A Tragic Accident

  From The Ashbourne News Telegraph 18th December 12 1908 

A terrible fatality occurred on Monday morning last at the Furness Vale Station of the London and North Western Railway Company, mid-way between New Mills and Whaley Bridge. The victim was Sidney Allen, a native of Tissington, who during the previous week was in charge at Furness Vale in the absence of Mr Green, the Station Master, and had begun the second and last week of his duties there. Allen was crossing the line,where there is a level crossing, when he was knocked down by the express which leaves Buxton at 9-5 for Manchester, and was killed on the spot.
Mr Allen, who was asingle man of not quite 21 years of age, commenced as a porter at  Alsop-en-le-Dale Station, under Mr Cope (now stationmaster at Tissington) and was engaged there for upwards of three years. Since leaving Alsop about 15 months ago he had been at Weaste, Furness Vale and Ordsall Lane in succession, and as already stated had returned to Furness Vale for a fortnight on relief duty. Mr Allen was a very steady and trustworthy servant of the company, and the fact that he had risen so rapidly gave every promise of his attaining a high position in the service.  He was highly respected by all with whom he came in contact, and great regret is felt that such a promising career should have been so tragically ended.
The funeral took place on Thursday at Tissington amid many signs of sympathy with the bereaved relatives.

 

        The station at Alsop Le Dale. Photograph from the J. W. Sutherland collection

Alsop Le Dale was on the line between Buxton and Ashbourne, Tissington was the next station. The line through sparsely populated country was little used and trains few and far between. As a young porter, Allen wouldn't have been kept very busy.  The line closed in 1954. 

The level crossing at Furness Vale had been the scene of a number of accidents and it was for that reason that the footbridge was eventually provided.

St. Mary's Church, Tissington

Furness Vale Station - a 3D model.

 

It was never an uplifting experience waiting for a train at the village station. There was, however, a waiting room with a blazing coal fire, popping gas lamps and artistic travel posters to look at. Irene was there behind her little window, ready to sell you a return to Stockport or to report on how late the train would be. A porter might be sweeping the platform or tending the geraniums and fellow passengers sitting on the bench seats were all too ready for a gossip.

As with so many small stations, all this has been swept away and we are left with small glazed shelters which offer little respite from the weather and only a few small perches on which to rest.

In wishing to re-create the original station, I might have chosen to build a physical model. This would have been very time consuming and would have presented storage problems. Choosing a Google Sketchup model may be second best but it did allow me to  represent our local station as it appeared in the early 1960's.

The images below are from the digital model and are followed by a link to an animated walk through.

 

 

Below is a link to the YouTube video of the model:

http://youtu.be/-hbF5t0zMow

A Wayward Italian

 

May 1908 saw the appearance of an Italian named Soberti Diego before Stockport Police Court.  He was charged with being on enclosed premises for unlawful purposes and with assaulting a police officer in Whaley Bridge on April 27th.  Diego had been seen climbing from a wagon up into the rafters of the goods warehouse at the station. The prisoner had refused to descend and when the police constable arrived he jumped onto a van and threw a stone at the officer, which hit him in the chest.  Diego jumped over the wagons and tried to escape but the pursuing policeman fell over him and a desperate struggle ensued.  The prisoner had a razor with which he attacked the officer, cutting his hand.  It was only when support arrived that the Italian was overpowered.  Speaking through an interpreter, Diego explained that he had arrived in England seven months previously and finding himself in Whaley Bridge without food or money, decided to head to London.  He thought he would be safe hiding in the rafters until a train should arrive.  He had only used the razor to prevent the police officer from choking him.   Soberti Diego was sentenced to 28 days in prison and advised to leave the country as soon as he was released.

Off The Rails

On Monday 9th September 1867 the most serious of the local rail incidents took place on the Midland line.  A goods train had entered the tunnel between Chapel and Peak Dale and had stopped to unload gravel for track maintenance.  Against the rules, a following train carrying 1000 sheep and cattle was allowed to enter the tunnel shortly after 5pm, where it crashed into the stationary ballast train.  A little girl had taken some clogs to her father, a blacksmith called Vaines, who was working in the tunnel and together they were in one of the wagons. She was the first fatality of the day.  Several other workmen were injured.  Two engines hauled the cattle train and these left the track causing the 23 cattle trucks to become detached and these started to roll backwards.  On leaving the tunnel, the guard and three drovers jumped and their injuries were not known. The telegraph wires were out of order and it was not until the wagons sped through Bugsworth that the signalman there, was able to warn New Mills and have the signals set to danger.  The train was seen approaching New Mills at 6pm A passenger express had already set off from New Mills and was halted by the signal after some distance.  Driver Cooper set the train in reverse and he, the fireman and guard all jumped off.  There was still a collision in which four cattle drovers were killed and a fifth injured.  Many sheep and cattle lay dead amongst the wreckage. The express in the meantime was still travelling backwards out of control and its speed increased due to the collision. The train was not brought to a halt until directed into a siding at Romiley. None of the passengers were injured although some suffered from shock.

Shirt's Bridge

There had long been a track or footpath leading from Big Tree Farm on Dolly Lane, towards Waterside. The 1885 Ordnance Survey map shows this crossing the Midland Railway over a bridge which had been buit in 1865. When Gowhole Sidings were constructed, the footbridge was extended in 1903 to span the numerous tracks. This was named and numbered by the railway as Bridge 121 but was sometimes known locally as Shirt's Bridge. 

Both the original span and the extension are seen in this photograph taken in the 1940s. The locomotive is No 3271 heading south with a train of empty wagons. A group of three train spotters sit at the trackside. Big Tree Farm is on the hillside

Les Footitt recalls the bridge from the late 1960s:  
"It brings back the memory of being with my brothers and friends in the late 1960s. We would always be out exploring up at the disused sidings. As you approached the bridge from Waterside , you would walk through the tunnel to the bridge and the then turn left to go up about 10 stone steps, then turn right up another flight of stone steps until you were on the wooden walkway across to Big Tree. Well, it was at the bottom of the steps that we found that the earth had fallen away revealing a small hole and we could see that it was hollow inside. We returned at a later date with torches and scraped a bit more soil out until we could squeeze through on our bellies into what was to us a secret cave. We went there on numerous occasions to play in the “cave” until we eventually got too big to squeeze through the gap. I think the bridge was demolished in the mid 1970s".

Les also describes the far end of the bridge:
 You actually came down a flight of about 10 stone steps from Big tree on to the wooden walkway.  so if you were to walk along the bridge from Waterside end towards the Big Tree end all you saw were the stone steps as if it was a dead end  and no exit until you were at the bottom of the steps.

The bridge has long been demolished but following the path from Big Tree Farm still leads to a descending flight of steps.  The path crosses the site of the sidings at ground level and then passes under the remaining railway tracks through the original tunnel.

 Neil Ferguson-Lee's photographs  show the view along the bridge  with the rising flight of steps at the far end.

   















 Below is the tunnel under the main railway line. This is the view towards Waterside.

 

Furness Vale Station in 1978

Neil Ferguson-Lee has kindly allowed us to publish his photographs of Furness Vale Station. These were taken in black and white in 1978.  We have added a little colour to two of them.

On the level crossing is a Vauxhall Chevette.