Tudor Health and Safety nightmares

[Melvadius]

The BBC are carrying an article inspired by recent Oxford University research into Tudor mortality records which suggests a family tragedy may have inspired shakespeare's depiction of Ophelia's demise in Hamlet.

 

Personally I find the second half of the article much more interesting where it mentions some of the current findings including 56 accidental deaths involving archery practice, the first accidental death from a handgun, suggestively sounding 'maypole acccidents' and "a particularly pungent end faced by a man who fell into a cesspit".

 

It does shine a murky light on how equally inept our ancestors were as those who slip away with only a less than honourable mention in the Darwin Awards to commorate their passing.

 

An Oxford historian has found evidence of a story that could be the real-life inspiration for Shakespeare's tragic character, Ophelia.

 

Dr Steven Gunn has found a coroner's report into the drowning of a Jane Shaxspere in 1569.

 

The girl, possibly a young cousin of William Shakespeare, had been picking flowers when she fell into a millpond near Stratford upon Avon

....

 

The research project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, has also uncovered the type of health and safety nightmares that troubled the Tudors.

 

These are often more Monty Python farce than Shakespearean tragedy, says Dr Gunn.

 

The detailed accounts of deaths include hazards such as being run over by a cart.

 

There were also three fatalities involving performing bears.

 

Archery proved to be a particularly dangerous activity for Tudor villagers

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