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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 6 Jun 1935

Place: Dog Lane, Shirland

The body of a newly-born child was found wrapped up in newspaper in a pond off of Dog Lane in Shirland.

The child was found by a man who was walking along Dog Lane with his son and dog at about 5.45pm after his dog drew his attention to it by going over to the pond. He said he looked over a hedge and saw what he thought was an old rag on top of the water. He said that he didn't touch the parcel and went off to get a policeman.

When the police arrived, they found that the child was in several carrier bags and then wrapped up in newspaper. They said that the carrier bags had the inscription, 'Siddalls Fruit Stall, Beetwell Street' on them.

They said that the pond was about three yards from the side of the lane which was used by farmers for carting to and from their land. The pond itself was about eighteen yards in diameter and about eighteen inches deep.

The body had been lying partly on its right side in the water, a few inches from the edge and about four yards from the lane.

The doctor that made the post-mortem said that the child was fully developed and weighed about 8lb. He said that there were no signs of external injuries and said that its internal organs were quite normal, but partly decomposed. He said that the child had certainly lived, but he could not say for how long, and said that it had been dead for between 10 to 14 days. He said that he couldn’t say what the cause of death was.

He said that there were no signs of asphyxia and that it could have died from inattention at birth.

The Coroner said that the evidence was very inconclusive, and 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 Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Friday 07 June 1935