Pottery artist found mummified in Stafford home

Peter Gaskell, aged 63, designed some of the popular Wedgwood Calendar Plates collection.

Cannock Coroner's Court heard how Mr Gaskell's body had been preserved by the warmth from his central heating which had been left on 'full blast' at his Stafford home.

The court was told he had been an alcoholic who took to drinking after the death of his wife Susan, who he married in 1998.

South Staffordshire assistant coroner Margaret Jones said the exact cause of Mr Gaskell's death 'will simply never be known' because his body had become mummified.

She was told how paramedics broke into Mr Gaskell's home in Eastlands Close, Stafford, after his family raised the alarm.

Simon Webster, coroner's officer, said: "A carer had gone round to check on him after his parents told her they hadn't heard from him in two weeks. The last sighting of him before his death was three days earlier when he was spotted by a neighbour catching a taxi to the pub."

He added: "Mr Gaskell's body was discovered in the living room amid upturned furniture." Mr Gaskell, who took early retirement from Wedgwood in 1995, began abusing alcohol and cannabis and became reclusive after his librarian wife died of cancer.

A statement from his brother Steven Gaskell, from Kent, said: "He began to neglect himself and avoided company. Peter was gifted and talented and loving but he couldn't handle the demons that often accompany those qualities."

A post mortem by pathologist Dr Terence Hollingworth failed to establish a definitive cause of death because of the state of Mr Gaskell's mummified body, found on September 28.

Mrs Jones said: "The report did not include a definitive cause of death because the body had become mummified as a result of the heating system being left on and all the doors and windows being shut.

Recording an open verdict, she said: "There was no evidence of any trauma or natural diseases.The property was secure and no suggestion of any third party involvement in his death."