logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2023
40m 10s

Victorian Baby Farming Killer: Amelia Dy...

History Hit
About this episode

In Victorian Britain, there was no formalised state adoption. Instead, desperate mothers paid other families to take their newborns. This tragic system was known as baby farming.


As we’ll find out in today’s episode, Amelia Dyer was a notorious serial killer who saw this as a money-making opportunity, cruelly deceiving mothers and killing infants over a 30 year period.


How did she get away with it for so long? What was society’s reaction to these shocking revelations? Kate is joined by Angela Buckley, author of Amelia Dyer and the Baby Farm Murders, to take us back to Victorian Britain and find out.


If you're enjoying Betwixt please vote for us at the British Podcast Awards here. It would mean the world to us!


Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Kate Lister, Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Mary Beard and more.


Get 50% off your first 3 months with code BETWIXT. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe.


Up next
Jul 8
The Power of Medieval Gossip
People have always gossiped, but what did they gossip about in medieval times? How were women punished for gossiping? And where does the term 'gossip' come from?Joining Kate today to gossip about all things medieval gossip is the wonderful Eleanor Janega, co-host of our sister po ... Show More
34m 25s
Jul 4
Royal Sex: Queen Victoria
With NINE children, it can probably be assumed that Queen Victoria was no stranger to the sheets, but what do we actually know about her love (and sex) life?To examine Victoria's diaries, her passionate relationship and her society's attitude to sex, Kate is joined for this speci ... Show More
47m 34s
Jul 1
Why Were Ancient Dicks So Small?
Have you ever been puzzled by proportions when looking at Ancient Greek statues? It can't just be us.From quarrying the stone to chipping away the final touches on your masterpiece - sculpting is a drawn out process. So why, after possibly years of work, did Ancient Greek artists ... Show More
35m 22s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2022
6. Amelia Dyer
Lucy Worsley investigates the ordinary lives and extraordinary crimes of Victorian women accompanied by a team of female detectives. This time, Lucy is on the case of a baby farmer who’s thought to have killed between 200 and 400 children, by strangling them and throwing the bodi ... Show More
28m 33s
Dec 2023
400. Victorian Britain's Maddest Mystery
In 1854, the twenty-five year old aristocrat Roger Tichborne, heir to an impressive fortune, died in a shipwreck ....Or did he? His mother, certain of her son’s survival, advertised extensively with a tantalising reward for her son’s return. Twenty years later a rough, corpulent ... Show More
47m 35s
Nov 2023
Mary, Queen of Scots
This is the story of the incredible rise and fall of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was queen of Scotland, she was queen of France, and she could have been queen of England. She led armies, lived as a fugitive, became embroiled in love affairs and spent nearly two decades in jail. Dan ... Show More
41m 55s
Jun 2023
Amelia Earhart
On July 2 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, took off on what was supposed to be the final leg of their circumnavigation of the globe, but would in fact be their final flight. In this episode Don is joined by Susan Butler to explore this American sweetheart's pe ... Show More
52m 11s
Jun 2023
The First Spears
According to the work of today's guest, Dr Annemieke Milks, humans were using spears approximately 400,000 years ago. Thanks to fragments of wooden spears incredibly well preserved at sites like Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, and Schöningen in Germany, there's now evidence to show our ... Show More
41m 55s
Jun 2024
Women Pirates of the Caribbean
Anne Bonny and Mary Read were pirates who sailed the Caribbean in the early 18th century. For both of them, piracy offered a chance at a freedom otherwise disallowed to women. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb learns more about Bonny and Read fro ... Show More
46m 30s
Jul 2024
Victorian crime and punishment: everything you wanted to know
Could children be hanged in Victorian Britain? Were the streets of Dickensian London haunted by organised gangs, or opportunistic pickpockets? What tricks and tools did Victorian police have at their disposal? And was it possible to get a fair trial in the 19th century? In our la ... Show More
51m 4s
Jan 2024
23. Jane and Ann Boyd - Secret Baby
Lucy Worsley travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.In this episode Lucy is joined by the Right Honourable Dame Siobhan Keegan, the Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, who was one of the firs ... Show More
29m 18s
Oct 2023
Amelia Dyer, l'ogresse de Reading
Quand en 1896, deux bébés assassinés sont repêchés dans la Tamise, la population londonienne est plongée dans l’horreur. Deux cas d’une longue série de meurtres, commis avec un sang-froid redoutable, sous fond de baby farm, les fameuses fermes de bébés, refuge de tous les enfants ... Show More
41m 16s
Mar 2024
29. Mary Ann Brough - Mother with Everything to Lose
Lucy Worsley travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.In this episode, Lucy is joined by Alexandra Wilson, a barrister specialising in criminal and family law and author of ‘In Black and White’, to ... Show More
28m 47s