Newspaper Extract
Dreadful Death in Whiston
28 December, 1839An inquest was taken before Mr. T. Badger and a respectable jury, at the Stag's Head Inn, Blackhill Lane, near Rotherham, on view of the body of a woman, whose name is unknown, apparently about 20 years of age, who was found dead in the cistern attached to the engine-boiler at Mr. Oxler's (Oxley?) Blackhill Main Colliery, in the parish of Whiston.
It appeared from the evidence of the engine tenter at the colliery, that on going to work between 4 and 5 o'clock on the above morning, he found a bonnet, handkerchief, and some other articles of dress, in the cabin on the Pit Hill; between that place and the engine other parts of the dress of a female were found, torn off and partly burnt.
These circumstances induced the engine tenter and John Lees, the banksman, who had then come to work, to search about, when the body of a woman was found laid on her face in the cistern, dreadfully burnt, and nearly covered with water, the whole of her clothes, excepting her stays, being burnt off.
The woman in question, with another about her age, had been seen about the cabin several times, and had been ordered off the premises.
There seemed to be no doubt that the young woman had been sleeping in the cabin, and during the night had got on fire, and afterwards jumped into the cistern, for the purpose of extinguishing the flames, and had been drowned.
It was ascertained that the deceased and her companion had, only a few days before, been discharged from Wakefield House of Correction. The jury being satisfied, from the evidence, that the deceased had come to her death acidentally, returned a verdict accordingly.
Source: Sheffield Iris
