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 A community archaeological dig has located and excavated a Northumberland cottage at the centre of a murder mystery which gripped early 19th Century society. 
 
 Joe the Quilter - elderly widower Joseph Hedley - was killed in his cottage on the outskirts of Warden, near Hexham, in January 1826. 
 
 The murder was never solved, and was widely reported at the time with plans and drawings of the cottage being published. 
 
 The documentation led archaeologists to what they believed was the site of the cottage, which had been demolished in 1872 and, with the help of local volunteers, the remains of the building have been uncovered. 
 
 The dig was led by a team from Beamish Museum in County Durham, which has an example of Joe’s quilting work. 
 
 The dig revealed what was left of the cottage’s walls, fireplace, flagstones from the floor, pottery, and a silver groat coin given as Maundy money to the poor. 
 
 Evidence suggests that Joe, who was widely known for his skill in making quilts, was on poor relief. 
 
 Now the information gathered from the dig, together with 10 tonnes of material removed from the site, will allow the re-creation of the cottage at Beamish. 
 
 The plan is to locate the cottage in the Georgian area of the Beamish landscape, as an example of a humble working man’s habitation in contrast to the existing Pockerley manor house which would have been occupied by a gentleman farmer. 
 
 The cottage will be part of the Remaking Beamish scheme, which has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. 
 
 A decision on a bid for £10.75m for the project is expected from the HLF this summer. As well as the Georgian venture, the scheme includes creating a 1950s town at Beamish. 
 
 The cottage project is being led by archaeologist and Remaking Beamish project officer John Castling. 
 
 He said: “Joe was well known for his talents at making quilts, some of which went abroad but we were astounded at how he must have made them in such a small cramped place as the cottage.” 
 
 A crucial piece of evidence found in the dig was a metal plate bearing the name of “Revd R Clarke, Walwick” which was attached to a piece of leather and was probably a saddle mount belonging to the clergyman. 
 
 A historical account mentions how Joe would have been unlikely to survive a period of deep snow in 1823 had not “a Hexham clergyman, the Revd R Clarke, gone through drifts to his assistance after other efforts to reach him had failed.” 
 
 John said: “As archaeologists it’s extremely rare to be working on a site inhabited by a named individual about whom we know so much. 
 
 “It’s even more unusual that the individual isn’t a royal or a wealthy landowner. It gives us a poignant and tangible link to the day to day life of an ordinary working person in the early 19th Century. 
 
 Smaller finds from the dig included 18th Century hand made bricks, a brown glass bottle, a clay pipe, animal bone buttons, a horseshoe and a lead weight and bone pick, which would have been used by quilters and weavers. 
 
 John said: “I have never found anything relating so strongly to an individual. It is really rare, especially because they are not particularly famous people. 
 
 “We have numbered all the stone and bricks and will endeavour to put them back as they were in the rebuild at Beamish. 
 
 “Visitors will not only be able to stand in a replica of Joe’s cottage, but they can stand on the flagstones Joe would have stood on.” 
 
 Meanwhile, volunteers at Beamish are helping to trace the pattern of one of the last quilts made by Joe. 
 
 Around two thirds of the fragile white cotton quilt survives and the aim is to create a replica which visitors will be able to touch. 
 
 The quilt was ordered from Joe in 1820 by the family who owned nearby Humshaugh Mill and was donated to Beamish in the 1970s. 
 
 Emma Sawyer, Beamish collections team leader, said: “A white quilt would have been used only on very special occasions and were often given as wedding gifts.” ||||| 'Joe the Quilter's' home, in Warden, near Hexham, was demolished in 1872 
 
 The cottage of a Northumberland quilter who was murdered nearly 200 years ago is set to be recreated at a North East museum. 
 
 Elderly widower Joseph Hedley was killed in January 1826 in his isolated cottage, in an unsolved crime that hit the national headlines. 
 
 “Joe the Quilter’s” home, in Warden, near Hexham, was demolished in 1872 but investigations by Beamish Museum in County Durham have identified the location and local people are being given the chance to take part in an excavation of the site. 
 
