Baby

The body of a newly born female child was found in a Midland Railway passenger carriage at Heeley Station, Sheffield on the morning of Thursday 30 April 1908.

It was found wrapped up in a piece of black shirt and old brown paper tied up with string.

The child was found by a cleaner beneath a seat in carriage No. 322. He had been sweeping out the third class carriage at the sidings near Heeley Station when he found it, stating that in the ordinary way, it would not have been noticed.

The carriage had previously formed part of a train that had travelled the day before between Sheffield and Barnsley via Chapeltown but it was noted that the child could have been put there whilst the carriage was at Heeley Station.

The child died from exhaustion due to inattention and cold. There were no marks of violence about the body.

The doctor that carried out the post mortem examination said that it had been a fine baby and that it had been dead for two to three days at the time he carried out his examination on 1 May 1908.

When the doctor was asked whether he thought the child had been born in the carriage, he said no, noting that there had been no signs of birth taking place in the carriage.

He said that he thought that the child had been born elsewhere and taken onto the train and left there.

When the Coroner asked the Midland Railway representative if his employers were going to bury the body as it belonged to them, having been found on their premises, they answered in the negative. The Coroner then asked:

To which the representative readily replied:

The Coroner then said:

The case was described as the Heeley Mystery.

Heeley Midland Railway Station was closed in 1968 and all the platform buildings demolished.