The Murder of PC Austwick (1855-1861)

 It’s said that every picture does tell a story.  But for me, the story was minus the picture until I found the excellent team at Photographs Forever.

It was while researching facts about two WW1 soldiers from my village of Lumby, in North Yorkshire that I came across the story of a local policeman who was shot and murdered by a miner.

PC Alfred Austwick was born in Lumby in 1855.  Our village is a place invariably described as a “slumbering hamlet” of about forty houses.  Little has changed since Austwick’s days other than the “thatched cotts” have long gone only to be replaced by barn conversions and new builds but the village still retains its essential charm and peaceful location.  Laurel Farm, where PC Austwick’s father and brother worked, no longer deals in livestock as it once did, but is still a functioning arable farm.

The British Newspaper Archive is a fascinated treasure of facts and I discovered that the murder, which took place about 30 miles away, in Dodworth, near Barnsley, became a national scandal as the man responsible, James Murphy, an itinerant miner with a previous criminal record for burglary and poaching had, after the shooting in the grounds of the Traveller’s Inn, gone on the run for several weeks.  The written style of language is ornate, compared with today, beautifully descriptive and in and amongst the facts I found that several reporters were still intent, even then, on seeking out the salacious gossip!

Over the last few months, I have collated and edited features and articles to build an elaborate picture of what happened.  I was fascinated by how entrenched Christianity was in every area of the lives of people at that time, how fair a trial Murphy received, how there was much compassion for his family and how prison authorities took great care of him.  His relatives were afforded expenses to visit him, he was given the best meat and a chaplain visited him daily.  The death sentence hanged over him but all attempts were made to overturn it.

Beyond the press research I also spent several days in the village of Dodworth and their library – and have been hugely enabled by a retired historian/miner, Steven Wyatt who took time out of his busy life to show me landmarks, to help me understand the area and to help me appreciate what life must have been like then.

Through Steve I was introduced to the owner of the Traveller’s Inn, Jane, who showed me a framed collation of a photocopied newspaper report, Austwick’s whistle and most exciting of all a faded, cut and creased original photo of PC Alfred Austwick, in uniform.

I felt that if I could get the photo restored it would be a fitting image to feature on the cover of the book.  After two photographic experts claimed it wasn’t possible to repair and restore I discovered the excellent team at Photographs Forever – Richard, Amy and Luca.  Not only did they give me the confidence to send it securely to them, but they were at pains to explain how carefully they would manage it.  This was a precious photograph, about 150 years old and it didn’t belong to me.  The team’s customer care is as equal in excellence as the brilliant work they do.  All through the process I was kept informed from the safe arrival of the photograph to the process that they would undertake, to the secure return.

The result was beyond anything that I could have expected.  My faded, armless policeman had been brought back to life – so vividly his eyes seem to engage with mine.

It has been a privilege to remember a man who lost his life so tragically, who left several children without a father and a stricken wife who, at the time of the funeral, was one month pregnant with their sixth child.

PC Austwick’s body was returned to our parish for burial very close to the church gates, and I think of the many hundreds of times I have walked past his grave, never knowing of the story within.

Now, not only can I pay my respects at his graveside, but thanks to the team at Photographs Forever,  I can picture the man who did much to help and protect the lives of villagers in Victorian Britain.

The team helped me tell his story and I remain hugely grateful.

Hilary Robinson’s book The Murder of PC Austwick is available to purchase HERE