The Baby in the Bulrushes

Find out more

books | websites | credits

Books

Women Who Shocked the Nation by Diane Canwell (Breedon Books, September 2002) £14.99
Chronicles the crimes of the most notorious British women of all time from as early as 1551. These women have been accused and convicted of offences that include a Victorian baby farmer with a taste for strangling her infant victims.

Unsolved Victorian Murders by Jonathan Sutherland (Breedon Books, September 2002) £14.99
Victorian criminals got away with murder. The police often made mistakes; forensic science was in its infancy and juries sent people to the gallows on the flimsiest of evidence. In this fresh look at 12 unsolved murder cases, the author reviews the stories, evidence and trials to shed new light on the verdicts passed by the judges and juries of the 19th century.

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper case closed by Patricia Cornwell (Little, Brown, November 2002) £16.99
Using the first-hand expertise she has gained through writing the best-selling Dr Kay Scarpetta novels, Patricia Cornwell uses the demanding methods of modern forensic investigation to re-examine the evidence in the Jack the Ripper murders of Victorian England.

Poverty and Poor Law Reform in Nineteenth-century Britain, 1834-1914 by David Englander (Longman, 1998) £9.99
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 was one of the most important pieces of social legislation ever enacted. This new Seminar Study explores the changing ideas to poverty over this period and assesses current debates on Victorian attitudes to the poor.

Crime and Society in England 1750-1900 by Clive Emsley (Longman, 1996) £14.99
Examines changes in crime and the criminal justice system against the larger changes in an industrialising society. Recent growth in women's history has helped shift interest from property crime to violent crime, and a main feature of this reworked second edition is a chapter on crime and gender.

The Victorians by John Malam (Hodder Wayland, April 2002) £5.99
Covers a wide range of historical and social issues within the Victorian period. This includes inventions, hospitals and health and crime and punishment.

Websites

This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.

Bastardy and Baby Farming in Victorian England
www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1989-0/haller.htm
Paper written by Dorothy Haller that looks in great detail at the prevalence of illegitimacy and baby farming in Victorian England.

These Illegitimate Days
http://hermes.andover.edu/english/200/tpelliott.html
Looks at Victorian attitudes towards pregnancy.

The 'Baby Farmers'
www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/babyfarm.html
Gives an account of the most notorious cases of murderous baby farmers, including an account of Amelia Dyer, who was hung in 1896. At the age of 57 she was the oldest woman to be executed since 1843.

Women Murderers in Victorian Britain
www.findarticles.com/...
Online article written by Judith Knelman on the way that women murderers were portrayed in the media of Victorian England.

Birth Control
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wbirth.htm
The long story of the campaign for women to be able to control their fertility.

Victorians Uncovered
www.channel4.com/history/microsites/V/victorians/
Channel 4 website that looks at the seedier side of Victorian life.

Public Record Office
www.pro.gov.uk
National archive of England, Wales and the United Kingdom. It brings together and preserves the records of central government and the courts of law, and makes them available to all who wish to consult them. The records span an unbroken period from the 11th century to the present day.

UK Family History Online
www.familyrecords.gov.uk/
Online information on how to access records on births, deaths, marriages, military history, adoption information, parish registers, migration and wills from 1 July 1837.

top