The Story
This is the story, as far as can be told so long after,
of the short life and violent death of a young man who
was born and bred in the Parish of North Mymms. Assisted
in researching the young man's times by my 12-year-old son,
we soon came to know our subject, somewhat affectionately,
as Herby.
Herby was no relative of ours. We first came to hear of
him when my son was very young, and in the spring,
summer and autumn days when there was nothing else on
the agenda, we would ride the short journey out to North
Mymms Park to go blackberry picking, horse-watching or
just plain old exploring. We would park our car near
the church and walk through the churchyard. Fairly
early on, when my son was perhaps four years old, he
would ask me what the headstones were, and having
explained he liked to hear about the people who were
resting below them. And so, we first met Herby.
Opposite the entrance to St Mary's Parish Church in the
shade of a huge Wellingtonia and a little behind a
wooden bench lies a pair of headstones of identical style.
Both are very worn, but may be read with care and a
little extrapolation. The one to the left is Herby's.
It reads:
Some of the lettering on the left is badly worn; the "4"
in "4th CHILD" is now illegible as are the first four
letters of the word "instantly" and the "L" from "L&NWR".
Suffice to say, there was enough inscription left to
impart that a young man had met an untimely death. Many
questions were asked by my son. For most of them I had
but one answer. "Maybe one day we will try and find out".
Herby's resting place became a spot at which to pause
whenever we visited North Mymms. We would stand quietly
and wonder what had happened to him, speculate about his
life, and talk in general terms of living in Victorian times.
It was a natural progression then, from speculation to
research, and when some eight years after first meeting
Herby, we needed a subject for a research project,
there was only one choice.
My son, now in his second year at secondary school, is
often set homework that involves research, so we
decided we would choose a subject and find out as much
as possible from all the sources to which we had access.
My son would be able to get to grips with some primary
source material, see how public records are kept, and
learn just how much information is available about our
history - if you know where to look.
This then is a report on our findings. Our starting point
a gravestone and our subject Herbert George Town.
Herby's father, Henry Richard Town, was born around 1842
in the Sussex town of Little Hampton. His mother was a
Lincolnshire lass born in Langtoft around 1844. It
appears that Henry's work on the railways brought them
together and they were married. Their
first child, William Edward, was born in 1865 in Huntingdon
where they made their first home together. Walter Frank,
their second son, followed two years later. By 1869 the
family had moved to the little village of Abbots Ripton -
a stones throw from the railway lines and Annie gave birth
to Mary Emily Henrietta.
Henry, a signalman for the Great Northern Railway,
soon received another posting, and the family was on
the move again, this time to set up home with the other
railwaymen's families in the Parish of North Mymms,
Hertfordshire. At that time, the community of local
railwaymen lived in the area of the Parish known as
Marshmoor. Marshmoor still exists, much of the area now
given over to an estate of mobile homes, but in 1871
there were only six households in addition to Marshmoor
Farm, and of those six household the head of all but one
had employment with the railway. The remaining one
household was that of 36 year old Charles Hill, a police
constable.
At least three of the homes were actually owned by the
railway company, and these were situated close together
between Marshmoor Lane and the railway lines. Two were
attached and in the exact position of today's Railway
Cottages. The third was closer to the tracks and known,
for obvious reasons, as the Black House. Today, there
is no trace of the Black House or of the signal box that
was located a few yards down the track. Today's Railway
Cottages are believed to date from 1898, although built
on the same plot of land as their predecessors. Railway
Cottages are in fact only one home now; although they
retain their old name the partition wall was knocked
through in the mid 1960's.
Based on surviving evidence, we may assume with some
certainty that the Town family moved into one of these
three homes. Applying a little logic based on the sizes
of the families residing there at the time and the space
available in each of the three homes, we may further
surmise that the Town family lived in one of the railway
cottages as Black House was noticeably smaller. The
other cottage was also home to a railway family - possibly
that of Marshmoor resident George Blandford who was also
a GNR signalman. It would certainly have been convenient
for work, as Henry and George would have had just 50
yards or so to hop over the tracks and walk to their work
at the signal box.
William Town was seven or eight years of age, and on Monday, 4th
March 1872 he was admitted as a scholar to the
the Boys' School less than half a mile away along
Huggins Lane. Welham Green - then Welhamgreen - was as
may be expected, much smaller then, and largely contained
in the area south of the junction with Dixons Hill Road
and Dellsome Lane, so open fields flanked William's walk
to school. He would have passed less than a dozen cottages
along Huggins Lane before reaching the impressive country
pile known as Frowick on his right. From there he would
have continued along the Lane for another two minutes,
and thus to school.
