Drunk hopper drowns in Medway (1880).

Post date: Dec 06, 2011 1:35:25 PM

Reynolds’s Newspaper Sunday 19^th September 1880 reported:

On Monday Mr. Rogers, one of the coroners for Kent held an inquest at Wateringbury relative to the death of John Colling, a hop-picker, belonging to the Borough, London, whose dead body was found in the River Medway. It appeared from the evidence that the deceased had been hop-picking in the neighbourhood, and was last seen alive on the previous Monday night when he left an inn the worse for liquor. A porter at the railway station, which is close to the line, heard a heavy splash in the river about a hundred yards from where the dead body of the deceased was found. There were no marks of violence, and the jury returned an open verdict of found drowned.

For other nineteenth century accidents in Wateringbury see also Fatal accident at Wateringbury Station, Child left home alone dies of burns, and Speeding Boy Racer Losses control on Red Hill. For an account of a Wateringbury man who won an award for life-saving at Bow Bridge see Wateringbury hero.