richmond, Southwark, Tower, Vauxhall, Victoria Bridge (Chelsea), Wandsworth, Westminster.

Blackfriars Bridge- Infamous in modern times for being the bridge under which the body of Roberto Calvi was found hanging. He was a former Chairman of Italy’s largest private bank and was discovered with some bricks and thousands of dollars stuffed in his pocket in June of 1982.

1/ Blackfriars Bridge Child Murder, April 1867

The clearly insane Mary Ann Hathaway aged forty-five and married was up in court on the charge of wilful murder of her daughter, Mary Hathaway. Her behaviour of late had been very strange and was passed off by friends and family, as she had been in a lunatic asylum, twice before. She walked over Blackfriars Bridge and simply tossed the child over the parapet, thinking she would hear a splash as it entered the Thames, instead heard a dull thud as the poor little mite landed on a barge, then died of its injuries.

2/ Blackfriars Bridge, (Headless Corpse) January 1902

The lower portion of a female was discovered in the Thames near to Blackfriars Bridge. The limbs were nude, apart from the pair of stockings, which puts pay to the suicide theory. A post-mortem examination showed that the limbs had been in the water for a long time, and due to the decomposition it was hard to say if they had been chopped from the upper part of the body, or caught in the propellers of riverside barges. (Was she ever identified?)

3/ Blackfriars Bridge, November 1907 (Four Men Killed)

This tragic accident happened while the four men were working on the bridge-widening scheme, that was going to take up to three years to complete. A giant support collapsed when being lowered into the Thames, to form one of the foundations for the widening of the bridge. It weighed around 200-300 ton and it toppled into the river, taking the men with it. Patrick Irvine aged forty-seven and from Glasgow,~William Grant age thirty-seven, from Aberdeen and William Foster and Arthur Cousins, were the men killed. Grant and Irvine got tangled in the wreckage and went down with it, and Foster and Cousins were mangled in the steelwork.

4/ Blackfriars Bridge Suicide Rescue, January 1899

5/ Blackfriars Bridge, January 1891 (Suicide Note)

57-year-old signwriter, William Prebble, who lived at 46, Regent Square, was discovered in the Thames, next to Blackfriars Bridge.His son identified the body telling the inquest that he father was very much an alcoholic, and he had last seen him the day after Boxing Day.He left one last letter, addressed to his son, and it read:

“By taking a decisive step I relieve you of a great burden, and myself a great deal of misery, as mine is a hopeless case, and what is a fellow to do-no money, no clothes, and no friend to give me a helping hand. I have tried every means of getting work, but all has failed; in fact, I am a miserable failure all through. You have been good to me, more than I ever deserved. I hope there are still many happy and successful years left for you. Forget and Forgive.”

6/ Blackfriars Bridge Boating Fatalities, June 1918

Agnes Martin, a typist, and William Michael Close, both of whom worked at the War Office were drowned near Blackfriars. The pair of them hired a boat and rowed to a barge, when a couple of lads, Durrant and Fowler, saw the boat the boat attached to it. They next saw Martin in the water and Close had dived in to save her, with both of them disappearing at Blackfriars Bridge. The jury told the pair that if they hadn’t have been spying on them with this Peeping Tom act, they might have been able to help them.

7/ Barnes Bridge, (Headless Body) May 1908

The decapitated body of John M.Calder, the 20-year-old son of Dr Calder of Kensington, was discovered on the railway tracks near to Barnes Bridge. Dr Calder explained that his son had been deaf since the age of four. On the night he was killed by the train, he ran out of the house with his father running after him, and a search was made in the vicinity to find him but news came them that his headless corpse had been found.

 

Kingston Bridge, London

8/ Kingston Bridge, June 1870

A smartly dressed gentleman was seen walking over Kingston Bridge, when approximately half-way across, he climbed the parapet, flung his arms in the air, and shouted out “Farewell, forever!”,and plunged into the Thames.The river was dragged by police, and his corpse was discovered nearby.

9/ Kingston Bridge, June 1873 (Chancellor of the Exchequer Causes Suicide)

A man committed suicide by jumping off Kingston Bridge into the Thames, then left a suicide note blaming the Chancellor of the Exchequer for his demise. The victim was George Smith, a 55-year-old fishmonger from Caterham Valley in Kent. He left a hat and a pocketbook on the bridge, with a passing Corporal from the 7th Hussars, coming across it. The letter read:

“My dear, I hope the Lord will help you. I cannot stand it any longer. You will find my body in the Thames, Kingston. Goodbye, and God bless you all. I hope you will not ever feel as I do.” Then scribbled on the card was ” Robert Lowe and the doctor have been the cause of this. Kingston Bridge.”

The son was interviewed about the father’s suicide and he explained that his father had been knocked down by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Robert Lowe, who was riding a bicycle. He was in the hospital for over a month and had sustained three broken ribs. The fishmonger business suffered and he thought that Mr Lowe hadn’t given him adequate compensation for the accident and he went into a depression. The doctor’s part in all this was a hefty bill for medical services, that he could not pay.