The school had once been the Parish workhouse and comprised
two or three cottages knocked through. It had undergone
some restructuring, for in its early days as a school it
had been too narrow and very low in the ceiling. William
was one of some sixty boys, his classmates being the sons
of agricultural labourers, artisans and servants and a
fair few of his comrades were 'railway boys' like himself.
His little brother Walter would join him in two years, and
when Mary was old enough, she would attend the school for
girls and infants at Water End.
Although the intention of The Elementary Education Act of
1870 was to enforce a duty on parents to send their children
to receive a good education, school attendance was still
not free. It is a good indication of how seriously Henry
and Annie took this duty by the fact that they sent all
their children to school and kept them there past the minimum
leaving age of 12 years old. Henry and Annie were to have
eight children together, and on 18th February 1871, their
fourth, Herbert George was born.
At the time of Herby's birth, William Ewart Gladstone was enjoying his first ministry as Prime Minister and in the United States, General Ulysses S. Grant was in his third year as President. Politics in the grand scale, however, was for most of the people of North Mymms Parish a spectacle to observe rather than in which to participate. Of the 1,157 residents of the Parish only 53 had the vote. By the end of Herby's short life that situation had changed considerably. A far greater percentage of the population were to be enfranchised, and numerous historic events were encompassed by his 17 years. On November 10th in the year of his birth, for example, the newspaper correspondent Henry Stanley found David Livingstone in Ujiji and immortalised the meeting with his words 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' Closer to home, the Town family's neighbour 100 yards up Marshmoor Lane were the residents of Marshmoor Farm. 71 year old William Reynolds was at that time the farmer and head of the household. Over the years, tenancy of the farm was to change several times as was its size. In 1871 it encompassed 23 acres.
Herby was baptised on 4th August 1872 and the Town family
continued to grow. In 1873 Albert was born, followed in
1875 by Ernest Harry. In the same year Mark Twain published
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".
The following year brought the work of Alexander Graham Bell
to fruition with the invention of the telephone, and on 11th
August 1876, William Town was given half a crown for good
school attendance. Prizes were given out during the School
Treat which heralded the beginning of the school holiday.
The boys and girls and teachers met at Waterend School and
walked in procession to St. Mary's. As they approached the
church they sang 'Brightly Glows Our Banner'. 16 days later,
on 27th August, Ernest was the centre of attention at St.
Mary's when he was baptised.
Marshmoor Farm, 2001 - all that is left, a ruin in
imminent danger of collapse.
Herby was six years old in 1877 when a second daughter was
born to Henry and Annie. Edith Kate shared the year of her
birth with Hermann Hesse, the author of 'Steppenwolf' and
'Siddhartha'. By now Herby had already started school, earlier than was the
custom, having been admitted on Monday, 24th April 1876
together with one William Moore and Thomas Atkins. Mr George H.
Foster, the master at that time noted the attendance of 65
scholars.
1878 began with a tragedy. The boys of the Boys' School and
the girls and infants of Waterend School were eagerly
anticipating the school treat that had been deferred from
the previous summer, when one little boy - a neighbour of
the Town family and a contemporary of Herby's - was killed
by a train at Marshmoor. Marshmoor Bridge was not built
until the late 1880's and the railway had to be crossed by
level crossing. On 10th January, little Samuel Marlborough
had completed his morning attendance at school and was on
his way home for lunch. He came to the level crossing and
was apparently so intent on watching the up-train, he failed
to see the down-train. It knocked him down and he was instantly
killed. The long-deferred School Treat was held on the following
day, but it was marred by the tragedy. In his address the vicar
made sad reference to Samuel's accident. Later, the Band of
Hope - a local temporance group, initiated a subscription so that
cash could be raised to put up a memorial.
Herby lived in a time of rapid development in terms of
inventions and discoveries. On February 19th, 1878 Thomas
Edison obtained a patent for the phonograph and in the same
year London first enjoyed the benefits of electric street
lighting. On 31st August Edith Town was baptised. It would
have also been about this time when William left school and
took up the duties of an Errand Boy.
The month before Herby's eighth birthday was an inauspicious
time for the British Army, as it saw the defeat and slaughter
of a British and colonial column at Isandlwana by the Zulus.
Few escaped the Zulu's mopping up 'operation' and drummer lads
and regiment's boys as young as Herby's brother William were
amongst the dead. Although the Zulus were defeated two months
later at Khambula it tends to be Isandlwana - and its off-shoot,
Rorke's Drift that are remembered. The Zulu war of 1879 was
virtually the last campaign that saw the British going into
battle wearing scarlet coats, blue trousers and white pith helmets.
