There was no news reported in July 1908

The annual treat to the children attending the Church Sunday School was kindly given by Mr and Mrs Longman of Upp Hall on Wednesday afternoon. The children assembled at the church and marched to Upp Hall where a round of games was soon in progress, including Aunt Sally and soap bubbles. A capital tea was served in a large marquee, and subsequently the visitors and teachers were entertained to tea on the lawn. Games were resumed, and there were a number of races for prizes. At the close the Rev SM Stanley thanked Mr and Mrs Longman and family for their kind hospitality, and the children followed with loud cheers. "God Save the King" was sung, and each child received a nice present, a bun and a bag of sweets. The Ware Town Band was present, and played selections in their usual pleading manner.

During the absence of the Vicar this month the services at the Parish Church are being taken by the Rev WV Salkeld, from Ryton on Tyne, who in two previous years has undertaken similar duty at Braughing.

Braughing Church possesses quite an historic picture of "The Resurrection". In the year, 1720, Mr Ralph Freeman, the then owner of Hamels, "stopid up ya arch that did look into the belfry" and built a gallery that practically hid the beautiful tower arch. In the centre of the arch hung the old picture of the resurrection. Whether this picture was originally the altar piece it is difficult to say. The late Vicar, the Rev PG Ward in his "History of Braughing Church" states there was no record to that effect, but a report had been handed down that the picture had been presented to the church by a former owner of Hamels. When the arch was opened up, the picture was removed to the vestry. Recently, we learn from a notice posted by the Vicar in the church porch, the picture has been recently examined by Mr Reginald Dolman, who places a date on it at the end of the 16^th or beginning of the 17th century. He thinks it was probably an altar piece, and though not a masterpiece, it is of sufficient artistic merit to be worth preserving. We may state that the picture represents the Saviour just risen in the air from the open tomb, angels having moved away the large stone. Around the tomb, in a state of consternation and amazement, are the soldiers of the Roman guard, some of whom in their alarm are about to flee to Jerusalem. But the picture also has an allegorical meaning, for the Saviour holds in his right hand an extended banner divided at the extremity, and on the banner is depicted the emblem of the crown, showing that Christ had conquered death and proclaiming that the whole world beneath his feet would eventually realise His words and become "one fold". Many who view the picture are disappointed that the artist has somewhat disregarded the Biblical account of the resurrection; but let them acknowledge that the painting may be judged also from an allegorical standpoint and its conception becomes beautiful in the extreme, for it is some other than the ideal of embracing the whole world within the folds of Christianity. Such a theme was a fitting one to inspire an artist and has been the aim of the Church right down through the ages. The Vicar, the Rev SM Stanley in inviting subscriptions towards the cost of the restoration, rightly states this sacred picture with its old associations, a veritable link with the past of the beautiful old church, ought not to be allowed to decay. Its comparable restoration will cost about £25 and towards this sum £15 has already been received. When restored, it is proposed to hang the picture in the north aisle, where it will form a treasured ornament of sacred art of the Tudor period.

On Wednesday morning a little girl four years and ten months old, named Rose Maud Brace residing with her parents at one of the Gatesbury Cottages at Gatesbury Mill, Braughing went out to play at 11 o’clock by the side of the river with a little boys aged 2½ years. About twenty minutes to one Mrs Brace saw the little boy who lived next door talking to his mother. She asked him where Rosie was, and the child answered "in the river". The poor woman ran along by the side of the river and found the child lying on the bank in a field with a heavy lift gate upon it, the top bar being across the throat and thus causing suffocation. The gate weighed nearly a hundredweight and was used for the letting in and out of cattle. The mother, on seeing her child, called out "My child’s dead". A man who was working on the other side of the hedge a little distance away hurried to the spot, removed the gate and carried the child who was quite dead, home. The mother at once sent for Dr Foster, who came immediately and pronounced life extinct. The child was evidently playing with the gate, which would easily fall with a slight pressure. The inquest was fixed for yesterday (Friday) afternoon.

On Friday an inquest was held at Gatesbury Cottage, Braughing by Dr Ethelbert Collins, the coroner for the Bishop Stortford District, respecting the death of Rose Maud Brace, the child who was found dead in a meadow under a lift gate on the previous Wednesday, as reported in our last news. Mr J Chalkley was foreman of the jury.

Louisa Jane Brace, the mother stated that the child was four years ten months old. She last saw her alive at 11 o’clock on Wednesday morning, when she was walking by the side of the river Rib with her neighbour’s little boy, aged two years last January. The little boy came back to his mother at twenty minutes to one, and she asked him whether he had seen Rosie, and he replied "She is under the gate in the river." The boy accompanied witness down to the river, and she found her child lying under a gate quite dead. She called to a man who was working close by, and he came and removed the gate and carried the child’s body home. The upper bar of the gate was across the child’s throat. The gate had been standing against a wire fence, and she thought the child was climbing on it when it toppled over.

By the Coroner: The deceased had no necessity to go near the gate, which was some distance from the footpath. She ought not to have been there at all. It was not a public way.

By the Foreman: The gate was not near the river, and the boy – a mere infant – only said it was in the river in a childish way.

Frank Merchant, a carpenter, residing in Braughing-street stated that on the 19th inst. he was working by the river close to Gatesbury Cottages, sharpening some files. Two children, a boy and a girl, passed him about 12.30. Ten minutes later the boy came back crying, but witness could not understand what he said, and thinking the child was frightened to pass him he coaxed him by and he went home. About one o’clock Mrs Brace came down and called him and said "Oh pray come, my poor child." He ran to her assistance and saw the little girl lying under the gate, which he lifted off, and found the child quite dead. The top bar was resting on the child’s neck close under the chin. He should say the child was climbing the gate, which stood up against the wire fence, and in the act of climbing pulled it over on to the top of her. There was no right of way through the gateway, and the owner of the gate was perfectly justified in taking it off its hinges and standing it near the fence.

By the Coroner: The child had no business to have been there at all.

By the Foreman: The gate was a very heavy lift gate.

PC Lawrence, situated at Standon, said he received notice of the occurrence at 3.30pm on the 19th inst. He went to Gatesbury Cottages and saw the last witness, who showed him the gate in question. It was a roughly made lift gate, 9 feet long by 4 feet broad, and weighed between three quarters and a hundredweight. He tried the gate as it stood up by the side of the fence, and found that slight pressure of not more than three or four pounds would bring it over. Doubtless the child was standing on the bottom bar and taking hold of the gate. The right of way was four yards from the gate, and the child had no business where the gate was.

By a juror: The gate did not stand in front of the gateway, but on the side against the wire fence. The gateway was used to allow cattle to pass from one meadow to the other.

Dr MB Foster, of Puckeridge, stated that he was called to see the child at 1.30pm on Wednesday. She had then been brought to the cottage and had been dead less than an hour, as the body was quite warm. The face was swollen and very blue, and there was the mark of a bruise extending from the right side of the lower jaw obliquely across the chest. There were no other injuries, and in his opinion the child died of suffocation, though it might probably have been stunned first. She must have died very quickly.

The Coroner said that although the case was a very sad one it was extremely simple. The child was playing with a little boy along the river side and she climbed on a gate, as children so often do, and it toppled over and suffocated her. He had been particular, as they saw, in enquiring whether the gate was on a public way, as, if so, someone would be responsible. No blame or negligence, however, could be imputed to anyone, as the gate was on a private road, and the owner could do what he liked with it. The death was purely accidental.

The jury returned a verdict of "accidental death."