Death of Joseph Beck August 1850

On the 27th of August, 1850, a young man - Joseph Beck, a baker working for his widowed mother and aged 20 - was enjoying some games in the grounds of Hastings Castle with some companions of his from the Wesleyan congregation. During one such game, he leapt over what he thought to be a low hedge and unfortunately went over the cliffs, landing on the roof of St. Mary In The Castle; a drop of around 200 feet. One of his companions, Edward Picknell, gave evidence to the inquest that whilst playing a game of chase, Beck had jumped over the hedge and disappeared over the cliff edge. He was observed to have fallen down onto the roof of the church. Picknell clambered down onto the roof and found his associate standing upright on the roof in a gutter between the organ loft and the cliff face. Beck was found to have died upon impact, having fractured his skull, right arm and right thigh by the surgeon, John Savery. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death. The event was memorialised in a poem by a Mr. Pitter, who, under the title of the 'Leap of Death' published an account of the events.