Ex-teacher drowns as wind puffs up coat and blows her into a river
A RETIRED teacher who enjoyed being out in bad weather drowned when she was swept off her feet and into a river during a storm.
Valerie Weston, 58, had gone outside to try to secure pot plants and a canoe in the garden of her riverside cottage when the large raincoat she was wearing was caught by a 70mph gust of wind, an inquest heard.
The petite widow, who ‘loved rain’ and was ‘very interested’ in storms,’ was literally lifted into the air and dumped in the River Irwell, which bordered her home. She was probably blown between 10ft and 15ft into the river.
Mrs Weston’s body was found ten miles downstream 36 hours later, but the coat she was wearing has never been found. She had suffered injuries consistent with being dragged through a rocky, fastflowing waterway. The inquest, in
‘That night the wind was very, very strong’
Burnley, was told that the tragedy happened on March 30 when the river was running very high and fast. A flood alert and other weather warnings had been issued about an approaching Atlantic storm affecting the area.
Earlier in the evening, Mrs Weston, a mother of two who lived with her son Joe, 28, in the picturesque Lancashire village of Irwell Vale, had been socialising with friends in a recently-completed extension to her cottage, which looked out over the river.
The former history and PE teacher and educational adviser, who took early retirement after surviving breast cancer, seemed happy, the friends said.
She was looking forward to a camping trip to Shell Island, north Wales, a hike around Cheddar Gorge, in Somerset, and the Glastonbury Festival.
Friend Sandra Longworth said: ‘I could see the river which backs on to Val’s home was very high. It was moving at an incredible speed. We had two drinks and came home.
‘At 7am the next morning Joe was banging on the back door asking if Mum had slept there because she wasn’t in bed.’
Mr Weston told the hearing that the river was right up to the lawn on the night his mother disappeared. He had gone to bed before her because he had to be up early the next day.
‘I heard nothing except the wind and rain,’ he said. ‘I got up at 5.50am and noticed the lights were on in the whole house.
‘The bed hadn’t been slept in and I was panicking. I called the police. Mum was very interested in storms, she loved to be in the rain and allowed the rain to fall on her. But she was always very clumsy when it came to her own safety, even when she had no strength she wouldn’t allow it to stop her. She was stubborn when it came to this.
‘The police looked everywhere and it wasn’t until the next day that Mum was found.’
Mrs Weston, whose husband Dave died from a heart attack in 2013, was a keen walker who had recently bought a camper van after being given the allclear from breast cancer.
Her brother Neil Simms, 53, said: ‘We think she has gone down to rescue her pot plants and moved towards the canoe to haul it to safety to stop it being washed away. That night the wind was very, very strong and the weather was terrible.
‘The theory is that she turned round to walk up the bank after sorting the canoe and the wind got hold of her or she slipped. We think she has been lifted off her feet as she was wearing a big coat. She was very petite and slim.’
Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Richard Taylor said: ‘This was a dreadful accident. We will never know exactly but the theory is right – somehow she was deposited into the river. She either slipped or the wind or whatever elements, she was in the river and had no chance of getting out.’