Infant

The dismembered body of an infant was found in a field near a disused lime kiln at Stowell between Chippenham and Corsham.

It was found on 22 May 1933 by a schoolgirl who visited a kiln in a field near the Bath Road leading from Chequers to Biddestone where she found the two legs from the child which had been severed from its body.

When the police later went to the disused lime kiln in the centre of the field near Stowell Farm at 7.45pm they found the severed legs of a child in some newspaper at the side of the kiln. When they searched further they found a bloodstained brown paper parcel which contained the body of a child that had had its arms and legs severed. The arms were then found the following day.

When a doctor examined the remains, he said that they were of a female child and said that in his opinion the child had been dead for not more than three days. He said that he thought that the child had been born alive but that it had died shortly after birth.

He also said that he thought that the child’s limbs had been amputated after its death.

The coroner noted that it would have been very inhumane if the mutilations had been carried out during life.

The doctor said that he thought that the child’s death was due to inattention at birth. He also noted that the child had been subjected to violence before death and said that there was bruising of the scalp and that it had a skull fracture.

An open verdict of found dead was returned.