The Murder of Polly Button by John Danks in 1832
The Crime*
In February 1832 Nuneaton was shocked by the brutal murder of pregnant unmarried weaver Polly Button, real name Mary Green, who lived with her five ‘illegitimate’ children in one of the many alleyway courts off Abbey Street (most likely on Friary Street near what is now the Wheatsheaf pub car park). Her body was found on local fields which are now allotments near the corner of Aston Road and St Mary’s Road, Nuneaton. Late 19th century Nuneaton maps still show the label ‘Polly Button’s Barn’.
Polly Button and her lover, a married farmer's labouring carpenter named John Danks (also known as Joe) used to meet secretly in Weddington Meadows but the tragic lovers were doomed, with John brutally murdering Polly when their affair was found out. At the time of her death she was eight months pregnant, most likely by John Danks. Danks was already married and there had been a number of quarrels between his wife and Mary.
When his wife found out about their affair, John murdered Polly on the 18th February 1832. Polly Button was found lying in the road in a field occupied by a Mr. Beasley leading to Mr. Astley's New Mill Field Barn, with her throat horribly cut.
Suspicion fell on Danks who ultimately confessed to Rev. King, the Curate of St. Nicolas. He was subsequently arrested by Nuneaton’s first policeman, Constable Haddon. John Danks was found guilty at Assizes and publicly executed on gallows erected outside Warwick Court on 9th April. Many Nuneaton folk travelled there to watch. He was thereafter removed to the Birmingham Medical School, in Brittle Street, for dissection (the dissection of criminals by medical students as part of their studies ceased in 1832).
You can read a full account of the crime by clicking here, along with a contemporary newspaper report from the Coventry Herald of 24th February 1832 by clicking here.
In February 1832 Nuneaton was shocked by the brutal murder of pregnant unmarried weaver Polly Button, real name Mary Green, who lived with her five ‘illegitimate’ children in one of the many alleyway courts off Abbey Street (most likely on Friary Street near what is now the Wheatsheaf pub car park). Her body was found on local fields which are now allotments near the corner of Aston Road and St Mary’s Road, Nuneaton. Late 19th century Nuneaton maps still show the label ‘Polly Button’s Barn’.
Polly Button and her lover, a married farmer's labouring carpenter named John Danks (also known as Joe) used to meet secretly in Weddington Meadows but the tragic lovers were doomed, with John brutally murdering Polly when their affair was found out. At the time of her death she was eight months pregnant, most likely by John Danks. Danks was already married and there had been a number of quarrels between his wife and Mary.
When his wife found out about their affair, John murdered Polly on the 18th February 1832. Polly Button was found lying in the road in a field occupied by a Mr. Beasley leading to Mr. Astley's New Mill Field Barn, with her throat horribly cut.
Suspicion fell on Danks who ultimately confessed to Rev. King, the Curate of St. Nicolas. He was subsequently arrested by Nuneaton’s first policeman, Constable Haddon. John Danks was found guilty at Assizes and publicly executed on gallows erected outside Warwick Court on 9th April. Many Nuneaton folk travelled there to watch. He was thereafter removed to the Birmingham Medical School, in Brittle Street, for dissection (the dissection of criminals by medical students as part of their studies ceased in 1832).
You can read a full account of the crime by clicking here, along with a contemporary newspaper report from the Coventry Herald of 24th February 1832 by clicking here.
Warwick Courthouse
The Inquest - held at the Britannia Inn, Abbey Street, Nuneaton (account from the Leamington Spa Courier, reported after the event, in November 1832)
"Murderer given bread and cheese as he waited for witnesses
"The prisoner Danks was brought into the room ironed, and placed before the coroner, for the purpose of having the evidence read over to him. He is a man of about five feet four inches in height, between 40 and 50 years of age, by trade a carpenter, and by no means of a forbidding countenance, nor was there anything in his appearance indicative of a mind capable of committing the crime with which he stood charged. He listened with particular attention to the evidence, and although an illiterate man, displayed much tact in interrogating some of the witnesses. He neither denied nor acknowledged the offence; and throughout the whole, maintained a more than ordinary degree of nerve and self-possession. At his request, two persons were sent for as witnesses to him, and during the absence of the messenger he was asked by Mr Haddin, if he wished any refreshment, to which he replied that he should like a little bread and cheese; with this and a glass of ale he was supplied. He ate with avidity, and on taking up the ale glass, he drank the healths of the persons present.
