Inquest held 26th April 1881 On Wednesday, 20th April, 1881, a number of children were playing in the Back Lane at Rushden [later renamed Park Road], near the "Top Meeting" [Baptist Chapel]. There was, at the time, a horse belonging to J. Warren, butcher, grazing in the lane, A gate leading into one of the fields had been left open, and the horse went into the field. The children went after it to fetch it back. It kicked a little boy, James Childs, just over the right eye, fracturing his skull so badly that the brain protruded. He died from his injuries on Sunday, 24th April. The two accounts in the Northampton Mercury differ. One states that an inquest was held in the Vestry Hall, at the side of Rushden St Mary's parish church, before J. T. Parker, Coroner, on Tuesday afternoon, 26th April. The other states that the inquest (same coroner) was held in the Waggon and Horses Inn, High Street South, Rushden. The reporter cannot have been mistaken about the evidence given after the jury had viewed the body. David King, shoe rivetter, Rushden: I knew the deceased, he was the son of Thomas Childs, a labourer. On 20th April, I was in a field occupied by Mr. Dickens. The horse got into the field from the back Lane. The deceased was one of the boys who went in to drive it out, I saw him close behind the horse, trying to drive it along, I turned my back for a moment, and heard a blow. On turning round, I saw the deceased lying on the ground just behind the horse. I saw that he had been kicked on his forehead. I was within four yards of the boy when the accident happened; I called to George Hopkins, a road labourer, and we both carried the boy home. George Hopkins corroborated. Charles Richard Owen, surgeon: I was called to the boy, and I attended him till the 24th, when he died. He had received a compound fracture of the right frontal bone of the skull. When he was still conscious, I asked him if he had been kicked by a horse. He said, "Yes". The jury verdict was "ACCIDENTAL DEATH"

The Northampton Mercury of 30th April 1881, gave two different accounts of the accidental death of a Rushden boy, one on page 7 and one on page 8 [Noted by Eric Jenkins, 8th July 2014]