Christina’s Song by Andy Nichols They set out for London from Runcorn, they say The middle of June, a warm summer’s day A woman alone with a narrowboat crew To meet with her husband, to start life anew He’d gone to the city, new work to find Leaving his love Christina behind A job as an ossler, “come join me” he wrote Cheap tickets from Pickfords to travel by boat Chorus : Christine you lost your life in the water In the canal by the Trent aqueduct And your blood stained the steps as they carried your body To the Talbot Inn where they laid you to rest Barrels of spirits the load that they carried The cruel got drunk and Cristina they harried Escaping the drunks to the towpath she fled Walking alone with her heart full of dread Midnight at Hoo Mill the lock keeper’s wife Heard a scream that put her in fear for her life “Leave me alone!” a cry in the night Captain said “It’s her husband, they’re having a fight” Chorus But Christina was never again seen alive Brutally murdered, dumped over the side At Brindley Bank her life came to an end In the dark water just by the bend The old steps are gone now, there’s new concrete there No sign left now of your mark on the stair But there in the churchyard, remembered so well A lonely headstone with its story to tell Chorus x 2 This song is about the 1839 canal murder of Christina Collins, whose body was found in the Trent and Mersey Canal at Brindley Bank near Rugeley. Her tragic death later inspired Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse novel ‘The Wench is Dead’. Christina Collins was travelling on a narrowboat to join her husband in finding work when she was attacked. Her body was recovered from the canal on 17 June 1839, after witnesses heard screams near Hoo Mill. Four boatmen from the vessel were arrested, and three were put on trial for the murder. Three men - James Owen, George Thomas, and William Ellis were found guilty. Owen and Thomas were publicly hanged in Stafford in April 1840 before a large crowd, while Ellis had his sentence commuted to transportation to Australia. Modern re-examinations and television investigations have suggested that the conviction of at least one of the executed men may have been unsafe. Recorded on :