Norfolk Mills - Kings Lynn Baker Lane steam mill

FATAL ACCIDENT
An inquest was held on Tuesday last at the guild hall on the body of James Seal, aged 45.

Robert Kirk -
I am engine driver of Mr T.B. Marriot. The deceased worked for Mr Marriott. I last saw him alive on Saturday. I have been with Mr Marriott twenty six years. The machinery had been there twenty seven years. Deceased was a man of temeprate habits. I observed a rail near where the body was found and I had shown him it was broken. It ought to have been mended and I told him so, The rail now produced is the rail referred to ; it has been broken a long time. He was foreman it was his duty to see it was mended. Young people ought not to go where the deceased was found. Cross examined; the rails were wooden rails. I was aware he had tumbled down that place two or three weeks ago. He showed me the place where he fell. I told him it was too much danger to do what he was doing with the mill going. Deceased said he had done it before.

Josiah William Whomes -
About five minutes past five this morning I was driving the engine and was told to stop. I stopped the engine and went up to the spot where deceased was, I found him lying between the wheels and a post and his head was between the post and the rim of a wheel and his foot on the floor on the side of the post by the stairs. His face was toward the posts and the back of his neck clear of the cogs and against the rim. I took him out and pulled the little wheel out and lifted his head, the rail was broken and the end lying down. I had seen the rail broken before. The engine was going when this happened. We had not been going more than a quarter of an hour. Examined by jury Joplin told me first. I saw him at this place putting a strap on. The mill was then stopped, a bell was rung and then we started. The strap was then on, it had been off twice that morning. The thongs were loose. When the bell was rung it was to start. Examined by Mr Ward – the strap must have been on when the engine started. The foreman's duty was to repair the rail and see all was right . The bell can be rung on either floor.

Charles Joplin -
I work in Mr Marriots mill as a cake-maker. This morning about two or three minutes past five o'clock I heard a smash and looked up. I saw a man in the wheel. I thought it was a strap got loose again. I ran to the engine driver and told him to stop. The engine was stopped and I ran up directly and found that the man was dead. I went to work at two o'clock; the engine had stopped three times. the strap was loose and we called deceased to lace it. he stopped the engine to put the wheel out of gear. the engine then went on, then the strap was laced up , and then the engine was stopped to put it in gear. The engine was stopped the third time when Seals got in. The strap apparently was right when we last stopped the engine. The straps were nearly new. About two or three minutes before I heard the crash, I saw deceased walking about among the machinery.

George Lade M.D. -
I am a surgeon practising in Lynn. I was called to deceased shortly after five o'clock in the morning. I found deceased lying dead on the platform of the stairs. I found the spinal cord and the vessels of the neck cut quite through, and also the bone and muscles of the left shoulder completely crushed, and in the neck and shoulder several large wounds. I think deceased fell with his left side to the wheel, and his face towards the south wall as you enter.

Thomas Bateman Marriott, merchant and oil cake manufacture -
Deceased was in my employ and had been for eighteen years. He was perfectly steady. He had the sole charge and superintendence of the mill and had full power to make any minor amendments. The rail produce was not made to stand on but only to protect clothes from catching the machinery. I did not know it was broken. He was very active in my service, and an excellent servant, but he was too venturesome when the mill was going. He happened with a dangerous accident some three weeks since, and I earnestly cautioned him against doing anything while the machinery was in motion.

Verdict “That the deceased was accidentally killed by falling between the wheels of the machinery in Mr T.B.Marriott's oil and cake mill”
Norfolk News - 5th September 1868