There are not many towns of any consequence that have not, in one form or another, their black spot, a tragic incident, a mystery that defies all attempts at its solution. Rushden, which has risen within the last forty years to a position of eminence in the boot and shoe manufacturing world, is happily comparatively free from any such gloomy recollections. The murder of one of the town’s oldest residents, however, stands out within living memory, and the fact that the perpetrators of the crime have never been traced in no way detracts from its interest.
On the morning of Monday, January 26th, 1890, [actually 1891] Mr. Joseph Dickens, a small farmer and landowner, was found dead near the Bedford-road less than a mile beyond the outskirts of the town. Mr. Dickens was a man of about 70 years of age and lived in a cottage on the left hand side of the Bedford-road. The house which he occupied stood close to the Bedford-road and opposite what was known as Sundial Farm, the house of the late Mr. E. Knight.
He was of a quiet and reserved character and a hard worker on his land. He was a bachelor, usually living a somewhat secluded life.
On the morning on which he met his death he took his tools with him to continue his work of hedge-trimming. Later the same morning he was found dead with gun wounds in the back of his head and lying by the side of a small hedge close to two trees in a field about half a mile east of the spot where the Rushden Isolation Hospital now stands.
The body was found in a ditch several feet deep at the extreme end of the field and had been dragged about a hundred yards from the spot where the old man was engaged in his hedge trimming. A trail of blood was traceable for a considerable distance from the point where Mr. Dickens was presumed to have been shot down.
Mr. Dickens was thought as a general rule to carry his money upon his person and this locally was the reason given for the crime, for not very long before another well-known resident was robbed of his money in the vicinity. Forty years have passed since Mr. Dickens met his end and still there is nothing to give the slightest clue to those responsible for the crime.
There are still living in Rushden people who can remember the tragic discovery and at least two who were on the scene not many minutes after the body was found.
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