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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 20 Apr 1911

Place: Wellingborough Road, Olney, Buckinghamshire

The body of a newly-born male child was found in a pond at Olney.

It had been wrapped up in a brown paper parcel and tied to a stone and put into the pool near Mr Mann's factory at Kensington Place on Wellingborough Road.

Medical evidence showed that the child skull was cracked and that there was a clot of blood under the scalp and it was opined that the fracture had been caused by a blow delivered before, or within a very few minutes after death.

When the Coroner addressed the jury he said that they would have to say how the fracture was caused but that on that point there was no evidence. He said that it might have been caused by design, noting that it probably was, or by accident. He said that on first blush it looked as though a murder had been committed, but said that he could not see how, in the absence of any direct evidence, that they would be justified in returning a verdict of murder and that in his opinion they should return an open verdict, that being that the child died from a fracture of the skull but that there was no evidence to show how the fracture was caused.

The jury then returned an open verdict.

Mr Mann's factory had manufactured shoes and was founded in 1884 by William Hinde and Joseph Mann although William Hinde retired in 1899.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Northampton Mercury - Friday 12 May 1911

see Waymarking