THE OPENING of a railway system for Bourne during the 19th century was one of the great engineering feats in our history but it was not achieved without a cost in human lives.

Many of the construction workers were killed while working in dangerous conditions and with equipment that by today’s standards would be considered to be primitive while others succumbed to the unhygienic conditions, particularly a smallpox outbreak which swept through the workforce in 1893. But there were other innocent victims, members of the public who lost their lives in less hazardous circumstances, either through carelessness or by accident, bringing tragedy to families in an era that has become known as the railway age.

Railway lines have been a magnet for adventurous children and today they have been largely secured against young intruders but during Victorian times the installations were easily accessible and the novelty still apparent. A level crossing carried the main line from the station at the Red Hall across South Street where youngsters were frequently cautioned and told to stay away but they were always back, attracted by the sights and sounds of steam engines, passenger trains and freight wagons, and on Monday 8th July 1872 this fascination cost a little boy his life.

John Northern, aged 6, had been playing with his friends around the crossing and as a train approached they were sent away by the gatekeeper, Samuel Davis. But as his pals fled, the boy managed to squeeze unseen through a space of barely nine inches wide between the gate and the gatepost to remain by the line when the train came through, standing so close that he was hit by one of the carriages as it passed and death was almost instantaneous. Railway officials told the inquest that the gates and gatepost were the same as all others on the line and that no similar accident had ever occurred before. The crossing, however, was often frequented by young lads who gathered there to watch the trains go by. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death and expressed the hope that something might be done to prevent a recurrence.

The boy was the son of a labourer, John Northern, who lived in Eastgate, and the inquest was told that the family were in needy circumstances and could not afford to bury him. The jury therefore recommended that the Midland and Great Northern Railway Company should help pay for the funeral and the jurymen each left one shilling towards the cost.

A more bizarre fatality also occurred in 1872 resulting in the death of Mrs Ann Thurlby, aged 60, who lost her life in a terrible accident that actually occurred on the station platform outside the Red Hall on April 8th. The inquest was told that the dead woman was a very stout person which may have been a contributory cause of her death. Her daughter, Emma Thurlby, aged, 20, said in evidence that she went to the railway station with her mother to buy a ticket for the 8.05 am Bourne to Essendine train but someone told her to make haste or she would be too late.

The engine driver, William Marsden, said that after the train was in motion, he saw Mrs Thurlby running along the platform. Someone from inside one of the carriages opened the door and she attempted to get in but fell down and was crushed to death between the carriage and the platform. Dr James Watson Burdwood, surgeon for the company, was called but she had suffered terrible injuries and her body was mangled. Evidence from railway staff revealed that the train was not leaving the station on its scheduled journey but merely moving away from the platform for the purpose of shunting some wagons to be attached to the rear of the train. Driver Marsden said that he had called out loudly to Mrs Thurlby to this effect but it transpired that she was hard of hearing. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

Thirty years later, another child was killed on the crossing, this time a girl. May Victoria Stubley, aged 8, was walking over it when she was knocked down and fatally injured on 21st September 1905. Martha Michelson, who witnessed the accident, told an inquest that she had been using the crossing with her sister and the deceased when she saw a goods train approaching from Bourne station. At the same time, she heard a passenger train coming from Spalding. She called to the girl to get out of the way and to wait until the goods train had passed but instead, she took no notice and stood on the inside rail of the line on which the passenger train was travelling. "The next thing, I saw that the child was under the passenger train", she said. "When the train had gone by, I rushed over and found that she was dead."

The driver of the passenger train told the hearing that his view had been hidden by the goods train, the crossing being in the centre of a curve, and it was suggested by the jury that in future, instructions should be issued to drivers to sound their whistle on approaching the crossing from either direction but railway officials warned that whistling engines had in the past brought complaints from residents living in the vicinity and damages had been successfully claimed against the company in some instances. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death and added that there was no blame attached to anyone concerning the girl's death.

There is no doubt that the early railways were dangerous and the level crossing in South Street a hazard and inconvenience for the increasing traffic flows of the 20th century but it was finally closed in 1959 and the gates removed six years later. Next year commemorates the 50th anniversary of the ending of the railway age in Bourne and historian Jonathan Smith is updating the display at the Heritage Centre in Bourne to mark the occasion.