SKIPTON was in shock 70 years ago when a seven year old boy fell through the ice on the frozen Leeds and Liverpool canal and tragically died.

There was no safety belt at the side of the canal and it was the railway station where his young friend and a passer by ran for a rope in the vain hope they could save him.

Less than a week after the lad died, the inquest at the Temperance Hall, Skipton, heard how how he had been walking on the frozen canal in late January, 1954, when the ice had given away. His nine year old friend who was with him at the time tried desperately and bravely to save him, but to no avail.

The lad, who was praised by the Coroner, Stephen Brown, managed to grab hold of the drowning boy, but couldn't keep hold of him, hampered as he was by thick clothing and Wellingtons.

Police and firemen were called and a police sergeant went into the water, but it was not until over an hour later that the body was recovered by an ice breaker crew from the canal depot at Gargrave.

The Craven Herald reported at the time that the two friends had been to Aireville Park and were on their way home when the accident occurred. It had been a black day for ice casualties, 19 children and a man had lost their lives in Lancashire.

The coroner at Skipton returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

The boy's mother told the inquest she had thought the boy was at a neighbour's house as she had been at the hospital and her husband had been away. She was told what had happened when she returned home, and told the inquest that her son could not swim The boy's friend, giving evidence at the inquest, described how the friends had gone to Aireville Park to see if there was enough snow to sledge. On their way home they saw the canal was frozen and the younger boy had gone onto the ice near the swing bridge.

He had got about half way across when the ice had started to crack. He had started to run, but the ice had given way and he had fallen in.

The older boy described running to the swing bridge and seeing a man coming from the park; together, they ran to the railway station for a rope. They went onto the platform at the station and the man told the boy to go back to the canal while he and the station porter looked for a rope.

The boy went on to describe how he had returned to the canal and had gone onto the ice to try and rescue his friend. "I stretched out on the ice, but it broke and I went under, he said. I got hold of him. But he was too heavy for me and I had to let him go," he said.

The boy told the coroner that he scrambled out of the water and onto the canal bank himself. He said he could not stand up in the water because it was too deep, when he got out he saw some men arrive with a rope.

The railwayman said how he had been working in the parcel's office when he saw a man and a boy run into the station asking for a rope; he and a porter went back to the canal while the original man disappeared in all the confusion.

When he got to the canal, the older boy was climbing out of the water and the cap of the younger boy was floating on the surface but there was no sign of the younger boy.

A Police Sergeant also described seeing a boy's cap floating in the water. A ladder was laid from the bank across the unbroken ice to the hole in the middle of the canal and the police officer described how he had crawled on the ladder to the hole and explored the water with his arms, but he neither see into the water or feel anything.

A rope was then tied around his waist and he waded into the water to search for the body, but eventually, he had to be dragged out himself, and once on the bank, he was unable to stand because of the cold.

When the boy's body was recovered, artificial respiration was carried out by members of Skipton fire brigade, but to no avail.

The coroner said it was a very tragic case of a small boy walking on the ice, an unfortunately, he had only been accompanied by another small boy. He commended the efforts of the surviving boy to save his friend and also the police sergeant and others present who had done all they could to save him.

The boy was the eldest of three children and had attended Christ Church Primary school where he was described as happy and cheerful with many friends.

In the same week, in Burton-in-Lonsdale a 11-year old boy was praised when he went to the assistance of two children who had fallen through the ice at Halfway House Pond. The 11 year old, who had also been sliding on the ice, got the two children out and took them to a farm where they were given a hot bath.

In an editorial, the Craven Herald expressed sympathy and described the death of the boy in the canal as a tragedy in which for the most part little blame could be attributed to anyone 'for after all the skill of skating has been part of our English life over the centuries'.

It described how weather conditions had been unusually cold with icicles even appearing on the lions on normally temperate Trafalgar Square. But then temperatures had risen, making previously safe sheets of skating ice a menace and a danger. In one weekend and in one county, there had been a death toll of 20 children and one adult, all from broken ice.

"It is a natural temptation for children and adults to hasten to a frozen pond, river or canal to test the ice and, if possible, to go skating thereon. We can but urge, as the police have urged, that all who do this should take the greatest care to ensure that the ice is sound and able to bear," said the Craven Herald.