The Cretingham Murder

During renovation work on a hunting lodge near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1996 a carpenter uncovered a plank of wood revealing a chilling pencilled 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. From this strange beginning Sheila Hardy set out to discover the truth of this claim. Using contemporary newspaper reports and court documents, she uncovers the events that led up to th