10/ Kingston Bridge Suicide, October 1897

Just after midnight, a well-dressed young woman of around twenty-years of age killed herself by jumping off Kingston Bridge and drowning herself. A policeman on his beat heard the shriek, then a splash of water. He got in a boat and went to rescue the young lass, but found her body floating on the surface. The deceased was a domestic servant who worked in Molesey, just down the river. The body had various cuts and bruises on it, from her striking one of the buttresses on the way down. (Name?)

 

Southwark Bridge.

11/ Southwark Bridge Road, (Box of Skulls) March 1909

While workmen were digging the foundations for an extension to the London Fire Brigade HQ in Southwark Bridge Road, they stumbled on a six-foot-long box, which contained seventeen human skulls and the skeletal remains of seventeen human beings. Police believe that they are the remains of plague victims and were dumped in mass graves, just like this one.

12/ Southwark Bridge Road, July 1896 (Another Load of Bones)

Again the story is nearly identical to the 1909 one, when workmen were excavating at number 52, Southwark Bridge Road, when they found dozens of human skulls and a ton of bones to go with them. They were discovered in a sort of pit which covered several square yards and they were unceremoniously dumped on top of each other, and at last count, there were fifty skulls all in a good condition. (Were these plague victims as well?)

13/ Southwark Bridge Suicides, May 1845

John James Gogerley, a 51-year-old, stood on Southwark Bridge and fired a pistol into his chest. A passer-by found him lying on the floor, drenched in blood and with the pistol stock still in his hands, with the barrel blown to bits. He told a night watchman named Pearce that he wanted to kill a rabid dog near his sister’s house, so he lent him the weapon. He lingered in the hospital for a few days but finally expired.

14/ November 1869

A gentleman was strolling over Southwark Bridge towards Cannon Street, holding a medicine bottle, when he stopped and asked a chestnut-seller which way St Paul’s churchyard was. She was just pointing him in the right direction, when he leapt upon the parapet, then hollered “This is the way!” and fell head-first into the icy waters of the Thames. Apparently, this was the third such suicide from Southwark Bridge in the past month.

 

Tower Bridge

15/ Tower Bridge Corpse, November 1889

Construction was begun on Tower Bridge in 1886 and was completed in 1894, so the discovery of a female corpse under one of the arches at the approach to the new bridge, was certainly while there were bricks and mortar all over the place. A man named Tiddley saw the woman in a foetal position and told a copper. When she approached it was found that she was lifeless.

16/ Tower Bridge, November 1894 (Fatal Leap of Professional Diver)

Benjamin Fuller was a 38-year-old clerk during the day and a professional diver at the Royal Aquarium in his spare time. The Bridge having just been completed, as a sort of stunt he told his missus that he was going to jump off the Tower Bridge the next day. He performed the dive and when he came up, he turned his head, then sank. The post-mortem examination revealed that he had died from suffocation and the cause of drowning was the “concussion of the chest with the water, resulting in loss of breath”. In layman’s terms, he smacked the water like concrete causing injury to his chest and internal organs.

17/ Tower Bridge Fatality, July 1894

The construction was nearly finished and the scaffolding was beginning to come down. One labourer, 36-year-old Edward Burns from Poplar, was on top of the scaffolding when he accidentally tripped and fell straight into the Thames and sank like a stone. The police dragged the river for the body but it wasn’t recovered, so if a professional diver (above) can’t survive a fall like that then a workman definitely won’t. (Did they recover his body?)

18/ Tower Bridge Suicide Attempt, August 1895 (Did he die of his wounds?)

This chap, Thomas John Foster, only about thirty odd, had been an out-patient of Guy’s Hospital for “softening of the brain”, whatever that means. He never showed signs of any suicidal tendencies but he flung himself from one of the upper parts of Tower Bridge. He caught the side of the bridge on his way down which diverted him into the roadway, breaking an arm and his ankle. Foster, while laying in a heap and realizing he hadn’t killed himself, was approached by a policeman and thinking rather quickly for a supposed lunatic, told him to go and stop his brother from jumping off. The policeman believed his diversionary lie and while he was gone, Foster took out a razor and sliced open his throat. The policeman came back and found Foster with his fingers in the deep gash, trying to make it fatal. He was whisked off to Guy’s hospital where he was placed in a padded cell.

 

Westminster Bridge

19/ Westminster Bridge March 1909 (Coded Suicide Note)

This is certainly my favourite clipping in the London Bridges section. I think that even the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes would give himself an aneurysm trying to work out this coded acronym. It starts with the suicide of a Balham shop assistant, Florence Elkington who plummeted from Westminster Bridge to her death. A Valentine card was sent to her boyfriend and scribbled on the back was the following: “My Dear Mother- just a few lines to say that I am- G.N.L.U.B.J.A.V.T.”

The boyfriend was Joseph Gesuri, an Italian who resided in Mayfield in Sussex. He told police that he had known her for four years and even proposed to her three years ago. He went to her house at Balham on Sunday afternoon, then that night they got the train to Westminster Bridge. He gave her the Valentine back, thinking that she must be seeing another bloke behind his back. On the tram, he fell asleep, and the conductor told him that the young lady got off at Westminster Bridge and there had jumped into the river. (I thought the J.stood for Joseph and the V.was Valentine, but that was as far as I got! Just to tidy one thing up, the acronym was written on the back of the valentine handed back to her so she did this just before her suicide. I think!)

