Baby

The body of a newly-born female child was found tied up in a parcel beneath some bushes in a hollow on Martin Farm on Tuesday 28 March 1911.

It was found by a 12-year-old schoolboy that lived in Prospect Place, Mating, tied up in a parcel in some bushes near the farm between 5.30pm and 6pm whilst he was gathering violets from a bank in a gravel pit by the farm just off the road from Martin to Deal. The boy had been with three other boys at the time.

The boy said that he found the parcel tied up in string under a bush and that he then called his friends over and that he then undid it to find another parcel tied up with thick string inside. He said that he then untied that and found two white cloths with cotton wool inside them

He said that they then pushed the cotton wool back with a stick and then saw the head and shoulders of a baby underneath after which they all ran away and he went home and told his mother and they went back to the pit together and then went for the police.

The boy said that he didn't turn the body over at all and that nor did any of the other boys and that he didn't notice any blood on the cotton wool.

The inquest heard that the boy had not been in the habit of going to the pit and had not been there the previous day, the last time being about two or three weeks previously.

The Coroner noted that the pit was almost level with the road and could be walked into from the road. He later noted after examining a plan of the district that the hollow was really off a bye road on the western side of the railway.

One of the other boys, aged 9 and who had lived at 4 Prospect Place in Martin had got home at 5.30pm and told his mother of the baby in the pit and she also went to have a look. She said that there were only a few bushes in the pit, which she said was more in the nature of a little hollow.

She said that when she got there that she found the dead body of the baby lying there on its side in two pieces of paper and partly covered with some cloth, adding that there was cotton wool all over the body and that she noticed a small part of the wool had blood on it. She added that she saw two pieces of string and that the parcel had the appearance of having recently been opened.

She said that she then arranged for another woman and her son to go off for the police but said that they returned at 6.30pm without one and told her that the constable wasn't at home. She said that the other woman then told her that the constables landlady had told her that she thought that the best thing to do would be to remove the body and so she decided to take it and put it in her cellar.

She said that the constable later came to her home at about 9pm and that she then showed him the baby, but said that she didn't examine it and added that she could throw no light on the matter as she only knew a few of the neighbours as she had only been there since Michaelmas.

The doctor that carried out the post mortem said that the body was that of a female child, 16¼ inches in length and 3lbs 9ozs in weight and that he was of the impression that it was a seven months term child and that it had had a separate existence although he was unable to state its duration. He added that he was unable to determine its cause of death, noting that it didn't die from loss of blood and added that he saw no reason why if properly attended to at birth and subsequently that the child should not have lived.

At the conclusion of the inquest on Monday 10 April 1913 an open verdict was returned.