Kentish Gazette, 1 February, 1870.

BIDDENDEN.

Found Dead.

On Wednesday morning last as a man was proceeding along the turnpike road to his work he saw the form of a person crouched in a ditch alongside the toad near Dashmarden gate, in the pariah. On going up to him, he ascertained that it was the body of a man named William Barden, a resident of this place.

He was dead, and his face was dreadfully bruised and besmeared with blood and dirt. On the arrival of Mr. Haviland, Surgeon, he pronounced life to have been extinct several hours. Traces of blood were found along the road for many rods from where the body was found. A post mortem examination was made and an inquest held at the “Rose Inn.”