Have you heard of the unsolved murder of shopkeeper Eleanor Hammerton in Sheffield in 1945?

The body of Eleanor Hammerton was discovered around midday at the Ecclesall Road premises, which also doubled as her home, on Saturday, January 13, 1945 - according to reports from the Sheffield Telegraph.

She had severe head injuries and police immediately concluded that the motive for the crime had been robbery.

They also came to the conclusion that, as a spinster with no immediate family or close friends, the killer must have been aware of her habits and felt confident to carry out the daring crime at a time when the Ecclesall Road would have been at its busiest.

A report in the Sheffield Telegraph from two days later states: “It was about 2.15pm that the body was found. A little earlier a man had entered the shop and had been unable to attract anyone's attention. He told a neighbour who went into the premises and found Miss Hammerton. The police were summoned.

“The shop and the living room had been ransacked. The police found a jemmy which might have been used by the old woman's assailant but they were unable to discover whether it was her property or whether it was the criminals. There were also two pokers which might have been used.

“The assailant could hardly have escaped bloodstains

“Although Miss Hammerton lived alone and rarely received visitors she was always friendly with customers and sometimes chatted with neighbours who went into her shop. "She wouldn't have hurt a fly" said Miss N Tilbrook, Ecclesall Road. And other women agreed. She slept on a couch in the back room downstairs and in recent years had never undressed.

“Although the shop was rather old fashioned Miss Hammerton did a fairly good trade. She had extraordinary large stocks for such a shop. All her rooms were packed with boxes and parcels.”

The report then goes on to say that her body was discovered by neighbours after several customers went into the shop and she did not come out to serve them.

With no witnesses to the crime, detectives were immediately struggling to find a suspect, despite carrying out numerous interviews over the next 24 hours.

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A report in the Telegraph the following day detailed the extensive resources police had thrown at the case, and included urgent appeals for information from the public, but to no avail, and no firm suspect was ever identified.

The subsequent inquest took the view that she had been murdered, although a police surgeon suggested that perhaps Eleanor had inflicted the wounds on herself - perhaps a ruse to take attention from the stumbling investigation.

Eventually, on March 5, following numerous adjournments, the inquest jury returned a verdict of "murder by some person or persons unknown".

Later in January, 1940 the Manchester Guardian ran a story about an elderly shopkeeper in Leeds being murdered in similar circumstances, but despite the two constabularies working together on the cases, the killer got away with murder.

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