DISCOVERY OF SKELETON

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 July 1939, Page 9

DISCOVERY OF SKELETON

MURDER OF 1850 RECALLED. LONDON, June 25. The mystery of a girl’s disappearance nearly 90 years ago has been recalled by the discovery of a skeleton in the village of Ringstead, Northamptonshire. Mr. John Farr, an ironstone worker, was 'digging in his garden when ho unearthed some bones. He called the police, and after digging deeper, brought to light port of a skull and parts of a human skeleton. At once villagers recalled the strange story of Lydia Atley, a labourer’s daughter, who vanished in 1850. It was suspected that she had been murdered, and the Government offered a reward of £2OO for information as to her whereabouts.

A butcher named - Ball, a married man who was known to have been Lydia’s lover, owned a field, part of which is now the garden in which the bones were discovered. Lydia was heard to threaten Ball and say: “The. Lord have mercy on thee if I die in my present state of sin.’’ She was never seen again. Thirteen years later a man dug up a skeleton in a, field, and Ball was arrested. He was acquitted after trial.

q’hrcc years ago other remains were found in land that wa.s once an orchard belonging to Ball.

But Mr. Farr cannot claim the £2OO reward for “discovering the whereabouts of Lydia Atley”—even if the Government were still interested —for the bones which he found crumbled in the air .and it is impossible to say what, was the sex of the buried person. No inquest will be held.