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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 7 Jun 1918

Place: Crowd End, Caxton

The body of a male infant was found in the village Pond at Caxton.

A plumber had been passing the pond at around 6am which was about two yards from the road when he saw what he thought was a rabbit floating in the water. When he looked closer he saw that it was the body of a baby floating face downwards. He then went home for breakfast and then went and informed the police. When he was questioned at the inquest he said that he had passed the pond two weeks earlier and had looked into it but saw nothing and that he had also passed it within the previous week but had not looked into it.

The pond was in a field by the side of a lane called Crowd End. There was about three feet of water in the pond which was clear and came up to about a foot above the weeds.

A policeman took the body from the pond to the police station where it was later examined by a doctor. The doctor said that he thought the child had been in the water for about a month or six weeks and had been floating on the surface for a considerable time as the back was almost black from the sun and there were one or two cavities caused by birds pecking at it whilst the front portion was sodden with contact with the water.

The doctor said that he thought the child had been done away with about an hour after it had been born but could not give a cause of death, but said that it was dead before it was put in the water.

The jury returned a verdict that the child was found dead in the pond but that there was no evidence to show how or by what means it had come to be there.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Biggleswade Chronicle - Friday 07 June 1918

see Cambridge Independent Press - Friday 31 May 1918