20/ Westminster Bridge, May 1902 (Watched Husband’s Suicide)

William Charles Beale, a 27-year-old fishmonger’s assistant pulled a sicky at work and went to the Epsom races instead. His employer sacked him the next day. Then one evening, while he was strolling over Westminster Bridge he suddenly had a mad moment and he gave her his watch, then mumbled “You can always get something for that”, and dived into the water.

21/ Westminster Bridge Fatality, September 1909

A painter, Henry Champion aged thirty-two, was giving Westminster Bridge a new coat of paint when the plank of wood he was standing on gave way and the poor chap was thrown into the Thames. Champion was a good swimmer but the fall had caused a spinal injury, so he couldn’t manage more than a few strokes before he vanished under the murky brown waters.

22/ Westminster Bridge Murder, August 1881

A Private in the Coldstream Guards, John Evans, was charged with the murder of a prostitute (“Unfortunates” as they were called in those days), by shoving over Westminster Bridge. A witness saw the two of them on the bridge and he seemed to help her up, then grabbed hold, then let go of her. They were slurring their words as if they were drunk. He waited a minute then walked away. Another witness said she’d seen them both arguing the toss and swearing at each other. A fellow soldier in the Grenadier Guards, said that he met Evans and he said “I and a female have had a few words; Shall I jump over, and I said “Yes”. ” The body of a female matching her description was spotted near a river steamer, but couldn’t be recovered. (Who was she?)

23/ Westminster Bridge Tragedy, July 1841 (Tragic Accident-Three Drown)

One early evening in July of 1841, a boat with people in it, capsized, when it hit the fourth starling on the Lambeth side of Westminster Bridge. Rescue operations went into full swing and four of the passengers were saved but another three were lost in the muddy waters of the Thames. Two of them were a newly married couple, who were wed the day before this awful occurrence.

24/ Westminster Bridge Suicide, February 1914

A bridge cleaner, David Edwards, was going about his business on Albert Embankment when he saw a woman sat on a bench reading a book. He thought it was strange because of the freezing cold temperatures, so he pretended to adjust a lifebelt so he could chat to her. After talking to her she seemed OK, so he left her alone. A short while later he was near Westminster Bridge when a man told him that he had just seen a woman’s face in the water. It turned out to be the female reader he had seen a while ago. The corpse was identified as Mary Ion, the widow of a captain in the Navy. Her suicide must have due to the fact that her husband was dead and she had nine children to look after, she became more and more depressed with each passing day. The lady had worked in a Birmingham hotel but left on the 14th January and stayed with her husband. Then she had left him to go back to Birmingham and work and he had died in the meantime. Mary Ion never saw her husband again. It was thought that she was in London looking for a job to support the kids.

 

London Bridge

25/ London Bridge, January 1862 (Omnibus Suicide)

Mr Herring, the owner of an omnibus company in Lewisham, had been running his vehicles from there into the City on a daily basis, then returning to Lewisham. One night the omnibus was on its usual route, when the conductor, Mr Herring junior, the boss’s son, jumped off the “monkey board” and while in motion, he ran through the crowds and straight onto the steps of a recess and dived into the Thames. Throngs of people gathered around and a drag of the river never caught the body. Witnesses said on the way down he appeared to strike the brickwork and masonry very heavily, so could have been dead before he went into the water.

26/ London Bridge Infanticide, December 1875

A jury decided that Jan Hase, a German, was guilty of the wilful murder of an infant who died from exposure after being abandoned by him on London Bridge. When arrested, he readily admitted that the child belonged to his sister and that she had come from Holland to be confined. He couldn’t find anyone to take care of the infant, so he left it on London Bridge hoping that someone would care for it or take it to a workhouse.

27/ London Bridge Suicides, April 1883

While a P.C was on his beat one morning, over London Bridge, a man described by the officer as mid-thirties and wearing the attire of a butcher, came rushing towards him. He took off the apron and gave it to the officer, who was confused by the sudden actions and then climbed onto the edge of the bridge, hollered “Goodbye, I’m off!”, then dived in. The policeman tried to grab hold of him but he was just too late and he entered the waters and promptly sank like a boulder. Police dragged this section of the Thames but came up with no body.

28/ March 1896

A woman who had been sat on the bench near London Bridge for hours on end, suddenly rose to her feet, mounted the parapet and screamed “Prevent me if you can; I’ll do it while I’ve got the chance”, then plummeted off the edge, hitting (as you can see in the postcard above) one of buttresses on the way. She must have been concussed as she hit the water and she soon sank. Her body was not found but she was described as five feet two inches tall, 35-ish, fair-haired, with a black straw hat, jacket and black skirt on.

