Unknown Infant Obituaries & Newspaper Announcements Article Source: Reading Mercury Date: 25 March 1899

INFANT'S BODY FOUND IN A DITCH AT SANDLEFORD
Mr. J. Cockburn Pinniger, Coroner, held an inquest at the "Rokeby Arms" Inn, Newtown Road, Newbury, on Saturday last, on the body of an infant, name unknown, which was found in a ditch at Sandleford on the 17th inst., in an advanced state of decomposition.
The first witness called was Mr. Richard Hickman, surgeon, who stated that he examined the body of a child in a shed in Sandleford gardens. The body was in an extremely advanced stage of decomposition, and the lower half of the left leg was missing. The body was so much decomposed that he could not say whether the deceased was born alive or dead. The body was wrapped in a piece of linen and tied up with tape. It was impossible to say how long the child had been dead, or what its sex was. Witness thought the child had been dead several weeks.
P.C. Mansbridge deposed that, on Friday, he went to a lane near Sandleford Lodge, called Pinchington Lane, and on the left hand side of the road, he found the body of a child in a ditch. The body was very much decomposed. Witness removed it to a shed in the gardens at Sandleford Priory.
The Coroner having briefly summed up, the Jury returned a verdict of "Found Dead, having probably been dead for five or six weeks." The infant was buried in the cemetery on 18 March 1899. The company paid the burial cost of 2s 6d. No. Mrs. P. Code.