Goadby Marwood

In 1901, the youthful exuberance of a group of young children playing on Eastwell Road near to White Lodge had tragic consequences for one local family.

 

William Paton was born in Goadby Marwood in 1897, the fifth child of Charles Paton of Aylesbury and his wife, Georgina Paton nee Collison, who was from Morston in Norfolk. William had four older siblings, Charles, Thomas, Edward, and Edith, and a younger brother, Robert. The Patons moved from New Windsor in Berkshire, where Charles had worked as a stud groom, to the village of Goadby Marwood around the mid-1880s. Charles found employment at Goadby Hall as a coachman to Mr. Algernon Turnor.

 

Young William was killed in a tragic accident when he was only four years old. The details were reported in The Grantham Journal on 5th October, 1901:

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A distressing fatality occurred at Goadby Marwood on Saturday afternoon.

William Paton the 4 year old son of Mr. Chas Paton, Coachman to Mr. Algernon Turnor, Goadby Marwood Hall, being accidently run over by a straw elevator, which was being drawn by a traction engine. Death ensuing almost immediately. The circumstances were detailed at the Coroner’s inquest, held at the School Room Goadby Marwood, Monday pm.

Chas Paton living at the stables, Goadby Marwood Hall, said that in consequence of what he heard on Saturday afternoon, he went towards White Lodge and was met by Richard Brewin with a cart and his son lying dead in it.

Thos Paton, 9 year old son of Chas Paton, said he went to the White Lodge and saw a traction engine on the road there pulling a machine and elevator after it. The deceased was running alongside. The engine was going towards Eastwell. When the engine had passed White Lodge he saw his brother fall down under the wheel of the elevator and the wheel went over him. There were two other boys with his brother. He could not say why his brother had fallen. When his brother fell the witness ran to the driver who stopped and came back to where the deceased was lying.

Richard Frederick Brewin, driver, said he had collected a straw elevator from White Lodge. When he was about 400 yards from White Lodge the witness ran up and told him to stop. He went back and found the deceased lying in the road. He picked him up and laid him on the grass.

Mr. Brewin's Father, who was riding in a cart in front of the engine, came back. He found out where the deceased came from then laid him in the cart and went to Goadby Marwood.

Death by Misadventure.

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Algernon Turnor and his wife, Henrietta, had lost their own young son, Algernon Walter, ten years earlier when he was just three years old, so the tragic death of little William must have been a painful reminder for them.

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Following the death of William, the Paton family remained in Goadby for several years. Charles and Georgina had four more children after the death of William, two sons and two daughters, all were born in Goadby Marwood. They named the first son born after William’s death, Willie.

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The family left Goadby sometime between 1908 and 1911. They moved to North Stoke near Grantham. Stoke Rochford Hall was the family seat of the Turnors and is where Algernon Turnor spent his childhood. It is likely that the Patons accompanied their employer when he left Goadby Hall.

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