Baby

The body of a newly born child was found in Occupation Lane, off Scropton Lane in Tutbury by a farmer at about 9.30am on Thursday 30 June 1927.

The farmer said that he saw the parcel in the ditch with a hand protruding.

The child's body had been put in a paper laundry bag and wrapped up in a woman's undergarment.

There was no indication as to its identity.

A police sergeant that examined the parcel said that the child's body was very much decomposed. He said that when he examined the laundry bag he found that it bore the name of a Lee (London) laundry company. He said that after making unsuccessful inquiries at Hatton, Scropton and Hilton he communicated with the superintendent of police at Greenwich, London whose enquiries at the laundry company failed to elicit any information as to the parents of the child or the persons who deposited it in the ditch.

The doctor that examined the child said that he considered that it had been dead for about a week and that it had had had a separate, if short, existence. He said that one lung was not fully expanded and that there were no signs of attention at birth. He noted that he could not express any opinion as to the cause of death.

After hearing the evidence the Coroner told the jury that he thought that the only verdict they could return was an open one and the jury agreed on that without retiring.