Drowning at Bowbridge (1857)

Post date: Apr 24, 2012 7:18:30 PM

Extract from Kentish Gazette of 6th October 1857:

WATERINGBURY. Accident. —On Sunday week, as a little girl named Jessie Hudson was playing with some children, on Bowbridge, she unconsciously stepped back so far as to pass under the side rail of the bridge in a part, where, about a month since, the lower rail was broken away. Before any one could arrive to the rescue, the poor little girl fell backwards into the river and was drowned. An inquest was held on the body on Monday 28th, at the Kent Arms Inn, before J. N. Dudlow, Esq., when the jury found a verdict of " Accidental Death from Drowning," accompanied with censure upon the Medway Company for negligence allowing the bridge to remain deficient of a rail.

Drownings and near drownings seem to have been frequent at Bowbridge. See Wateringbury Hero (1903).