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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780752489346 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 02/01/2013 |
| Series: | Grim Almanacs |
| Sold by: | INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
A Grim Almanac of Oxfordshire
By Nicola Sly
The History Press
Copyright © 2013 Nicola SlyAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-8934-6
CHAPTER 1
JANUARY
1 JANUARY
1895 Coroner Henry F. Galpin held an inquest into the death of Marston farmer James Aries.
On 30 December 1894, the farmer's neighbours heard him shouting. Richard Smith sent his workman to see what Aries wanted, and Charles Culley found sixty-one-year-old Aries lying in his porch, a revolver about a yard away. 'Is it done accidental or no?' Culley asked, and Aries replied, 'No.' He gave the same response when Smith asked him that question.
Aries was taken to hospital, where surgeons found a single gunshot wound in his chest. They determined that the revolver must have been held very close to Aries' body when it was fired.
Once in hospital, Aries was adamant that the shooting was an accident. He had purchased the gun three months earlier for protection against burglars and now, according to Aries, 'The thing wouldn't go off and I was looking at it and it shot me.'
Aries' adopted son, Frank Haynes, told the inquest that his father was 'jolly' shortly before shooting himself and added that there was nothing about his affairs to suggest that he might be contemplating suicide. Aries had told him that his gun was malfunctioning and that 'a man who knows about such things' said that it just needed more regular use.
When Aries died from internal bleeding, it was left to the inquest jury to decide between suicide and accidental death – they chose the latter option.
2 JANUARY
1894 Coroner Mr Robinson held an inquest at the vicarage, Beckley, into the death of Revd George Theophilus Cooke.
The vicar had been feeling a little under the weather and his doctor prescribed a tonic for neuralgia and rheumatism. On 30 December, Cooke's sister, Caroline, collected a fresh bottle of the tonic, purchasing a large bottle of carbolic acid for domestic cleaning at the same time. She left the carbolic acid on the piano in the drawing room and placed her brother's medicine on a table outside his bedroom.
That evening, seventy-four-year-old Cooke, who had no sense of smell, came to his sister's room complaining about the taste of the tonic and saying that it burned his mouth. When Caroline investigated, she found that he had taken the carbolic acid from the drawing room and, in spite of the fact that it was clearly labelled 'Poison', had drunk a teaspoonful under the mistaken impression it was his tonic. Although every effort was made to induce Cooke to vomit with mustard, salt water and ipecacuanha, he died within fifteen minutes.
The inquest jury returned a verdict of 'death from accidental poisoning.'
3 JANUARY
1853 After heavy rains, a railway tunnel near Wolvercote had collapsed and was under repair, limiting the amount of traffic that the line could cope with. At Oxford Station, a passenger train waited to depart but was prohibited from leaving the station until the 5.20 p.m. coal train arrived.
A telegraph was received to say that the coal train had left Islip and, shortly afterwards, a ballast train belonging to the contractors working on the tunnel pulled into the station. The driver of the passenger train wrongly assumed that this was the coal train and set off, disregarding all the signals against him.
Guard Joseph Kinch realised his driver's mistake and waved his flag and the station porter blew his whistle, but the driver and stoker didn't notice them. At a bridge just outside Oxford, the wrong signal was unaccountably displayed, showing a green light for the driver to proceed.
The passenger train, carrying twenty-one passengers, and the coal train collided head-on less than a mile from the station, killing six people outright. Two more died within days and many were badly injured.
An inquest was opened and adjourned, since Kinch, who was a key witness, was not well enough to appear. The proceedings eventually concluded on 16 January with a verdict of manslaughter against Kinch, on the grounds that he bore the ultimate responsibility for starting the train. He was promptly arrested but acquitted at his trial at the Oxford Assizes on 3 March.
4 JANUARY
1899 A letter was read out at the regular meeting of the Chipping Norton Board of Guardians concerning a complaint made to Messrs H. and C. Burden about a defective coffin.
Burden's supplied all of the coffins used for parish funerals and, at a recent pauper's funeral at Milton-under-Wychwood, the mourners complained that the body was clearly visible inside the coffin and that the stink emanating from within was unacceptable.
In response to the complaint by the Board of Guardians, Messrs Burden wrote that, like all of their coffins, this one was made from sound elm boards, well and properly put together and well pitched inside. If the corpse was visible, it was because the lid wasn't properly screwed down, and since this occurred at the Workhouse, Burden's felt that they couldn't be held responsible.
It was established that, after death, the corpse became so swollen with gas that it no longer fitted the purpose-made coffin and, fearing that it might explode, the Workhouse staff were keen to get it buried as soon as possible.
5 JANUARY
1900 Thirty-two-year-old Edwin James Harris appeared before magistrates at the Oxford City Court, charged with assaulting and threatening his wife with violence on 29 December.
Harris's wife and daughter both testified that Harris punched his wife in the forehead and then picked up a carving knife, with which he threatened to cut her throat. However, when Harris himself entered the witness box, he swore 'before God his maker' that his wife and daughter had sworn falsely against him, adding that he might at times have 'kicked up a bit of a row' but had never laid a finger on his wife.
