Age: 0
Sex: female
Date: 13 Jul 1922
Place: River Tone, Bathpool, Taunton, Somerset
The body of a newly-born female child was found in the River Tone near Bathpool on Thursday 13 July 1922.
The body was rolled up in a piece of cloth and a piece of linen had been wrapped around it's throat and a rag stuffed in its mouth.
The child's body was found by a man that worked for the Somerset Drainage Commissioners and who was carrying out cleaning work on the river. He was carrying out the cleansing work when he dragged up the parcel from the weeds. Immediately upon discovering its contents the police were communicated with and the body was removed to Bathpool Inn to await the inquest.
He found the body about a quarter of a mile up the river from the main road bridge caught under a bush.
The man said that he did not think that a great deal more water had been coming down the river recently, and said that the body might have come down a considerable time before he found it and that it might have become entangled up where he found lately.
It was said that the child's body was shockingly decomposed, and its sex could not be determined, although it was thought to have been very young.
The body had been wrapped up in an undershirt of Oxford shirting and a narrow piece of the same material had been doubled together to form a noose that had been pulled around the child's neck, apparently to strangle it, and it was thought that from that that it could be inferred that the child had had a separate existence.
It was estimated that the child was about three or four days old and had been in the water for between four and six months.
The doctor that carried out the post mortem said that the child appeared to have been a full time child of the female sex, but that the body was much decomposed. He said that he found a piece of cloth bound tightly several times around the child's neck but said that it was not tied in a knot. He said that a piece of the same cotton cloth, about 3in by 1 1/2in had been in the child's mouth but said that it was hardly enough to fill the mouth. He said that there was a small piece hanging out of the mouth and said that when he pulled it out he found that it was slightly rucked up. He said that it would not have prevented the child from breathing, but that what was more likely to stop it from breathing would be the cloth around the neck.
When the doctor gave his evidence, the coroner asked him whether it would have been possible to have bound the piece of cloth around the child's neck before it commenced breathing when it was born and the doctor said that it would have been.
The doctor continued to say that there were no signs of violence.
He also said that he had no knowledge of any girl or anyone having given birth to a child in the district.
The Coroner returned an open verdict.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Wells Journal - Friday 21 July 1922
see Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser - Wednesday 19 July 1922