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History Extra podcast

Deadly bellringing and fatal bacon: grisly accidental Tudor deaths

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.34.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From drowning and agricultural mishaps to getting stabbed during a football match, crushed by a pig, scalded by porridge or suffocated by a fish, there were myriad ways to accidentally die in Tudor England. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Steven Gunn reveals what coroners records of fatal accidents can teach us about daily life in the 16th century. (Ad) Steven Gunn is the co-author, with Tomasz Gromelski, of An Accidental History of Tudor England: From Daily Life to Sudden Death (John Murray, 2025). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Accidental-History-Tudor-England-Sudden/dp/1529333741/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Jeff Norcott and I have a twice weekly topical comedy podcast called What Most People Think.

0:05.8

If you like hearing jokes about the news, well this show does the job that panel shows used to do,

0:10.5

as myself and another guest try to make sense of the big political and cultural stories.

0:15.2

It's not an echo chamber either as I have guests from both the left and the right.

0:19.4

From Ramesh Ranganafan to Andrew Doyle,

0:21.7

from Catherine Ryan to Simon Evans.

0:23.9

I even had David Badele once.

0:25.9

We have jokes about Labour,

0:27.5

jokes about the Tories,

0:28.6

jokes about reform.

0:29.7

We even do the occasional gag about the Lib Dems.

0:32.4

That's what most people think,

0:33.8

which you can find everywhere you get your podcasts.

0:41.3

Music think, which you can find everywhere you get your podcasts. Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC

0:48.7

History magazine. From drowning and agricultural mishaps to getting stabbed during a football match, crushed by a pig,

0:58.0

scolded by porridge or suffocated by a fish, there were myriad ways to accidentally die in Tudor, England.

1:06.2

Professor Stephen Gunn and Dr Thomas Grimelsky have compiled hundreds of these accidental deaths in their new book,

1:13.8

An Accidental History of Tudor England. And I spoke to Stephen to find out how looking at the

1:19.7

records of deaths can teach us about everyday life in the era. What was some of the ways that people

1:27.2

died or came to unfortunate ends in the 16th century?

1:31.8

Well, we found accidents a very good way to look at the whole of Tudor life because people have

1:36.7

accidents doing all sorts of different things. People have work-related accidents, doing lots of

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