"The persons whom he sent for being examined, the room was ordered to be cleared, and the Jury, after a short consultation, returned the following verdict - “That the deceased, Mary Green, was wilfully murdered, and that John Danks is the person who murdered her.” The prisoner was now taken to the Guard House, followed by an immense crowd, and in going along was assailed with groans and hisses. There being no evidence against his wife, she was ordered to be set at liberty; previous to which she seemed as if in a state of derangement, sometimes crying, and at other rolling her eyes about with a wild and vacant stare at those around her."
"Murderer given bread and cheese as he waited for witnesses
"The prisoner Danks was brought into the room ironed, and placed before the coroner, for the purpose of having the evidence read over to him. He is a man of about five feet four inches in height, between 40 and 50 years of age, by trade a carpenter, and by no means of a forbidding countenance, nor was there anything in his appearance indicative of a mind capable of committing the crime with which he stood charged. He listened with particular attention to the evidence, and although an illiterate man, displayed much tact in interrogating some of the witnesses. He neither denied nor acknowledged the offence; and throughout the whole, maintained a more than ordinary degree of nerve and self-possession. At his request, two persons were sent for as witnesses to him, and during the absence of the messenger he was asked by Mr Haddin, if he wished any refreshment, to which he replied that he should like a little bread and cheese; with this and a glass of ale he was supplied. He ate with avidity, and on taking up the ale glass, he drank the healths of the persons present.
"The persons whom he sent for being examined, the room was ordered to be cleared, and the Jury, after a short consultation, returned the following verdict - “That the deceased, Mary Green, was wilfully murdered, and that John Danks is the person who murdered her.” The prisoner was now taken to the Guard House, followed by an immense crowd, and in going along was assailed with groans and hisses. There being no evidence against his wife, she was ordered to be set at liberty; previous to which she seemed as if in a state of derangement, sometimes crying, and at other rolling her eyes about with a wild and vacant stare at those around her."
The Polly Button stone
The Polly Button Stone*
The 'Polly Button's stone' was part of the house in which Mary Green lived. However, it is known that the stone was older that the house. It was not uncommon for old stones from demolished and empty buildings to be recycled and used in other houses.
It is quite possible that the stone was originally part of the Nuneaton priory or a medieval tavern. After the murder, however, a myth spread that the stone actually showed the heads of Mary Green and her murderer John Danks...
The Polly Button stone is now in the Nuneaton Museum collection, click on the picture above for a larger image. Thanks to Alison James (photographer), and Steve Moore (author of 'The Undoing of Polly Button') for permission to use this image***.
The 'Polly Button's stone' was part of the house in which Mary Green lived. However, it is known that the stone was older that the house. It was not uncommon for old stones from demolished and empty buildings to be recycled and used in other houses.
It is quite possible that the stone was originally part of the Nuneaton priory or a medieval tavern. After the murder, however, a myth spread that the stone actually showed the heads of Mary Green and her murderer John Danks...
The Polly Button stone is now in the Nuneaton Museum collection, click on the picture above for a larger image. Thanks to Alison James (photographer), and Steve Moore (author of 'The Undoing of Polly Button') for permission to use this image***.
The Skipping Rhymes *
After the murder, several versions of a skipping rhyme about the crime emerged within Nuneaton. Here are three versions:
"Jack Danks played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
He took a knife to please his wife
And cut her up like mutton"
"Old Joe Danks
Played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
In an hour of strife
He took out a knife
And cut her up like mutton"
"John Danks played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
He drew his knife
To please his wife
And cut her up like mutton!"
After the murder, several versions of a skipping rhyme about the crime emerged within Nuneaton. Here are three versions:
"Jack Danks played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
He took a knife to please his wife
And cut her up like mutton"
"Old Joe Danks
Played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
In an hour of strife
He took out a knife
And cut her up like mutton"
"John Danks played his pranks
On poor old Polly Button
He drew his knife
To please his wife
And cut her up like mutton!"
'Pranks' (1982)
A longer version of the rhyme (below) was written by local writer Gef White for his play about the case, 'Pranks', staged by the Milby Theatre Society at Nuneaton Arts Centre in 1982, 150 years after the murder.
Johnny Danks, he played his pranks
Upon poor Polly Button.
