Status Updates From An Accidental History of Tu...

'Yet fires were only fatal under certain conditions and killed, for ex-ample, about the same number as attacks by cattle. Escape from a slowly burning building of one or two storeys was usually possible and victims were often those less able to get away. One in three was a child - sometimes left shut in a house by busy parents - and others were elderly or blind.'

'Drowning became a major threat as soon as children could move, claiming three-quarters of victims aged two and three. Most fell into open water, usually near the home, but dozens fell into containers in the house or yard, most often wooden tubs. They could hold as much as five or six gallons and be up to two feet deep.'

'Thomas and Joan Gelder fared very differently. Walking the five miles from Worksop to Carburton on a February evening, he abandoned her at the foot of Sparken Hill, where she died of the cold and, the jurors were not shy of saying, lack of care from her husband.'