Every once in a while I'll make a video about an event which has historic value to my local area.
I realise that on a wider scale these tales may be of limited interest,
but I do hope that wherever you are, you enjoy this brief glimpse into a dark corner of England's past.
In December of 1888 a large area of England was affected by unusually high winds and rainfall.
There were reports of people being lost at sea off of coastal towns, whilst inland, smaller bodies of
water were also affected. Rivers burst their banks, and a certain reservoir revealed a grim mystery.
In the southwest of England, in the county of Somerset, lies the town of Chard. To the northeast
of the town is the now disused Chard reservoir. It was here in late December of 1888 that the body of
a young woman was swept onto the shore following the recent bad weather. She was found opposite the
old boathouse at around 10:45 a.m on Sunday, December 30th by a passerby named John Berry.
The woman's body was moved to the Ship Inn on Farnham Road, where despite her condition, she was
easily identified by her father as Susan Warren, a 29-year-old linen factory worker from the town
who had gone missing seven weeks earlier on Friday, November 9th. Susan Warren's hair and scalp had
been detached and was found a short distance from where her body lay. At first glance, this
suggested that she may have been murdered, but on closer inspection, it was decided that during her
time in the water, her hair had become entangled or snagged on an object in the water or on the shore,
and then following extensive decomposition, was easily torn away during the storm.
Aside from the detached scalp, which had already been accounted for, there was nothing else to
suggest foul play, so it was accepted that she had taken her own life by way of drowning. This
was the story reported in January of 1889. However, it appears that on the same day that Susan's
body was recovered, another discovery was made, but was not widely reported on until February of 1889.
It came to light that a man named Channing had found a human hand a short distance
from where Susan's body had been. He reported the find to the local acting police sergeant;
a man named A.S Williams. Mr. Channing told the sergeant that after finding the hand he buried it
and placed some paper on the ground to mark the spot.
Completely boneless, pallid and waterlogged, the hand was said to look more like a glove than
a human hand, and had clearly been in the water for some time. But despite the decay,
the fingers and some of the nails were completely intact, and the palm marks were clearly visible.
Naturally at first, it was assumed by anyone who hadn't already witnessed her body, that the hand
belonged to Susan Warren, but her body, with the exception of her scalp, was found to be intact.
The coroner who took charge of both Susan's body and the hand was Dr. George W. Cordwent.
The Bristol Mercury newspaper, dated February the 9th 1889, made reference to his opinion. It reads:
There was an extensive search of the reservoir shore, but this yielded no more clues.
On February, 15th it was reported in the Gloucester Citizen that serious consideration had been given
to dragging or draining the reservoir in the hope of finding more body parts. However, it was
agreed that the process would be too difficult and too costly, and if there were any further
human remains in the water, they would by now be unrecognisable, so these plans were abandoned.
Apart from Susan Warren there were no unresolved reports of missing persons
from the immediate surrounding area during the past few years.
A letter printed in the Somerset County Gazette in late February of 1889
suggested that it may have been the work of grave robbers, and encouraged locals to investigate.
While others suggested that a murder may have taken place in another part of the country, and
the body part or parts, were brought to Chard, and possibly other areas of the country, for disposal.
This notion may or may not have been influenced by the fact that there were other reports in 1885
and 1886, of severed hands being found in Sittingbourne in Kent and the River Severn in Shrewsbury.
And it's difficult to ignore that the years 1888 and 1889 coincide perfectly with the Thames
Torso Murders case, where various body parts were found along the Thames shore during those years,
not all of which were accounted for. It's possible that there could have been a link, but the fact
that London, Shrewsbury and Sittingbourne are all between 140 and 185 miles away from Chard, does
make it unlikely. Another suggestion was that the hand had once belonged to the patient of a surgeon,
and was either lost or discarded. This is Prospect House on Combe Street in Chard. From the 1860s until
the turn of the 20th century, an inventor by the name of James Gillingham occupied an office here.
James Gillingham was a pioneer in the creation and evolution of prosthetic limbs. His career ran from
1865 until the turn of the 20th century, and his work was said to be among the finest of the time.
I initially thought that it would be fair to suggest that the hand may have belonged to
one of Gillingham's patients, and that maybe it had been lost or disposed of from his workshop.
However, when I spoke to a local historian at the Chard Museum,
they assured me that all of Gillingham's patients were referred to him by doctors. Their limbs had
been removed prior to seeing Gillingham, and he did not perform amputations himself.
After February of 1889 little more was reported on the case of the severed hand,
and it was eventually forgotten, forever remaining a mystery. The story of Susan
Warren, on the other hand, had become somewhat clearer two days after the discovery of her body.
An inquest was held at the Ship Inn on Tuesday, January 1st 1889, where coroner Dr. George W. Cordwent
explained that two years earlier, Susan's lover had passed away. A number of witnesses at the inquest
said that Susan's manners had become peculiar since then, and that she was, quote, 'strange in
her mind, and at times, unusually quiet'. She was also said to have suffered from, quote, 'religious mania'.
It was reported that shortly before her disappearance Susan had told her sister,
Elizabeth Spiller, that if anything were to happen to her, she could have her clothes, and
their father could have her furniture. On Thursday November 8th 1888, the day before her disappearance,
a work colleague named Lydia Boyland, made the remark to Susan that she was unusually quiet.
Susan simply replied, 'perhaps i shall be quieter tomorrow'.
She was last seen leaving her home at 6:00 am on Friday, November 9th, which was not unusual as
she began work at 6:30, but she did not arrive at the linen factory that day. The search for Susan,
which we're told included several searches of the reservoir and her home, lasted up until the day her
body was recovered. Based chiefly on the response Susan gave her colleague the day before she went
missing, what she said to her sister, and the fact that she had suffered the loss of her lover two
years earlier - which had clearly affected her mental state - the jury at the inquest returned
the verdict that Susan Warren had committed suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity.
She was buried just three days following the discovery of her body,
on January 2nd 1889 at Chard Cemetery on Zembard Lane.
When I tried to find her exact plot, I was told by the local council that Susan was interred in
section H, plot 116. I got as far as plot H88, which lies next to a small expanse of unmarked graves.
Within one of those unmarked graves lies Susan Warren.