South Yorkshire Times, February 16th, 1934
Grave Violated
Senseless Outrage in Wath Cemetery
Rumour of Buried Jewelry
Wath Cemetery, opened in 1868, was the scene last week-end of an apparently senseless outrage, the vault of the Firth family being broken open and a coffin tampered with. The motive may have its source in an unfounded rumour, current in the district, that Miss Fanny Firth, Fitzwilliam Street, Wath, who died recently was buried with two valuable diamond rings.
The sacrilegious deed was discovered on Monday morning by the curator, Mr. A. Thomas, who told a “Times” reporter that it must have been committed during Saturday night. “The vault was a gruesome mess when I discovered it,” he said. “About sixteen feet of stone kerbing which surrounds the vault had been wrenched away and a top slab weighing eleven hundredweight had been prise up. The vault is not in the usual form, being divided into four parts by walls and these crossing to the centre, bear the weight of a large monument.
The miscreants, there must have been at least three to lift the slab off, missed the part where Miss Fanny Firth was buried and got into that where the coffins of her father, and mother (the latter buried twenty-two years ago) are laid. They had to take another stone slab off Mrs. Firth’s coffin which had an outer covering of wood, then lead and again wood. With a steel bar, about a yard long, which they left behind, and with which they had prised open the vault, they had made a hole two inches or so in diameter into the coffin. They seem to have got fed-up with the business, partly covered up the wreckage, and cleared off. They could not have been disturbed because they had tried to clear up the mess they had made, but that was hopeless because of the damage they had done.”
Mr. Thomas added that there had been no danger of the monument falling onto the persons who committed the crime, though they had run a risk in propping up the surface slab. In the four chambers of the vault were seven coffins. Relatives are horrified b the deed but can suggest no motive other than the rumour regarding Miss Firth’s jewels.