As I write this we are about to reopen after 14 months of closures, partial opening and uncertainty. To say we are very excited and very grateful to be in this position is an understatement.

We have worked hard to keep our profile raised and make new friends in high places, we have engaged digitally with many of our service users through Virtual Chit Chat and Digital Chit Chat, we have been able to highlight a lot of our stories and history through our Facebook posts and we have been able to attract VIP’s, MP’s and new channels to the site on numerous occasions.

We have added new attractions to site, including the Little Skipper Explorer Park, A new Hurst Cavern Show and 120 sqm of new interpretation. Our open water Explorer Boat has gone down very well with lots of excited families taking the trip and every inch of us has been 3d laser scanned and captured digitally.

We have been lucky to recruit new Trustees and we welcome Megan Parker, Don Powell and Les Bradshaw onto the Board and Enterprise. They bring a wealth of experience with them and they are all actively getting stuck in and helping us develop our offer. We have also welcomed new staff on site, Nina Withers, Jane Allcock and Terry Morris joined the team during lockdown.

The staff have been brilliant in rolling up their sleeves and getting the site and boats looking the best they can in readiness to reopen. Many have completed training, worked in new areas and developed new skills and experiences. All against the backdrop of staying safe and looking out for each other and the community in which we are located.

Despite all our efforts we are aware that the hard work really now begins. We need to get people through our doors and on our boats. We need 100,000 boat passengers per annum and despite all efforts to vaccinate everyone, we know there is still a reluctance in many areas to venture too far from home. With this in mind we are targeting our local community and showing them what a great and safe trip we offer. Please help us to do this—wherever you can recommend us, follow us on Facebook and Google and come and visit us yourselves .

Traci Dix-Williams – Chief Executive

We would like to thank Wyrley Blog for allowing us to reprint parts of their fascinating article. https://wyrleyblog.wordpress.com

This is a sad tale, as it deals with someone completely lost to us now. The purpose in writing it is two-fold. First, it seeks to set the record straight, as much as it can, primarily to give a little dignity to the lady involved. Second, its retelling is also intended to highlight the limitations of memory: to show how individual and collective memory, rumour and simple acceptance of truth have, in this case through no planned deception, given birth to a series of exaggerated events that have seen the colloquial naming of a geological feature within Dudley as ‘Murder Mine’.

These events would have remained unaddressed had it not been for two reasons. First, the case was brought to my attention during the process of seeking better control of the (former Dudley) Coroner’s records held at the Archive. Second, a little while ago Dudley Museum made a video (with the help of Brian, from the Dudley Canal Trust) on the ‘ghostly tales’ of the canal. This video was not meant to be serious, just a bit of general entertainment with Brian recalling what he had once been told by a mine inspector some years back. Brian’s good faith is not in question here, but the actual events he relates are open to scrutiny through contemporary newspaper accounts and the Coroner’s file (access for which was granted by the Coroner, although understandably without reproducing any photographs from that file. I have also redacted any names that do not appear in press coverage).

A summary of the video (as it is appreciated that the sound is not of the best quality) is as follows: a mine inspector (who is not named) once visited the Dudley canal caves, and had done similar inspections for a number of years. Back in 1951, this inspector was in a cave adjacent to the canal; the entrance then being some ten or so feet lower that it is today. Concerned that a limestone slab constituted a trip hazard, he instructed that it be removed. Upon removal, the skeleton of a young lady was found underneath. The lady, to this day, remains unidentified. Some old clothes and part of a whalebone corset were present indicating she had ‘been there a while to say the least’.

The rusty blade of a knife, without a handle, was found under the body which could have fallen though the skeleton as the body decomposed. As far as Brian is aware, ever since then it has been known as ‘Murder Mine’ by the locals. So, how much of this is true? How much an exaggeration? And how much pure invention? Well, you can judge for yourselves as we look at the evidence, however, that evidence comes from 1961 and not 1951.

Murder Mine was at least once a mine, even though it had long since been abandoned by 1961. This mine, along with others, and the tunnel and canal network, were a part of the subterranean workings within the limestone outcrop on which Dudley Castle was built. The workings were enlarged over time and canal branches followed to link workings and the Castle Mill Basin, originally in a cavern, became exposed. The extraction and processing ceased in the 1920s and 1930s.