 Beamish plans to recreate the cottage as part of a £17million development. 
 
 The museum is inviting local people, community groups and schools to get involved in a variety of ways, such as archaeology, exploring collections and Georgian life, and shaping plans for Joe’s cottage. 
 
 On Wednesday, July 15, Beamish will be at Newbrough Town Hall, at 7pm, where people can find out more about Joe the Quilter and how they can help to tell his story. 
 
 Joe’s cottage is part of the Remaking Beamish project, which include plans to expand the museum’s Georgian area, as well as building a 1950s Town. 
 
 Geraldine Straker, Remaking Beamish project officer, said: “We’re inviting everyone to come along and find out more about Joe the Quilter and his fascinating yet tragic story. 
 
 “We want the local community to be part of this project to recreate Joe’s cottage at Beamish, so we’ll be letting people know how they can get involved, from taking part in excavating his cottage, to helping plan its recreation at Beamish.” 
 
 Chintz basket quilt, c1815, Haydon Bridge, very likely made by Joe the Quilter of Warden 
 
 Joe was a talented quilter, whose fine work was sent as far afield as America and Ireland. 
 
 He was known as a friendly individual who offered shelter to travellers and passers-by in his cottage. 
 
 He was murdered on January 3, 1826, but despite the crime making national headlines and a substantial reward being offered, his killer was never found. 
 
 Even though the cottage was demolished, sketches made in the wake of Joe’s death give an insight into how it looked. 
 
 The Remaking Beamish design team used records from old maps and descriptions of the crime to identify the approximate location of Joe’s house. 
 
 Once they had discovered the rough site they spotted architectural material in the field wall. 
 
 An initial investigation which stripped away the topsoil revealed a spread of mortar, showing that they had identified the exact site to be excavated with community assistance. 
 
 The Remaking Beamish project has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a £10.75million grant. 
 
 The plans include a Georgian coaching inn where visitors can stay overnight, craftsmen’s cottages including Joe’s, and a windmill in the 1820s area. 
 
 The 1950s Town will include houses, shops, cafe, cinema, and recreation area. Aged miners’ homes will be a centre for people living with dementia and their families and carers. An upland farm and trolley bus system are also part of the plans. ||||| Police investigating the cold case of Suzy Lamplugh, an estate agent who disappeared in 1986, have begun digging up a garden and dismantling a garage at a home previously owned by the prime suspect’s mother. 
 
 Lamplugh was 25 when she vanished after leaving her west London offices to meet a client known only as Mr Kipper. 
 
 She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1994, but no one has been convicted. 
 
 The Metropolitan police confirmed on Tuesday that officers were searching premises in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. They said the occupants of the property were not connected to the investigation. 
 
 The house was purchased from the mother of John Cannan, who was jailed for life in 1989 for the rape and murder of Shirley Banks, the attempted kidnapping of Julia Holman on the previous night and the rape of a woman in Reading, in 1986. 
 
 Police named him as the prime suspect in Lamplugh’s presumed murder in 2002 and have questioned him several times. He has denied the allegation. 
 
 The owner of the home, Phillip Carey, 52, said he bought it from Sheila Cannan about 26 years ago. Officers arrived at the property on Monday and had previously searched it in 2003, he told the Press Association. 
 
 Specialist forensic scientists from the private company Alecto attended the scene. 
 
 Three forensic tents were erected in the garden and blue sheeting covered what is believed to be the site of a garage built over a concrete base. The sound of an angle grinder could be heard as the search continued. Later, forensics officers could be seen pushing wheelbarrows of debris towards a skip at the rear of the property. Concrete covered in soil could be seen in the skip. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Forensics tents in the garden on Shipton Road in Sutton Coldfield. Photograph: Pete Byrne/PA 
 
 Jim Dickie, the detective who led the investigation at the time of Lamplugh’s disappearance, confirmed officers had previously visited the home but no thorough searches were conducted and the garden was not excavated. 
 