He drew his knife, to please his wife,
And cut her up like mutton.
Polly lived in Twitchell Yard,
To five she were a mother.
Wi’ men in bed, and never got wed,
And now she’ll have another.
“Pay me, Johnny, pay me quick,
Or I will tell the vicar!
Pay me one-and-six a week* –
Me belly’s getting bigger!”
Sat’day night it served her right,
When they went a-walking.
He took her over Burgage Fields
To stop his Polly talking.
“Pay me, Johnny, pay me quick,
Or I will tell your missus
How you took me over the fields
And covered me wi’ kisses!”
Johnny knocked his Polly down
And she began a-crying,
So with his knife he slit her throat
And left her there a-dying.
Guilty, guilty! Johnny Danks,
The nastiest of fellows!
Tie a rope around a plank
And hang him from the gallows!
Gef recently updated us on the play, saying: "I wrote 'Pranks' and produced it in 1982, just 150 years after the murder of Mary Green, known to locals as Polly Button, up at Aston's Barn in February 1832. It's not online because it was written on a piece of hardware we used to call a typewriter, which lacked a Ctrl+S function. It had a cast of about 24 people, all magical performers - including Peter John Luke, Pat Boucher, Alan White, Rosemary (then) White, Geoff Panter, Rhian Luke, Glynis White - and so many more - the kids who did the 'Johnny Danks' skipping rhyme were fantastic. My reworking of the one-verse rhyme [above], also used to appear in print in Nuneaton Museum alongside the carving of Johnny and Polly (that was placed over her cottage door in Twitchel Yard after her death). The museum said my rhyme was traditional - but only the first verse ever was! I based my play on a private research typed book by Cyril Marton or Marden (?) who stayed in the (now long demolished) cottage after is marriage and was intrigued by the story. It was in Nuneaton Library in the 1980s. I used the murder story as a way into an imaginative insight into life in Abbey Green among the poor weavers who were the backbone of the town at the time. If I could only wake up there, and then one day, I thought ..."
You can see some images from the 1982 production of the play below.
* One-and-six a week was the amount due for a paternity (or ‘bastardy’) summons for child maintenance paid out by the parish.
A longer version of the rhyme (below) was written by local writer Gef White for his play about the case, 'Pranks', staged by the Milby Theatre Society at Nuneaton Arts Centre in 1982, 150 years after the murder.
Johnny Danks, he played his pranks
Upon poor Polly Button.
He drew his knife, to please his wife,
And cut her up like mutton.
Polly lived in Twitchell Yard,
To five she were a mother.
Wi’ men in bed, and never got wed,
And now she’ll have another.
“Pay me, Johnny, pay me quick,
Or I will tell the vicar!
Pay me one-and-six a week* –
Me belly’s getting bigger!”
Sat’day night it served her right,
When they went a-walking.
He took her over Burgage Fields
To stop his Polly talking.
“Pay me, Johnny, pay me quick,
Or I will tell your missus
How you took me over the fields
And covered me wi’ kisses!”
Johnny knocked his Polly down
And she began a-crying,
So with his knife he slit her throat
And left her there a-dying.
Guilty, guilty! Johnny Danks,
The nastiest of fellows!
Tie a rope around a plank
And hang him from the gallows!
Gef recently updated us on the play, saying: "I wrote 'Pranks' and produced it in 1982, just 150 years after the murder of Mary Green, known to locals as Polly Button, up at Aston's Barn in February 1832. It's not online because it was written on a piece of hardware we used to call a typewriter, which lacked a Ctrl+S function. It had a cast of about 24 people, all magical performers - including Peter John Luke, Pat Boucher, Alan White, Rosemary (then) White, Geoff Panter, Rhian Luke, Glynis White - and so many more - the kids who did the 'Johnny Danks' skipping rhyme were fantastic. My reworking of the one-verse rhyme [above], also used to appear in print in Nuneaton Museum alongside the carving of Johnny and Polly (that was placed over her cottage door in Twitchel Yard after her death). The museum said my rhyme was traditional - but only the first verse ever was! I based my play on a private research typed book by Cyril Marton or Marden (?) who stayed in the (now long demolished) cottage after is marriage and was intrigued by the story. It was in Nuneaton Library in the 1980s. I used the murder story as a way into an imaginative insight into life in Abbey Green among the poor weavers who were the backbone of the town at the time. If I could only wake up there, and then one day, I thought ..."
