A KEEN horsewoman may have accidentally set a building alight when she collapsed from a fatal brain haemorrhage, an inquest heard.

A newspaper delivery man raised the alarm after spotting smoke billowing from the eaves of an annex to Carolyn Allsopp’s country house in Little Coxwell near Faringdon at about 6.30am on Tuesday, March 17.

Oxfordshire assistant coroner Nick Graham heard that delivery man Stephen Kershaw raised the alarm with the 57-year-old’s neighbours, who rushed to her aid.

Neighbour Robin Brown ran to the study, and spotted the retired stockbroker lying in the smoke-filled room behind a desk.

After pulling her out of the burning building with the help of Mr Kershaw, Mr Brown’s wife Elisabeth, a former nurse, started CPR while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Miss Allsopp was taken to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, but died an hour-and-a-half later.

The inquest heard that Miss Allsopp was known to drink and smoke 60 cigarettes a day in an annexe to her house near the headquarters of the Hurlingham Polo Association. A post mortem examination found Miss Allsopp had suffered an acute subdural haemorrhage – bleeding in her brain – which led her death.

A fire investigation carried out by Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service watch manager Steve Johns concluded that the most likely cause of the fire was a dropped cigarette or match, perhaps dropped when Miss Allsopp suffered her haemorrhage and fell over.

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, Mr Graham said it was not clear if the keen horsewoman had been drinking when she suffered the haemorrhage.

Mr Graham added: “Clearly looking through the evidence, there’s no suspicious circumstances.

“The evidence suggests death came about by some kind of haemorrhage.

“The actual order of events is very difficult to decipher.

“She may have consumed a little too much alcohol and fallen. It seems to me the appropriate conclusion is an accidental death.”