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The West Somerset Free Press, Williton, Minehead, and Watchet Journal. Saturday 17 May 1884

Page 5 Column 3 and 4

WIVELISCOMBE.

E COMPANY 2ND S.R.V. - The following were the principal scores made in the third competition for Wimbledon, seven shots each at 200, 500, and 600 years, Snider rifle:-

CHURCH ACCOUNTS. - The following statement of accounts has been issued by the vicar, the Rev. J. T. TROTT, from the period between Easter, 1883, and Easter 1884. The offertory account, together with the balance in hand on Easter, 1883, of £9 18s. 1½d, yielded £52 1s. 10d., leaving a balance in hand at Easter, 1884, of £6 18s. 4d. The Sunday-school account shows, as it has done for many years, a balance on the wrong side of £8 6s. 5d., at Easter, 1884. It began the year with a deficit of £7 0s. 9d., which has increased rather than diminished. The blanket club shows a balance to the good of 1s. 6d., £9 having been spent in aiding this useful adjunct of parochial work. The coal club also shows a balance in hand of £3 9s. 5d, upwards of £9 having been spent in reducing the price of coal. The choir account shows a deficit. Having begun the year with a deficit of £3 1s. 7d., it ends with £6 1s. 4d., deficit. It should, however, be mentioned that the cost of a new set of surplices has been defrayed by special subscriptions. The Christmas dinner shows a deficit of 8s. 6½d. The churchyard account shows a deficit of £6 3s. 2½d., and the Whitsuntide treat would have also shown a like deficit but for the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. HANCOCK, who kindly wiped out that deficiency of £2 1s. 3½d. It is to be sincerely hoped that the parochial items showing deficits may disappear ere another Easter arrives.

SAD AND FATAL ACCIDENT. - On Tuesday afternoon Thomas DUNN, aged from 39 to 40, a carter, in the employ of Mr. Thomas BRYANT, of Exton, came to Wiveliscombe to meet a person coming from Taunton with three hogsheads of cider. He met the person in question in the town, and the cider was transferred to Mr. BRYANT's waggon. DUNN started for home about three o'clock in the afternoon, and proceeded as far as the top of Maundown, about one and a half miles from Wiveliscombe. The horses being young, and fresh from their long rest, started off briskly on arriving at the top of the hill, and before DUNN could get out to pass the chain over the wheel they were dashing madly down the hill towards Huish Champflower bridge. All control was lost over the horses, and the swerving of the waggon knocked him off on one side of the road, and his wife, who was riding with him, on the other side. She sustained injuries to her leg, while the wheels passed over the poor fellow's back near the loins. Messrs. LANGDON and YANDLE came upon the scene in a trap, and by their help he was removed into John GADD's cottage, close at hand. Mr. YANDLE hastened with all speed for Dr. NORRIS, who did all he could to assuage the pain of the sufferer, but from the first he found the case to be hopeless, and DUNN expired about half and hour after his arrival. In their mad career the horses had run into the hedge and actually turned their heads back towards Wiveliscombe. The shaft horse had broken its hind leg, and was there and then shot by a young man named STEVENS, of the Newhouse farm. The fore-horse had by some means turned counter, and had entangled its hind leg in the front wheel, so that a spoke had to be cut before it could be liberated, and the hook of the waggon was embedded in the roots of the mane. DUNN leaves six children to mourn his loss. In the poor fellow's pocket were found a bun for each child, and some nuts which he had bought for them. All the people of Maundown could do on theoccasion <sic> was willingly done.

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