In yesterday’s blog we outlined what we knew of two of the men involved in the Holywell Junction accident, Richard Jones and Alfred Jones. Today we look at the other two men. Josiah Jones Josiah Jones was born in Whitford, Flintshire, in 1881, to Owen, a carpenter, and Elizabeth. He had an elder brother, […]
Archive | Accident aftermath
Holywell Junction – the men, pt 1
By Mike Esbester on August 31, 2022 in Accident aftermath, Accident reports, Anniversary, Blog, Family History
Yesterday’s blog looked at the accident at Holywell Junction on 1 September 1922. The next blog posts will look at the men involved. To be honest, the heart sank a bit when we saw we had a case which involved 3 ‘Jones’ – but we’ve found at least a little information about each of the […]
Instructive First Aid
Continuing our look at the cases found in our new data release, this week we have the 1922 accident to Frederick James Webb. In many respects this was a typical accident, as we shall see. However, in one aspect it was atypical – in a way which says interesting things about how the railway companies […]
Rosebay Willowherb: The Alternative Archive of a Railway Accident
This week’s blog post comes from project friend and champion, Catherine Clarke. Catherine’s support has been tremendously helpful – so we were really pleased when she contacted us to offer this story. We didn’t know how moving it would be, but it is tremendously affective. Catherine demonstrates the lasting impact of a railway accident, and […]
Godfrey Elliott Linegar and Alfred Linegar
By Jenny Leng on June 27, 2022 in Accident aftermath, Accident reports, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Local History
This blog post was produced by University of Portsmouth History student Jenny Leng, as part of her work on the ‘Working with the Past’ module. The module asks students to work in groups on projects and to determine how they will present their findings; it gives them experience outside traditional degree work that will help […]
James Spridgeon, Railway Platelayer: Accidentally Killed in 1880
By Rosie Rowley on May 23, 2022 in Accident aftermath, Accident reports, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Local History, Urban History
This week’s blog post came about following a talk Mike gave at the U3A Family History Conference in Buxton in September 2019. Mike had a number of interesting conversations, including with this week’s guest author, Rosie Rowley. They discussed a case Rosie had found from her family history, also notable for the fact that the […]
An accident in the dark – Woodhead tunnel 1922
In today’s post, project volunteer and regular blog contributor Philip James looks at the (infamous?) Woodhead route, including the tunnels. He draws on an accident case he found when transcribing for our forthcoming data release, as well as providing us with a potted history of the Woodhead route. Our thanks as ever to Philip for […]
Wilmcote: George Booker & his family
By Mike Esbester on March 24, 2022 in Accident aftermath, Anniversary, Blog, Family History, Linking sources
On the day of the centenary of the Wilmcote accident, we turn to the fourth and final family to be affected: the Booker family. This follows on from our previous blog, which looked at Edward Sherwood and his family. Of all the families to be affected by the accident, George’s has probably been the […]
Wilmcote: Remembering those affected
Over the last six days we’ve been blogging about 1922 Wilmcote accident (see yesterday’s post here), in the lead up to the centenary on 24 March. We’ve also been writing for different audiences – including a piece for the Stratford Herald newspaper and a blog post for The National Archives of the UK. We’d also […]
Wilmcote: Edward Sherwood & his family
By Mike Esbester on March 23, 2022 in Accident aftermath, Anniversary, Blog, Family History, Linking sources
Yesterday we looked at William Bonehill and his family – another small family, though no less devasting an impact via the death of a husband and father. Today we see the other end of the scale: Edward Sherwood and his large family. Edward was the only of the Wilmcote men to have travelled some […]
