March Museum With Peter Wright

Drowning in Graysmoor Pits

by Peter Wright (on behalf of March & District Museum)

The photograph is of the Rev. R. J. P. Peyton-Burbery (Rector of St Mary’s, March) speed skating on the Pits in 1928

When frozen, Fenland waterways, lakes and ponds have been an icy playground.

Such a time of skating was mid-December 1899. The Cambs Times reported twenty degrees of frost in the early hours of Thursday the fourteenth. That night the temperature dropped again, and, on Friday night, the thermometers dropped again to 15°F. Ice on shallow ponds and lakes was sufficiently thick to allow skating. On Saturday temperatures rose but night-time was frosty again. On Monday there was a significant thaw and skating was abandoned. Such conditions have often brought disaster and acts of brave rescue. Grimmer Fincham was a horseman on Joseph Johnson's farm only a short distance from Graysmoor Pits, which had been created by commercial gravel extraction from the Victorian era and through the first half of the twentieth century. He lived on the farm with his wife Rebecca, aged forty-five years, and at least four sons. That Monday evening Grimmer had warned his sons about going to the pits. This warning may have stimulated them to investigate as their mother had never known them to go there before.

During late morning the following day, Rebecca had seen her youngest sons playing ‘horses’ but missed them just after noon. George and Walter, both aged seven, and William, aged four, had gone to the pits. When they got there, a sheet of ice still covered the water. Although Walter stayed on the bank, George and William ventured on to the ice, which held while they were near the bank. Further out, the ice gave way and the two boys fell into the water. Walter ran to tell his mother what had happened. Fred Haylett, a groom, was at dinner when he heard the distressed woman's cries. When he got to the pits, he could see the younger boy face down in the water. He decided the best he could do was fetch a rope and a rake with the intention of pulling him out. However, the boys’ older brother, John William Fincham, who was ploughing nearby, was alerted by his mother's frantic shouts, and rushed to the scene. He also could see William and plunged into the water to retrieve him. He could also see George on the bottom where the water was five-six feet deep and went back again for him. It was estimated that both boys had been in the water for about half-an-hour. They could not be revived. Guyhirn police were called and an inquest was convened the following morning. The jury passed a verdict of ‘accidentally drowned’.

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