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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 6 May 1923

Place: Villa Farm, West End Road, Tiptree, Essex

The body of a newly-born female child was found in a pond in Tiptree.

It was found by a 12-year-old boy from Villa Farm on Sunday 6 May 1923 floating in the pond in front of his house.

The boy said that he had been going round the pond when he saw an object in the water, and then told his father that there was a baby floating in the pond. His father told him that it was a doll, but that upon going to see found that it was a child.

The doctor that carried out the post mortem said that there was a fracture at the base of the skull that might have been caused by a horse treading into the pond.

He said that he formed the opinion that the child had had a separate existence.

He said that he thought that it had been in the water for about ten days and that it was possible that its lungs had been inflated by gas from decomposition.

An open verdict was returned.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 11 May 1923