How long would your grave stay yours?

In the 1820s, the answer might have been a matter of days. Anatomy schools needed bodies, the law supplied very few, and across the north of England a trade grew up to fill the gap. Bodies moved like freight, with paperwork, addresses and paying customers at the end of the line.

This episode follows that trade across the North: a trunk at Newcastle's Turf Hotel, casks in a Liverpool cellar, Resurrection Cottage in Leeds, a case in Hull, and the watch house built to guard the graves of Doddington in Northumberland. Everyone has heard of Burke and Hare. Fewer people know about the network that was already operating long before them.

This is a story about grief, money, and what happens when the dead become a commodity.

Content note: this episode includes discussion of grave robbing and human remains.

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About the show Bad, Mad & Northern is a history and true crime podcast about the villains, eccentrics and extraordinary stories of the North: murderers and body snatchers, kings and rebels, drowned villages and Cold War secrets. Each episode is carefully researched and told with honesty about the sources, and a healthy dose of northern sarcasm.

Meet your host I'm Lucy Sheridan: author, speaker, and proud northerner, recording with an armchair vibe in the Peak District. I've always been drawn to the darker corners of our history, and this show is where I get to share them with you. Pull up a chair.

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Website: www.badandmad.com

Newsletter 'The Landlady' join for BTS and case report extras at www.badandmad.com

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