29/ London Bridge Boat Accident, March 1885

30/ London Bridge, May 26th, 1872 (Another Boating Accident)

Mr Jewson, foreman of Phillips and Graves, lightermen, decided to go out on the Thames with his family and friends, about a dozen in total, in a pleasure boat to Kew. They got as far as going under the arches of London Bridge when a steamer swung around and her keel smacked into the pleasure boat and tipped it over. Everyone was thrown into the Thames and nine were fortunately rescued. The dead were three young lads; Thomas Llewellyn aged eighteen, Thomas Morgan aged fourteen and fifteen-year-old Thomas Jewson.

31/ London Bridge Suicide, December 1886

A woman dressed all in black climbed the seat of one of the recesses on London Bridge and plunged into the water. The bridge was chock-a-block with pedestrians and horses and carriages travelling along and one brave soul tried to grasp hold of the female suicider. She was found by a pair of boatmen down the river and taken to the hospital. The patient was unconscious and had a huge gas under her chin and despite every effort to save her, she expired soon afterwards. The post-mortem showed that she had both thighs broken and her lower jaw was shattered, due to the impact when she hit the buttress. Age is thought to be around the mid to late-twenties.

32/ London Bridge, December 1919 (Sweetheart Suicide)

Nineteen-year-old Annie Seabrook from Smithfield, jumped off London Bridge whilst on a walk with her sweetheart. Albert Woods, piermaster, said he heard a shout and ran down to the foreshore to see a soldier who said that his girlfriend had just jumped into the Thames. The boyfriend, Frank Vail, a gunner in the Tank Corps, said that he had been going out with her for five years and they’d gone for a walk over the bridge. They parted for a minute, then she shouted-“Goodbye, mate!” and dived in. He said there hadn’t been a quarrel of any kind and he was at a loss as to why she killed herself.

 

33/ Victoria Bridge Suicide, Chelsea, May 1885

A man of dapper appearance was seen to jump from the Victoria Bridge at Chelsea. A witness described that on his descent, he clattered into the buttress and was saved from entering the Thames. Unfortunately, the striking of the masonry on the way over, finished him off as he died at the hospital, shortly after being admitted. He is approximately forty years of age, five feet seven inches, dark-haired, moustache and beard with grey eyes. A couple of letters were in his pocket, addressed to “Mr M.Archer, 44, Chatham Street, Battersea” and another to “T.P.Gilfoyle, c/o Mr Green, 76, Great Portland Street”

34/ Wandsworth Bridge Boating Fatality, September 1902

A sad boating accident occurred near Wandsworth Bridge one afternoon. Miss Frances Langley and Arthur Bidgood, residing in Clapham, an engaged couple who were due to be married next week went for a boat trip on the river. When they got to Wandsworth Bridge he stood up to take his jacket off and the boat started to wobble, then tipped over. The pair were precipitated into the river and Miss Langley was eventually rescued, but Mr Bidgood was carried off with the strong current.

35/ Vauxhall Bridge Corpse, August 1910

The body of William James Brody aged forty-two, of Rowton House in Newington Butts was found floating in the Thames. Walter Pickett, a swimming instructor known as the “Professor” was on the banks of the Thames, waiting to see a female competitor in the swimming race on the Thames. He noticed a dark object and decided to time it, with it travelling 25 yards in nearly two and half minutes. When it got close he saw that it was a dead body. He went and got the nearest policeman who managed to get the River Police to recover it. He was found to have died from drowning. No surprise there then!

Rowton House, similar to where Brody would have lived.

 

36/ Hammersmith Bridge, June 1899 (Bridegroom Drowned)

The death of a bridegroom occurred near Hammersmith Bridge, through a lover’s tiff. George Lewis aged twenty-four; William Harris aged twenty and Miss Amy Green aged twenty-one, all from Fulham, went for as row on the Thames. They approached Hammersmith Bridge, when the loving couple Lewis and Green, suddenly started an argument. He rose up in anger, the boat tipped up and all three ended up in the water. Harris was a good swimmer and managed to hold onto Miss Green until help arrived. Lewis couldn’t swim very well and he drowned. Miss Green and Mr Lewis were meant to have tied the knot today.

37/ Hammersmith Bridge, September 1899 (Servants Suicide)

Julia Curran was a domestic servant living at Escourt Road, Fulham, until her lifeless corpse was found floating in the river near to Hammersmith Bridge. Her sister, Mrs Villiers, said she worried about their mothers drinking seeming to get of hand. Julia came down to London from Maidenhead where she worked, to spend a few days with her sister. Apparently, Julia and the mother had not spoken for ages due to her drinking and her incessant untruths told about her. Julia chipped in to take care of the mother, but as her mother kept slagging her off, she cut the amount she used to send. Julia had gone to Putney Bridge about a year and a half ago in an attempt at suicide because of her mother’s conduct, but returned to see her sister to say “Goodbye”. An argument broke out between the two of them a couple of days ago and Julia again threatened suicide at Putney Bridge, but this carried it out. Her own mother caused her sad demise.