The report made by Detective Inspector MacDougall to the Chief Constable of Dudley Borough Police in May 1961 first described the location of the cavern, it being: ‘in the Dudley Zoo grounds between Castle Mill Lodge and Forest Road [Forest Road is the other side of the wooded area on the 1887 map, but had not been built then], and is approximately forty yards from a disused canal basin which forms the junction of two underground canals’. Back in 1961 the basin was disused, although it contained ‘stagnant water’; it was smaller than present – the cavern entrance being some forty yards from the canal basin compared to today – as the 1989 tunnel between the mine and the old canal tunnel had of course not been constructed. Finally, as Brian said, the entrance to the cavern was down a dip – it has since been levelled – and the cave was frequented by rats.

The basin was no picturesque exemplar of industrial archaeology; instead, it was then overgrown and was described by MacDougall elsewhere, as was the cavern itself, as a playground for local children. This fact had seen the tragic drowning of a boy in 1949. Further, there had been a deeply distressing incident in September 1958 when a young girl’s body had been recovered from the basin under very suspicious circumstances. The case is too sensitive to discuss in detail; while a criminal investigation did follow, although no successful prosecution was made, whispers of murder were clearly circulating in the local community according to the press. The fact that MacDougall does not, and nor does anyone at any point within the Coroner’s file or the newspaper accounts, refer to the cavern as ‘Murder Mine’ during the 1961 case suggests that it is from this event that the name was later derived and not from the incident of 1958.

MacDougall went on to describe the cavern itself as: ‘approximately 75 yards in length, and varies in breadth from 25 feet to 45 feet. The roof inside the Cavern is 30 to 40 feet from the ground. The entrance to the Cavern is in the form of a triangle, the base being about 16 feet wide and narrowing to a point, the height from this point being 7 feet from the ground. Inside the Cavern there are numerous large pieces of rock, which have fallen from the roof at various periods’. The cavern has since been blocked after just a few yards with a mound of rubble.

The police took ten minutes to arrive, but the main cavalry turned-up at about 2.50 pm in the form of Superintendent Hullah, Detective Inspector Alexander MacDougall (who was the main Dudley Borough Police liaison with the Coroner), Police Constable Douthwaite (the Coroner’s officer) and the police photographer. At around 3 pm Doctor Barron, the police surgeon, arrived. Barron’s initial thoughts were that the remains: ‘judging by the pelvic bone, appeared to be that of a female. The flesh was all eaten away and the bones were discoloured… Death occurred many years ago’. MacDougall and Douthwaite then fixed the distance of the skeleton from the entrance as being 102 feet.

Following Barron’s advice the police called in a forensic team: this was made up of Doctor Montgomery, University of London Forensic Laboratory and Doctor Griffiths, a Home Office pathologist. They arrived at 7 pm. That evening and the following day a further search was made and further bones recovered. Along with the skeletal remains there were also certain articles of clothing, as well as a set of dentures and part of an umbrella. Soil samples were also taken. Permission was obtained from the Coroner to remove the remains for further analysis.

By this stage the press had been notified and had been photographed – or obtained photographs – of activity around the cave entrance. On 19 May the inquest was opened and then adjourned to gather more evidence after the initial statements on discovery. With this, the focus of investigation moves onto the analysis of the bones and items found.

Doctor Walter Montgomery examined the clothes and the accompanying accoutrements. The first thing noticeable is the absence of certain evidence – although the archaeological maxim that that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence does need to be remembered. The thing to mention is there was nothing found giving a definitive identity or absolute date (or at lease give an absolute terminus post quem, the point after which death must of occurred).

Then, at no time does Montgomery or anyone in the entire Coroner file mention, a rusty blade underneath the skeletal remains. In fact, no item other than clothing was mentioned at any time other than the dentures and umbrella. The Dudley Herald did mention a ‘rusty hairpin’ in its first report on 19 May: however, considering there is no mention of this in any other news report (as yet seen by myself) or within the Coroner file, and that the Herald then wrongly reported the colour of the shoes, it is possible that their reporter may have misheard or reported here-say.

Next, with the body some 100 feet inside the cavern, there was no evidence found of any lantern, torch or candle holder that must have lit the way to that spot. It may seem self-evident that light was needed, but we do have proof: the Dudley correspondent for the Birmingham Daily Post scouted out the spot within the cave, he did so by the light emitted by one ‘miner’s flickering tallow candle’. Saying that, if our lady had just a candle, then it is unlikely to have survived, however, the point as a whole needs to be remembered.

Montgomery’s report on what he did find was laconic, stating that: ‘the position of some of the fragments of clothing suggested that the clothing was present in the cave when the last roof fall occurred’; according to the Birmingham Daily Post correspondent: ‘Beyond the point where the bones were found, a rockfall [presumably the one Montgomery meant] almost completely blocks the tunnel’. His identification of the umbrella is simply that it is a ‘lady’s’ model and of ‘black cotton’. Montgomery had little to go on with the clothing in general as there were no labels and even the type of garment was unclear.

There were ‘fragments of a printed mercerised cotton dress… the original colours included cream on a red background’. After this, Montgomery simply states that ‘fragments of a green cotton garment are present’, as well as ‘fragments of coarse black lace’. He could at least identify ‘fragments of a laced corset consisting of canvas covered with cotton fabric’. It is possible, along with animal activity, that fungal spores had rotted the fabrics away in the damp atmosphere.

The shoes did yield some information that is significant for it offers much as to the fate of the smaller bones, flesh and fabrics (added to natural putrefaction and fungal spores): both shoes bore evidence of rodent tooth marks (most of the upper parts being eaten away). The shoes were fragmentary, but were made of black hide and had ‘toe caps and low heels’. The right shoe has evidence of a single strap. These shoes, sole-wise, were practical for cave exploration.

The remains of the shoes were taken to an expert: in the form of Enoch Merrington, from Messers Collins, High Street, Dudley. According to MacDougall, Merrington ‘was of the opinion that the footwear were manufactured about 40 years ago’. Allowing a margin of error on top of this, this would have placed the shoes to the period of the Great War to the General Strike of 1926. The life-span for a pair of shoes depend on their quality, the frequency and nature of use, and whether they were subject to repair. As no comments on any of these issues were recorded in the file, the shoes can only give a vague terminus post quem of around 1920.

The skeleton was examined by Doctor Griffiths. His confirmation of the natural articulation of the body was made – in other words: ‘bones were found as though the body had been placed or pinned down face downwards’. Griffiths examined the pelvic bones, sacrum (the base of the spinal column), clavicles and shoulder blades – which confirmed the remains were that of a ‘female… and that the age of the deceased was over 25 years at the time of death’.

The skull offered a little more. The cranium was blackened on the right side with staining of both the interior and exterior. This was subjected to Benzidine tests, which showed dried blood in these areas, as well as in the right eye orbit. No hair was found at all, so a report in the Daily Herald (London) on 18 May 1961 that she had ‘dark hair’ was unfounded. Griffiths turned his attentions to the cranial sutures: the closing of parts of the coronial and saggital sutures indicated to him that the remains were from a 30-35 year-old woman.

Little Skippers Holiday Fun

Join us during the summer holidays and enjoy some fun-filled crafts. Activities will run every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday throughout the summer.

Tricks & Treats Halloween Fun

28, 29, 30, 31 October 2021

With Tricks and Treats and Bumps and Howls, this is sure to be a great Family Fun evening. Disappear underground on our “Spooky Boat” and enjoy the madcap Krazy Kris UV Groovy show and magically themed décor. Book online to secure your seats for this popular event. Don’t leave it too long—you don’t want to miss out.

A Fairy Tale Christmas

Selected dates 3rd—23rd December 2021

Join Santa and Little Red Riding Hood as they search for the Big Bad Wolf and all the presents he has stolen. Hop on board and travel to an amazing underground world of Christmas. If you find the presents be sure to call at Santa’s Grotto—he will have a special reward for you. This popular event always sells out so make sure you book your tickets early to avoid disappointment.

VIEW SPECIAL EVENTS

After serving as Volunteer Coordinator for the Trust for the last seven years, Becci Cooper-Sayer has decided to move roles and has taken up a new position in Education. She will be missed by everyone who has worked with her and we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all her hard work and wish her well for the future. Becci remains in post till August so please make sure you take the opportunity to say goodbye.

Claire Healey who has supported Becci will be taking up a new position as Engagement Officer and will have the overview for our Volunteering, Learning and Curatorial activities, supported by the rest of the DCTT team. This is a new approach for us so there will be some development work involved but we hope it will help us better respond to current and ongoing needs, especially where school engagement evolves as lock down restrictions ease.

A visit to Castle Mill Basin 1846. FP Palmer & EA Crowquill

The Flying Scotsman being rescued from an embankment after it was dug up by members of the Trust. Ian Smallshire, one of the rescuers remembers it took a couple of days to complete, slowly inching it forward bit by bit.