In spite of his protests, the Bench found him guilty of aggravated assault, fining him £1, with 9s costs or one month's hard labour in default. Mrs Harris promptly applied for a separation order, which the magistrates granted, ordering Harris to pay 8s a week maintenance.
6 JANUARY
1899 An inquest was held at the Radcliffe Infirmary by coroner Mr H.F. Galpin into the death of forty-three-year-old Fred Shurmer, who died following an accident on Boxing Day 1898.
Henry Miller was driving a four-wheeled coach carrying a party of people to Headington and stopped to adjust the bridle. As he was climbing back onto the coach, the horse moved suddenly and Miller was knocked over. Finding the reins loose, the horse bolted, the passengers screaming in terror as the coach raced out of control through the streets. When it reached Magdalen Bridge, Shurmer bravely leaped out in front of the runaway horse and tried to grab the bridle.
Although nobody actually saw what happened, passers-by found Shurmer semi-conscious on the pavement and called a doctor, who transferred him to hospital, where he was initially treated for a broken ankle. By the time that doctors realised that Shurmer had internal injuries it was too late and he died from a four-inch rupture to his bladder.
At the inquest, the coroner stated that the police had been unable to find anyone who had actually witnessed what happened on the bridge, so there was only the deceased's account to his wife that he had tried to stop the coach and that nobody was to blame for his accident. The jury accepted this and returned a verdict of 'accidental death'.
7 JANUARY
1920 Fourteen-year-old Thomas Edward Newton was shooting sparrows in the garden of his parents' cottage in Wantage when he accidentally fired his rifle through a window. The bullet hit his mother in the chest, fatally wounding her.
In returning a verdict of accidental death on forty-one-year-old Mary Newton, the inquest jury asked the police to take action against the showman from the fair who sold the rifle to Thomas, and also against the person who supplied the boy with cartridges.
8 JANUARY
1933 After a severe gale, Ernest Bruce came across a fallen tree partially blocking a road near Oxford. Bruce's first thought was to warn other motorists and he ran back along the road to stop approaching traffic. The first vehicle to come along was a motorcycle, ridden by twenty-year-old James Charles Walters of Benson, near Wallingford, with James's brother, seventeen-year-old Lawrence as a pillion passenger.
Hearing the motorcycle, Bruce stepped into the road and waved his arms for it to stop. However, Walters ignored his signal and swerved round him, continuing at speed until he hit the tree. Both he and his brother were swept off the bike by a branch, dying almost immediately.
At the inquest, the jury returned two verdicts of accidental death, commending Bruce for trying to alert others to the danger.
9 JANUARY
1861 Twenty-four-year-old servant Henrietta Clarke died in Henley-upon-Thames Workhouse. She weighed only 50lb and was extremely emaciated, as well as being dirty and having gangrene in four of her toes, due to frostbite. An inquest returned a verdict of manslaughter against her employer, Robert Durno Mitchell.
Henrietta had worked for the Mitchell family since August of the previous year. Their house in Henley was hidden behind high walls and the gate was usually kept locked, so very few people actually saw Henrietta, who was said to have been in perfect health when she started her new job. However, those who did see her told the inquest that she always seemed ravenously hungry.
Chimneysweep Henry Palmer once gave Henrietta a piece of soot-covered bread from his pocket. Palmer stated that he would not have eaten the bread himself, since it was so dirty, but Henrietta bolted it as if she were starving. The people who delivered milk to the house stated that they never saw Henrietta, as they placed the milk on the top of the high wall and she took it down from inside. They related that she often gave them money to buy her a penny loaf, which they did.
A doctor was called to attend to Henrietta on 4 January and, in front of Mrs Mitchell, she told him that she always had plenty of food to eat. Henrietta was taken to the Workhouse Infirmary, where she ate ravenously, but the food came too late and she died five days after admission.
Mitchell was charged with feloniously killing Henrietta Clarke and tried at the Oxford Assizes on 4 March 1861. Mitchell's family and other servants all stated that Henrietta was well-treated and given plenty of food. Mitchell's defence counsel pointed out that Henrietta made no complaint to anyone, adding that she was free to come and go as she pleased. Although she had asked the people who delivered milk to fetch her food, she had never once complained to them about being starved.
By profession, Mitchell was a retired naval surgeon and when the jury at his trial found him not guilty, he was discharged to vigorous booing and hissing from the courtroom.
10 JANUARY
1928 An inquest was held into the death of ten-month-old John Bowen of Oxford.
Baby John was sitting on his father's knee being fed, when the glass feeding bottle slipped from Mr Bowen's hand and shattered on the floor. As it fell, Bowen tried to catch it and, in doing so, tipped the baby out of his lap. John fell onto the broken glass, severely cutting his head, and bled to death before a doctor could reach him. The inquest jury returned a verdict of 'accidental death'.
