Old Cumbria Gazetteer - road, Kendal to Shap: accident 18410801


included in:-	road, Kendal to Shap
included in:-	St Thomas, Selside
	road, Kendal to Shap: accident 18410801
site name:-	road, Kendal to Shap
locality:-	Cold Harbour
civil parish:-	Skelsmergh (formerly Westmorland) (?)
county:-	Cumbria
1Km square:-	SD5298 (guess)
10Km square:-	SD59

	BMK04.jpg Gravestone of William Hayward, the first slab tomb on the right by the path down from the church; St Thomas, Selside. (taken 12.7.2006) BMK03.jpg Gravestone of William Hayward:- "SACRED / TO THE MEMORY OF / WILLIAM HAYWARD, / FARMER OF HINTLESHAM / IN THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK, / AGED 30 YEARS. / WHO WAS KILLED NEAR THIS PLACE / ON THE 1ST. OF AUGUST 1841. / BY THE UPSETTING OF THE ENGINEER COACH / WHILE ON HIS WAY HOME FROM SCOTLAND. / ..." (taken 12.7.2006)

evidence:-	descriptive text:- Westmorland Gazette (7.8.1841) item:- coach; Engineer, The; accident
source data:-	Newspaper, Westmorland Gazette and Kendal Advertiser, published in Kendal, Westmorland, from 23 May 1818 to date. goto source "DREADFUL AND FATAL ACCIDENT FROM THE OVERTURNING OF THE ENGINEER COACH." "On Sunday last, the 1st instant, a melancholy accident occurred at Cold Harbour, near this place, from the overturning of the Lancaster and Carlisle coach called the Engineer. ... [one passenger was killed] ... Mr. Hayward's body was removed to the Plough Inn, Selside; ..." "On the following day (Monday) an Inquest was held on the body of the deceased gentleman, before Richard Wilson, Esq. coroner, and a respectable jury, when the following evidence was adduced." "John Williams of Trimby, Suffolk, gentleman, said ... Yesterday we were returning home by the Engineer coach from Carlisle. ... I do not recollect noticing the mails until a few miles of this, and I then saw them about a mile off. I recollect at some place where we changed horses, the coachman of the Engineer requesting the men who were about the horses to be quick, as the mails were coming up, and at the last stage from here the mails came up before we started, and the coachman hastened the passengers, and seemed anxious to keep a head of the mails, and he did so. They never came alongside our coach. We had no racing nor galloping against each other all the way. About a mile from here the mails appeared to be gathering ground, and some of the passengers remarked, 'here come the mails.' I do not know at what rate or how many miles an hour we were going, but I consider we were going very fast, though the coachman did not whip his horses. The road is almost all on the descent between here and Kendal: and whilst we were descending about three fourths of a mile from here I observed one of the traces of the leader (the coach was drawn by three horses) was loose, and it shortly afterwards became unmanageable. The horses were all galloping when the trace came off; and though the coachman was pulling hard, he did not appear to have the power to pull them up. The deceased appeared to be alarmed, and attempted to seize hold of the reins, but the coachman requested him to be quiet, and said he could pull them up at a short hill a little before us. After this time the coachman appeared to have no controul (sic) whatever over the horses. They were unmanageable, and the coach began to rock from one side to the other as if it would upset. At this time the deceased, who was sitting along side me on the front of the coach, called out, 'we shall be over,' and immediately jumped off the near side of the coach, and the coach instantly went over on its off side. ... the deceased ... was lying in the road on his side, and the blood was flowing freely from his ears and the back of his head. He appeared quite insensible, and incapable of moving. A surgeon was sent for, and arrived a soon as possible, and the deceased was by his orders removed to this house. I believe he died on the way here. ... The coachman appeared civil, steady, and capable of doing his duty. ... The passengers remarked at breakfast that there was a great quantity of luggage packed upon the coach, and one of them said, 'you'll find she rocks,' and I did observe this more than once in coming along the road. ..." "William Dryden, of Carlisle, coachman, said - I was driving the Engineer coach yesterday when she was overturned. I commenced at Carlisle. The coach is licensed to carry ten passengers. We had eleven passengers from Carlisle, three inside and eight out. We had also a large quantity of luggage - an unusually large quantity. I had no control over the number of passengers or quantity of luggage which is put upon the coach at the offices. The whole number of passengers and the whole of the luggage was put upon the coach at Carlisle. The coach is drawn by two horses over a part of the road, and by three horses over the other part. [It is] drawn by three horses over this stage. The Engineer coaches are very light built, not more than about 12 cwt. The coach runs before the mails, and is obliged to keep mail time. I started from Carlisle about ten minutes before the mails yesterday morning. I lost no time unnecessarily on the road, but maintained a regular speed, and the mails gained upon me gradually all the way until the accident. Past this place, and from here to where the accident happened, I drove at the rate of about eleven miles an hour. Opposite Cooper's, the shoemaker's shop, at the north end of Skelsmergh Fell, one of the traces of the leader came off. the bar fell upon her legs, and caused the mare to spring forward, and she became unmanageable, and I then soon lost the control over the horses. The leader galloped furiously. The coach began to swing from one side to the other at this time. The deceased, who was sitting on the near side of the box seat, attempted to lay hold of the reins, but I requested him to not to do so, in the hope that I should be able to stop the horses in a short hill a little before us; but before we came to the hill the coach went over. The deceased leaped off the near side of the coach when it was going over, and the coach instantly came to the ground on the off side. I attribute the overthrow of the coach to the speed we were going pressing her upon the spring, and that was going to the trace coming off, and to the leader becoming unmanageable. I also think that the number of passengers on the top and the weight of luggage accelerated the overthrow. The deceased did not, to my knowledge, object to the number of passengers or the quantity of luggage on the coach. The deceased did not, nor did any of the other passengers, find any fault with me, or with my driving or the management of the coach from leaving Carlisle." "..." "Verdict - 'Accidental death.'" "..." "It was much to have been desired for the sake of the public, that a more full and searching examination had been made into the details of the accident at the inquest. Much speculation is about with respect to the cause of the [neglect]. In the meantime, we must forbear entering into particulars, as it is understood that the matter will, one of these days' be made the subject of a judicial investigation."

Lakes Guides menu.