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From the Burnley Advertiser Jan 1854

DEATH BY SUFFOCATION

About 7 o’clock on the morning of Thursday, the 5th inst., An old woman at Hill-end, near Hag-gate, aged 67 years, named Mary Parker, and her grand-daughter, Sarah Ellen Kippax, aged 11 years, were found dead in bed. Her son James Parker had been at her house at half past four o’clock p.m. on the day before, when his mother complained of being ill in consequence of a chimney smoking very much, which it always did when the wind blew in the same direction as on Wednesday last. The girl was in the habit of sleeping with her grandmother for company, and when last seen was alive and well. A person named John Barker went to the house at seven o’clock on Thursday Morning; he knocked several times and received no answer, and suspecting that there was something wrong, he got assistance, and broke open the door, and then found the two dead in bed. Mr Smirthwaite, Surgeon was called in, and on examining the bodies gave it as his opinion that death had been caused by suffocation of smoke.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

The Preston Guardian
Saturday January 14 1854

Burnley
Death by Suffocation
On Monday last, an inquest was held at Hay-gate public-house, on the bodies of Mary Parker, aged 67, and her daughter, Sarah Kippay, aged 11 years, who were found dead in bed on the previous Monday morning, at Hill-end, near Hay-gate, about two miles from Burnley, when a verdict of "Found dead" was returned. It is supposed that they both died from suffocation, in consequence of a smokey chimney, which had rendered the apartment almost uninhabitable during the greater part of the storm on Wednesday. The house is overhung by a portion of the cliff from which the place is named, and during the snow-storm the passage to the house was completely filled up; this, together with the strong current down the slope of the hill, would prevent a proper draught, and has, doubtless, been the cause of the deplorable occurrence. Mr. Smirthwaite, surgeon, who was called in, gave it as his opinion that death had been caused by suffocation.

A Boy Killed In A Mill
On Wednesday last, as Richard Stutdard, who was a creeler at Messrs. Spencer and Moor's factory, was engaged in cleaning machinery, it is supposed that he dropt the hooks with which he was cleaning, when he was crushed to death between the machinery. The boy was 14 years of age.

Sudden Death
On Wednesday morning, Mrs. Jane Hayworth, a widow woman residing in Lane Bridge, was found dead in her chair. she was subject to fits, and it is supposed she has died in one. she was found by a woman who was in the habit of going to light her fire.

Child Burnt To Death
On Wednesday evening last, a fine healthy girl of five years of age, of the name of Elizabeth Ellen Read, met with her death in the following manner:- She, together with two other girls about her own age, were locked uy in the house by an elder sister, the mother having previously left her in charge, whilst she went out upon business. By some means or other the girl got on fire, and some masons were attracted to the spot by the noise of the other children screaming, when upon looking through the window they saw something on fire. They then tried the door, but found it locked. They accordingly took a plank, and with it burst open the door, when they found a mass of something burning on the floor, but did not at first think it was a human being. The poor thing lingered through the night in intense agony, and expired about ten o'clock on the Thursday forenoon.

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Mel

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