Morpeth Herald 26 November 1864
FATAL ACCIDENT NEAR AMBLE.
On Friday last, J. J. Hardy, Esq , coroner, held an inquest at the Wellwood Arms, Amble, on the bodies of James Milmo, George Watson, and Wm. Simpson, who on Thursday, the 17th inst., met their death by drowning between Warkworth and Amble. The first witness examined was Margaret Milmo. She said: I am the widow of James Milmo, whose body has just been viewed. He was 35 or 36 years of age, and was a boatman at North Shields, and sometimes hawked fruit for me. I carry on the business of a fruiterer. He left North Shields on Tuesday morning with our horse and cart. laded with apples to hawk along the coast. We have had the horse two years, and I have travelled daily with it. Although a quiet horse, yet when it has been long in the shafts and travelled far, it is apt to get fidgetty and run back, and has done so with me many a time ; and it is not easy to stop it. My husband, though a very unsteady man, never to my knowledge took drink when from home. A boy named James Pemberton, whom we have kept for three weeks, left home with deceased, and knew all about the horse.—Robert Dawson : I am a seaman, and one of the bodies is that of William Simpson, aged 44, married, and with a family of 3 children, He was a fisherman, and lived at Hauxley. I last saw him alive on Thursday, at about 8.30 a.m. when he told me he was going to Warkworth fair. He was a steady man, and would take his allowance at times.—John Schofield, labourer, Alnwick, said—One of the bodies shown to the jury is that of Geo. Watson, aged 17, an orphan, He has been with me about 4 years, driving my cart, and lived with me. I attend affairs selling fruit, gingerbread, &c., and on Wednesday, deceased came with me to attend at Warkworth fair. I last saw him at 5 p.m, on Thursday, being with him in the Mason's Arms, Warkworth, when Milmo and others came in. Milmo had drink twice, but seemed capable, and left between 5 and 6 p.m., with his horse and cart, giving the deceased Watson a ride, so as he might bring my horse from Amble to Warkworth. The night was wet and vary dark.—James Pemberton, said—I am 12 years of age and belong to Gateshead, my father being a basket maker there, and hawks and is now at North Shields. I have known the deceased Milmo for 2 years, and have been living with him and his wife for the last 3 weeks. Milmo and I started from home last Monday on a hawking excursion, via Bedlington, and got to Amble on Tuesday night. We sold apples on the Wednesday, and we both went to
Warkworth fair to sell apples, and stood about one hour in the afternoon. Just before we started Milmo had two glasses of rum and was " kind o' tipsy," and did not know what be was doing with the reins, as it was wet and dark. He would drive, and the horse was wet and fidgetty, and would not stand still, When we left Warkworth, Milmo was sitting on the cart-head driving. Watson was at the hind end of the cart with me. We came on to Amble through Beal Bank Gate, and passed the Lock-up when the tide was not over the road, but nearly level with it. Between the Lock- up and the Old Granary we saw two men, one of whom was the deceased Simpson who was very drunk, and shouted, Hey, stop! and give us a ride." Milmo stopped the galloway, and Simpson got to the back side of the cart, when the pony backed, knocked over a post, and the deceased Simpson fell into the river, and also the cart, Milmo, and myself. The reins broke, and a man, named Longstaffe, who had previously got on to the cart, holding on to the pony’s tail. I was thrown out of the cart into the water, under the cart; and after struggling under water, got hold of the galloway's tail, and then climbed on to the limbers, and got hold of Milmo's coat, as he was still on the head of the cart. He shouted, "Who's that ?" and I said, "It was me ;" and then left the cart in fact, fell off—and swam ashore. After I got there I saw Milmo still sitting on the cart, which I saw again go down with the pony. When I next saw it Milmo was gone. I saw nothing of Watson or Simpson. After I was on shore, and before the cart went down, Milmo shouted to me; I shouted, "Come on," and he appeared as if urging the pony, until the cart went down. In about four minutes, the pony and cart were got out, and I saw the deceased, Watson, drop off the end of the cart as it was coming out, into the water. He was immediately picked up by a man-of-war's man —from the gunboat Surly—but he was dead.—The coroner and jury here went and inspected the place where the accident occurred. At the place there were upright posts—one of which had been knocked down by the cart—but there were no rails, they having been taken down when the slopes were made. The embankment down which the cart and horse went, was about eleven or twelve feet deep; the bank being at about an angle of 46 degrees; and at the time of the accident there would be about ten feet depth of water.—The other witnesses examined were William Longstaff, who was present at the catastrophe; William Turnbull, the man alluded to by the boy Pemberton, as accompanying the deceased Simpson, and who—with Longstaff— hailed the gunboat Surly for help; and George Mason, a grocer, of Amble, who also joined in the vain efforts to render assistance. These confirmed the testimony of the boy Pemberton. The jury returned the following verdict:—"That James Milmo, George Watson, and Wm. Simpson were accidentally drowned, by the running back of a horse and cart into the river Coquet, near Amble, on the 17th day of November, 1864, and the jury urgently call upon the proper authorities to take steps to remedy the very dangerous and unprotected state of the road between Amble and Warkworth, by the erection of a fence or other sufficient means." The coroner was also requested to send copies of the verdict to both the clerk and surveyor of the Highway Board.
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