38/ Putney Bridge Soldier Suicide, May 1915

Putney Bridge is famous for being the place where the serial killer, John Christie, was arrested in March 1953. He murdered eight women and his wife, at the infamous, 10, Rillington Place in Notting Hill.This other story is about a private who killed himself, while on duty at Putney Bridge. Thomas Joshua Flatt, a private in the 24th County of London Regiment shot himself with his own rifle. He sent a note to Sergeant Rusling, saying;”I leave all my things to Eva Churchman- Tom Platt”. Nobody knew who Eva Churchman was and had never met any such person.

39/ Putney Bridge Deaths, June 1903

George Cobb, a sailor, was crossing Putney Bridge when he heard someone shout out “A man in the river!”. Cobb dived in after him and although the attempted suicide was fifty yards further upstream Cobb swam after him, watched by hundreds on the bridge and banks. He grabbed hold of the suicide but was dragged under the water by him. An act of bravery and a good deed has cost this sailor his life.The bodies of the two men washed up on the riverside at Wandsworth Pier. The suicide was identified as a Fulham labourer, George Cribb.

40/ Hungerford Bridge Drownings, April 1898

Two men drowned in a tragic accident on the Thames at Hungerford Bridge. Their rowing boat was going around some barges when a collier “Alert”, didn’t live up to her name and split the boat in two. There were eight in the boat and six were rescued, with the other two men vanishing underwater.

41/ Hungerford Bridge June 1845

The very first suicide from Hungerford Bridge, occurred at three a.m. one morning when a well-dressed gentleman jumped off the centre of the bridge and was drowned.

 

42/ Waterloo Bridge Famous for the “Poisoned Umbrella” shooting of Georgi Markov, by the Bulgarian DS on the 7th of September,1978. Killed by the pellet containing ricin. Nicknamed the “Bridge Sighs” due to the number of suicides on it.

43/ Waterloo Bridge, September 1901 (Sad tale-straight to the point)

Allegedly this is the shortest explanation of committing suicide ever recorded. The man’s name was Jeffries and he threw himself off Waterloo Bridge.and left a note in his pocket. It simply read: “Drunken wife- G.Jeffries.”

44/ Waterloo Bridge Suicide Note, September 1910

Another melancholy story from Waterloo Bridge. Mrs Charlotte Read aged sixty-nine felt that she was a burden to her son and also didn’t want to leave her house in Clapham where she had many happy memories, but mainly because her husband died in there a couple of years ago. She went off to the bridge and jumped into the River Thames, but left this suicide note explaining just how she felt about the situation.

“My Dear son Jack- I am going to Waterloo Bridge. I am out of my mind to do it, but I cannot leave the house. I am tired of my illness, and will go to your father and rest.”

45/ Waterloo Bridge, May 1893 (Died for a Bet)

John Steele Jenkins aged thirty-one, who worked as a printers labourer, made a bet that he could dive off Waterloo Bridge and into the Thames for a bet. On his leap off the bridge, he struck his head and never rose to the surface. His body was recovered after several days and was deemed to be “Accidental Death”.

46/ Waterloo Bridge Suicide, July 1902

While crossing Waterloo Bridge, Helen Rooney aged twenty-one from Oakley Street, Lambeth, climbed up onto the parapet and jumped into the water and was drowned. Her friend, Ellen Chapman, who was present when she committed suicide said that Helen was depressed because she was unemployed. She would often blurt out “I am tired of life. I’m tired of it all, and shall take my life at some time or other”.

47/ Waterloo Bridge, September 1894 (Fatal Accident)

A van was coming from the Strand end of the bridge, drawn by a couple of horses, when a sudden noise scared the beasts and they bolted. Several people tried to stop them and the driver tried to halt them by tugging on the reins, but he fell off. The heavy cart went straight over his head and chest. He was taken to the hospital but died on his way there.

48/ Waterloo Bridge Suicide, May 1855

Harriet Lowe aged twenty-nine, was co-habiting with a waiter from the Printers Arms, Strand, by the name of Drew. She went to the pub and had a quick drink, then left to go to a pawnbroker’s in Whitechapel. She returned for another shot of gin and then started an argument, in which she accused him of seeing another woman. Lowe stormed out of the pub and was next seen on Waterloo Bridge by the lighterman, to leap off the balustrades and into the Thames. The verdict was one of “felo de se”, or suicide.

49/ Waterloo Bridge Mystery, June 1859

Waterloo Bridge Mystery, June 1859

The Irishwoman known as “Old Biddy” has been taken from her lodgings in Plaistow to the Essex County Lunatic Asylum. Her version of events, that she took the bag with the remains in them to Waterloo Bridge and was paid a couple of sovereigns by two fella’s, doesn’t tally with what police think happened.

50/ Waterloo Bridge Premature Suicide, April 1899

Here’s a gloomy tale with the moral of the story being,” just hang on a bit longer….you never know!”. That’s my words of wisdom out of the way, on with the story. Ellen Harding of 104, Walworth Road, jumped off Waterloo Bridge and into the Thames due to having no money, and no work. Ellen was getting on a bit and was a widow, who had been unemployed for quite some time and was now getting desperately ill. She had applied for a job as a house-keeper but had got no reply. The next time somebody saw her, it was watching her dive off Waterloo Bridge to drown herself. Her body was fished out, covered in cuts and lacerations which were sustained when she hit the masonry on the way down. Here’s where my moral kicks in and it was the day after her suicide, a letter came to the door from the firm which she had applied, congratulating her on getting the job and when could she start.

