A VERDICT of accidental death was recorded at the inquest of an 89-year-old great-grandmother who suffered a brain haemorrhage after she slipped on steps at Burnley market hall.

Retired mill worker Alice Stovold, of Thornber Court, Burnley had been on one of her regular outings in to town and had been climbing the steps to the market hall on August 13 when she lost her footing.

She fell on the landing between the two flights of stairs and banged her head which consultant pathologist, Dr Abdul Al-Dawoud, said 'caused the fracture to her skull and the subsequent haemorrhage'.

She was taken to hospital but died on August 16.

Emma Burke, 16, of Winsford Walk, had seen Mrs Stovold earlier in the day at the bus station cafe and saw her again as she was walking up the market steps at around 3pm. Acting coroner Richard Taylor read out a statement made by Miss Burke at the opening of the inquest in which the teenager had said it was a dry and warm day but she remembered the steps being wet as if they had just been cleaned.

She said Mrs Stovold had come up the bottom half of the flight of steps and across the small landing half way up. The pensioner had stepped on to the second step and had fallen backwards banging her head on the floor of the middle landing.

Mrs Stovold's daughter, Jean Forster, of Melville Street, told Mr Taylor that her mother used to go in to the town centre frequently on the bus and have her lunch in the cafe on the bus station and sometimes do some shopping.

Mrs Forster expressed concern over the safety of the steps and said she had received letters from other people who had slipped on the stairs.

Mr Taylor said since the market area had opened the owners said they had only had one other report of someone falling.