A Most Inconvenient Pregnancy: Class, Murder, and the Doddinghurst Tragedy of 1850

A Most Inconvenient Pregnancy: Class, Murder, and the Doddinghurst Tragedy of 1850
News of the Times | Episode 577 | 1850
Step into the shadows of rural England, where a quiet field near a stile becomes the setting for a grim discovery.

A young woman is found face-down in the grass. She was pregnant. And someone wanted her silence — permanent.

As whispers ripple through the small 1850s community of Doddinghurst, a troubling picture emerges: a man with much to lose, a secret love affair, and the desperate measures taken to protect a fragile reputation.

This haunting case from the Victorian era unfolds through inquest records, witness accounts, and a telling web of circumstantial evidence — revealing how reputation could be deadlier than truth.

📜 Join us as we delve into the social pressure, forensic limitations, and moral contradictions of 19th-century England in a case that shocked its time.

And in today’s “further particulars”…
Where the Doddinghurst tragedy gave us scandal and sorrow, our next tale offers no secret liaisons, no blackmail, and no lace-bound arsenic.

Just one man.
One mousehttps://youtu.be/VFjhBenGoZw.
And a coroner’s report that should really come with a lunchtime warning.

🐭 From the Manchester Evening News, we bring you a story quite literally swallowed whole… and still squeaking.

🎩 Hosted by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday 
🎞️ Long-form historical crime compilations: Final Sunday of every month 

📚 Related cases from the archive: 
1856: The Murder of George Samuel Little - A Locked Room Mystery |  EP469
https://youtu.be/UeoyQsJtEbU
1854: He Brought a Gun to His Own Arrest: The Shocking Case of James Tucker |  EP530
https://youtu.be/nGWHRjedwgE
 
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