HORRIBLE MURDER OF A FLINT GIRL. ATTEMPTED OUTRAGE. THE MURDERER AT LARGE.
We parked the car, walked through the gate of Christ Church, looked to the left, found the grave and then departed. After all, this was Linthwaite, just outside Huddersfield and we had no cause to linger. The things we do for Welsh Country…but then it wasn’t only for the magazine that we were here. It was more important to pay our respects to Catherine (Kate) Dennis, a forgotten 16 year old Welsh servant girl from Flint who was murdered here in the shadows of the Pennines in 1891.
It is a tragic story – of a life casually snatched away and of a crime leaving terrible emotion wreckage in its wake in both Linthwaite and Flint. For Catherine was not the only victim of that dreadful August day.
Her father Edward was a labourer at the Flint Chemical Works, and the family lived on Corporation Street. There were four daughters and they had relocated from Holyhead in Anglesey. Kate had last visited home in Flint for her holidays at Whitsuntide. She had gone into service when she was fourteen in the Ivy Green public house (known locally as The Ivy Hotel) on Manchester Road in Linthwaite. It was a long way from home but perhaps she was in West Yorkshire because she had a cousin Edith, also in service, in nearby Slaithwaite.
In the year she had been there Kate had shown herself to be invaluable. The landlady, Mrs Brook, knew she could rely upon her entirely. She was the best servant she ever had and so she left Kate in charge of the pub when she went off to do some shopping on a Friday afternoon in August 1891. There were only a handful of customers that lunchtime…
You can read the rest of this tragic story in my book Grave Tales From Wales Volume 2, published by Cambria in April 2022. Find it in the menu or on the How To Buy page or in the Shopping Cart
I have received 25 newly-printed copies of my book Swansea Murders. Go to the Swansea Murders page in the menu, or by clicking on this link, to find out more. The book contains 25 crimes which were committed between 1770 and 1946.
You can go straight to the How to Buy Page by using the menu or by clicking here.
This story does not appear in the book.