The story I'm going to tell and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it
occurred in the county I grew up in, and have now, after a few years, returned to.
I've wanted to share it with you for some time...
The town of Somerton in the English county of Somerset is a beautiful place
with a rich history by all accounts. Full of the charms of a time long past by.
But in August of 1896, to quote the long-running regional newspaper The
Western Gazette, a "ghastly discovery" was made in one of the houses here. A house
once known as The Green was owned by a man named Thomas Welsh. Mr. Welsh, who had
lived at the house all of his life, died in 1895 at the age of 80.
His younger brother James inherited a small portion of the large property with
the rest of the house being put to auction the following year. When a man
named Edmund Valentine purchased it in August of 1896, he began a thorough
renovation of the place. On Monday August 31st, Albert Charles Dyer, the work man
hired for the job, began to remove floorboards in the attic to lay down a
gas pipe, when he found a small doorway which opened into a recess in the attic
wall. In order to extend the gas pipe, he needed to open the doorway and remove
the floorboards which lay behind it. When he did, he noticed that one of the boards
immediately behind the door was loose. As he brought up the two and a half foot
board, he noticed what looked like a small parcel wrapped in old cloth.
When he opened it, he was shocked to find the skeleton of a small baby. Taken aback by
his discovery he quickly called for the owner Edmund Valentine who rushed to the house.
They continued to rummage beneath the floor and found three more skeletons,
two of which were also wrapped in cloth. Police were called to the house, along
with two local doctors: Dr. Wade and Dr. Hilyard. It was their initial opinion
that the infants' bodies had been there for between ten and twenty years, but at
that time it was impossible to be more specific than that.
At first the doctors described them all as well-developed,
but the sex and age of the infants was impossible to define - and to quote
the local press - "not a particle of flesh remained". After the news was made public
four days later on September 4th 1896, rumors began to circulate in the town
and many fingers pointed towards the previous owner, old man Thomas Welsh.
He had been a bachelor, but for the last thirty years of his life he had hired a
housekeeper. A woman who went by the name of Eliza Edwards, whose real family name
was found to be Martin. In 1896, at the time that the bodies were found, she was
said to be fifty years old, living in the town with her married son. It was
discovered that the cottage they lived in was left to them by Thomas Welsh who
also requested in his will that she receive the sum of £100 a year
for living expenses. The relationship between Thomas Welsh
and Eliza Edwards, coupled with this financial agreement, fueled the theory
that she had given birth to the children and that Welsh was the father.
As mentioned previously, a small section of the house where the bodies were found
was left to James Welsh, a solicitor and the younger brother of
Thomas, who utilized his part of the property for his offices. One other
person who was approached by the police was an unnamed woman who had done menial
jobs around James Welsh's portion of the house for the last fifteen years.
She denied knowing anything about the infants' remains, but admitted that on
one occasion she visited the attic out of curiosity, but saw nothing out of the
ordinary and detected no odor. An inquiry was held a week after the discovery on
Monday September 7th at the local court house. The small skeletons were
placed in a room beneath the court house where they were viewed by the jury and
members of the press. The scene was described as a "gruesome spectacle" by the
Western Gazette. Among those present at the inquiry was
coroner for the district, Mr E.Q. Louch. At first he stated that, as the remains were
skeletal, and there was no way for him to detect how they died, an inquiry was
unusual. But went on to say that the reason he'd agree to it, besides to
inform the public of the findings, was because the late owner of the house was
a personal friend of his, and he didn't want the public to suspect that he was
protecting the reputation of the late Mr. Welsh by not carrying one out.
He concluded, along with Dr. Wade, that the babies had been placed there for the
purpose of concealment, but he could not be sure if they had all been still births.
He added that it was likely that two of them had been born alive as they were
fully developed, whereas the other two appeared premature. Dr. Wade, one of the
doctors called to The Green on the day of the discovery, said that the remains
were entirely skeletal except for one of the bones on one child and two of the
feet on the others. He stated that the skin and tendons were clearly visible
but completely dried out. Dr. Wade admitted that the length of time that
the babies had been there was a matter of pure conjecture. He said that it could
be five, ten, or even twenty years, and there was no way for him to narrow it
down any further for two reasons: one being that the body of an infant will
naturally become skeletal faster than that of an adult, admitting that he
didn't know how long that would typically be. The other being that the
decomposition process depended heavily on the temperature of the environment
the body was in. As they were placed in a dry, cool place, he said that it would
likely take much longer than usual. A police constable by the name of
Mr. Coomer also spoke at the inquiry, saying that he had taken the remains to the
police station and examined the material that three of them were wrapped in.
He said that there was no markings or clues as to who they belong to. He also said
that he'd made a further search of the house and then investigated the garden,
digging at various points on the chance that he may find more remains. He said
that he found a number of small bones in the attic
that had fallen loose from the skeletons when they were removed, but the garden
yielded nothing. It was agreed by all at the inquiry that the bones and wrapping
sheets should be preserved for future investigations. When coroner E.Q. Louch
suggested putting the skeletal remains in a museum, he was met with laughter, but
he later said:
At the closing of the inquiry, coroner Mr. Louch
and Dr. Wade gave an open verdict, but advised that the police should continue
their investigations and punish anyone found to be involved, if it transpired
that the babies had died violent deaths.
According to local reports, the now 50-year-old Eliza Edwards, the woman thought
most likely to have given birth to the children, was no longer a sound mind.
She was even described by the local newspaper as "somewhat deranged".
Because of her alleged state of mind she was never told about the skeletons found at
her former home. But maybe the very reasons behind her poor mental state
were rooted in the attic of that house. After speaking to several long-term
residents of the town, I was unable to find out what happened to the infants'
remains or the material they were wrapped in. The house known in 1896 as
The Green has since been renamed. I do know that it is a large two-storey building,
situated to the north of the parish church, with six attics in total that run
the length of the building. An article entitled The Somerton Mystery from the
Western Chronicle dated September 11th 1896 was more specific, stating that the house
was in Cow Square, which is indeed directly north of the church.
After narrowing down the location of the house to this small area, I noticed
that there are a number of buildings in the square that match the description.
I then found out that over time this large house may have been separated into
smaller properties. The 1891 census of the area has a 76-year-old Thomas Welsh
recorded as living in Cow Square, but the exact house is not specified.
The previous census from 1881 states that his sister, Harriet, also lived at the
property at the time. My first thought was that maybe she had given birth to
the children, but as her age was recorded as 70 in 1881, she would have been in her
60s at the earliest date given by the coroner for the babies' deaths. Unless the
coroner's estimates were inaccurate by twenty to forty years, this is highly
unlikely. As my lines of inquiry were coming to an end I was contacted by a
local historian who wished to remain anonymous.
They pointed out the exact house in Cow Square that Thomas Welsh had lived in
all of his life. However, as a 16th century property is still a private
residence, and out of respect for the people who live there now, it was
strongly recommended to me that I don't give its name. The mystery of the four
babies in the attic remains unsolved to this day.