 “We had no evidence or intelligence to lead us to believe that John Cannan may have secreted Suzy’s body there,” he told the BBC. 
 
 Speaking to Sky News, Dickie insisted his officers left “no stone unturned” in the search for Lamplugh’s body. 
 
 “My best guess is that the police have received new information or intelligence which would lead them to believe that there’s a body maybe buried at that location. Hopefully they find her body, but my head tells me that is highly unlikely.” 
 
 A Met spokesman said: “The search follows information received in relation to a historical unsolved investigation being led by the Met’s homicide and major crime command.” 
 
 Officers from West Midlands police were supporting Scotland Yard. 
 
 On the day of her disappearance, witnesses reported seeing Lamplugh arguing with a man outside a property in Fulham, south-west London. Her white Ford Fiesta was later found just over a mile away. 
 
 Three days earlier, Cannan had been released from a hostel at Wormwood Scrubs prison, where he had been serving a six-year sentence for rape. 
 
 He bore a strong resemblance to an e-fit of the suspected abductor, according to Dickie. 
 
 “We eliminated all the other suspects and John Cannan was firmly in the frame for Suzy’s abduction and murder. And he still remains the main suspect to this day,” he told the BBC. 
 
 “There is no doubt that John Cannan was in Fulham on the day Suzy went missing. He was Mr Kipper. If you look at the photofit of Mr Kipper, that was John Cannan. He has raped a number of women … he has abducted a number of women. It all ties in with John Cannan.” 
 
 Cannan, now 64, has been questioned several times over the murder and has repeatedly denied the allegation. 
 
 He was ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years in prison, meaning he would be eligible to be considered for parole from 2024. But at the time of his sentencing, the then lord chief justice, Lord Lane, said he would “probably never be safe to release”. 
 
 The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which her family set up to support victims of stalking, said: “The thoughts of everyone at Suzy Lamplugh Trust are with Suzy’s family today. We continue the work of [her parents] Paul and Diana to reduce violence and aggression in society, supporting workplaces to help their lone and frontline workers be safer and feel safer. 
 
 “Today’s news reminds us once again of the continuing tragedy of Suzy’s story and the importance of employers taking responsibility for the personal safety of their staff.” ||||| A three-year dig has uncovered the shocking violence with which the inhabitants of the coastal village of Sandby Borg were struck down 
 
 
 
 Archaeologists in Sweden have uncovered startling evidence of a massacre more than 1500 years ago, when the inhabitants of a small village were struck down in their houses or as they fled along the street, and their bodies left to rot where they fell – with their treasures including beautiful jewellery and Roman gold coins. 
 
 At Sandby Borg on the shore of Öland island, off the south-east coast of Sweden, there was no escape. In one house an old man was smashed on the skull so that he fell into the fire in the open hearth, where his body was charred to the bone. In another a teenage boy, possibly trying to flee, tripped over a body lying on the floor, and died where he fell. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Archaeologists working at the massacre site of Sandby Borg. Photograph: Daniel Lindskog 
 
 Such an aura of horror clung to the site that when archaeologists went in to uncover the gruesome facts, local people warned them they should keep well away from the green mound within the low stone wall. 
 
 
 
 After three seasons of excavation, with less than a tenth of the site excavated, the team which publishes its findings today in the journal Antiquity, believes they have uncovered evidence of a catastrophic end to the life of the village – “a single event that made time stop – like a shipwreck but on land”. 
 
 In the mid 5th century Sandby Borg had been a prosperous village built within the walls of a ring fort. After the attack nobody ever came back either to bury the dead, to loot their precious possessions or to take their valuable livestock. The dead – nine in just one house – rotted where they fell, lying in their houses until the roofs decayed and collapsed in on them, or sprawled in the village street, and their animals starved to death in their pens. 
 
 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Even 1500 years later, there are persistent stories locally about Sandby Borg being a dark and dangerous place. Photograph: Sebastian Jakobsson 
 
 Scattered among treasures including Roman gold coins, silver gilt jewellery, silver hair ornaments, intricate glass beads and cowrie shells from the Mediterranean, the archaeologists even found scraps of the last meals, including half a herring still lying by a hearth, and cooking pots where they were last set down until crushed by the collapsing roof. 
 
