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Smothering
A listener in West Yorkshire retold a family story about a woman who visited a farm close to Leeds in the early years of the twentieth century. She asked for a cup of water but made it clear that the cup should be broken because she was on her way to York to be 'smothered'. What could this mean?

Making History consulted Dr Elizabeth Hurren, Senior Lecturer in Medicine at Oxford Brookes University. Elizabeth believes that the key to answering this question was the woman’s intended destination – York.