Baby

The body of a newly born child was found in a soap box on a grave in St Pauls Churchyard in Stalybridge on Saturday 28 October 1905.

The body was found by a grave digger in the dry soap box in a remote and lonely corner of the churchyard.

It was believed that the child had lived.

The grave digger said that the bodies of stillborn babies were often left on the graves by poor people who could not afford to pay the fee of half a crown in such cases.

When the coroner summed up he said that someone must have taken away the child's life either wilfully or by leaving it exposed, and not attending to it immediately after birth and told the jury that they could return either an open verdict of one of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.

The jury returned an open verdict.