For a period of time Brodie Cochrane employed two gamekeepers named Bramley and Drury. I want to concentrate on Mr Bramley because I spotted in the Middlesbrough Daily Gazette, of November 1894, that a Mr George Bramley, a gamekeeper of Eshwood Terrace Sleetburn, had experienced a very sad and traumatic tragedy. His son and two daughters had been playing in the kitchen at Eshwood Terrace when the horrific event unfolded. The lad picked up a gun and began to show his sisters how his father carried the weapon. As he raised the gun it went off killing his thirteen year old sister Dora.
We can only imagine how that family felt, perhaps by reference to the love we have for our own children. I certainly worry about them. I have, for example, always been very careful to make sure that hot drinks were not left around that could burn or disfigure young loved ones. Of course what happened in Eshwood Terrace is of another order all together. Actually it affected me to read about it even though the actual event happened a very long time ago. At the time it caused a sensation in the valley.
No blame was attached to Mr Bramley. The gun had not been loaded but the young boy knew were the bullets were kept....
Different standards and regulations apply these days but certainly there is no point in judging the man harshly. He and his family were likely to have been emotionally broken.
But it would seem that the story did not end there. A Scottish newspaper reported, in July 1917, that a George Bramley of Sleetburn, formerly gamekeeper, shot his married daughter through the head with a sporting gun, killing her instantly. He then produced a revolver and took his own life. It seems likely to have been the same George Bramley but I cannot be entirely sure.
WB
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