A BOY BURNT TO DEATH, HEELEY, SHEFFIELD
1852
‘The child ran nearly three quarters of a mile enveloped in his burning
clothes’
On October 2, 1852, the Sheffield and Rotherham
Independent reported:
On Friday afternoon, the deceased and a boy named John Fish were amusing
themselves in a field of Mr Appleyard, the Ash farm, Upper Heeley, and which
adjoins that in which Robinson was murdered a few weeks ago. There was a fire in
the field to consume the litter, and the children employed themselves in
carrying ‘twitch’ to feed it with. Whilst doing this the clothes of the deceased
caught fire, and he immediately started home in great alarm. The child ran
nearly three quarters of a mile enveloped in his burning clothes, but, when
within a few hundred yards of home, he sank down exhausted in a field. The
little sufferer was carried home, and Mr Taylor, surgeon, sent for, but the
child was beyond the reach of help, and died the same evening. His body was
blackened by the fire, and the place where he had lain in the field was
distinctly perceptible from its scorched appearance. It appears that there was a
man in the field where the accident occurred at the time when it happened, but
he did not see it, as the deceased made no alarm, but as soon as his pinafore
had taken fire hastened off in the direction of home.
Ash Farm was situated above the Ball Inn at the top of
Myrtle Road. It was demolished only when the building of new houses on the
former Ball Inn recreation ground (Sheffield United’s old training ground) was
commenced in the mid-2000s, having stood derelict for many years. Common side,
where the boy lived, was probably the area known today as Gleadless Common,
which ties in with the report as it is about a mile away from the site of Ash
Farm. The murder of ‘Robinson’ mentioned in the report was an infamous case in
Sheffield's history. He was murdered by a James Barbour, a crime that led to his
execution
This page was last updated on 15/05/12 11:31