Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1882-07-22 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SUICIDE BY DROWNING AT BAILIFFE  BRIDGE.  On Monday morning last, shortly after six o'clock, Information was given to P.C. Greavea that a man's oap and coat were hanging on the railings surrounding the reservoir belonging to Sir H. Ripley, at Bailiffs Bridge. The officer went to the place and found the °oat and cap in question, and on looking into the reservoir he perceived, just above the surface of the water, the legs of a small buffet. He procured a rod of iron and at once oommenced to search the reservoir. On touching the buffet he perceived that there was a piece of cord fastened to one of the legs, and on pulling at the cord the dead body of a man came to the surface. He immediately took the body out of the water, and laid it on the bank; it was reoognised as that of Turner Piokersgill, carpet weaver, Wyke. The deceased was well known in the neighbourhood of Bailiffs Bridge and Wyke, having worked for some time at Clifton Mills, which are situate at the former place. 1 For some time, however, deceased had been employed at Halifax, but returned each week end to the house of a woman with whom he had cohabited for many years at Wyke. Deceased was a man given to drink, and would frequently absent himself from work in order to go drinking. It is stated he had done so the preceding week, and had therefore lost the situation at Halifax. Deceased was married, but had not lived with his wife for seventeen years. He was seen in the neighbourhood of Bailiffe Bridge on Sunday, and in the evening he was also seen drunk in the neighbourhood of Wyke Church. He went to bed, but early the following morning he got up, his body being found as above stated.  On Tuesday afternoon an inquest was held at the White Lion Inn, Wyke, before Mr. William Barstow, district ooroner, and a jury comprising the following gentlemen :—Messrs, William Drake (foreman), Uriah Holdsworth, John Crowther, James Barra°lough, John Booth, Tempest Sugden, Samuel Sugden, William Sugden, George Hanson, Sam Pinder, Benjamin Bartle, gred Hardy, and John Widdop. The jury haring been sworn, proceeded to view the body. The first witness examined was  Robert Taylor, who said: I live at Garden-field, Wyke and am a oollier. I have known the de°eased for about ten years. His name is Turner Pickersgill, and he was 50 years of age. He was a carpet weaver, and lived with his sister Mary at Halifax. He formerly worked for Messrs. Firths of Bain& Bridge, and at that time lodged at our house. He came to our house last Saturday afternoon, and was the worse for drink. He stayed all night, and on Sunday went out and came back drunk, and he slept at our house also on Sunday night. He was not queer, and did not look well. He went to bed about 1045, and I heard him go out of the house about 3-30 the next morning, and he never returned. When he went to Halifax to work he got up on the Monday morning, about five o'clock an I sometimes sooner. He gener,llly stayed at our house from Saturday afternoon till Monday morning.—In cross examination : Deceased did not talk during the night, but moaned and groaned a bit. I told him to sell what he had and take his clothes and go, but I did not tell him he had not to come again. He did not gay anything only that he would not live much longer, and did not need his clothes. He had been drinking all last week, and did not go to his work till Friday morning, but when he went they told him they had set some one else on. I did not see anything different with him to what I had seen before.  The Foreman: Dammed talked very civil to me when I saw him at half-past font on Saturday afternoon.  Cross-examination continuing : I told him to go because I was'nt going to work and keep him any longer. (The buffet was here produced, and was identified by witness as belonging to them.) Deceased did not eat much on Sunday. My mother is at present away in Lancashire nursing my sister.  Thomas Greaves deposed: I am a police-constable stationed at Bailiffs Bridge. At 6-20 on the morning in question I received information from James Drake, weaver, of Lightoliffe, that there was a coat and cap hanging on the railings surrounding the reservoir belonging to Sir H. Ripley, near Bailiffe Bridge, in Wyke. I went to the place immediately and examined the coat and cap, which were hanging on one of the stooks of the railings. I could see a buffet floating on the top of the water, and I then proeured a rod of iron and pulled the body out by means of it, but deceased was quite dead and cold. A cord, which was four yards long, was 'listened round his right ankle by a running noose, and the other end was attached to the buffet. From footmarks I saw on the bank it appeared as if the deceased had walked straight into the water. I have been told that the reservoir is from eighteen to twenty feet deep, and the body appeared to be at the bottom. Deceased was dressed in his trousers, vest, boots, &o. There was a wound on his forehead which was blee.ling when I took him out, and the body was lain l on the bank for half an hour. P.C, Haslewood, Wyke, stated he had searched the deoeased, and had found in his pockets only fivepenoe and a piece of lead pencil. This was all the evidence adduced, and • conversation then took place among the jury. It was stated that the deceased had been seen in the neighbourhood of the reservoir, and it was thought that what with losing his work and drinking together his mind had become affected.  A verdict that "The deoeased had committed suicide by drowning himself in the reservoir at Bailiffs Bridge, whilst in a state of insanity," was returned.