Memorials

[Rescars]

How sad - and with some modest effort (and a lot less money than I suspect NR spend on certain projects on our network...) this could have been avoided and the memorial moved or transplanted I suspect.

I see an interesting thread on it from a few years ago (2023) started by your good self which also in the posts explains more about why they were not going to be maintaining it - so why the 'economical with the facts' position now....

Trivia - Has The Chilworth Topiary Been Abandoned?

On the North Downs line near Chilworth there is a large topiary bird which commemorates the site of an accident from, I think, the late 19th century or early 20th. Passing today I noticed it is overgrown and, more significantly, has clearly been sprayed with weedkiller from a train, bearing a...

www.railforums.co.uk

What was it grown from - Yew? if so I would expect it to take along time to grow a replacement in a more suitable / accessible location
EDIT - info on another web page suggests it was box - if so also slow growing I think

Interesting info here and good pics of it as was (page from 2022) - includes a picture of a DMU in 2020 with a commemorative headboard relating to this

The Chilworth Chicken | Surrey Hills Society

www.surreyhillssociety.org

It would seem that something is to be done to secure a replacement memorial for Henry Wicks, even if the Chilworth Chicken does not rise, phoenix like, from the ashes. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd1p2k8011o

 

[WesternLancer]

It would seem that something is to be done to secure a replacement memorial for Henry Wicks, even if the Chilworth Chicken does not rise, phoenix like, from the ashes. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd1p2k8011o

Thanks - this is carefully worded - tho that's not to detract from the credit deserve for efforts towards action -

"Sara Grisewood, rail line officer for the North Downs Line, said: "We will work closely together with local community groups, the parish council and Network Rail to find the best way to remember Jessie's Seat." "

which could end up being something like a photo of what once existed - which is probably a fairly poor substitute for the real thing (now destroyed of course) which was so unusual and had survived for so long.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The memorial at Liverpool Street is for the Great Eastern Railway; the memorial at Kings Cross is for the Great Northern Railway. Both of them are for the First World War and contain the names of those railway employees killed.

The original Liverpool Street memorial was erected in 1922, and that at Kings Cross in 1920. A new memorial for the latter incorporating original name panels was erected by the British Railways Board in 1973. However, the addition for the Second World War did not include a list of names. This is the inscription on the latter memorial:
1914 - 1919
To the immortal memory of the men of the Great Northern Railway who gave their lives in the Great War.
1939 - 1945
To the immortal memory of the men of the London and North Eastern Railway who gave their lives in the Second World War.

Sadly, therefore, I think that the only memorial there is is the one at Ilford Cemetery.

 

[Deepgreen]

This today from the BBC. Let's hope NR aren't allowed anywhere near it.

New Brookwood Cemetery memorial garden to railway workers created

The garden has been created as part of the 200th anniversary of the first passenger railway service.

www.bbc.co.uk

New cemetery memorial garden to railway workers​

Image source,South Western Railway
Image caption,
The memorial garden is on a piece of disused land near the cemetery
ByBob Dale
South East

• • Published
    3 October 2025, 16:32 BST

Updated 12 minutes ago
A memorial garden dedicated to railway staff has been opened at one of the country's largest cemeteries.
The site has been created at Brookwood near Woking by the train operator South Western Railways.
The project has been part of the 200th anniversary of passenger rail travel in September 2025.
Brookwood was opened in 1854 to deal with the chronic shortage of grave space in London, with trains used to bring the dead from the capital to Surrey until 1941.

Image source,South Western Railway
Image caption,
Old tracks from the nearby railway have been used to create the memorial
The garden has been created on a disused patch of land between the station and the cemetery.
A section of old track from the railway has been used as the centrepiece, along with planters made from old sleepers.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Was at Crewe station earlier today. Above a ramp leading down from the South end of platform 11 is a small rectangular plaque commemorating 19 year old postal worker David Renton Hopley, whom I understand was tragically killed at the station in May 1985 when a battery-operated Post Office platform tractor overturned into a water-filled gully. He was reportedly trapped underneath and drowned.

 

[flixtonman]

Is there a memorial to those who died or were injured in the Cheadle Hulme derailment in 1964?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There's a 'blue plaque' memorial to Paul Henry Abell (1951-2021) on the Manchester-bound platform at Ashburys station. Pic below

New blue plaque at Greater Manchester station honours railway historian and journalist | Northern News

A blue plaque has been unveiled at Ashburys station in Greater Manchester to honour a railway historian and journalist’s life-long dedication to the railway.

media.northernrailway.co.uk

Extract...

Paul Abell, who sadly passed away in 2021, was a member of the Friends of Glossop station group and was an integral part of the railway community.

He was a key player in a project to install a heritage board on each station along the Glossop line, writing the information for Gorton and Ashburys himself, having grown up in the area.