It appears that the deaf and dumb lad returned to his home without his hat. His mother, by signs, inquired where the hat was, and the lad took her to an unoccupied factory at the corner of Blinco-road and Laughton-road, on the Rock Estate, the owner of which is Mr. Joshua Holton, of Northampton. Since it has been unoccupied, the factory has been well fenced in, but children now seem to have broken down part of the fencing and to have made the premises a playing ground. The deaf and dumb boy pointed out to his mother a well – or, rather, a soft-water tank in the ground – and she saw the lad’s hat floating on the water and managed to recover it.

When the lad Shatford could not be found anywhere, the fact of his having been last seen with the deaf mute, together with the circumstance of the latter’s hat being found in the water-tank, gave rise to the suspicion that the missing boy might have been drowned in the tank. P.C. Pollard went to the premises in question with a man named Britton. They procured a long pole and attached a nail near the end of it. The constable then probed the well, and after a time the nail caught the clothing of the deceased, and the body was brought out of the water at about 11 p.m. From the fact that the deceased’s companion is deaf and dumb, it is impossible to obtain from him any definite information as to what occurred, but the assumption is that the mute’s hat fell into the water while the two were playing, and that, in trying to get it out, Shatford fell into the water – which is from four to five feet deep – and was drowned. This, of course, is only a surmise, as there is no definite evidence that the two lads were together when the fatality occurred, and the deaf mute is too young to know the finger alphabet.

It should be mentioned that the tank had been covered over with a wooden top, but the children seem to have broken it off, leaving the tank exposed.

was held yesterday afternoon by Mr. J. Cairns Parker (Deputy Coroner) at Mr. Whitehead’s beerhouse, Queen-street, Rushden, Mr. W. G. Wilmott being the foreman of the jury.

Dr. H. S. Baker deposed : This morning, just before 12 o’clock, I examined the body of the deceased child. It was that of a particularly well nourished child, and had been dead about 18 or 20 hours. There were no marks of injury. Death was due to drowning. There were no signs of a struggle.

John Arthur Shatford, engineer, of 34, Allen-road, father of the deceased, identified the body as that of his son, aged 3 years and 7 months. Witness proceeded : When I was returning to work after dinner I saw the lad playing in the garden, and did not again see him alive. When we missed him at tea time we gave information to the police. I did not know he was in the habit of going to the old factory in Blinco-road to play.

Lily Kirby, of 25, Cromwell-road, said : I knew deceased. I last saw him alive between 3 and 3.15 p.m. yesterday. He was between the railings and the disused factory playing with some loose bricks. I did not see him when I returned in about 20 minutes’ time. A little boy named Percival, a deaf and dumb lad, was playing with him.

P.C. Charles Pollard stated : Last night, about 10.30, in consequence of a report having been received that a child named Shatford was missing, I called at the parents’ house, and found that nothing had been heard of the lad. I learned from a man named Britton that there was an old well or tank in a disused factory in Blinco-road. I went with Britton. Obtaining a pole I felt about in the water of the tank – which was about four or five feet deep – and in a few minutes I recovered the body. There had been a fence round the property, but it is now broken down, and children can get in. The factory is the property of Mr. Joshua Holton, of Northampton.

This was the whole of the evidence offered.

The Coroner, addressing the jury, said they could only assume that the deceased was playing near the factory in Blinco-road, that he got through the fence, which had been broken down, and that, by some means or another he fell into the tank and was drowned. The jurors had visited the premises, and they could fairly assume that, not so long ago, the factory had been well fenced in, but it looked as if the fence had been broken down by children playing there.

The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death.”

Yesterday, at the close of the inquest on the lad Ernest Shatford, who was drowned at Rushden in a soft-water tank in an unoccupied factory,

Mr. William Desborough (one of the jurors) said : There are scores of these disused wells in Rushden, and I think that the Urban Council ought to express the opinion that all such places should be safely covered in. A simple wooden covering is not sufficient. If the Urban Council insisted upon a stone slab being put over the well, no child would be able to take off the cover. There are scores of these death-traps about Rushden. If this thing is allowed to go on, with a bit of wood put over a well, someone else may drop in, and the jury will be called together again. I think an expression of opinion ought to go from this jury to the Urban Council, asking them to at once inspect these old wells.

Mr. W. G. Wilmott (another of the jury) said he should like to ask that the owner of this particular property be requested to securely cover in the well, although

can be attached to the owner in this case. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. Desborough urged that they ought not to overlook the larger question. He thought the Council ought to seal all the old wells.

Mr. E. Warren (another juror) pointed out that in this case it was a soft-water tank and not a well.

Several of the jurors expressed the opinion that they ought not to deal with the larger question at that inquest.

Mr. Desborough did not agree, and urged that they ought to take stringent action with regard to the wells in the town, otherwise further accidents would occur.

A Juror : The Urban Council have caused the wells to be closed, and why don’t they see that they are closed properly?

The Coroner : I am not here to-day to give you legal advice on the matter, but I think that, if you were to approach the Urban Council as suggested, they would reply to the effect that they had no jurisdiction over soft-water tanks. In this case it was a soft-water tank, not a well.

The jury requested the Coroner to write to the owner of the unoccupied factory, asking him to have the tank securely covered.