PC James Davies Memorial Stone

A well-documented, genuinely classic case - and unlike several recent entries, the stone here is essentially contemporary rather than a modern retrospective addition, paid for out of a public memorial fund raised shortly after the murder. PC James Davies, a 33-year-old father of three (with a fourth child on the way), was patrolling his beat alone on foot in the early hours of 28 February 1885 when he disturbed Moses Shrimpton - a notorious local poacher known as 'the terror of East Worcestershire,' who had already served seven years for a previous attack on a policeman - stealing fowls from a farm near Weatheroak Hill. Shrimpton stabbed Davies repeatedly; the coroner's inquest found Davies had fought back hard enough to nearly sever fingers on both hands defending himself, but ultimately died from a severed windpipe and cuts to the carotid artery. His body was found by a farmer walking to work at Weatheroak Hill Farm that morning. Shrimpton was arrested within days, convicted after a 15-minute jury deliberation, and hanged - the last person ever executed at Worcester Gaol. A public subscription raised over £1,400 for Davies's widow and children, with some of the fund going toward the roadside stone itself, simply inscribed 'JD 1885'. The original stone was vandalised and replaced by Redditch Police around two decades ago (as of a 2019 article); local police from Alvechurch and Wythall still maintain it, alongside an unidentified member of the public who's long been quietly leaving flowers at both the stone and Davies's grave at Beoley churchyard nearby. WORTH FOLLOWING UP: one local history site ('TheVillageHistory') hints there may be a lesser-known 'twist' complicating the accepted version of events, without the specifics being visible in the excerpt found here - worth reading the full article before treating the case as entirely settled. NO FURTHER 'TWIST' FOUND: further searching did not turn up the hinted complication mentioned above beyond the same widely-recirculated summary already reflected in the account here (the same paragraph is shared verbatim across many local-history Facebook pages). The specific 'TheVillageHistory' article that reportedly hints at a twist was not located or read here - still worth someone reading it directly if it can be found.