Wigan Album
North Ashton
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Photo: janice ryder
Item #: 17335
At the inquest held in the Robin Hood Ashton the childs father Thomas Fagan stated that he and his wife and four children lived in lodgings at 23 Peter Street,Ashton all shareing one room and sleeping in the same bed. The man added that his eldest daughter Florrie aged 16 was unable to live with them because there was no room for her.
The lorry was traveling along Liverpool Road and turning left into Bryn Street. He felt a bump as though his nearside rear wheel had mounted the corner of the footpath and dropped off again,he heard a shout and stopped and on getting out of the vehicle he saw the girl lying dead at the rear of the vehicle. The Coroner asked had you not heard a shout you would not have known that you had run over the child he answered No.
After the jury had returned a verdict of "misadventure" the Coroner addressing the family said "the jury had not the neceasity of viewing the body,that painful obligation was cast upon him he was sure they were sorry,much grieved,and hurt that the child had come to such an untimely end.
The coroner stated if this death had occured on the railway "the whole country would be inflamed and immediate precautions would be taken,but because they happen on the road nobody seems to care.Many of these deahts could be avoided.You cannot expect a child of seven to consider what she ought to do.She is entitled to be protected by the Government.The footpaths should be fenced off with proper places for crossing the road in safely .It is like a voice crying in the wilderness but i shall go on saying it-and i suppose i shall have to go on holding inquests on deaths that could be prevented if the necessary steps were taken.He also said that it was his duty to do all he could for his fellow creatures.He hoped he would have that character as long as he held that office.
At the end of the inquest the Coroner Sir Samuel Brighouse gave Thomas Fagan the Father £5 out of his benevolent fund and added "It is hard for a man and his family to live under such distressing conditions it is true that one half of the world does not know how the other lives.I would like to bring some of my friends to hear these sort of cases so that they would realise that.
The childs father broke down when the coroner sympathised with him.Sir Samuel said "I have the painful obligation of viewing bodies before holding inquests,but it must not be thought that though being a Coroner for so long i have become hardened.I have as much feeling and sympathy as i had fifty years ago.The members of the jury and myself are fathers also,and we are deeply grieved that this child came to such an untimely end."
After this tragic accident on Black Friday which was her sister Maureen's 2nd birthday the family were re-housed in Coronation street North Ashton. The eldest daughter Florrie was then able to come and live with the rest of the family being Thomas jnr. Jimmy and Maureen.
This was the only photograph ever to be taken of Kathleen and ironically she insisted on it being bought when she brought it home from school,afterwards they were only glad that they did.Thoms her father often sang Take Me Home Again Kathleen and on hearing the song tears would flow again.
What a sad and tragic story. How would the Coroner view the carnage on our roads today?
In fact, road deaths have halved since the 1930s, when 7,000 a year were killed on our roads - with less than 10% of the traffic we see now.
It is a tragic tale - and tells the other side of dk's superbly evocative story of the wild and free life many of us enjoyed in the past. Children simply aren't left to their own devices, and thus open to risk, as they were then.
The 'them and us' nature of our society in the 30s is also well illustrated in this tale. How sad that it took such a tragedy for the family to be given decent housing. Thankfully, the local council, along with many others in the area, was part of the massive programme to build new homes - and could this offer the Fagans a home where they could live in dignity.
A tragic story indeed but not only children were killed on roads. My husband's grandfather, a grown man with a wife & family was hit by a brewery lorry with insufficent lights back in 1928 & died at the roadside...not in Lancashire but that makes no difference, it was still a road traffic accident. Today, is it the lack of freedom & too much worry that puts children at risk ? I thought I had seen everything the other day, a mother got her 2 children out of a car in a supermarket car park, put cycle helmets on their heads before walking them into the shop...a step to far ??
As they still do these days, people think that building fences around footpaths, ponds, anything involving an element of danger, will relieve them of their responsibility when not supervising their children as they should, and pass the blame onto others. Sounds like the lorry was turning a corner when the tragedy occurred. Would a fence have made a difference?
This particular accident should never have had the opportunity to occur. Parents must accept responsibility now just as they should have in those days. For a 7yr old to have been in a traffic area alone - they still dont even have peripheral vision by that age. She wouldnt probably have seen it coming and was probably such a small object in the lorrys vision. Maybe it was already getting dark, being in the late winter. Not to have a single photo taken by her family by the age of 7 years says a lot. Even my own parents who struggled through depressions in large families as children had at least a couple of snaps taken of each of them in the 1920's.
I, myself, was expected to walk back and forth or else ride a bike 1 mile each way from school at her age in the '50s, which was inexcusable of my parents. Once when carrying a heavy shopping bag at about age 8 from a market on my own which I often had to do after school, I was offered a lift by an unknown man in a car, which I shyly accepted and for which I was grateful. I had no perception of the danger involved. Fortunately, he was well-meaning, may have even known who I was, and dropped me straight home.
Demonstrating love and care was not always a high priority to my parents either. Many people simply did not, hard times being no excuse. The child's eyes say it all..