On the 23rd of June 1828 in Ancoats, a young boy was handed a fruit cake by a women asking him to deliver it to a man called Mr Drummond on Richmond Street, and was paid two sixpences for the errand.
Mr Drummond wasn’t it but his wife was and being told that the cake came from a Mrs McCann sent him away attempting to give the cake having never heard of a Mrs McCann.
The boy returned home, and his mother, believing that he had stolen the money, eventually went to visit Mrs Drummond who confirmed the story and gave the cake back to them.On the way home they gave pieces of the cake out to their neighbours. Those eating it complaining of a burning sensation in the throat and mouth and began vomiting.Two children and an old women ended up in the infirmary, one of the children a four year old girl died.The cake was found to have been laced with arsenic.
Mrs McCann was never found despite a reward being offered and the boy having given a good description of her including the fact that she was carrying a baby in her arms.We can only speculate on the reasons for baking the poisoned cake.
This and three hundred and sixty four other of the darkest tales of Manchester’s past are the subject of Michala Hulme’s first book, a grim Almanac of Manchester.
Tales of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of freak weather, bizarre deaths and terrible accidents. These include a drunken accident in which a Mrs Elizabeth Todd set her own dress on fire, a fatal stabbing outside a Manchester Brothel and buildings collapsing after being struck by lightening.
The better well known are also here, Peterloo, the Fenians, the heads of the Jacobite traitors, the Scuttlers, the Blitz but successfully interspersed with the ordinary tragedies of everyday life across four centuries.
Michala is a qualified historian currently studying for her PhD. She tells me she has an unhealthy interest in the story of death and the macabre. She is currently working on a PHD at MMU which is investigating the disposal of the dead in the world’s first industrial city, having previously written a dissertation of the history of East Manchester’s Philip’s Park Cemetary.