51/ Waterloo Bridge March 1862

A well-dressed gentleman was seen by a gatekeeper at Waterloo Bridge, to be holding a letter with a large amount of writing on it, then casually walked over the bridge, and climbed the parapet, and then plummeted into the river.A group of three people shouted at him to stop, but it fell on deaf ears.The man left a cloth cap, with the letter inside, and it went:-

“To the Governor of Nuget (Newgate)

Dear Sir- I beg of you to read my reched (wretched) life which I ave this nite Friday, put an end to. Peraps your onner (Honour) will remember the Road Murder which took place about thirteen months back. So I rite to you Sir to informe you that I was the one wo don this awful murder which I hope to be forgiven. About four years ago I took to gambling and got in det and ad to go away to the country, where I done the fearful deed and then cum to London wich (which) I ave lived in misery. I ave nothing to say for wot I don this awful deed for I was quite a stranger to the ole family. I ave nothing further to say as my feelings will not allow me to say any moor, only that the way I have put an end to my life is I have fling myself off Waterloo Bridge.

Yours respectfully- Wil Moor.

I have no friends. But an uncal (uncle) in France, wo this I would fane ceap (keep) from him.”

On the outside of the letter, was the following sentence:-

“To the Governor of Nuget- Profe(proof) of the Road murder. To be given to a Pleace Man (Policeman). I have thrown myself off the bridge.”

Police are ignoring this as a work of fiction and of a lunatic. It was found to be the work of a Penny-a-liner, which is a person who got paid per line to contribute to newspapers. So it was a fake! I thought it was odd that he could spell “respectfully”, and not “which” or keep”.

 

Thames Embankment with Waterloo Bridge in the background

52/ Thames Embankment/Waterloo Bridge, November 1905 (Mysterious Death)

The corpse of a twenty-year-old John Doe was discovered on the steps of the Thames Embankment (above), under Waterloo Bridge (in the background). A tramp found the body with its head below the water and stone-cold dead. When the police took the body to the mortuary they turned out the pockets and found nothing but a….toothpick! He was dressed smartly enough in a tweed suit, with the bullet wound to the temple was the cause of death, but they found no gun or ammunition near the body. The condition of the clothes suggests that he’d been in the water at some stage and the autopsy showed that he had only been dead around two hours before they found him. Later on, it was confirmed that the bullet had not killed him outright, but the shock from the concussion caused by the bullet and from drowning. A Sheffield address was found on his shirt but no other clues were found.

53/ Waterloo Bridge, September 1872 (Really Sad Story!)

This is one of the deaths in the website that I genuinely want to find, then go and put some flowers on her grave. The other two, were a girl in Lancashire who went blind at thirteen, then lost her job and eyesight, so then committed suicide; the next was a young lass in Anerley (Bromley) who gave birth in a shed and died; then there is this one. An American woman of only twenty years of age by the name of Alice Blanche Oswald, who killed herself by jumping off Waterloo Bridge. Her landlady, Mrs Eliza Cooke of 178, High Street, Shadwell, identified the body as that of her lodger and told her that she had come from The United States with a lady who had four servants but got rid of two as soon as she arrived in England. She was then fired and had come to London to see the American Consul, in a bid to get help to return to America. A letter arrived at the lodgings and Miss Oswald seemed distressed when she read the contents, so she got dressed and vanished thereafter. The letter she left behind read:

“London, September 3rd, 1872.  178, High Street, Shadwell

The crime I am about to commit and what I must suffer hereafter, is nothing to compare to my present misery. Alone in London, not a penny or friend to advise or lend a helping hand, tired and weary with looking for something to do, failing in every way, foot-sore and heart-weary, I prefer death to the dawning of another wretched morning. I have only been in Britain nine weeks. I came as a nursery governess with a lady from America to Wick, in Scotland, where she discharged me, refusing to pay my passage back, and giving me only my wages, of £3 10 shillings. After my expenses to London, I found myself in this great city, with five shillings. What was I to do? I sold my watch. The paltry sum I obtained soon went in paying for my board and lodging, and in looking for a situation. Now I am destitute. Every day is a misery to me. “No friend” “No hope” “No money”. What is left? Oh, God of heaven, have mercy on a poor, helpless sinner. Thou knowest how I have striven against this, but fate is against me. I cannot tread the path of sin, for my dead mother will be watching me. “Fatherless, Motherless, home, I have none.” “Oh for the rarity of Christian charity” I am not mad. For days I have foreseen that this would be the end. May all who hear of my death forgive me; and may God Almighty do so, before whose bar I must soon appear! Farewell to all- to this most beautiful and yet to me, most wretched world. Alice Blanche Oswald. I am 20 years of age the 14th of this month.

The jury returned a verdict of “Suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity”. She wasn’t mad, just desperate and alone.

