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Bourton carpenter James Bredin died from asbestos poisoning

A COTSWOLD carpenter who cut up sheets of asbestos in the 1960s died nearly 50 years later from exposure to the deadly substance, an inquest heard today.

Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease on James Bredin, 71, of Gorse Meadow, Bourton-on-the-Water.

Mr Bredin, who was married to his wife Mary for 52 years, had retired nine months before his death.

His past work included doing maintenance at Sudeley Castle in the 1990s.

"In the sixties I had been present when he cut asbestos sheets with a handsaw to fit backing plates to fires," said his son James.

His father became sick after retirement and his GP treated him for lung infection.

During tests a radiographer told him he had a terminal disease and it was later confirmed to be the asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma.

On March 20 he was taken to Cheltenham General Hospital when he began to make a "rasping noise" and he died three days later.

Pathologist Dr Richard Bryan said tests found 32,421 fibres of asbestos per gram of dry lung tissue - a 'relatively low' level of the mineral but higher than would be found in a person who had never been exposed to it industrially.

The doctor gave the cause of death as bronchial pneumonia due to mesothelioma.