Baby

The body of a newly-born child was found in a pond at Maids Moreton.

The pond was known as Whirley Pond.

It was found by a labourer on the morning of Wednesday 26 July 1911.

The labourer said that he first saw a cardboard box floating in Whirley Pond on the morning of Sunday 23 July 1911 but didn't touch it although he brought the attention of another man to it who commented that it was done up carefully.

He said that as he was passing again on Wednesday 26 July 1911 he saw the cardboard box again and called another man's attention to it who cut a stick from a hedge and they got it out of the water with the aid of the stick.

He said that they then cut the string and that on pulling part of the cardboard box on one side that they saw the head of a child and then fetched a police constable who then took charge of the box and its content.

He said that there was nothing else floating in the pond except an old tub and that there were no garments or any clothing lying about.

At the inquest he added that the string had not been rotten and that it was only with difficulty that the other man had been able to cut it.

The man that helped the labourer get the cardboard box out of the water had also lived in Maids Moreton. He said that Whirley Pond was near to Scott's Lane and that whilst he had never seen it empty he had seen it very low before and said that he thought that the deepest part of the pond was not more than three feet. He added that the water in the pond was more than enough to cover the box.

A doctor that was called out to Maids Moreton on the Thursday morning at about 10am said that he made a cursory examination of the child's body and that to all purposes it was a that of a well-developed and full-timed child.

He said that the body was however very much decomposed and that he could not see whether the child had had proper attention at birth or determine the child's sex. He added that he also couldn't say whether it had had a separate existence.

He said that he thought that the child had been in the water for ten days and that the formation of gases had made the body rise to the surface.

He noted that there was nothing to show how the child came to its death.

The police constable that took charge of the cardboard box and body said that the body had been wrapped in a piece of newspaper containing the music of a song but that it was so rotten that he could not see the date or identify the newspaper. However, he did produce a piece of old linen apron at the inquest that he had found wrapped round the lower part of the child's body.

When the Coroner addressed the jury he said that there was little doubt that the child had been dead when it was placed in the pond, stating that it was improbable that anyone would travel with the child alive in a cardboard box because they would be afraid that it might cry. He added that there was no evidence to say whether the child was killed or whether it had died from neglect at birth and nothing to say who the mother was.

The jury returned an open verdict, stating that the child had been found dead in the pond and that there was no evidence to show who put it there.