Exactly 150 years ago 26 people died in a railway disaster near Norwich.
This weekend descendants of the dead, and of survivors and rescuers, were at a special service in Thorpe St Andrew where the Bishop of Norwich dedicated a plaque in memory of the victims.
The service was part of a programme of community events including talks and walks marking the anniversary of a rail disaster which led to safety improvements across the world.
In his sermon the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham Usher, talked about his own regular rail journeys – and people he meets who help keep us safe today, including a woman whose job is to sell refreshments but also tries to help prevent suicides.
Back in September 1874, the evening trains from London to Great Yarmouth, via Norwich, and from the coast towards Norwich both received the go-ahead to enter the stretch of single line between Norwich and Brundall. They collided at Thorpe.
The bishop said: “This church of St Andrew witnessed those events, its clergy buried some of the dead and long cared for the bereaved and injured.”
The disaster took the distinguished, well-known in their field, such as Norwich doctor William Francis, credited with taking one of first medical photographs, and people almost lost to history like 33-year-old seamstress Susan Browne, born in Salhouse and buried in a pauper’s grave. The dead included the drivers and firemen of both trains, and a husband and wife and their baby son, leaving their three-year-old an orphan. The recovery of little Charlie, who was raised by his grandparents, was a rare piece of good news in those dark days.
Bishop Graham said: “The tangled wreckage of any disaster produces its crop of heroes; those who shine as beacons of light in the darkness of terrible events. Here at Thorpe there were those who ran to help. Those whose unceasing and tireless efforts rescued people. Those who brought relief to the injured and help crying relatives. People like Elizabeth Hart of Thorpe who tore her sheets, tablecloths and clothing into bandages for the wounded; train guard John Chapman who ran, with his red danger lamp, six miles back along the track to Brundall to warn the station master to hold the packed evening train from Lowestoft, preventing it careering into the wreckage and Dr Peter Eade.”
Thrown from the wreckage Dr Eade ignored his own injuries and spent the night treating the wounded. He went on to found the city’s branch of St John Ambulance, to teach first aid skills to other people. He also led campaigns which opened Mousehold Heath to the public, saved the Castle from being demolished and rebuilt as a modern prison and turned Chapelfield Gardens into a city park. Thrice mayor of Norwich he commissioned the statue of Thomas Browne which still sits on Hay Hill and was knighted by Queen Victoria.
The tragedy played a part in improving safety on single track railways. In direct response to Britain’s worst railway disaster to that date inventor Edward Tyer developed the Tyer Tablet System to ensure two trains could not be on the same section of track. It was adopted around the world.
Bishop Graham said: “The tail of such an event lives long in a community; it has an impact down the generations – the orphans and widowed, and the ‘if onlys’ we conjure in our minds – because the scars of such a day are physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. And we pray for those living with those scars from events in our own day. May they know the compassion of God, his healing hand upon them, and his presence sustaining and supporting them all the days of their life.”