 Ludwig Papmehl-Dufay, an archaeologist from the team at the local museum, which began excavations after warnings that the site was being targeted by treasure hunters, said that while no written or oral history of the massacre survived, there were persistent stories that it was regarded locally as a dangerous place. “I do find it most likely that the event was remembered and that it triggered strong taboos connected to the site, possibly brought on through oral history for centuries.” 
 
 
 
 The archaeologists hope to return to the site this summer, but after three seasons of excavation have uncovered enough mysteries to keep them busy through several winters. Stuffed into the skull of one man they found four sheep’s teeth. Papmehl-Dufay suggests that they may represent a final insult, the opposite to ancient beliefs of placing a coin or other small valuable with the dead to pay for passage to the afterworld, instead a contemptuous curse to prevent it. Nearby they found one bone from a tiny arm, the first evidence that children were not spared. 
 
 
 
 Among all the covetable possessions found among the three houses excavated and the 26 bodies discovered, they found no weapons – they speculate that they may have been taken as trophies, and could still lie dumped as a ritual offering into a nearby bog. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The end mount of sword found at Sandby Borg. Photograph: Daniel Lindskog 
 
 Öland is a low island off the Swedish coast in the Baltic Sea, and in the Roman period it was wealthy. The Roman gold coins, and the luxury imports found among the scattered corpses, may represent wages earned fighting as mercenaries. The island has rich archaeology including foundations of more than 1000 stone houses, thousands of cemeteries and graves, and at least 15 ringforts – of which only Sandby Borg seems to have come to such a gruesome end in the turbulent decades when the Western Roman Empire collapsed and local tribes vied for power. 
 
 The Kalmar county museum has a small exhibition about the site, and hopes to create a larger permanent display on a story which even the archaeologists working on it found uniquely disturbing. Only three of the 53 houses have been fully excavated, but test pits show that many more human remains still lie waiting for their story to be told at last. ||||| POLICE Commissioner Grant Stevens has dismissed speculation that a murdered child found by the side of an SA highway could be the world’s most high-profile missing girl, Madeleine McCann. 
 
 Mr Stevens today told a parliamentary estimates committee hearing that “clearly we’re looking at tragic circumstances here”. 
 
 “There is absolutely no evidence at this point in time that the child is Madeleine McCann … to suggest something like that at this point in time would purely be speculating to get attention,” he said. 
 
 Missing since 2007 — English girl Madeleine McCann was snatched from a Portuguese holiday resort. The picture at right is an age-advanced estimation of how she could have looked several years after her disappearance. 
 
 Detective Superintendent Des Bray updates media on Wynarka bones investigation 11:55 Officer in Charge of Major Crime Investigation Branch, Detective Superintendent Des Bray, gives an update regarding the discovery of human bones at Wynarka in early July 2015. Courtesy: SA Police Detective Superintendent Des Bray updates media on Wynarka bones investigation 
 
 Officer in Charge of Major Crime Investigation Branch, Detective Superintendent Des Bray, gives an update regarding the discovery of human bones at Wynarka in early July 2015. Courtesy: SA Police 
 
 The quilt, left, found in the suitcase, with the digital image, left, released by the police today that shows seven patches identified. 
 
 A close-up of one of the patches from the quilt. 
 
 Detective Superintendent Des Bray with a photo of the musical note fabric used to make a quilt found with child’s remains. Picture: Campbell Brodie. 
 
 The quilt that was handmade specifically for a young child. Picture: SA Police 
 
 A mannequin with hair of a similar colour and length, dressed in new versions of items of clothing found with the body, along with suitcase found at the scene. 1 of n 
 
 “We are focusing our inquiries on South Australia but we would be considering any potential missing child. Until we ascertain the identity of the child we need to be open to all possibilities.” 
 
 Earlier, police said fabric used to make a distinctive homemade quilt found with the remains was manufactured in New York about seven years ago. 
 