Elsewhere in the world, history continued to unfold, and just over
a fortnight before the Zulu's defeat at Khambula, in the now West
German town of Ulm, Albert Einstein was born.
As railway children, the Town boys and girls perhaps had an advantage
over some of their school mates in achieving good
attendance marks, for they would not have been required to join
in the seasonal work that would keep some children off school.
The children of farm labourers, for example, could not be spared
for school during harvest time. Nevertheless Herby did well and
was rewarded for his attendance during 1879. He received half a
crown for 391 attendance marks, equal to his school mate Robert
Pollard and beaten only by Alfred Longstaff whose attendance mark
was 394. Herby was 8 years old. There is evidence to suggest
that Herby sometimes went 'bashing' instead of to class.
Herby's big sister Mary was 11, when her work was noticed by the
School Inspector and used as an example. She was working through
her Standard VI year on such subjects as composition, dictation,
grammar and long arithmetical exercises to 'find the greatest
common measure of a series'. Compositions were generally about
history, the following being an example of Mary's work.
George the third King of England did not like to appear in public.
He loved quietness. One day nearly all the inhabitant of a town
assembled together to welcome the king. But instead of going that
way he took another route, but as he was going that way he saw every
house, every road and every lane deserted. He could see no one only
a woman out in the field at work. He at once went over to her, and
said, 'My good woman how is it that you have not gone with your
neighbours to see the king.'' Then the woman said ''I have a large
family sir and it takes all I can provide for them but I should very
much liked to have gone and seen him. Good King George, may GOD bless
hint [sic].'' Then the king took a note out of his pocket of the Bank
of England, and gave it to the poor woman and said, You can tell your
neighbours when they come back that you have seen the king, and they
have not.''
In 1881, having made the transition from scholar to working lad,
William, now in his 17th year, was first to leave the family home
and follow in his father's footsteps to gain employment with the
railway, but not as a signalman as we shall see later. Historic
events included the death of Disraeli, the assassination of US
president James Garfield, the surrender of Sitting Bull at Fort
Bullford in Dakota and the outbreak of the First Boer War.
In 1882, another son, and the last to be born to Henry and Annie,
came into the world. He was named Percy Joseph and was baptised
on 27th August. The Town children continued to do well at school
and in 1883 Ernest, now eight years old, earned the prize of five
shillings for good conduct. The year also saw thirty-three-year-old
Robert Louis Stevenson published 'Treasure Island'. Hot on its
publishing heels, Mark Twain published Huckleberry Finn on 1st
January 1884. A year on and the paper vendors were calling out the
death of General Gordon at Khartoum.
It was agreed that the memorial should bear these words:-
Herby and his family however, were probably more affected by events
nearer to home. On the eve of the New Year - almost a month before
General Gordon's death, 11-year-old Frank Chalkley of The Lodge, North
Mymms, finally died after suffering horribly from hydrophobia contracted
from the bite of a rabid dog. In his final hours he became peaceful -
almost happy. He spoke of 'going home' and that he would soon 'be with
Him'. He appeared to have visions of heaven. The Town family must have
been affected as were the rest of the villagers, but Herby, Albert and
Ernest must have felt it all the more for Frank was a school mate.
Frank drifted away with the old year, and was buried on 7th January.
The Band of Hope organised a fund so that s memorial stone might be
set up for poor Frank. Many villagers subscribed, including Herbert,
Albert and Ernest Town who each gave three-pence.
By now, having done well at school, Herby was the school's top boy. Later in the year, it was time for Herby to complete his time as a scholar, and on Monday, 9th June, 1884 he left to take up a place in the garden's of Squire Church. That same year, Henry (Herby's father) was elected to be a Sidesman at St. Mary's, a post that he was to hold for several years.
Although Herby missed the excitement of witnessing part
of the school ceiling falling onto the head of their master
(without serious injury except perhaps to his dignity) it
is highly probable that Albert and Ernest were there. On a
Tuesday afternoon in May 1886, just after a singing lesson, a
square yard of ceiling fell onto the head and back of Mr
William Knowles. Discretion being the better part of valour,
he sent the boys home. That evening part of the school was
declared unsafe.
School continued for two months until another fall one Friday
night, when an architect reported the roof to be in an unsafe
and dangerous condition. The old building was finally giving
up the ghost. A temporary classroom of iron construction was
set up in the playground.
Over the next year, the old school was demolished and a new one built in its place. The architect, Mr Bates and Mr Curnow the builder got to work and in August 1887 Mrs Cotton Curtis laid the foundation stone. Building costs were estimated at £950. The building still stands although it has now been converted into several residences.
February 1888 was soon gone, and Herby was not to see another
birthday. He was 17 on the 18th of that month.
