Memories
Extract from Sheffield Telegraph, 28th December, 1909, page 7.
Whiston Septuagenarian Drowned
At eight o'clock yesterday morning Sarah Goucher, aged 73, a widow of Pinfold Cottage, Whiston, was found dead in the Whiston Brook by Harry Fields, aged 11. Mrs. Goucher was last seen alive at 9.30 on Sunday night, by Edith Eames, who met her at the house of Harry Marlow, and accompanied her part of the way home. It is supposed that the old lady fell into the water, becoming unconscious through her head striking a stone, and thus rendering her incapable of helping herself.
Extract from Sheffield Telegraph , 29th December, 1909, page 4.
The Whiston Drowning Case
A verdict of Accidental Death was recorded at the inquest held yesterday afternoon before Mr.J. Kenyon Parker, Deputy Coroner, relative to the death of Sarah Goucher (nee Ellis), aged 73, a widow of Pinfold Cottage, Whiston, whose body was found in the Whiston Brook the previous morning.
Thomas Goucher, a grandson, said that he last saw his grandmother alive at 8.20 on Sunday night at the Sitwell Arms. She then appeared to be in good health. She had suffered from fainting bouts, the last attack having been about a week ago. She never took too much to drink. Subsequently Mrs. Edith Eames saw deceased at the house of her father, and accompanied her part of the way home, when she left at 9.15 o'clock. At the Chapel steps deceased said she could manage. To reach her house she had to cross the brook by a bridge, which was protected by railings. At eight o'clock on Monday morning, Harry Fields, aged 11, found the body in the water.
Dr. F. A. Hepworth described an injury to the head and a wound on the nose, which he said was likely to have been caused through deceased falling over the wall of her garden, which adjoined the brook.
In summing up, the Deputy Coroner remarked that any idea that the woman was the worse for drink had been completely dissipated by the evidence.
It is thought that the house on the left at the bottom of the Chapel steps in the photograph, is where Sarah Goucher lived. The description from the article fits how you get to her house from Well Lane over the bridge with Iron railings. This bridge was the only one with iron rails (all the old foot bridges were wood with wooden rails until replaced in the 1940s), then once over bridge go through gate which is now the foot path down past the dyke and it had a low wall then, and so easy for some one to fall over in to stream as there was no street lighting.
Many thanks to Shirley for sending this story. Shirley emigrated to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in October 1966 then moved to Sudbury, Ontario in 1968. and her website can be found at http://www3.sympatico.ca/yorkie
Shirley suffers from MS - Her book Pools in the Desert
offers Words of Encouragement
