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Skeleton

Age: unknown

Sex: male

Date: 5 Jun 1953

Place: Blanket Row, Hull

A skeleton was found in a sack in the backyard of a house in Blanket Row, Hull.

They were found after two girls aged 12 and 7, found a human skull there. After the police were informed a search was made and more bones were found. The remains formed what was described as an 'incomplete male skeleton'.

It was heard that a preliminary investigation revealed that they were years old and the police said that they had not ruled out the possibility that the remains were those of an air raid victim.

The remains were found in a sack on a rubbish heap in the yard of a house that had formerly been used as a lodging house.

It was heard that children had been playing with the bones for some time before they were noticed.

The police said that they faced a tremendous task in trying to trace people that had stayed in the premises when it had been used as a lodging house and they appealed for anyone that had done so in the last 14 years to come forward.

The police added that they were also interested in interviewing all people that had known or met a Norwegian who was known to have lived in the lodging house but who had since disappeared. The Norwegian, who was named, was said to have been an alien in 1947 when he would have been 73-years-old and to have been a native of Bergen. They said that they thought that he had died of natural causes whilst living alone in the building in late 1948 or 1949.

However, the Coroner said that the evidence regarding the Norwegian man was purely circumstantial and that no one could explain exactly how the bones came to be in the sack.

He said that the cause of death was 'unascertainable'.

An open verdict was returned at the inquest held on Friday 5 June 1953.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Friday 05 June 1953

see Yorkshire Evening Post - Tuesday 28 April 1953

see Yorkshire Evening Post - Wednesday 29 April 1953