HENRY JOSIAH COLLINS

FATAL FALL IN A MALTHOUSE

AT NEWBURY BREWERY

As Newbury people were beginning their week's work on Monday they were saddened by learning that on the previous night a death, under somewhat tragic circumstances, had occurred in their midst, removing suddenly the breadwinner of a family in Marsh-street. The deceased was Henry Josiah Collins by name, and for a number of years he had worked at the Newbury Brewery as maltster. His work necessitating his attendance on Sunday, he went as usual, to the maltings. As it was getting late, and he had not returned, Mrs. Collins crossed over from her back door to the boundary wall of the malthouse, and listening at the grating she heard the sound of moaning coming from inside the building. The alarm which she gave led to the discovery of her husband, who was lying unconscious in a pool of blood. Under medical advice a stretcher was procured, and the man was removed to the Hospital, but on the way life flickered out. An inquest being necessary the Coroner, Dr. Henry Watson, J.P., attended at the Municipal Buildings on Monday afternoon, and the jury summoned having elected Mr. George Paulin as their foreman, proceeded to the Mortuary, at the rear of the Corn Exchange, for the purpose of viewing the body. On returning the following evidence was taken:

Martha Collins, the widow, said her late husband was a maltster at the Newbury Brewery Company. On Sunday evening at half-past six he went to the brewery as usual to look to the malt. He generally returned between eight and nine, and as he did not do so on Sunday she stood at the back door of her house, which was opposite to the malthouse, and she could then hear a groaning. She went to the window of the malthouse and called to her husband, but received no answer. Witness then went to the Manager's house and saw Charles Crawford, Mr. Hedges' servant, and asked him to go down to the malthouse. Her husband had done this duty for years and was quite accustomed to it.

Charles Crawford, servant to Mr. Hedges, the manager at the Brewery, said that about ten o'clock Mrs. Collins rang the front door bell of the brewery house, and asked him to go down to the malthouse, as her husband was groaning there. The back door of her house is exactly opposite the malthouse. He immediately went down and called, but there was no reply. A candle was burning on the top floor of the malthouse, by the side of the corn, where deceased should be working. He took the candle and went to where the sounds proceeded, and discovered deceased lying on the floor on his right side with his head in a pool of blood. He was breathing and faintly groaning, and appeared unconscious as witness received no reply when he spoke to him. He went out into the street and got two men. The younger went for Dr. Thompson, and witness and the other man, whose name was Osgood, went down to the deceased. Witness then ran round to West-street for Mr. Poffley, the brewer. Meanwhile Dr Thompson had urged the necessity of sending for the ambulance, as he wished deceased to be removed to the Hospital immediately. Deceased seems to have fallen from the top floor to the bottom, a distance of six feet nine inches.

At this stage of the proceedings, the jury expressed a wish to view the scene of the accident and accompanied by the Manager of the Brewery (Mr Hedges), and the officer of the Court (P.C. Mansbridge) they proceeded to the Newbury Brewery; on returning the medical evidence was taken.

Dr Thompson said at a quarter past ten on Sunday night, he was called to go to the Newbury Brewery. He found deceased lying at the far end of the malthouse, with a large quantity of blood about, perhaps three pints. Deceased was breathing very heavily, and about three minutes afterwards he vomited a great quantity of blood. He was also bleeding at the nose and ear, the pupils were fixed and semi-dilated, and deceased was unconscious. The skull was fractured on the left side, but no limbs were fractured, and as far as he could see there was no other injury. The injuries could be accounted for by deceased having fallen from the floor above. The ambulance was sent for, and deceased was removed as quickly as possible to the hospital. Witness walked up with Mr. Hedges. The deceased was on the stretcher outside the door, and Sergeant Maunders remarked that he thought deceased was dead. Upon examination he found that was so. Death was due to fracture of the base of the skull.

This being the whole of the evidence, the Foreman stated that having seen the place where the accident occurred, the jury were of opinion that some protection was necessary, and that in all probability have been no accident. He proceeded to explain that the malthouse consisted of two floors. The corn was thrown up from the lower one, and then spread on the upper one, the latter being seven feet high and with a space of about five feet from the end of it to the wall, so that the floor ended abruptly without any protection.

Mr. Hedges, the Manager of the Newbury Brewery, explained that if a rail were place across, it would double the labour of the maltsters. Moreover, the deceased had been employed at the maltings for twenty years, and that the premises were under the supervision of the Factory Inspector. The Foreman remarked that he was not so sure the malthouse would come under the supervision of the Inspector.

After further conversation, the Coroner said that it was for the jury to return a verdict. There could be no doubt that death was the result of an accident, but it would be competent for them to make any addition to their verdict. The Jury thereupon deliberated and returned a verdict of “accidental death,” with the rider that a rail should be placed across at the end of the upper floor, a recommendation in which the Coroner expressed his concurrence.

The Manager intimated that the recommendation of the Jury should receive proper consideration.

Newbury Weekly News 8 November 1900

Mrs. P. p.167 P (B) 11

Aged 43 Died 4 November 1900 Buried 7 November 1900

Burial Book 1899 p 020 no. 7356

[Also wife Martha Collins died 18 February 1946 aged 86]