Fatal Accident at Dodnor

Isle of Wight Country Press, Sat 11/4/1891, p.5

Transcribed by Brian Randell

About 5 o'clock yesterday (Friday) morning the body of a man was found underneath the railway viaduct at Dodnor by a labourer named George Long. The county police were at once communicated with, and Detective Inspector Ayres and P.C. Tayler were soon on the spot with a stretcher, but they found that the body had already been removed to  a neighbouring shed. It seems that the deceased was William Pengilley, a Devonshire man, and captain of the Queen of the South, which was unloading a cargo of coal from Swansea at the Cement Mills. He went to Cowes on the previous day, and from thence proceeded to Newport by the 7.20 train. Setting out to walk back to his vessel, he as a perfect stranger probably took to the railway as the surest means of reaching the Mills, and on arriving at the bridge fell through the open space between the girders on to the bank of the creek some 15ft. below. When found he appeared to have been dead several hours. He was much bruised about the head, and a stone was partly forced into one of his eyes, indicating that the poor fellow fell head foremost, and that death was not instantaneous may be inferred from the fact that in his pocket was found a handkerchief covered with blood and mud, as if he had used it to wipe his face after falling. An inquest will be held at the Cement Mills today. The deceased leaves a wife and large family, who live at Clovelly.