A DOUBLE murder perpetrated in Barnard Castle 177 years ago, which saw bodies floating down the River Tees has been transformed into a true-crime novel by award-winning journalist Jon Smith.
The Barningham-based writer penned the 400-page novel, called Snowden, during lockdown after becoming fascinated with the tale of how Joseph Yates and Catherine Raine met their end. He was researching his earlier local history book, Round the World, an A-Z miscellany of Barningham, a the time.
Police superintendent Ralph Leconby Snowden, after whom the book is named, battled for several years to bring the killers to justice while penning his own book, the Constable’s Guide, published in 1846, that became a bible for magistrates and police. Mr Smith said: “I’ve never written a novel before but I was quite gripped by Snowden. He was a remarkable man.
“I did quite a lot of research and the deeper I dug into the matter the more interesting it got and I thought I could make something of this.”
Using census reports from the 1840s, court transcripts and newspaper reports Mr Smith has woven together a gripping read with a host of unforgettable characters, most of whom lived and worked in the dale. Eagle eyed residents will have no difficulty picking out their ancestors named from the book that range from Alderson through to Wilkinson. One or two characters are however purely fictitious, including hapless hack, Hamish McQueedie, who with his penchant for whisky, provides more than a few comical interludes.
Mr Smith added: “How will it will go down in Basingstoke I don’t know but there are an awful lot of local names in there. They are all people named on the census as living at the particular addresses.
“McQueedie came in and at first I wasn’t sure about him, but it would have been a bit grim otherwise.” Snowden is available for sale at the Teesdale Mercury shop priced at £10, and is the perfect stocking filler for book lovers.
With Mr Smith’s skill at bringing the past to life with every turn of the page, readers will be transported back to 19th century Teesdale when Bridgegate was known as Briggate, the threat of an outbreak of cholera ever present and the only local newspaper was the Yorkshire Gazette.
