Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 19 Dec 1829, page 3
On the 2d inst., at Bishopwearmouth, Mr. George Archbold, gardener, aged 56. From the alarm given about the resurrectionists at Sunderland, great pains were taken by his friends to secure the body. The grave was sunk 12 feet deep, a post driven in at each end of the coffin, and a plank of timber nailed to them, passing along the top of the coffin, and then straw put into the grave to stop the spade from working, should a removal of the body be attempted.
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Morpeth Herald, Saturday, 20 Jun 1885, page 5
CHILD DROWNED AT BLYTH
On Monday evening, the Coroner, Mr. J.R.D. Lynn, held an inquest at the house of Mr. Shields, Golden Fleece Inn, Cowpen Square, touching the death of John George Archbold, aged four years and six months, who had been drowned in close proximity to the new gridiron, Cowpen Square. Mr. Robert Wilson was foreman of the jury. The first witness examined was Mary Ann Richardson, who said, I live at Croft Mills, and the body just viewed by the Coroner and jury is that of my grandson, John George Archbold, and the oldest son of Ralph Archbold, miner, Croft Mills. The deceased went out to play this afternoon about a quarter past one o'clock, but shortly after, about 1:30, a little boy came and shouted John George was drowned. I immediately ran to the river side, near the High Ferry, and I found the deceased lying on his face in about two feet of water near the new gridiron. The deceased was quite dead. There was no one near the child at the time. The deceased had his shoes and stockings off when he went out, and he often waded in the river. There was no one to my knowledge saw the deceased go into the water except a little boy who was with him. I am of opinion the deceased had been wading in the river there and had fallen down a hole at the gridiron and was accidentally drowned. The ferryboatman came to my assistance and he tried the means to restore the child to life but without success. -- Elizabeth Clough deposed that the deceased and her boy, aged five years, and another boy called Jacobs all went out to wade in the river about a quarter past one o'clock this afternoon, and about twenty minutes after her boy came back and reported that John George was drowned. Witness did not see the child in the river. Witness further stated that there was some deep holes near the new gridiron and that the deceased must have fallen down. -- The jury returned a verdict "That the deceased had been accidentally drowned."