 Major Crime officer in charge Detective Superintendent Des Bray said police wanted to trace the origins of the quilt in a bid to find out how it came to be on the side of the Karoonda Hwy, near Wynarka, in the Murray Mallee. 
 
 They have released digital images that identify seven of the quilt’s 25 octagonal patches, which were sown into the quilt. Police hope someone will recognise the quilt. 
 
 It was found alongside the remains of what police say was a little girl, aged between two and four when she was violently killed. 
 
 It was found alongside the remains of what police say was a little girl, aged between two and four when she was violently killed. 
 
 Her skeletal remains had been dumped in a suitcase next to the highway up to four months ago. 
 
 But her bones had been tipped out of the suitcase when discovered by a passing motorist on July 15. 
 
 Det-Supt Bray said it was “more likely than not” that the little girl was never reported missing to authorities. 
 
 “It would be impossible to believe that someone didn’t love this little girl,” he said. 
 
 “It’s hard to believe someone hasn’t missed her. 
 
 “I thought when we started this job that we would quickly identify who this little girl was. “Somewhere out there is a mother, a father, at the very least an extended family that obviously lived near someone and I’m at a loss as to why someone hasn’t reported this little girl." 
 
 Det-Supt Bray said the distinctiveness of some of the items, including the quilt and a black tutu, found with the remains would help solve the mystery. 
 
 He said police believed some of the quilt fabric — coloured musical notes — was manufactured in New York in about 2008. 
 
 “The quilt is really important to the investigation,” he said. 
 
 “If we can find out who that quilt was given to or whether it ended up in an op-shop that will take us back to a geographical area.” 
 
 He said the quilt was homemade using a sewing machine and a polyester material was used to line its inside, which indicated it was made for a child. 
 
 Previously, police said the labels, decomposition of fabric and staining of clothes found with the remains indicated she was killed some time after 2007. 
 
 It was also likely she had fair hair and was 90-95cm tall when she was killed, police said. 
 
 Det-Supt Bray said the little girl was killed in a violent manner. 
 
 “We’re certain of how the little girl met her death — why, who and what circumstances, it’s just impossible to tell,” he said. 
 
 “It could fit any scenario.” 
 
 He said 55 calls had been made to Crime Stoppers about the quilt since police released its image to the Sunday Mail. 
 
 “We’ve had about 280 Crime Stopper calls being received in South Australia and across the country,” he said. 
 
 “I guess in terms of recent cases that’s unprecedented the number of calls we’re getting.” 
 
 Anyone with information about the murder is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. 
 
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 Clues in the Wynarka suitcase murder
– When renowned quilt maker Joe Hadley, who lived in a small cottage on the outskirts of Warden in the UK in 1826, was found brutally stabbed to death one cold January morning, the mystery captured a nation. The crime unsolved to this day, his story was retold in the Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend 1887 (as recounted by the blog PieceNPeace), which notes that his cottage was finally taken down in 1872, "so that all landmarks of the mournful tragedy have vanished, leaving nothing to recall the circumstance but the silent page of the local historian." Well, not exactly nothing. The Evening Chronicle in July reported that old maps, sketches, and reports of the crime enabled the Beamish Museum in County Durham to locate the approximate location of the home. Now a team of community archaeologists has managed to unearth actual remnants of Hadley's home, reports the Evening Chronicle as spotted by the Week. "As archaeologists it's extremely rare to be working on a site inhabited by a named individual about whom we know so much," project officer John Castling said. "It's even more unusual that the individual isn't a royal or a wealthy landowner. It gives us a poignant and tangible link to the day-to-day life of an ordinary working person in the early 19th century." So far the team has found floor pieces, pottery, remnants of the cottage's fireplace, and a "silver groat coin given as Maundy money to the poor." The museum intends to recreate the cottage; "visitors will not only be able to stand in a replica of Joe’s cottage, but they can stand on the flagstones Joe would have stood on," says Castling. (Over in Ireland, these bones might help archaeologists settle a controversy.)