You can see some images from the 1982 production of the play below.
* One-and-six a week was the amount due for a paternity (or ‘bastardy’) summons for child maintenance paid out by the parish.
The Ghost **
Local residents living in Church Lane (which the path on which Polly and Joe would meet once ran through) have reported seeing the ghost of Joe Danks within living memory (usually in the month of November). Here is one such account from a resident:
"It was 1961 in November, I was coming out of the bathroom in the early hours of the morning when I saw Joe Danks at the bottom of my stairs looking up at me. At that time I did not know who he was, but I told my sister (who lived on The Circle, Stockingford) and she told a friend of hers. Her friend told someone else and next thing I knew a man wanted to come and speak to me about what I saw. It was this man that told me it was Joe Danks that I saw.
"Joe Danks was dressed in a brown jacket, black trousers, and brown boots with his trousers tucked in.
"Where our house is situated [Church Lane] there used to be a pathway to Castle Road and a short-cut to Weddington Meadows. [When I saw him] Joe Danks had one foot a few steps up on the stairs, with an elbow on his knee and his face in his hand: puzzled as to who I was!"
As recently as 2012 other local residents have come forward with ghostly sighting that are possibly of Joe Danks. We have these on file however, the people in question have asked that we do not feature these recollections and photographs on this site at the moment...
Local residents living in Church Lane (which the path on which Polly and Joe would meet once ran through) have reported seeing the ghost of Joe Danks within living memory (usually in the month of November). Here is one such account from a resident:
"It was 1961 in November, I was coming out of the bathroom in the early hours of the morning when I saw Joe Danks at the bottom of my stairs looking up at me. At that time I did not know who he was, but I told my sister (who lived on The Circle, Stockingford) and she told a friend of hers. Her friend told someone else and next thing I knew a man wanted to come and speak to me about what I saw. It was this man that told me it was Joe Danks that I saw.
"Joe Danks was dressed in a brown jacket, black trousers, and brown boots with his trousers tucked in.
"Where our house is situated [Church Lane] there used to be a pathway to Castle Road and a short-cut to Weddington Meadows. [When I saw him] Joe Danks had one foot a few steps up on the stairs, with an elbow on his knee and his face in his hand: puzzled as to who I was!"
As recently as 2012 other local residents have come forward with ghostly sighting that are possibly of Joe Danks. We have these on file however, the people in question have asked that we do not feature these recollections and photographs on this site at the moment...
The Book and Website
In 2019 Steve Moore, local historian and husband of a direct descendant of Polly Button published a definitive account of the life and death of Polly Button, entitled 'The Undoing of Polly Button' drawing from a wide range of research and sources this promises to give the most factual account to date or the murder, which has long been shrouded in local urban myth. Along with this, Steve launched a website which in itself contains some fascinating glimpses of the book, and also organises talks and walks on Polly Button. You can access the website which includes an order form for the book by clicking the image to the right.
In 2019 Steve Moore, local historian and husband of a direct descendant of Polly Button published a definitive account of the life and death of Polly Button, entitled 'The Undoing of Polly Button' drawing from a wide range of research and sources this promises to give the most factual account to date or the murder, which has long been shrouded in local urban myth. Along with this, Steve launched a website which in itself contains some fascinating glimpses of the book, and also organises talks and walks on Polly Button. You can access the website which includes an order form for the book by clicking the image to the right.
* information from exhibition at Nuneaton Museum, Riversley Park in Autumn 2007
** account given by Mrs P. Wheeler in 2007
Grateful acknowledgments to Vicky Wheeler for providing additional research into the case of John Danks' murder of Polly Button, and forwarding Mrs P Wheeler's account of the ghost sighting and to Gef White for the Skipping Rhyme from 'Pranks'.
*** (c) Copyright The Undoing of Polly Button, 2019 - All Rights Reserved
** account given by Mrs P. Wheeler in 2007
Grateful acknowledgments to Vicky Wheeler for providing additional research into the case of John Danks' murder of Polly Button, and forwarding Mrs P Wheeler's account of the ghost sighting and to Gef White for the Skipping Rhyme from 'Pranks'.
*** (c) Copyright The Undoing of Polly Button, 2019 - All Rights Reserved
