Tales of accidents, assault and other stuff
1800 – Step Mother Kills Child
An 8 year old girl by the name of Anne Collins of King’s Caple was unfortunate enough to have a really wicked stepmother, who constantly and horribly abused her until eventually the poor girl died.
1841 – Wagon Accident for King’s Caple Farmer
For every village there are umpteen reports of accidents very similar to this one:
Mr. James Tingle, a farmer of King’s Caple had taken his team of horses and wagon to Walford in order to pick up a load of lime. On his way back he had to go through the ford across the River Wye at Sellack, where he slipped and fell.
The wagon wheel went over him, badly breaking his left arm and bruising most of his body. Unlike many such cases, James survived.
1853 – Incredible Escape on Railway Tunnel Works
Workmen involved in constructing a tunnel at King’s Caple had 15cwt of blasting powder in their magazine, but somehow had left a barrel with 3 or 4 lbs of the powder outside the tunnel.
A young lad for reasons known only to himself decided to try to explode the barrel by lighting a match…….he was badly injured of course, but luckily the bulk of the powder was not affected by the explosion.
Soon after, the men saw smoke coming from the magazine, and with heroic bravery they fetched water to throw over it, and happily they succeeded in preventing a catastrophe. When they rolled the barrels of powder out of the magazine to be dried out, one of them fell to bits from the burning that the wood had sustained.
A very near miss for a great many men.
1854 – Indecent Assault at King’s Caple
A rather drunk George Butler of King’s Caple indecently assaulted Sarah, the wife of John Wilson – John was less than amused, and gave him a thorough beating.
When in court, George said that he didn’t know what he was doing as he had had too much to drink – he was convicted of aggravated assault and was put in gaol for three months with hard labour.
1859 – Native of King’s Caple Drowns in America
Thomas Brisland, a carpenter, left King’s Caple and emigrated to the United States. On 10th July 1858 he went for a swim in a river, and never came out.
1862 – Alleged Neglect of Duty by Parish Doctor
Benjamin Brown was working as a labourer on the farm of Mr. Ratcliffe of Street-house, King’s Caple.
Whilst breaking up firewood, Benjamin was suddenly taken ill, and the parish doctor was immediately called, but he failed to turn up and before too long the poor chap died.
At the inquest the doctor was castigated for neglect of duty, and was duly cautioned.
1862 – Woman Killed by Lightning at King’s Caple
During a violent thunderstorm over King’s Caple, three women who were working in a field on Penalt Farm ran for shelter under a tree. When the lightning increased they became frightened, and a Mrs Collins ran for the farm leaving the other two, Lewis and Edwards, under the tree.
Lightning hit the tree and broke it in two, killing the woman named Lewis and so badly injuring Edwards that she was not expected to survive
1867 – Unprecedented Rainfall at King’s Caple
In early September 1867, W. Clement Ley wrote to the Hereford Time with the following report:
“It may interest some of your readers to know that in the terrific thunderstorm which passed over this part of the county on Tuesday afternoon, there fell at this place as much as 2.40 inches of rain in three quarters of an hour. The rain was mingled with large hailstones and accompanied by the most tremendous thunder and lightning. We had four distinct thunder storms during the day, and the total rainfall as measured by my guage was 2.96 inches. This is a greater amount than any that has fallen in 24 hours since August 13th 1857, but the fall of nearly 2 and a half inches, or one tenth of the whole mean annual rainfall in less than an hour, is I think, quite unprecedented.”
1893 – Sad Death of Widow at Kings Caple
74 year old Walter Preece, a labourer of King’s Caple, had died after a long illness and was due to be buried in King’s Caple graveyard.
As his widow, Maria Preece aged 53, was getting ready for the funeral she suddenly felt ill and called out to her daughter Bessie to bring her a drop of whisky.
By the time that Bessie arrived with the whisky, her mother was dead.
Walter’s funeral was delayed by an hour, and his widow was buried in the same churchyard a couple of days later.