There are sites, such as 1837online, where you can search the indexes (or, for pedants, indices). There is a small fee for this but, if you know the exact year, you will need to perform a maximum of only 4 searches because the index for each year is split into quarters (January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December.) I seem to recall that the fee is 10p per page looked at, so it ought to cost you next-to-nowt to find the reference. Having found it, you can either contact the local GRO and purchase the certificate for �7, purchase it from the National Records Office at Smedley Hydro (same price) or, if you live in the area where the death occurred, try searching the local press death notices around the time in question. What you do, I suppose, depends on how quickly you want the information and what you are prepared to pay for it.