Unsolved murder of Warwickshire village policeman revealed in book exploring hidden history of the waterways

The unsolved murder of a Warwickshire village policeman is one of the true crime dramas revealed in a new book exploring the hidden history of the waterways.

PC William Hine was last seen leaving the canal-side Wharf Inn at Fenny Compton at 10pm one night in 1886, after a day on duty at the cattle market. He set off home along the towpath, but by midnight he had still not returned.

After a full-scale manhunt, his body was found nine days later in the canal, his pocket-watch stopped at 11.06pm.

The culprits were never caught, and according to the author he was the first officer in the Warwickshire force to be killed on duty.

‘Dark Side of the Cut - A History of Crime on Britain’s Canals’, was released on October 5, and looks at the secret world of the Victorian waterways set apart on the edge of society.

Author Dr Susan Law, a historian and former newspaper crime reporter, spent two years researching the book.

A volunteer for the Canal and River Trust charity since 2017, she hopes the book will get people talking about canal heritage, and attract support for new campaigns to protect the waterways, which are under threat from government funding cuts.

She said: “We are so lucky today that canals are such peaceful places for us to relax and escape from the pressures of modern life. But it was very different in the past.

"I was surprised to discover the dark, hidden history of the waterways, and it’s important that lost way of life is not forgotten.”

Susan said the book is dedicated to the forgotten navvies who dug out ‘the cut’, and the generations of canal-boat families who endured a tough existence to survive the hardships of that lost way of life.

The book covers more than a hundred canal crimes, including a desperate fraud that halted construction of the Regent’s Canal in 1815, thefts, unsolved killings, pub punch-ups, violent confrontations between police and angry mobs, drunken riots, and inner-city youth gangs on the rampage.

Dark Side of the Cut is published by The History Press and is available in hardback and e-book from bookshops including Waterstones, and at online retailers.