STRANGE BUT TRUE

A gruesome find at the Wellhead

NEWS REPORT from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 21st January 1870.

Considerable excitement was created in Bourne on Sunday by the announcement that a portion of the body of a child had been discovered by some boys in the Wellhead.

Information of the fact reached the police and in the course of the day, the Wellhead and the back water of the mill stream were searched but without discovering anything further.

The portion of the body found was an arm (from the shoulder) of a newly-born infant, contained in a box, with a stone attached to it by a string, and was found only a few feet from the side of the Wellhead.

On the evening of the same day, information was volunteered to the superintendent of police by the person who threw into the Wellhead the box and contents as described, and he gave the following explanation of the affair:

A short time since, a medical student (a friend of the informant's) came to Bourne on a visit and brought with him the arm in question for the purpose of some experiments. On returning to the medical college, he inadvertently left it behind him. He, however, wrote to his friend to bury it, by which it was proposed to do in the garden. To this there was some demur, and the young friend unwisely determined to throw it into the Wellhead.

This was done on the evening of the 10th instant, and it was discovered on the 16th., as previously stated. From the information thus volunteered, and from inquiries made by the police, there can be no doubt that there has been no child destroyed, as was supposed when the discovery was made.

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