Mary Metcalfe

Mary Metcalfe was the wife of Mr Metcalfe. Mary left Mr Metcalfe in 1946, not being able to be a farmer's wife any longer. She tried to move to London with their son Bairn but Mr Metcalfe warned her not to. She was pregnant again. She ignored his warnings and Mr Metcalfe beat her to death. She was 31 years old. He then had her secretly buried, and villagers assumed she left him, although rumours spread. The police investigated and also concluded that she simply left him, and they never knew she had been killed, so Mr Metcalfe was not convicted. Bairn never knew the truth about what happened to his mother.
Despite killing her, Mr Metcalfe struggled with Mary's death. He held on to all of her possessions and became a recluse, mistreating his animals and refusing to talk to anybody (except Matt Skilbeck in 1987). Rumours had gone round that Mr Metcalfe had killed his wife, rumours of which Mr Metcalfe disapproved of, but later admitted to Matt. Mr Metcalfe died himself in November 1987 of a heart attack, and the house he and Mary lived in for four years prior to her 1946 death, Crossgill Farm, was left to Matt.
Category:Unseen characters
Category:1946 deaths