A few years ago members of the Berkshire Family
History Society carefully recorded all the details from graves at
Reading’s London Road Cemetery (situated at Cemetery Junction). The
details were produced as a set of microfiche. Jayne (Redgrave) Thorne
found some of her husband’s Reading based ancestors and was saddened by
this inscription:
In affectionate and loving memory of
Ellen (Nelly) Hopkins
Who was drowned whilst skating on the River Kennet
On
Saturday January 3, 1891
Aged 15 years
Ellen Hopkins was the youngest sister of my husband’s
great grandmother, Kate Eva Hopkins, and Ellen’s name had appeared on
our family tree for some time. It seemed very sad that she had not
lived until adulthood and I decided to try and find out more about the
incident.
At Reading Local Studies Library I consulted the
microfilms of the local newspapers for January 1891, looking for
information on both the skating accident and the weather conditions at
that time. The newspapers were fascinating and gave me a great insight
into life that winter.
The winter weather had been particularly severe but by the
weekend of January 3rd and 4th, a partial thaw had set in. Newspapers
carried reports of the River Thames in London being covered in ice
floes, ‘a moving mass of white crests’, The London fog was particularly
bad on Friday 2nd January and it lingered on into Saturday 3rd January.
Light rain also fell and this froze immediately, leaving the roads and
footpaths in a treacherous condition.
Throughout England the weather was atrocious, causing
unemployment for farm workers who were unable to work. Livestock froze
to death and soup kitchens had to be set up to feed the farm workers
and their families.
There were many accidents involving children who had been
tobogganing or skating and the Reading Mercury of Saturday 10th January
1891 carried a report of the tragic accident which had claimed the life
of Ellen Hopkins, The accident took place near Blakes Bridge on the
River Kennet, close to the Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory. That
afternoon, Ellen had been skating with four of her friends, Arthur
Piercy of Tilehurst, aged 15, Alfred Wyles of Kings Road, Reading aged
14, Sydney Wyles aged eight, and a fourth boy with the surname Heath.
The ice gave way when Ellen was skating with Arthur Piercy and one of
the other children, while they held on to a scarf. All three of the
children fell through the ice. When their two companions tried to help
them, they also fell into the freezing water. Arthur Piercy managed to
clamber out of the water and the other three boys were rescued by
people pushing ladders out along the ice. A worker from the nearby
biscuit factory desperately tried to save Ellen by holding out a pole
across the water. Ellen managed to grab the pole twice but eventually
became too weak to hold on and she disappeared under the water.
When the body of Ellen Hopkins was recovered later that
day, she was taken to St Giles Coffee House in Southampton Street,
Reading, and it was here that the inquest took place. The Coroner heard
evidence from Arthur Piercy and the factory worker, Benjamin Hambling,
who tried to save Ellen. Ellen’s father, George Hopkins, a blacksmith
from Merchant’s Place, also gave evidence, detailing how his daughter
had left at 2pm to go skating with her friends. He had been informed of
the accident and had arrived at Blakes Bridge at 5pm just as his
daughter’s body was being recovered from the river.
The place where the five children had chosen to skate was
particularly dangerous because there were many steam and hot water
pipes coming from the Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory and this
made the ice very unstable. The jury considered the evidence and
returned the verdict that Ellen Hopkins had ‘accidentally drowned in
the Kennet’. The Coroner promised to write to the Mayor about the
possibility of posting notices at the site.
Although Ellen Hopkins died in such a tragic accident, I
am glad that I was able to find out exactly what happened to her,
mainly as a result of the Berkshire Family History Society recording
the details from all those graves in the London Road Cemetery. I often
spare Ellen and her family a thought when passing near to the former
site of the Huntley & Palmers’ factory in Reading and the River
Kennet
with any queries