​

The funeral of Alice Blanche Oswald at Woking Cemetery (now Brookwood Cemetery, largest in Western Europe, with a quarter of a million bodies, lying in 400 acres.) September 1872.

The Reverend Simpson of St Clement Danes arranged the funeral of Alice, and people of the parish chipped in to pay for it. She was interred at Woking Cemetery (Brookwood), with a large crowd of mourners and a group of American ladies throwing flowers on her coffin. The inscription read “Alice Blanche Oswald, died September 5th, 1872, aged 20 years.”. Sadly in the following month after her death, Waterloo Bridge saw eight more women kill themselves from it.

 

Waterloo Bridge, with Somerset House in the background.

54/ Waterloo Bridge Suicide, August 1908 (Jane Wallace 1)

Two sisters from London who were grief-stricken at the loss of their mother, both killed themselves by drowning in the Thames. The two women, Jane and Elizabeth Wallace lived in Bermondsey with their blind mother, and when she passed away the two were inconsolable. They simply vanished one day and were not seen again, until their bodies were fished out of the river. Jane’s corpse was seen floating at Fenning’s Wharf in Bermondsey and Elizabeth’s was found near Waterloo Bridge.

55/ Waterloo Bridge Suicide, March 1909 (Jane Wallace 2)

If you’re going to be picky then I suppose the Jane Wallace from the story above was found in Bermondsey, but the fact that two women of the same name, were to commit suicide eight months apart within a few miles of each other is a coincidence and a half. This Jane Wallace was a twenty-six-year-old Glasgow waitress who had inherited a large amount of money and moved to London. She went with Mabel Bennart to see the Exhibition, but she left her because she was plastered. A P.C. saw her at Waterloo Bridge and she was climbing the parapet, looking like she was going to jump off, when he grabbed hold of her but she fought him off and fell into the water and drowned.

56/ Kew Bridge Murder/Suicide, October 1882

The bodies of a mother and child were found floating together under Kew Bridge. It is a case of Murder/Suicide, as the mother, twenty-nine-year-old Ellen Deane had an argument with her husband and then when he went to work, she gathered up her three-year-old daughter and walked out the house at New North Road, Brentford. The pair were tied together with a handkerchief by the mother and is thought to have committed suicide near Kew Bridge.

57/ Kew Bridge Suicide, August 1897

Charles West lived at the Hollows, Brentford, with his wife and family, but he had been suffering from an illness and was bordering on being a manic-depressive. He never said that he wanted to end it all, but early one morning he ran out of the house in his night-shirt straight onto the bridge at Kew and leapt into the water. Passers-by tried to halt his progress, but he evaded them all. The probable cause of his suicide was the fact that the doctor had informed him that his illness would be permanent and the chance of recovering was minimal. Cheers Doctor!

 

Richmond Bridge

58/ Richmond Bridge, (Body Found) December 1886

After reading what sounded like a description of her sister’s items, Rose Leahart of 175, Ladbroke Grove Road, Notting Hill, went to Richmond Police Station and positively identified them as her sister’s. The items were a hat, black cloak, handbag, purse with some change in it etc. Her sister was thirty-three year old Norma Thopla Leahart who lived with her sister in Notting Hill, had gone to Kings College Hospital several days ago but hadn’t returned. She was described as dark-haired short, stout, wearing a Merino dress with buttoned-up boots. One strange piece of the jigsaw, was that when the clothes were found they were soaking wet but were beyond the high water mark. How did they get wet?

59/ Richmond Bridge, (Vanished without a Trace) December 1905

Miss Louise Ward Telfair of Chepstow Villas in Bayswater, rather mysteriously vanished without a trace. Her sister was asked to identify some items that had been discovered near Richmond Bridge which were thought to belong to her missing sister. The items were a pair of black gloves, Japanese silk purse (containing a house key), a photo of her niece, crochet purse, a few bills, umbrella, and three brooches. They were found by a waterman, John Bridger and he went with the sister to show her where he found them, by the steps of the boathouse adjoining Richmond Bridge. Footprints were seen in the mud and there were another two prints stood by the foreshore, but none returning back. These items were found a week ago and then handed in, but it was taken seriously by the police and Bridger had to go in a second time and tell them that he thought they were the missing girl’s things. Her body wasn’t found by the dragging of the river. (Was she ever found ?)

60/ Battersea Bridge Suicide, January 1879

The body of James Halstead was discovered floating in the river near Battersea Bridge. A post-mortem showed that he had been in the water for a few days and he was worried that his wife and family would go without as he had joined the mason’s strike. Another reason to “hang in there” was the fact, that just a day or two after the corpse was found, an aunt had left him a £1000 in her will.

61/ Battersea Bridge, May 1846 (Mother Throws Kids in the Thames)

A smart young woman walked up to Battersea Bridge on a Saturday afternoon, with her children accompanying her, a seven-year-old boy, a four-year-old girl and a ten-month-old girl, which she cradled in her arms. In the centre of the bridge, she coolly picked them up, one by one, and tossed them over the edge. All three went over and she was just about to jump herself when she was grabbed hold of by passers-by and held until a policeman could take her to the station. She was identified as Eliza Clark aged twenty-four, living in Cumberland Street, Marlborough Road, Chelsea. Two of the children drowned and the four-year-old girl was rescued. A huge crowd was waiting outside the police station in Milman’s Row to see what type of woman would throw her children in a river. It is entirely possible that she suffered a mental breakdown.

