'Buried wealth' tale led to robber's dark deed

THE former Holy Trinity Church still stands as a proud edifice, although unfortunately not now used for its original purpose.

The church, now used as apartments, was erected between 1835 and 1836, and was converted to flats around 1993. The church tower, which is 80 feet high, had installed a peal of eight bells in the year 1889 -- the same year as the church was thrown into local and national headlines.

The reason was for that most despicable of crimes -- grave robbing.

Newspaper articles gave the headings such as 'The Burnley Body Snatching Case' and 'Disgraceful Desecration of the Burnley Graveyard'.

In November, 1889, this evil act was committed at Holy Trinity by a Blackburn man, William Henry Boardman.

Boardman was a man of low intelligence, aged 31, and employed as a weaver. He'd moved to Burnley from Blackburn in late October 1889. He found accommodation in a common lodging house belonging to Mrs Duckworth at 8 Mitre Street, a squalid row a back-to-back houses which used to stand between the former Mitre public house, and the church where he was later to commit his evil deed.

Soon after moving to Burnley, Boardman gained employment at his trade at the Crook Brother Mill on Trafalgar Street.

It was during a drinking spree in a nearby tavern, while in conversation with locals, that it emerged that a certain Mr Holgate, a banker in town, had been buried at Holy Trinity -- and, allegedly, with a great deal of his wealth.

On Saturday, November 9, 1889, Boardman left his lodgings on Mitre Street, saying as he passed Mrs Duckworth his landlady 'that he would get her an arm or a leg'.

He told another woman lodger 'that he would get her a heart, so that she might cook it'.

The two women took this to mean a leg of mutton, or a joint of beef, and that this was his way of having a joke.

Certain it was, that Boardman at that time was hard pressed for cash -- in fact he had to borrow some money off Mrs Duckworth only a few days before.

On Tuesday, November 12, Boardman left the house at 7pm and went across to the grocers shop in Accrington Road run by Harriet Pickles, where he purchased a halfpenny candle.

Later on, Boardman went to the house of Leonard Trelfall, a labour who lived on Pump Court, a small back alley adjacent to Mitre Street. He asked Trelfall for a pick and shovel, as he had a drain to clear in the cellar.

In the dark hours of that November night Boardman entered the graveyard at Holy Trinity Church.

He mistakenly broke into the tomb next to Mr Holgate's and stumbled clumsily into the vault.

Boardman also had a great deal of difficulty in getting back out, and spent almost an hour there. He returned to his lodgings at five minutes past midnight, the fire was but a glowing ember, and the landlady remarked at the lateness of the hour -- and more particularly the terrible smell he had brought into the house with him.

She said later that 'he was as black and as grimy, as if he had been up a chimney'.

She asked Boardman what it was that he had with him, and slowly, and very gently, Boardman placed the pick on the floor, the tool he had used to break into the tomb. After sitting a while, Boardman finally went to bed without undressing from his filthy clothes, saying as he went 'Tonight, I have plenty of money'. The following morning, Boardman spoke to the landlady, and another lady lodger, feeling in various pockets of his clothing, till at last he pulled out a piece of bone.

He then remarked 'I will get seven years for what I did last night'.

The two women cried out in fright, one ran to the window and opened it. Boardman, told the women not to say a word to anyone about what had happened, and pointed out from the bedroom window the grave he had desecrated.

The previous statement by Boardman 'that tonight I shall have plenty of money' appeared to be

unfounded, for that same morning he asked for a loan and got a penny off Mrs Duckworth, his landlady.

Meanwhile, the sexton at the church, James Rigby, was examining the grounds of the churchyard when he noticed that the grave of John Stephenson had been opened, on the side near the school.

The entrance stones had been removed, and there was evidence that a pick had been used to remove the flags covering the grave -- the coffin too was smashed open. The police were informed.

Boardman was making his way up to the church to recover a pipe, which he had dropped during his midnight raid, when he noticed a large crowd around the tomb. He turned and walked away, and promptly left town.

Considerable interest was caused by the sensation, and soon there were a large number of 'visitors' on the scene.

However, when the crowds began to exceed over a hundred, the police ordered that the entrance to the graveyard was to be locked. Over the following months, the sensation died down, and no doubt Boardman thought he had succeeded in getting away with his evil crime, but the Burnley police tracked him down to Accrington. On Thursday, April 10, 1890, he was arrested.

William Henry Boardman was duly charged with 'sacrilegiously breaking and entering into a vault at Holy Trinity Churchyard, Habergham Eaves'.

The magistrates viewed the charge too serious for them to deal with, and consequently Boardman was remanded in custody to the Preston Sessions.

On Wednesday, May 21,1890, Boardman entered a plea of 'not guilty' to the charge, but later changed it to guilty on the advice of his solicitor.

In his defence, he stated that he had been drinking heavily over the previous days, and he thought that his 'friends' had slipped something into his drink, which had a strange effect upon him.

The court was not impressed however, and the judge passed the sentence that Boardman must go to prison for a period of six calendar months. The offence according to the judge was 'a most extraordinary and abominable one, and one which all reasonable and sensible men must look upon with horror'.