Object Details
From:NHerts
Name/TitlePhoto of Ridgley Grocer Shop
About this objectPhoto of the Ridgley Grocer Shop. The shop, at 125 Nightingale Road, was the scene of a gruesome and unsolved murder in 1919.
Writing on the back reveals the significance of the photo. It reads "Photo taken from Nightingale Rd looking into Garden Row. Mrs Ridgley was murdered in 1919 found by Mrs G Day of 6 St Anns Rd Hitchin". The details of the case vary between accounts.
Most agree that Elizabeth Ridgley aged 54 was a woman of routine who opened her shop at 8am sharp every day and closed at exactly 9pm every night. An article in Hertfordshire Memories, written in 2018 and based on on a report by Norman Hastings in the Thomson’s Weekly News, published 22nd March 1919 records the next phase of the story. "On the night of Saturday 25 January, Mrs Roach, asleep in her house on Nightingale Road, Hitchin awoke in the middle of the night to some peculiar noises, bumps and thuds, and the suspicious groaning of a dog. The odd sounds where coming from next door, she sat up, “why, the old lady is killing her dog!” she exclaimed thinking aloud."
On Sunday evening Gertrude Day had walked down Garden Row alongside the shop and noticed the back door ajar, but thought little of it. By 8:30 on Monday morning Mrs Day and others were concerned, the shop remained locked 30 minuted after Mrs Ridgley's usually strict opening time.
Reports vary as to who first stepped foot through the back door, perhaps Gertrude Day or perhaps P.C. Alf Kirby. What greeted them was the sight of Mrs Ridgley, lying face down next to a heavy and bloodied iron weight, her Irish Terrier also dead alongside her. Entering the living room to examine the top half of her body P.C. Kirby saw blood spatters across boxes and crockery, things that must have been nearby when she was attacked. A red trail could be seen leading from Mrs Ridgley to the shop counter. The till had been ransacked with a single coin and blood spots remaining on the counter.
P.C. Kirby apparently believed he was presented with the scene of a murder, but was overruled as others argued the scene was the result of a tragic accident, where both Mrs Ridgley and her dog had both died falling down the stairs and striking piles of crockery. Later a murder investigation was called. Chief Constable Fredrick Wensley of Scotland Yard, ‘Whitechapel’s Sherlock Holmes’, who had worked on the Jack the Ripper cases in his youth was called to the scene. Wensley scoured the local area and decided he had found his killer in the form of Mr John Healy of Radcliffe Road. A war veteran and labourer originally from Ireland who was said to have been spotted 'Lurking' near the shop. Healy was seen to have blood on his clothes and injuries on his fingers and knuckles, as if perhaps, attacked by a dog. At his trial Healy explained that his injuries and the blood all came about as part of his work. His injuries he argued were commonplace in the building trade and the blood he stated, was from helping a colleague (or lodger in other accounts) who had cut his head. The jury needed only a few minutes to declare Healy Not Guilty and for the case to remain unsolved.
This photograph was donated by the grandson of Gertrude Day, the donor had found the photo amongst his late fathers possessions a few years before donation.
Date Made1919
Inscription and MarksWritten in pen on the reverse "Photo taken from Nightingale Rd looking into Garden Row. Mrs Ridgley was murdered in 1919 found by Mrs G Day of 6 St Anns Rd Hitchin"
Measurements245 x 286
Period20th Century (1901-2000)
Object TypePhotograph
Medium and MaterialsOrganic| Card
Named CollectionNorth Hertfordshire Museum
Object number2021.30
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved