The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by E. Clapham of the Ferney Lee Studio, Todmorden. The card has a divided back.
There are no indications as to the identity of the man or the date of the photograph.
Todmorden
Todmorden is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is 17 miles (27 kilometres) north-east of Manchester, 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Burnley and 9 miles (14 km) west of Halifax. In 2011 had a population of 15,481.
Todmorden is at the confluence of three steep-sided Pennine valleys, and is surrounded by moorlands with outcrops of sandblasted gritstone.
The historic boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire is the River Calder and its tributary, Walsden Water, which run through the town. The administrative border was altered by the Local Government Act 1888, placing the whole of the town within the West Riding.
The Industrial Revolution caused a concentration of industry and settlement along the valley floor and a switch from woollens to cotton. One family in the area was particularly influential on the town; the Fielden family. They created a "dynasty" that changed the town forever by establishing several large mills, putting up assorted impressive buildings and bringing about social and educational change.
Notable Murders in Todmorden
Miles Weatherhill
A double murder took place at Christ Church, Todmorden on the 2nd. March 1868. The victims' graves lie in the churchyard. Miles Weatherhill, a 23-year-old weaver from the town, was forbidden from seeing his housemaid sweetheart, Sarah Bell, by the Reverend Anthony John Plow.
Armed with four pistols and an axe, Weatherhill took revenge first on the vicar and then on Jane Smith, another maid who had informed Plow of the secret meetings. Miss Smith died at the scene, while the vicar survived another week before succumbing to his injuries. Weatherhill also seriously injured the vicar's wife.
On the 4th. April 1868 Weatherhill became the last person to be publicly hanged in Manchester, at the New Bailey prison. Local legend has it that the face of a young woman is sometimes seen in the window of the vicarage, now in private ownership.
Zigmund Adamski
In 1980, Todmorden found itself at the centre of a celebrated murder enquiry. On the 11th. June that year police were called to J. W. Parker's coal yard in Todmorden after the discovery of a body, subsequently identified as 56-year-old Zigmund Adamski from Tingley, near Wakefield.
The former coal miner had not been seen since setting out on a local shopping trip five days earlier. Although still wearing a suit, his shirt, watch and wallet were missing. A post mortem established that he died of a heart attack earlier that day, and discovered burns on his neck, shoulders and back of his head.
The burns appeared to have been treated with a green ointment, which toxicology tests were unable to identify. Adamski's case has never been solved, no suspect was ever arrested and in a television documentary the coroner, James Turnbull, described it as:
"One of the most puzzling cases
I've come across in 25 years".
Among the explanations to gain currency was that Adamski was the victim of extraterrestrial abduction, following comments by police officer Alan Godfrey about what he saw on the 29th. November 1980, described in Jenny Randles' 1983 book The Pennine UFO Mystery.
After intense media interest, the Todmorden police force were forbidden from talking further to the press about the case. On the 17th. June 2017, Blurry Photos host Dave Stecco claimed that Adamski could have been a Nazi before immigrating from Poland.
Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman, the General Practitioner who is believed to have killed over 200 patients in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's, claimed at least one of his victims while working as a doctor at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden between March 1974 and September 1975.
His first known victim, 70-year-old Eva Lyons, lived at Keswick Close in the town. Shipman had initially been charged with 15 murders committed around Hyde, Greater Manchester, between 1995 and 1998 when he went on trial in late 1999. However Lyons was only identified as a victim of Shipman when the inquiry into his crimes was completed in July 2002.
Shipman was found guilty on the 31st. January 2000 and hanged himself at HM Wakefield Prison on the 13th. January 2004.
