How do you connect a grisly murder in 1819 with the musical band The Howl and The Hum and an Irish Architect who came to build a prison but ended up building an iconic bridge across the Mill Stream of the Great River Ouse in 1827.

Godmanchester in Huntingdonshire

In the church yard of St Mary the Virgin lies the last resting place of Mary Anne Weems who was murdered by her husband at the age of 21 in 1819, the story of her demise and the fate of her husband is well documented, below is an example of just two:

• The Haunting tale of Mary Ann Weems

• Chilling tale of Murder and Frankenstein Experiments

There is a lengthy description of the incident on the back of Mary’s headstone, “A warning to us all”   

Th Band The Hull and The Hum released an Album in 2017 called Godmanchester Chinese Bridge with a song of the same name as the titled track.

• About The How and the Hum

James Gallier, designed and constructed the iconic Chinese Bridge which crosses the Mill Stream of the Great River Ouse in 1827. He was born James Gallagher in Ireland in July 1798, in a lot of respects his life was tinged with sadness, he died along with his second wife in a hurricane in October 1866 while traveling between New Orleans and New York on the Paddle Steamer the Evening Star it sank in the storm. This is an interesting story in its own right.

• Loaded Down with Iniquity The Sinking of The Evening Star

• The Chinese Bridge Story