Halton Memories: Tragedy connected to the waterways

By Runcorn And Widnes Weekly News on Nov 13, 09 09:11 AM in 1900-1999

CANALS and rivers - even ponds - contributed to numerous tragedies during the last century.

Youngsters and merchant seamen returning to their vessels berthed at the local docks were particularly vulnerable in our twin towns of Runcorn and Widnes.

The youngsters, of course, were most at risk in the summer months, when canals and ponds attracted them like a magnet during the first signs of a heatwave.

Seamen returning to the docks after a night out often lost their way in relatively unfamiliar surroundings and perished without anyone even knowing they had gone.

But while Pierhead, quayside and towpath tragedies were not uncommon in our part of the world, there have been more unusual, but particularly sad, incidents which must have had a devastating effect on their families.

One such story from the past was passed on by Runcorn man Barry Wilcock, of Roland Avenue, who provided a photocopy of a Weekly News report of the inquest into the death of a 12-year-old boy, James Thomas Stokes, who was the son of the eldest sibling of Barry's grandmother.

The boy was the son of a boatman, John Stokes, of Back High Street, Runcorn, and the evidence of the father, given at the inquest, showed the boy had been helping his father with the narrowboats Hannah and Mary.

The Hannah had been loaded with large bottles of vitriol at the works of the Weston Chemical Company and was berthed in the wharf on the River Weaver at the works on Friday, August 31, 1917.

In order to allow a flat to make its way in, the boatman and his son were pulling their boats out of the wharf. The boatman left his son pulling the Hannah out with the aid of a rope.

Hearing a noise, the boatman returned and saw some men handing his son across the flat and on to the canal bank.

The boatman had not seen the accident but found one of the vitriol bottles was broken and his son's leg was burned from the knee downwards. He appeared to have fallen on to one of the vitriol bottles and had broken it.

When the coroner asked why the boy had not been at school, the boatman said they had had no time and were busy carrying goods for the Government and the war effort.

The captain of the flat, John Grimes, of Norton Street, told the inquest he was waiting for a berth at the works and saw the boy pulling his boat round with a rope.

He heard a shout and it was evident the boy had had one foot in one of the bottles of vitriol. He helped to get him to the canal bank.

A clerk at the Weston works, who went to help, immediately took off the boy's boots and stockings and cut away the trousers as far as was necessary, dressing the burns with carron oil [a mixture of linseed oil and lime water]. The boy was taken home by taxi and afterwards went to the Cottage Hospital.

A nurse at the hospital said the boy was admitted suffering from burns and shock.

The boy died on September 14 and a doctor who attended him confirmed the boy was suffering from severe burns to the left leg. He continued to attend the boy at the hospital until his death.

The doctor told the coroner: "Death was due to exhaustion following the severe burns."
In the first week he appeared to be getting on all right but afterwards his condition worsened.

The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence and the coroner said it was a great pity the boy had been in work instead of being at school, although he appreciated the mishap came at a time when there was great difficulty in finding labour.