Charles Hillier of Uley was a veteran of the Peninsular War and it was where he lost both his legs. Not long before his own death in 1876 at the age of 92, he recalled a memory of where a skeleton was found in a local stream. The villagers believed the skeletal remains belonged to a beggar who had disappeared under suspicious circumstances several years ago.

The skeleton was propped up in the porch of the village church for 3 weeks as the villagers believed that if the murderer (believed to be a local) walked past the skeleton when entering the church, the bones would bleed and would identify the perpetrator.