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150th Anniversary of two drownings of Attercliffe Residents


Hopman

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Failure to restore animation at Morecambe.
If the title sounds like something from the likes of Pixar or Aardman Animations, the truth is far
from amusing. It refers to a tragedy which took place 150 years ago at Morecambe.


It was a reference to a futile attempt to escape from a sandbank at Morecambe which alerted me to
this tale. There is, in the Zion Churchyard at Attercliffe, a memorial to Frank Giles and his brother-
in-law William Coldwell who both drowned on August 17th 1868.


Having researched this via contemporary newspapers, I can tell the story in greater detail.
We begin in Attercliffe, at the Giles home on Shortridge Street (by the side of the John Banner
building). John Giles, the head of the family worked as a foreman at the nearby Sheffield Smelting
Works. Also employed there were his son Frank, aged 17 and his son-in-law William Coldwell.
William had only been part of the family for just over a year, having married Ellen Austin Giles the
previous year. According to one source, William at 26 was a clerk in the factory and Frank was a
Trade Mark Maker.


Frank had a brother, Henry, and on Saturday 15 th August 1868 the three set off from Attercliffe to
travel to Morecambe on the Lancashire coast, arriving in the evening. Here they met up with 40
year old Richard Wilkinson, a dyer’s labourer from Tumbling Hill Street, Bradford who was there
with his brother in law Isaac Ackroyd, a blacksmith, and Wilkinson’s two nephews, John William
White and John Henry Ackroyd.


According to what Isaac Ackroyd told Lawrence Holden Esq., the Coroner, on the Monday evening,
they had left their lodgings at around half past five, and had made their way to a sandbank known
locally as Skeer Bank or Old Scar Bank where they undressed and began to bathe.


(Skeer is a local dialect word, derived from old Norse meaning a ridge of rocks, a bed of rough
gravel or stones or a spit of sand.) The sandbank was easily reached at low tide, but is surrounded
by channels. Their danger was spotted by a shooting party who fired their guns in an attempt to
warn the bathers but to no avail.


Around seven o’clock they noticed the tide was rushing in and surrounding them with water. They
returned to the bank and began to dress. They tried to reach the shore but the combination of the fast
incoming tide and the channel they attempted to cross proved too much. White, Frank Giles and
Coldwell immediately disappeared under the water. Wilkinson tried to reach the shore, but it proved
too much for him. Although he was in an exhausted condition and insensible state when he was
dragged ashore and taken to the Queen’s Hotel, where attempts were made to revive him, in the
words of the report, “means were adopted to restore animation”, but without success and he died
half an hour later. Of the seven, it was only Isaac Ackroyd who had been able to swim. A local
boatmen, by the name of William Woodhouse made a gallant effort to reach the party in the water
and rescued Henry Giles and the Ackroyds. All this was witnessed by the people on the pier who
were powerless to act.


The body of Coldwell was recovered close to the rescued, but the body of Frank Giles was found in
the afternoon closer to Heysham.


The inquest, which took place before Lawrence Holden, Coroner, on the Monday evening in the
Queen’s Hotel, complimented Woodhouse for his speed at attempting a rescue. The inquest was
told that the bodies had all been recovered on the Monday afternoon a little distance from where
they had gone down. The bodies had been nibbled by crabs and the faces were scarcely
recognisable. One’s eyes had gone and another had his nose eaten away. The bodies were identified
by relatives.


The local boatman, William Woodhouse told the inquest that his attention was drawn to a party of
bathers on the Old Skeer Bank, but he believed this to be a mistake. Again he was told about them,
in the words of the person who had alerted him, “I’m sure they must be bathers, as I have seen one
naked go into the water.”. Woodhouse responded with an “Oh dear, they’ll all be drowned!”. He ran
down to the beach and obtaining a boat from a pleasure party, proceeded as quickly as possible to the aid of the unfortunate bathers. At this time the bank was not covered, but there was about ten feet of water in the channel. When he arrived, the bathers were all struggling in the water. He was successful in picking up four people but one, presumably Wilkinson, “never moved again”. Three had disappeared and were not seen alive again. Woodhouse believed the party would have been saved had they all stayed on the sandbank. At this time there was only two feet of water covering it.


One of the jurymen stated to the Coroner that Woodhouse had been instrumental in saving these
lives. The Coroner, for his part, said that he was minded to forward an account to the Royal
Humane Society as he believed Woodhouse to have been a suitable candidate to receive the
society’s medal. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.


The paper reported that Mrs Coldwell was in a most distressed condition and that Mr Giles who had
endeavoured to save his brother was also in a very weak and dejected state.
Following the inquest, the bodies of the deceased were released and those returning to Sheffield
were taken on the Midland train where they were met by an undertaker.


It is highly probable that just over a year after conducting the marriage ceremony of William and
Ellen, John Calvert was called on to conduct his funeral. On August 30th in the morning service, the
preacher’s text was Ephesians Chapter 5 verse 17: Understanding the will of the Lord. That evening
an eloquent and impressive discourse was delivered from the words, “When Thy judgements are in
the earth then will the nations learn righteousness. ' (Isaiah ...)


They were not the only deaths on the sands of Morecambe Bay that year, A matter of a few weeks
later saw two more deaths and in the years since then, more have died. Today the RNLI have a
hovercraft to save lives here.

This September, the Zion Churchyard is one of the locations for the popular Heritage Open Day scheme.

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