WEDDINGTON CASTLE - An Online History
The murder of Polly Button by John Danks
Polly Button and John Danks (also known as Joe) used to meet secretly in Weddington Meadows but the tragic lovers were doomed, with John brutally murdering Polly when their affair was found out.
The real name of Polly Button was Mary Green. She lived on Friary Street, Nuneaton with her 6 children. At the time of her death she was eight months pregnant. The father of the child was John Danks. He was already married and there had been a number of quarrels between his wife and Mary.
When his wife found out about their affair, John brutally murdered Polly on the 18th February 1832. Polly Button was found lying in the road in a field occupied by a Mr. Beasley leading to Mr. Astley's New Mill Field Barn, with her throat horribly cut. It was not doubted that the woman was murdered. Suspicion fell on John Danks, a farmer's labouring carpenter. Danks ultimately confessed to Rev. King, the Curate of St. Nicolas. He was subsequently arrested by Nuneaton’s first policeman, Constable Haddon. John Danks was found guilty at Assizes and publicly executed in Warwick on 9th April. He was thereafter removed to the Birmingham Institute for dissection (the dissection of criminals by medical students as part of their studies ceased in 1832).
You can read a full account of the crime by clicking here. (PDF)
Murderer given bread and cheese as he waited for witnesses
The
prisoner Danks was brought into the room ironed, and placed before the coroner,
for the purpose of
having the evidence read over to him. He is a man of about
five feet four inches in height, between 40 and 50 years of age, by trade a
carpenter, and by no means of a forbidding countenance, nor was there anything
in his appearance indicative of a mind capable of committing the crime with
which he stood charged. He listened with particular attention to the evidence,
and although an illiterate man, displayed much tact in interrogating some of the
witnesses. He neither denied nor acknowledged the offence; and throughout the
whole, maintained a more than ordinary degree of nerve and self-possession. At
his request, two persons were sent for as witnesses to him, and during the
absence of the messenger he was asked by Mr Haddin, if he wished any
refreshment, to which he replied that he should like a little bread and cheese;
with this and a glass of ale he was supplied. He ate with avidity, and on taking
up the ale glass, he drank the healths of the persons present. The persons whom
he sent for being examined, the room was ordered to be cleared, and the Jury,
after a short consultation, returned the following verdict - “That the deceased,
Mary Green, was wilfully murdered, and that John Danks is the person who
murdered her.” The prisoner was now taken to the Guard House, followed by an
immense crowd, and in going along was assailed with groans and hisses. There
being no evidence against his wife, she was ordered to be set at liberty;
previous to which she seemed as if in a state of derangement, sometimes crying,
and at other rolling her eyes about with a wild and vacant stare at those around
her.
The "Polly Button's stone" was part of the house in which Mary Green lived. However, it is known that the stone was older that the house. It was not uncommon for old stones from demolished and empty buildings to be recycled and used in other houses.
It is quite possible that the stone was originally part of the Nuneaton priory or a medieval tavern. After the murder, a myth spread that the stone actually showed the heads of Mary Green and her murderer John Danks.
The Polly Button stone is now in the Nuneaton Museum collection, click on the picture above for a larger image.
After the murder, several versions of a skipping rhyme about the crime emerged within Nuneaton. Here are three versions:
"Jack Danks played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
He took a knife to please his wife
And cut her up like mutton"
"Old Joe Danks
Played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
In an hour of strife
He took out a knife
And cut her up like mutton"
"John Danks played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
He drew his knife
To please his wife
And cut her up like mutton!"
Local residents living in Church Lane (which the path on which Polly and John would meet once ran through) have reported seeing the ghost of John Danks within living memory (usually in the month of November). Here is one such account from a current resident:
"It was 1961 in November, I was coming out of the bathroom in the early hours of the morning when I saw Joe Danks at the bottom of my stairs looking up at me. At that time I did not know who he was, but I told my sister (who lived on The Circle, Stockingford) and she told a friend of hers. Her friend told someone else and next thing I knew a man wanted to come and speak to me about what I saw. It was this man that told me it was Joe Danks that I saw.
Joe Danks was dressed in a brown jacket, black trousers, and brown boots with his trousers tucked in.
Where our house is situated [Church Lane] there used to be a pathway to Castle Road and a short-cut to Weddington Meadows. [When I saw him] Joe Danks had one foot a few steps up on the stairs, with an elbow on his knee and his face in his hand: puzzled as to who I was!"
An Unwelcome Wedding Guest****
Even more recently, John Danks' ghost appears to have turned up as an unwelcome guest at a wedding of two Weddington residents in 2009:
"My cousin, Clare, was married in August 2009 to her husband Darren, however there was an extra guest at the wedding. In a photo taken by her father, there seems to be a ghostly figure shackled to her. On exploration of this story, this ghost could be that of John Danks who was convicted by the court for the murder of his married lover Mary Green aka Polly Button and hanged on April the 9th, 1832 at Warwick.
"Just before her wedding, Clare was walking in Weddington Woods with her fiancé when she experienced something really strange…. Although there was no one else there, they both heard footsteps behind them, they turned around but nothing was there, they did think it was strange but carried on their walk and said nothing about it.
"However, at their wedding a ghostly apparition appeared in a photo taken of the bride and her uncle…there was no other living soul in the area, yet there seems to be a man behind them - shackled to Clare by his left arm/stump, and this figure seems to be wearing a white shirt a dark waistcoat and dark trousers.
"On the newly-wedded couple’s return to Castle Road strange things have occurred such as disembodied voices and the TV switching itself off…..
"The pictures below took place within seconds of each other and clearly the spirit is not present in the second photo…"
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* information from exhibition at Nuneaton Museum, Riversley Park in Autumn 2007
** account from the Leamington Spa Courier (reported after the event, in November 1832)
*** account given by Mrs P. Wheeler in 2007
**** account given by Kim Weston in 2009
Grateful acknowledgments to Vicky Wheeler for providing additional research into the case of John Danks' murder of Polly Button, and forwarding Mrs P Wheeler's account of the ghost sighting.
