There were 21 cases reported in 1875.
John Shiner is again a typical railway case, as he must have known a train was imminent, but did not even hear the whistling as death closed in.
The death of Martha Rodwell, a tenant of Hussey’s Almshouses in Castle Street – but who, during rebuilding, was housed in a poor quality house in Old-Gate Place – was attributable to the nurse leaving a lamp on a sloping ledge immediately above the 86 year old. It seems likely to me that the lamp fell on the poor old lady.
Charles Wheeler was another example of self-neglect, having the ability to have sought help for himself, but choosing to live his last week in abject poverty and uncleanliness, being found with just a piece of mildewed bread and a picked mutton-bone. There is a contentious letter in the following issue of the Salisbury Times in response to the Mayor’s description of the house as “everything that could be wished for.”
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Wiltshire Coroner's Inquests 1801-1920 