Michael Burnham (MPAGBurnham @t Ticcali.co.uk) of Hayling Island wrote: [The 1851 census shows that] John Bagnall [a shepherd aged 45] lived at  Lower Dunsley, Tring, with his wife Phoebe. He died  on the 28th. September 1853, His death certificate is signed by the Coroner for Hemel Hempstead, and states that his death was accidental. I would be interested to know the nature of the accident, could you please advise me where I might obtain such information. 

Normally you would be out of luck. I understand that few Hertfordshire coroner records survive from the 19th century, and before stamp duty was removed in 1855 there were very few, very slim, newspapers published in Hertfordshire. As a result the chances of an inquest on an agricultural worker at Tring being reported in a paper such as the Hertfordshire Mercury (published in Hertford) is very remote.

However you are lucky that the death occurred in Tring because there were two rival papers published in Aylesbury, Bucks, only a few miles from Tring, and microfilm copies are available at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. Quite by chance I was shopping in Aylesbury today (probably the first time for more than a year) and it only took a few minutes detour to find the following entry in the Bucks Herald for 1st October, 1853.

If you can add to the information given above tell me.