Burnley Express
Saturday 26 October 1895
Serious Accident TO An Extwistle Farmer In 1774
The following paragraph recording a casualty to an Extwistle farmer during a thunderstorm in 1774, is extracted from an old newsprint:- "On Saturday evening, the 24th of September, 1774, as James Sutcliffe, of High Halstead, near Burnley, farmer, was returning from Stansfield Hall, near Todmorden, with a cart and three horses, at the side of a rivulet near his house, a flash of lightning attended with a loud clap of thunder, frightened the horses so terribly that they ran into the water, which was so much swollen with the sudden rain, that they, together with the said James Sutcliffe (who was upon the cart) were taken down by the current; when the said James Sutcliffe, after having been carried a quarter of a mile down the stream, was providently thrown upon the land, and escaped with his life; but his horses were all drowned, and the cart torn to pieces, before any assistance could be got. James Sutcliffe shortly afterwards went to Manchester and other towns in the country, with a petition for charitable contributions towards his losses by the accident."
_________________ Mel
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