In September 1905, a body was found in the Merstham tunnel. It was found to be that of Mary Money, a 21-year-old woman, who had been living and working in Battersea.
Mary’s death sparked major public interest across the country. It drew crowds to the village of Merstham for the inquest. Local railway workers, police, a doctor and staff of the Feathers Hotel, became part of history as the investigation into how and why Mary died commenced.
The press kept up the public focus well into 1906. There were postcards and other ephemera produced about Mary and the place of her death.
Surrey Police worked with the Metropolitan Police to search for Mary’s murderer.
Have a read of my presentation to find out the full story and my theory about who was responsible.
I like researching local history in my spare time. Here are my reflections on how I uncovered Mary’s story.
I consider myself to be quite disorganised as a researcher. I am sure there are better ways to do it. I guess I am an intuitive researcher. I go where the research takes me.
For the Merstham Tunnel Mystery, the research took me in all directions. I did not expect to end up in Eastbourne and could have gone further – that is still to be done.
I find certain topics fascinate me. I want to know more.
I chose the Merstham Tunnel Mystery because I came across it in the late 1980s. My husband bought me a book on Surrey Murders. The unsolved case of Mary Sophia Money was one of the stories, with the archives about the incident only recently opened.
Mary has stayed with me over the decades, on those occasions of catching the train to London. Then, in 2010, I started full-time work in London, a daily commute for the best part of 10 years. So often I would think about Mary as the train made its way through the darkness of the Merstham tunnel. After the pandemic I found myself time to undertake my own research into what happened to Mary.
I started by re-reading the Surrey Murders book and then searched the online archive sites to see what I could find.
Learning
A good place to start is the National Archives Discovery site.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
This will show you where to find any archives available about your topic.
Take care with the search words. Follow the instructions to try different ways.
For the Merstham Tunnel mystery, I checked the following files: MEPO 3/169 at Kew and then COR/1/3/12 -15 at the East Sussex Archive.
For the Merstham Tunnel Mystery, I found that there were police archives available at the National Archive at Kew. I arranged to visit the archive and was able to explore the police investigation.
In my reading about the murder, I discovered that there was a linked story to research, from 1912. When I looked that up on the Discovery site, I found I had to go to the East Sussex Archive.
Learning
Check out individual Archive centres. Most require you to sign up for an Archives and Records Association Card (ARA). This is free and easy to do. The archive centres are such a valuable resource to us and of minimal cost – just travel and ask if you want to take photographs. If you cannot physically get to an archive then you can ask for photocopies, at a cost.
As well as being interested in local history, I am a family historian. I use Find My Past and Ancestry to help me reach my ancestors. Therefore, in Mary’s case, I decided to use the sites to find her. From this I was able to find her birth, information about her family, and where she was buried. I was also able to use the 1921 census and 1939 register to find out more about those remaining from the families involved in the Merstham Tunnel Mystery and the Eastbourne Fire.
Learning
You can access www.findmypast.co.uk and www.ancestry.co.uk for free at Redhill library, if you have a library card. However, you will need to subscribe if you want to save the data you find. Use the library computers as a starting point before you commit to payment!
Find a Grave is a useful site if you know enough about the person to be sure you have the right grave. Not all graves are catalogued but there is a growing number.
On Find a Grave, there was a photograph of Mary’s grave. I am always extremely conscious of using first-hand evidence. I decided I needed to visit Mary’s grave. I stopped off in Watford one sunny Sunday, on my way to a work event for the following day. I had printed off the cemetery map and photograph of Mary’s grave. It was not as straightforward as I had hoped. After 20 minutes I was ready to give up. Her grave just did not appear to be where the map was indicating. Then I had the idea to check each gravestone shaped like the one in the photograph and align the neighbouring graves with those in the photograph. I had been so close to the grave, just metres away. I soon found it, and was able to take my own photograph and honour Mary.I trawled through the online newspapers to add to my knowledge of Mary and the inquest. It was fascinating to see how widely her death was reported, and some of the interpretations of what had happened to her.
Learning
Some newspapers are free to access, but not all. I prefer to go through the Find My Past site to which I subscribe www.findmypast.co.uk . That way I am able to file the newspapers in my workspace. If you don’t want to go into family history, then an option is to sign up to the British Newspaper Archive. This allows you to access free newspapers and pay as you go if there are some requiring payment. You can also subscribe for an annual payment.
I used Find My Past for searching for the numerous newspaper articles for the presentation about the Merstham Tunnel Mystery and beyond. In the presentation, I have noted the publication and date.
When I started researching Mary, I did not expect to go as far as I did. As I moved to the linked incident in 1912, I found myself becoming increasingly attached to the women and children who were involved in that part of the story, and the impact of the incident on other women. I also moved on to research those who gave a helping hand, or those in authority who did not help some of the women.
I found a photograph of Mary’s funeral online. I was fascinated by the details in the photograph. I found out that it was one of the postcards produced of the mystery. I managed to purchase the postcard for my collection, along with one of the tunnel. Subsequently, I discovered that the funeral photograph was taken by Frederick Downer a well-known photographer in Hertfordshire who has some portrait photographs in the National Portrait Gallery. No wonder his photograph of Mary’s funeral was of exceptional quality.
I struggled immensely to find my way through writing up the research I had discovered. In 2025, I attended a group of writers and was able to spend dedicated time trying out various ideas, including writing the stories as fiction. I was on my way to doing that when I happened to speak to Redhill Library about delivering a talk. That gave me the opportunity to think through how to present an interesting talk that, I hope, left the audience wanting more.
I am no expert in local history research. I like to immerse myself in a story or topic and see where it takes me, rather than following a defined route. It is something I enjoy doing and I hope my reflections are helpful to anyone new to this who is thinking about trying out their own research.
If you want to discuss your idea and check in on how to get started, pop in to the Redhill History Centre to see us on the first and third Saturday of the month, 2-4pm or contact us via the Facebook group.
Nicky Brownjohn