X marks The Spot

Not far from home is a memorial arch standing by a busy railway line and entirely inaccessible to the public.

This is the spot where in 1830 the first passenger died as the result of a railway accident.

It was the first day of operation of the world’s first passenger railway line, connecting Liverpool and Manchester. To celebrate, this first day was a grand event, attracting worthies from across the country and abroad. For the only time ever, eight locomotives were travelling together in the same direction using both lines. There had been a big event in Liverpool, and there was going to be a big banquet in Manchester. 800 people were travelling in the convoy.

The engines stopped here to take on water. The passengers had been told to stay in their carriages, but William Huskisson, MP for Liverpool, was determined to shake the hand of the prime minister, the Duke of Wellington - to patch things up after a fall out. That was his one success of the day.

In a bizarre series of events it all went wrong for Huskisson, and he ended up going under the wheels of “Rocket”. He was taken by locomotive to Eccles and the vicarage there, where he died.

The succeeding publicity around this unfortunate turn of events made people world-wide aware of the arrival of a new, cheap (and potentially dangerous) form of passenger transport. I am sure it’s not how William Huskisson would have wanted to be remembered.