Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Colchester by Patrick Denney

Author:Patrick Denney
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783408238
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2013-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

A Shocking Case of Burning 1886

Her entire body was covered in burns with not

a patch of skin... having escaped destruction

One of the most distressing cases of accidental death to come before the Colchester Coroner’s Court in the nineteenth century was that concerning the terrible burning of a twenty-year-old domestic servant named Ellen Ashby. Ellen was the daughter of Samuel and Harriet Ashby of Maidenburgh Street and at the time of the accident was in the employ of Mr Richard Ives, chief clerk at the Essex and Suffolk Fire Office, who lived with his wife, Alice, in private accommodation adjoining the building. Ellen had worked for the couple for almost two years before her position was so tragically terminated on the evening of Monday, 22 February 1886.

In the hours leading up to the accident Ellen’s day would have been filled with the usual tasks associated with the duties of a general housemaid. Beginning at perhaps six-thirty in the morning she would have been busy attending to the needs of her employers and preparing breakfast, before moving on to general house cleaning, preparing lunch, making the beds, cleaning the brass and silverware and numerous other duties besides, until it would have been time to prepare and serve the evening meal. Only then would Ellen have found a little spare time for herself and, perhaps, a few moments to relax in front of a warm fire. She may have even dozed off for a few minutes and not have been aware that a small cinder, or piece of coal, had fallen from the fire. It is something which most of us who have memories of a traditional coal fire can easily relate to – an annoying yet commonplace problem which at worst could lead to a hole in the hearth rug or carpet. But on this occasion the cinder, or spark, which flew out from the fire landed somewhere on Ellen’s clothing, with devastating consequences.

The first that Ellen realised that something was amiss was when she detected a faint smell of burning. For a moment or two she took little notice of the matter, but then was shocked into action when her dress suddenly burst into flames. In a state of sheer panic she rushed up and downstairs screaming for help. Within seconds of hearing her screams Mr Ives and his wife had rushed from their sitting room and found the poor girl standing outside the drawing room door enveloped in flames from head to foot. Meanwhile outside the building in the High Street several passers by had also become aware of the commotion within the building including Mr John Pollard, a cab driver, who happened to be passing the Fire Office at the time. After seeing Ellen, with her clothes in flames, running up the stairs towards Mr Ives’s private apartments, he rushed to give assistance, intending that he could perhaps throw his rug over her, but to his frustration he found that the door to the premises had slammed shut and would not open.

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