62/ Battersea Bridge, July 1869 (Death on a Wedding Day)

A wedding took place at St Mark’s Church, Kennington Park (Near the Oval Tube Station- great cafe there!) on a Saturday morning and the wedding party went for a boat trip on the Thames. They set off from Vauxhall Bridge and headed towards Putney, but when they got to Battersea Bridge something caused the vessel to capsize. Everyone was thrown into the Thames and luckily everyone was dragged out, bar one gentleman. He was Dudley George Fleck, an author living at 105, Brook Street, Kennington Road, and his body was not found.

63/ Battersea Bridge, (Two Drowned) June 1873

Two lives were lost when three lads named Thomas Pearson, Alfred Chatwood, and Henry Lucas were on a jaunt up the river. They approached Battersea Bridge when it tipped over and they all fell into the drink. A brave man who was just ambling by jumped in and managed to grab hold of young Pearson. The other two sank without a trace and their bodies weren’t found.

64/ Battersea Bridge Suicide, January 1910

Jane Ann Smith was a married lady residing in Staine Road, Twickenham, and who was found dead in the Thames near Battersea Bridge. The husband explained that they lost their twenty-seven-year-old son who died in a sanatorium in Bedfordshire several months ago. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and from then on, she seemed to go downhill and became more and more despondent. However, on Christmas Eve, she went out shopping, paid the bills, then simply vanished. All evidence points towards a suicide, but the only verdict they could arrive at was one of “Found Drowned”.

65/ Battersea Bridge, July 1868 (Newly Married Couple Drown)

Another instance of a newly-wed couple going for a trip on the Thames, then ending up corpses within a few minutes. John Betsworth from Hendon and Sarah Chads were married at Camberwell Church. The sister of the bride, Ann Chads and a young chap named Alfred Thompson, were present as witnesses. A pleasure boat was hired afterwards and they set off from Chelsea. The parents of John Betsworth didn’t bother going on the trip and stayed on dry land. The other four got in and started up the river, with Thompson the main rower. They were nearing Battersea Church and going past the barges when they hit one of them and they overturned, sending all of them into the water. Thompson held onto the boat till help arrived but the other three drowned. The police dragged the area for the bodies but they were unsuccessful. The parents of John waited and waited by the riverside for any sign of their son. The young couple weren’t even in their twenties yet.

 

Lambeth Bridge

66/ Lambeth Bridge Drownings, July 1914

The body of Sir Denis Anson, Bart. was found at Lambeth Bridge on Friday night. The body was lodged underneath a raft. The story goes:- On a midnight trip on the Thames around twenty persons went from Westminster to Hampton Court, Sir Denis was a passenger and he bragged that he was going for a midnight swim and dived in. He was seen to be struggling and William Mitchell, a bandsman, jumped in to save him. They were both drowned. Mitchell was found under Battersea Bridge.

67/ Lambeth Bridge Child Murder, September 1889

Jane Noble was nineteen and married and now she was up in court on a charge of wilfully murdering her own child, who was only eight-months-old, by throwing it off Lambeth Bridge. The child was unwell and her husband, James Noble, had just walked out on her, Jane all of a sudden lost the plot. She left the house at 13, Burdett Buildings, Westminster Bridge Road and took little Matilda and threw her off the bridge.

68/ Lambeth Bridge, April 1894 (Mysterious Suicide Note)

James Keating was a labourer at a local potter’s and decided to kill himself by jumping off Lambeth Bridge. He was an Army man and had served in India and when he returned he got the job at the pottery. His two sisters hadn’t seen or heard from him in years but he left them a rather strange suicide note, which read:

“My Dear sisters, Kate and Maria- By the time this reaches you- if it ever does- I shall be no more. I have not acted as a brother ought. Owing to the company, I have neglected family matters. If either of my sister’s should see this, I don’t want them to trouble me any more; and I want them to understand that if I had fallen across my elder sister, Katie, I should have killed her”

When questioned about the meaning of the letter neither sister could determine what on earth he was on about.

69/ Lambeth Bridge Accident, September 1862

70/ Lambeth Bridge Suicide, July 1909

An unemployed shoemaker by the name of Frederick Fisk aged forty-five and living in Lupus Street, Pimlico, jumped off Lambeth Bridge and drowned, all because of him not being able to keep his family and not getting any work. He hadn’t had a job in three years and he was suffering from long-term depression, but they never applied for any relief, so it was as bad as it gets. His wife found an envelope on the bed, and it read:

“Goodbye forever. You will be better off without me. I am off to Lambeth Bridge. You will find my boots if you ask a policeman at Lambeth Bridge. Frederick Fisk”. His coat was also found on Lambeth Bridge with a sheet of paper next to it with “He who dies pays all debts”, written on it.