On 2 August 1901, the Whitby Gazette carried a shocking headline:
Frightful Accident at Sleights Station
A Whitby Lady Cut To Pieces
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| Sleights station by Maniac Pony at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5 |
On the evening of Thursday 1 August 1901, two old ladies, the Misses Emma and Harriet Williamson, had walked down to the station after spending a couple of hours calling on friends in Sleights. Emma was the elder, at 84 years of age; Harriet was 81. They wanted to catch the 7:36 home to Whitby. It would come from the Grosmont direction and there was indeed a train coming that way – they thought it was theirs, and that they were just in time. But first they must cross the line to the down platform.
There was a level crossing where the road to Whitby crossed the railway track and the station buildings and its platforms lay between the old ladies and the oncoming train – they thought they would have time to get across as the train drew to a halt at the station, so they went through the little gate at the level crossing.
The signalman shouted, "Keep back!"
George Wilkinson, a 53 year old builder and joiner from Sleights, who had gone to the down platform for some parcels and had been held up at the gates as he set off back home, saw the old ladies – he knew them quite well – and he shouted.
James Moor, aged 51, gamekeeper for Mr Robert Yeoman at Grove Hall, Woodlands at Aislaby was waiting at the station too. He saw the ladies crossing – he thought if it was stopping at the station they might just catch the train – he shouted to them as hard as he could, telling them to get along.
The ladies didn't seem to hear.
It wasn't their train. It was an excursion train from York, which had taken people on a day's outing to Whitby, and it was on its way back to Whitby to pick up the tired and happy holidaymakers for their journey home. The crew had spent the last four hours at Grosmont – plenty of time for a cup of tea – because there wasn't enough room for the empty train to wait in the sidings at Whitby. It wasn't due to stop at Sleights at all.
The excursion train – six carriages and two vans – had rounded the sharp curve about 170 yards before Sleights station. It had come into view of the station. Now it was whistling continuously.
John William Pearson, aged 43, was the driver. He had already shut off steam and slowed up on the approach to Sleights because the distance signal had been against him, but it had been lowered as they passed through and he had picked up steam again. He had obeyed the directive to all drivers to whistle as they came within 200 yards of Sleights station.
Now he saw a lady about to cross the line. She hadn't yet reached the metals – the rails. Seeing she was in danger, he shut off steam, he applied the brakes, he was pulling on the whistle all the time.
And then he saw that there was a second lady about to cross behind the first. He had a good view – he was coming in tender first, which he felt gave him a far better view than if the engine had been first, under the circumstances – and he thought he was doing about 25-30 mph at the time.
The guard Harold Clough Emmerson, aged 42, said at the inquest that he thought they were going rather slower, at 20-25 mph. He couldn't see the ladies himself because the train blocked his view – all he could see was "an old gentleman on a trap waving for them to stop".
As the engine arrived at the level crossing, John Pearson lost sight of both ladies.
George Wilkinson, waiting at the gates, saw the younger of the two make a little rush forward and just manage to clear the rails – he thought for a moment that the elder lady was going to get across – but the train struck her and whirled her round so that she went under it. He didn't think she ever saw the train or heard it. All the train went over her, and the lady was literally cut to pieces.
John Pearson feared both ladies had been killed when "he felt something like a thud" on impact. He brought the train to a standstill just after passing the crossing, "the last vehicle," he said at the inquest, "being near the bridge." He had done everything he could. The train had stopped in about 80 yards, little more than its own length.
He got down at once, leaving the fireman on the engine, and then he saw Miss Emma Williamson. The engine and all the carriages must have passed over her. "She was terribly cut, and mangled most fearfully – the scene was dreadful." He didn't know how the first lady had escaped.
Miss Harriet thought that her sister was crossed the tracks just behind her. She didn't see what happened and she must have stood there wondering at the scene, with the men gathering about the train in alarm.
John Pearson spoke for a while with Watson Bulmer, the 38 year old station master. And then he got back in the cabin to attend to his duty – he had to take the train to Whitby for the return journey to York.
