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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: female

Date: 5 Mar 1911

Place: Fan Hedge, Tower Hamlets, Dover, Kent

A baby was found dead in Fan Hedge

The body of the female child was found wrapped up in brown paper at Fan Hedge, a rough pathway between Tower Hamlets and Elms Vale Road on Sunday 5 March 1911.

The body was discovered by a boy who lived on Wyndham Road and worked at Packet Yard when he had been near Fane Edge with a chum. He said that they were going along the path from Tower Hamlets to Elms Vale for a walk and when halfway between Tower Hamlets and Folkestone Road he saw a brown paper parcel in the hedge in a space between two bushes.

When he pulled the parcel out he saw a child's ear where some paper had torn. They felt frightened to touch it anymore and one of them went off to get a policeman.

The parcel had earlier been found by a dog that had gone to the parcel to enquire and had scratched it but was called away by its owner shortly before the boys found it.

The police arrived at 3.15pm at Fan Edge and took the parcel which they said was not fastened with string or otherwise. The paper was not wet although there had been rain on the Saturday night.

When they got the parcel to the police station they saw that a piece of brown tape had been tied tightly around the baby's neck.

A doctor examined the child and found it to be a very recently born female child that had certainly been born full term that morning and had had no attention at birth. The post mortem revealed that the child had breathed and had had a separate existence. The doctor also said that the child had still lived whilst inside the brown paper parcel.

The cause of death was given as strangulation.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Dover Express - Friday 10 March 1911, page 6