To This Day Saddleworth Moor Carries The Never-Forgotten Evil Of The Moors Murders.
In a departure from the series of historic Northern towns and cities, this article will focus on a notorious Northern location. In this case Saddleworth Moor, the stretch of Pennine uplands that sits on the old West Riding of Yorkshire boundary with Lancashire, these days the boundary between West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester region.
Although the evil child abductions, tortures and murders took place in the 1960’s, the Moors Murders committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are long since part of history, and yet today, in 2024, the dark cloud of the Moors Murders still hangs over Saddleworth Moor.
Between Uppermill, Greater Manchester and Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, the Greenfield Road, the A635 crosses the moor and is the route so often taken by the evil pair to plan their crimes and scout out suitable locations to kill and bury their child victims. At the time of the Moors Murder trial the police had only discovered the graves of the children Lesley Ann Downey, and John Kilbride. The body of 17-year-old Edward Evans had been recovered from Myra Hindley’s house in Hattersley.
The initial investigations covered not only Saddleworth Moor but other areas of the Peak District, a total of five police forces were involved: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Manchester and the West Riding of Yorkshire, together with the old North West Regional Crime Squad.
The trial began on April 19th 1966 at Chester Crown Court and was a landmark case in British criminal trials, the death penalty had been abolished and yet the range of murders committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley had begun while the death penalty was still a factor in law. If ever an evil pair deserved to go to the gallows it was the Moors Murderers.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on May 6th 1966. Brady was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences and Hindley to two concurrent life sentences.
In 1987, when the police investigation team brought first Myra Hindley and later Ian Brady back to the scene of their crimes, Saddleworth Moor was the place that one of the search teams mustered and began their work.
Some of the later searches were inconclusive; the burial site of Keith Bennett has never been identified, but on July 1st 1987, the body of Pauline Reade, who was 16 years old at the time of her disappearance was found in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor, not far from Hollin Brow Knoll, the peat had largely preserved her remains. Pauline Reade had been taken by Brady and Hindley from a street in Hattersley, Manchester on July 12th 1963, she had been driven out to Saddleworth Moor and killed. Ian Brady slit her throat with a knife.
Just 100 yards or so down the minor road to the village of Meltham, the Wessenden Head Road, at the top of the dirt track that runs down to Wessenden Head reservoir, there is a shrine to the memory of Keith Bennett. The young victim of the Moors Murders who was never found. In 2024, his family and supporters continue to lay flowers at this homemade memorial and there are photographs of the long-dead child victim of Brady and Hindley. Into 1988 and on into the 1990’s Keith Bennett’s family continued to search the moor for his grave, even though Greater Manchester Police and West Yorkshire Police had given up searching.
It is a point worth noting that neither Ian Brady nor Myra Hindley ever returned to court to face the full consequences of their crimes and are now both dead and gone. However a number of untold questions remain to be answered, and not just the unmarked grave of Keith Bennett. There were unconfirmed stories of other killings and other burials on Saddleworth Moor committed by Brady and Hindley, but the police were unable to gain any substantial information from the murderous pair.
It is a fact that not only the family of Keith Bennett continues to search the moor, but there are a number of researchers and private individuals that continue to scrutinise the trial documents and evidence from the original trial at Chester Crown Court and the autobiographies of the senior police detectives involved in both the trial and the later searches of the late 1980’s.
Some will never be satisfied that all the secrets were uncovered, and it is rumoured that when Ian Brady died a collection of his private diaries and other documents were passed on to his solicitors with instructions that these were to remain locked away until long into the future.
Today in the Autumn of 2024, a roadside shrine to Keith Bennet sits on the point where the Wessenden Head Road has a junction with the bridleway access on to Marsden Moor. Standing at this point, your gaze falls across Marsden Moor on to Saddleworth Moor and the narrow clough that is Shiny Brook. It is a sad reflection on the history of this part of the Pennines that the Moors Murders continue to cast a dark and unresolved shadow on Saddleworth Moor.
Credits:
All Images: BM Northern.
The British Movement welcomes articles for possible inclusion on this site from members and supporters across the North of England. Please remember that we have to operate within the laws of this country; we will not include any content that is against the current laws of the United Kingdom. News reports should be topical and relevant to the regions covered by this website.
