Embed from Getty ImagesAfter covering its lost gardens and the drought of 1947, we're going back to Stonton Wyville.
Reader's voice: At least it's not bloody Snailbeach again.
Jeremy Benson, who has visited every village church in Leicestershire and put together a Bluesky thread with photos of each one, told me Stonton Wyville was one of those villages where he struggled a bit to find something interesting to say.
But I think he found something very interesting, because he put me on to another forgotten disaster. Over to the Leicester Advertiser for Saturday 18 January 1862:
Dreadful Boiler Explosion. - Four men killed at Stonton Wyville
One of the most dreadful boiler explosions occurred on
Monday last, the 13th inst., at Stonton Wyville, that has
ever been reported in this district. Stonton Wyville is a small agricultural
village in the county of Leicester, about six miles from Market Harborough.
Mr. Dunmore, a farmer, has a stackyard upon his farm, about half a mile from the
village, and on Monday hired a small thrashing engine, which is owned by a man
named Butcher, who resides at Debdale Wharf, Gumley. This engine was about
three or four horsepower, but from the remains of it, it did not appear in
working order, and this was confirmed by the evidence we could glean.
It
appears the pump as it is called that feeds the boiler with cold water, was in
a bad state of repair, and had been repaired on several occasions. About twelve o’clock in the day they were obliged to stop working to again repair this pipe,
and were wrapping it with string and red lead. nearly the whole of the men, 13
in number, were gathered round the engine while the repairs were going on and
it was while they were thus engaged that the explosion took place.
The report goes on to give details of whose body parts were blown off and where they landed, which I shall spare you. But I can say that Thomas Lee, William Woodman and Samuel Ashby were killed at once, and George Woolman died a few hours later. The inquest was held at the Fox and Hounds Inn at Stonton Wyville - there is still a Fox and Hounds Farm there, so this was probably that building.
One point of interest about this inquest is that it had called for expert evidence about the condition of the boiler:
Mr. Gimson, engineer, of Leicester, was present, and made a thorough examination of the wreck of the engine, and will give his evidence at the adjourned inquest, so it would not be fair to give his opinion stated privately, at the present time.
Gimson and Co. was founded in 1840 by Benjamin and Josiah Gimson on Welford Road in Leicester. The firm, says Wikipedia, was listed as "Engineers, Ironfounders, Boiler Makers & General Machinists". it later moved to the still-standing Vulcan Works in Leicester.
So it looks as though the expert witness was Benjamin or Josiah Gimson, or perhaps another member of their family. This is the Gimson family that produced Sydney Gimson, who helped turn Desford Approved School, into a force in Leicestershire junior chess, and Boris Johnson's serial biographer Andrew Gimson.
The Leicester Advertiser report said the inquest was due to be reconvened on 29th January 1862. I'll see if I can discover what happened then.