The Shrewsbury rail accident occurred on 15 October 1907. An overnight sleeping-car and mail train from

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

to the West of England derailed on the sharply curved approach to Shrewsbury station, killing 18 people and injuring 33. The accident was concluded to be due to excessive speed on a dangerous curve.

Casualties

Those killed were the engine driver and fireman, two guards, eleven passengers, and three Post Office sorters working in the Mail train. Thirty-three other people were reported injured.The Post Office sorters and an Italian passenger were buried in Shrewsbury General Cemetery in Longden Road

The train

Speed was estimated at on a curve limited to . The train left Crewe at 01:20, having had extra carriages added (originating in Glasgow, York and Liverpool) to form a heavy, 15-carriage train, hauled by LNWR Experiment class 4-6-0 No. 2052 ''Stephenson''.''British Railway Disasters'', publ. Ian Allan, 1996

Other derailments

The accident was the last in a series of three derailments due to excessive speed at night in a 16-month period. The others were at

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

and

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

(both in 1906). All three resulted in deaths, including the footplate crews; the cause in each case was recorded as 'driver error', but there has been much speculation since.

Possible explanation

The day after the accident an official enquiry began, coinciding with an inquest into the driver and fireman. It was held in Shrewsbury and was attended by the President of the Board of Trade,

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

. It lasted three days, and the report was published on 12 February. No fault was found with the engine's brakes and reliability. After a detailed hearing into the health and sobriety of the driver, the finding was that alcohol and drugs were not present in his body from

post-mortem examination An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any dis ...

and he had not suffered a seizure. The report concluded the most likely explanation of the Shrewsbury crash was that the driver had dozed off briefly, missing the signal, and therefore had not braked in time on the downhill entry to Shrewsbury. The fireman was believed to have failed to recognize the driver's excessive speed until too late.

Literary reference

An anonymous poem about the disaster was printed in the ''

Shrewsbury Chronicle The ''Shrewsbury Chronicle'' is a local news newspaper in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It is one of the oldest weekly newspapers in the United Kingdom, publishing its first edition in 1772. It is printed on Wednesday evening and is on sal ...

'' newspaper. It had been written by a young

Meole Brace Meole Brace, sometimes known locally as simply Meole (pronounced like ''meal''), is a south-western suburb of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The Rea Brook, a tributary of the River Severn, flows through the area. The brook was in the past k ...

woman, Mary Meredith, after she read an account of the accident. (She was better known after her marriage as novelist

Mary Webb Mary Gladys Webb (25 March 1881 – 8 October 1927) was an English romance novelist and poet of the early 20th century, whose work is set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and people whom she knew. Her ...

). Her brother had submitted her poem to the newspaper without her knowledge. It drew appreciative letters to the paper and it is now believed to be Webb's first published writing.

References