We’re pleased to be able to feature another guest post, from another person the project has been able to help. John contacted us via our feedback form to let us know that he’d made use of the project database and found it useful – something we always like to hear, so do get in touch […]
Archive | Linking sources
Connecting people through the project
People are central to our project in so many ways. Obviously the railway staff who had the accidents, details of which we’re making more easily findable (via our database). Their families, too, as the accidents rarely simply affected one person. Their work colleagues also appear in the records. Behind the project work are several small […]
Approaching the past, via E Beaumont
By Mike Esbester on July 12, 2021 in Accident reports, Approaches to the past, Blog, Family History, Linking sources, Local History
History and the past has been in the news a fair bit recently – notably controversies over culture wars, statues and how the past is understood, interpreted and presented. Clearly there aren’t static or universal understandings of the past. So how does our approach to the past and the sources we use shape the questions […]
A project blog post: Goods guard Beaumont
By Mike Esbester on July 12, 2021 in Accident reports, Approaches to the past, Blog, Linking sources
This post is one of a series exploring how different types of historian might approach the same source in different ways, so we can better understand each other and work together more easily. There’s an introduction to this, and the associated posts, here. We know that the railways were complex, messy places – physically, […]
The Bullhouse Railway Accident
By Mark Greenwood on May 31, 2021 in Accident aftermath, Accident reports, Blog, Guest contribution, Linking sources, Passenger
In this post, guest author Mark Greenwood looks at a passenger accident from 1884, which went on to have an interesting ‘afterlife’ in various forms of cultural production. He looks at how a mechanical fault led to the crash at Bullhouse, in Yorkshire – but also the part that the geography of the site played. […]
Frederick John Berriman
By Gordon Dudman on May 10, 2021 in Accident aftermath, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources
In this week’s post, from guest author Gordon Dudman, some of the legal issues raised by railway accidents come to light. These weren’t, however, arcane points, but had a very real impact on the ability of one man’s wife to claim compensation for her husband’s death. They also had wider implications for all areas of […]
Gunshot wounds
Today’s post, from the project’s Helen Ford at the Modern Records Centre, looks at a particularly difficult part of Ireland’s past: the lead up to partition 100 years ago. Railways have long been political, but in this case, they were an active site of contest, involving attacks on infrastructure and people – with tragic results. […]
Light Railway Accident 17 January 1918 – The Death of Sapper Hay
By Sandra Gittins on January 13, 2020 in Accident reports, Blog, Guest contribution, Linking sources, War
In her research, Sandra Gittins has already turned up a couple of cases of accidents to railway staff serving overseas during World War One – and we’re very grateful that she’s blogged about them for us, here and here. In this post, she has uncovered the circumstances surrounding one further – dramatic – case. We […]
Railway and everyday risks of 1906
In today’s post, project volunteer and by-now regular blogger Philip James has a look at a number of accidents reported in a single issue of The Times newspaper in 1906. It helps us put railway staff issues, including accidents, into a wider perspective. He also draws some interesting connections with discussions in 2021 about the […]
The Case of the Monkey on the Railway
By Alexandra Foulds on March 15, 2021 in Accident aftermath, Blog, Guest contribution, Linking sources, Medical humanities
As guest author Alexandra Foulds notes, this post came about by a chance connection on Twitter – fortunately, though the subject matter is, perhaps needless to say, unfortunate. We’re really pleased to feature it, and look forward to working with St George’s University of London Archives again in the future. As this blog post makes […]
