A Labrador in Devon has unearthed a blue glass bottle marked “Not to be taken” from a garden in Clyst Honiton, which its owner believes may be connected to a notorious Victorian murder case.
Paul Phillips, 49, said his dog Stanley repeatedly returned to the same spot in the garden, eventually digging up the bottle. Phillips recalled reading about the murder of William Ashford by his wife Mary Ann Ashford in 1865, and research suggested the couple may have lived next door.
Mary Ann Ashford was convicted of murder by arsenic poisoning and hanged in Exeter in front of 20,000 people. The execution was reportedly bungled, taking several minutes, and is thought to have contributed to the end of public hangings in England in the 1860s.
Phillips told Devon Live: “I thought it was a really interesting and beautiful thing when I cleaned it up and just remembered something about the murder. I searched the internet and it came up with Clyst Honiton and Mary Ann’s hanging.” He added that the bottle may have been the one she used.
According to online newspaper accounts, Mary Ann Ashford was alleged to have had an affair with a man 22 years younger and plotted to kill her husband for his inheritance. Her trial took place at Devon Lent Assizes on 16 March 1866, with the jury reaching a guilty verdict in minutes.
