The Cretingham Murder

by Sheila Hardy, Terry Hunt (Foreword)

During renovation work on a hunting lodge in 1996, a carpenter uncovered a plank of wood revealing a chilling penciled message: “A fearful murder was committed the first day of this month (October 1887) at Cretingham. A curate cut the vicar's throat at 12 o'clock at night.” The discovery brought to light a long lost piece of Suffolk history and with it an intriguing murder mystery. Using contemporary newspaper reports and court documents, Sheila Hardy uncovers the events that led up to the fateful night of October 1, 1887 and the subsequent trial. It is a tale of religion and influence, politics and social power, mystery and intrigue, and is a captivating look into the shady side of Suffolk's history.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so well known as other Suffolk murders such as Maria Marten and Rose Harsent, but nevertheless just as interesting. This has been pierced together from the little evidence available, not sure whether the curate was guilty as charged. I'm sure the outcome may have been different with forensics we have now.

[Tweedledum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every so often one comes across a bizarre local history story. The death of the Vicar of Cretingham in Suffolk, apparently at the hands of his curate who had become mentally unbalanced, may have been a nine days wonder back in 1887 but as Sheila Hardy rightly points out if the case had occurred today it is possible that a very different verdict might have been brought in.

[Tannis Laidlaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across this book when I was writing my own book about an interesting woman, Louisa Moule, one of New Zealand's early pioneers. Harriet Louisa Farley is the subject of Hardy's book and is the same Louisa Moule I have been writing aboutt, but during her second marriage. As I had already completed extensive research on the murder of Louisa's husband before reading the book, it came as a complete surprise that Hardy had taken trifling village gossip and made a meal of it. Even though the events took place well over a century earlier, writers need to do their own research and obtain expert opinions before publication.
In my researches, it is abundantly clear that the curate, Arthur Albert-Cooper, was an unfortunate victim of paranoid schizophrenia, had a violent history when he was unwell, spent several years in insane asylums (a number of them) where all the experts agreed he was seriously and chronically unwell, and did indeed murder the Reverend Farley, Louisa's husband.
Writing a book based on gossip is at the least horribly unfair to an interesting and brave Victorian woman who was ahead of her time, and at worst, a travesty of historical writing.

[Rachel Hutton macdonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting case but frustrating lack of detail - due no doubt to the sources rather than the author. Want to get in a time machine and ask some questions of my own...