The Abduction At Shrigley Hall
REDRUM true crime
redrumpodcast
4.6 • 532 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
In 1826, fifteen-year-old Ellen Turner left her boarding school believing her mother was ill and her father was in danger. But the carriage waiting outside wasn’t sent by her parents—it was sent by a man she had never met. Within hours, Ellen was across the border, standing before a blacksmith in Scotland, being forced to marry a stranger twice her age.
What followed would become one of the most scandalous abductions in British history—a story of lies, greed, and manipulation that exposed the terrifying vulnerability of women in a world where wealth made them powerful, but never safe.
This is the story of The Shrigley Abduction.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | At 15 years old, Ellen Turner thought she was being rescued. |
| 0:08.7 | A stranger told her that her father was in prison and she had to come quickly, that her family's |
| 0:13.5 | entire fortune and her father's freedom depended on her. |
| 0:18.3 | Hours later, she stood at an altar, in a different country, saying vows she didn't |
| 0:23.7 | understand to a man she'd just met. Only later did she learn there had been no arrest, |
| 0:30.7 | no danger, no rescue, just a plan to steal her. This is Red Rum, stories about the true victims of crime. |
| 0:41.2 | I upload on Mondays and Thursdays, so make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. |
| 0:48.1 | England 1826. |
| 0:50.7 | It was a world of strict rules, sharp social hierarchies and opportunities defined almost always by birth. |
| 0:59.7 | Life moved slowly outside the cities. Horses and carriages were the fastest way to travel. |
| 1:05.4 | Letters were carried by hand or on horseback and wealth could secure comfort or make someone a target. |
| 1:14.1 | And for 15-year-old Ellen Turner, life was both privileged and carefully contained. |
| 1:21.0 | She was the only child of William Turner, the wealthy High Sheriff of Cheshire, and heir to a fortune that made her one of the most desirable |
| 1:29.3 | young women in England. Not for who she was, but for what she would one day inherit. |
| 1:37.0 | She lived in Shrigley Hall, a grand estate near Macclesfield, with sprawling gardens, |
| 1:43.5 | servants to cater to her every need, and an education |
| 1:47.2 | designed to make her accomplished in the eyes of society. Not only was she an arrest, but she was |
| 1:53.9 | also strikingly beautiful, a young lady of very pleasing appearance, and guys, you know, I'm quoting there. And I'm quoting here |
| 2:03.7 | too. Her complexion is good and the expression of her lips particularly beautiful. I did not know |
| 2:11.0 | that you could have an expression of lips being beautiful, but here we are, 1826 everyone. |
| 2:22.5 | Yet despite the wealth and beauty, Ellen's life was limited. |
| 2:29.3 | Her days were regimented, lessons in literature, music and French at an elite boarding school in Liverpool, afternoon walks under the watchful eyes of matrons. Letters from her parents delivered by hand. |
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