And it was only when the train had left the station that Miss Harriet saw that her sister had been killed. She was in a most dreadful state of shock – someone must have taken her home to No 8 Park Terrace in Whitby.
Watson Bulmer organised the removal of poor Miss Emma's remains to the station buildings to await the coroner's instructions. In the early hours of the morning they were taken "in a shell" to her home in Park Terrace.
Everyone who had seen the accident must have been very much shocked and shaken. The driver and guard went home to York – John Pearson to 11 Drake Street, off Nunnery Lane, to his wife Rose, and Harold Emmerson to his wife Zillah and their four children – the youngest was only a baby – at 13 St Ann Street in Walmgate. George Wilkinson went up to Sleights to his wife Jane and the family – six children, with Stanley the youngest at 10 years old. James Moor would go home to Aislaby, to his wife Hannah and their children. The men would all be wanted the following week to give evidence at the Coroner's Inquest.
The next afternoon, the coroner George Buchannan, a Whitby solicitor, opened the inquest at the County Hotel just to hear Miss Harriet bravely give her very brief evidence. The coroner was a familiar figure to her – he was her cousin Ann Langborne's son. She told him that she did not blame the driver of the train or any one else in the least – the blame, she said, was their own.
The accident shocked and horrified the area. The Misses Williamson had many friends and relations and they were well known for their charitable work. So when, on the afternoon of Saturday 3 August, Miss Emma was buried in Sleights Churchyard, it was amid great sympathy and sorrow.
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| St John the Evangelist, Sleights by Nigelcoates at English Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 |
It must have been a very well-attended and solemn funeral. Three clergymen took the service and signed the burial register – the Revd Hugh P D Walker, vicar of Sleights, the Revd George Austen, the Rector of Whitby, and his curate the Revd Michael A Horsfall. The church bells rang a muffled peal.
On Wednesday 9 August, George Buchannan resumed the inquest.
John Pearson – he always gave his name in official documents such as census forms as John W. Pearson, but the Whitby Gazette's reporter caught his name as William Pearson – explained the actions he had taken.
"So far as you were concerned," asked the Coroner, "you did everything in your power?" – "Yes, everything, Sir."
Harold Emmerson and James Moor testified. George Wilkinson explained to the coroner and jury that the last accident at that level crossing had happened 30 or 40 years ago. He thought the danger at Sleights crossing was chiefly because so many trains were timed to meet there together, and because of obstructed sight lines. The railway line in the Grosmont direction was on a curve and the view towards Whitby was blocked by a house, which belonged to the railway company and occupied by a platelayer. People at the station had a very limited view in either direction. He thought it would be quite practicable to make a bridge.
The District Superintendent of the Traffic Department, Mr John Bradford Harper, said a footbridge would make crossing safer, if only the public would use one. They found that it was hard to stop people from crossing the rails and where, as at Sleights, there had to be a "sleeper crossing" for luggage, then the public would use the luggage crossing rather than a bridge. As there was a rule prohibiting putting up a fence within 4 feet of a running line, it was virtually impossible to stop them doing this.
The Jury returned a verdict of accidental death by a passing train. And they requested the Coroner to communicate to the North-Eastern Railway Company their opinion that a footbridge should be provided and that the cottage which obstructed the view towards Whitby be removed.
Miss Harriet decided on a fitting and beautiful memorial to her sister, and to her mother and brother. She engaged the celebrated designer Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907) to create a stained glass window for the church of St John the Evangelist at Sleights. On 13 March 1903, the Whitby Gazette reported this generous gift had been installed. The window showed John the Baptist indicating Christ as the Lamb of God and the inscription was
In the reverence of God, and in loving memory of Elizabeth, William and Emma Williamson, this window is dedicated, AD MDCCCCIII
Miss Harriet Williamson died three months later aged 83 on 13 June. She was buried at Sleights with her mother, brother and sister on 17 June 1903.
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