11 JANUARY
1886 An inquest was held at Shipton-on-Cherwell into the death of eight-year-old Arthur Henry Abbott. On the previous day, Arthur and five of his friends were sliding on ice on the village pond when someone mentioned that the Oxford Canal was frozen over. Excitedly, the boys rushed to a section of the canal near the churchyard to see.
The ice near the banks appeared thick enough to support their weight and Arthur decided that he was going to walk across from one side to the other. Unfortunately, the ice in the middle of the canal was much thinner that that at the edges and it gave way, plunging the little boy into the freezing cold water.
Arthur managed to hang onto the edge of the ice for five minutes until help arrived. Two men from the village went out onto the ice with horse halters, venturing as close to Arthur as they dared. They threw the halters to Arthur but he was too cold and exhausted to grab them and soon sank. His body was recovered within fifteen minutes but it proved impossible to resuscitate him.
The inquest jury returned a verdict of 'accidentally drowned'.
12 JANUARY
1805 An inquest held in Tetsworth into the death of Ruth Lee found that she had died 'by visitation of God'.
Nobody had been permitted to enter Ruth's house for many years and when neighbours noticed that she was no longer out and about in the village as she normally was, they investigated and found her dead in her bedroom.
Reports in the contemporary newspapers state: 'She had not suffered any person to enter into her apartment for a number of years; nor had a broom or any other article been used to clean it.' A number of shillings and sixpences were found on her bedside table, having been completely covered by several years' accumulation of dust. Ruth also had plenty of new bed linen but apparently preferred to sleep on the sacking of her bedstead, without even the comfort of a mattress.
13 JANUARY
1880 John 'Jacky' Cluff of North Street, Banbury, was a month short of his second birthday and, during the day, he attended nursery school, where Mrs Neighbour, also of North Street, looked after fifteen toddlers in her home.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Mrs Neighbour briefly left the children unattended while she went to hang out some washing in her garden. When she returned, a child was missing and, on questioning the other children, she was told 'Jacky's gone'.
Mrs Neighbour assumed that John had wandered home but when there was no sign of him there, a search of the neighbourhood was quickly organised.
It wasn't until much later that somebody suggested checking Mrs Neighbour's well. The well was in a pantry off the kitchen and was usually kept covered by a wooden lid. Mrs Neighbour remembered using the well shortly before John disappeared but was sure that she had covered it and closed the pantry door after her. Nevertheless, John's body was discovered floating on the surface of the water and, on reflection, Mrs Neighbour recalled leaving the pantry door unfastened and the well only partially covered.
At the inquest, the jury charitably returned a verdict of 'accidental death', although they added that they believed that Mrs Neighbour was at fault. Coroner Mr A. Weston was clearly not happy but, unable to change the verdict, he settled for reprimanding Mrs Neighbour. If she had these children in her house, warned Weston, she had a duty to look after them and it seemed improper – if not illegal – to have a dangerous well like this with so many toddlers around. If she continued her school, she must see that the well was made safe or that a pump was installed.
14 JANUARY
1891 Coroner Mr E.L. Hussey held an inquest at the Radcliffe Infirmary into the death of seventeen-year-old William John Ing.
Ing worked at Thame Grammar School and one of his responsibilities was attending to the baths. A new boiler had been installed in September 1870 and, on 10 January, gardener James Rush lit the fire, making sure that water had been pumped into the boiler first.
Rush fed the fire until lunchtime, when he left Ing in charge. At four o'clock, Rush checked the fire and found that Ing had created a tremendous blaze in the boiler's firebox, far fiercer than was necessary to heat the water.
'The water wasn't heating and I thought it would make it hot,' Ing explained when Rush questioned him. Rush left Ing pumping water into the boiler and had just gone into the yard when there was an explosion. Ing disappeared in a cloud of smoke and steam and Rush could only locate him by his repeated exclamations of 'Oh dear! Oh dear!'
Taken to hospital, Ing's injuries initially seemed superficial, the most serious being a deep cut on his left arm. However, he quickly began to show symptoms of internal bleeding and died from a lacerated liver on 11 January.
At the inquest, boiler expert John Horton stated that the most likely cause of the explosion was that the supply pipe was frozen. The boiler had not been used for two days prior to the catastrophe and, according to Horton, the recent frosts were the severest he had ever known and resulted in him being called out to mend hundreds of split pipes since Christmas. On hearing that, the inquest jury returned a verdict of 'accidental death'.
15 JANUARY
1877 Thirteen-year-old Annie Coombes (aka Annie Dipper) worked for the Viner family of Witney as a maidservant. Caleb Viner's wife was a very religious woman and, while she and their four children were at chapel, Caleb took liberties with Annie, who, knowing no better, made no complaint about his actions.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Grim Almanac of Oxfordshire by Nicola Sly. Copyright © 2013 Nicola Sly. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
TITLE,ALSO BY THE AUTHOR,
INTRODUCTION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
JANUARY,
FEBRUARY,
MARCH,
APRIL,
MAY,
JUNE,
JULY,
AUGUST,
SEPTEMBER,
OCTOBER,
NOVEMBER,
DECEMBER,
BIBLIOGRAPHY,
COPYRIGHT,