The Boys School - as it is now (2001), converted into homes.
During the last full year of Herby's life The American Exhibition
came to West Brompton; Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show amazed
the crowds. Was the Town family amongst them?
It was most probably on Friday, 18th May 1888 that Herby left
his family at Marshmoor. We don't know whether he walked down
the line path from Marshmoor to Potters Bar or was afforded
some form of horse-drawn transport to the Station. As the son
of a signalman he may even have been allowed the special
privilege of joining the train from Marshmoor Sidings within
sight of his home since birth. Nor do we know whether his
mother and father, his three younger brothers and sister came
to see him off. It is nice to think so - just as it is to
suppose that his elder brother Walter was there to meet him
at the other end of his journey. If so he would most probably
have alighted at Cross Lane Station, Salford - just two minutes
walk from Walter's home.
Walter was already working for the L&NW Railway Company and had
his home at 14, Lord Nelson Street. The street is no longer
there; it together with the adjacent streets made way for what
is now the Junction 3 roundabout of the M602. The M602 has also
taken the space of most of the Liverpool and Manchester Line
in the vicinity, following its course and eating up Cross Lane,
Seedley and Weaste Stations.
Whether Herby spent the weekend looking for lodgings close to
his new employment, or Walter had already found him some is
unknown, but lodgings were indeed found. And they could hardly
have been more convenient for Herby for they were situated
within 600 yards of Weaste Station at 26, Mode Wheel Road.
In 1888 Mode Wheel Road followed a line to the east of which
was built up with the many residential streets and businesses
of Salford. To the west were large tracts of open countryside.
Unlike the road where Walter lived, Mode Wheel Road still exists,
although now it no longer forms a virtual demarcation between
countryside and conurbation. The whole area, apart from that
to the south, is heavily built up. The road runs south towards
Salford Docks and terminates close to a large engineering
works, just as it did in 1888. Now though, the dwelling houses
are gone, today's buildings all being commercial.
It is likely that Herby started his employment early on the
morning of Monday, 22nd May, probably reporting to his new
boss, the stationmaster Mr Isaac Daniels to be directed to
his duties.
Herby was to make this journey only four or five times.
It is reasonable to assume that Herby spent much of his off-duty
time with his brother Walter. Herby was a quiet and not too
venturesome lad, and probably would have been happy with the
company of a familiar face in those few days away from home.
He was certainly with Walter during the evening of Wednesday
23rd May, because Walter was the last person to have seen him
alive, as far as records tell. It appears they had an enjoyable
night and that when they parted, Herby was well and hearty.
Herby was due to begin work the next morning at 5.15am. His
boss, the stationmaster Isaac Daniels was at the station by 5
o'clock, but he didn't see Herby. There is evidence that he had
been about, because he left his breakfast in the porter's room.
At 5.45 am several events reportedly occurred simultaneously.
A
train arrived at the station from Eccles, a fast excursion train
to North Wales passed through, and Joseph Crompton saw Herby
lying on the fast down platform. A little before 6, Mr Crompton,
who was the station's pointsman, told the stationmaster about
Herby. Mr Daniels went to investigate and found that Herby was
dead with an awful head-wound.
There is no record of the fact, but it is logical to assume that
the police were called from the nearby police station in Eccles
New Road, just five minutes walk away. Herby's body was probably
taken to the Church of England Mortuary Chapel in Salford Borough
Cemetery. An inquest was held the following day in the Swan Hotel
with coroner Frederick Price presiding.
Mr Price heard evidence from Isaac Daniels, Joseph Crompton and
Herby's brother Walter. There is no record of any enquiries being
made of the locomotive engineer, his fireman or any of the passengers
from the train that is supposed to have killed Herby. The conclusion
was that the excursion train had struck and killed him, and that is
most probably the case.
It is interesting to note though, by today's standards a coroner would not record a finding of accidental death in similar circumstances without a far more thorough enquiry. It is hard to fathom how the fast through train could have caused the injury bearing in mind Herby's body was found on the platform. Did someone open a door that struck him? Was something protruding from the side of the locomotive or train? Did Herby lean into the path of the train or trip and fall into its side? This far away from the event we shall never know, but it is testimony to the fragility of life and the frequency of violent death prevalent in that period that the questions were apparently not asked at the time.
Herby made his last journey on Sunday, back to his home in Marshmoor that he had left a little over a week before. He was buried at St Mary's on Monday, 28th May.
So ends the story of the short life of Herbert George Town. The June issue of the North Mymms Parish Magazine marked his passing with these words:-
"Two sad fatalities connected with our Parish and neighbourhood
have to be recorded. Herbert Town, in his eighteenth year, had
left his family only a week to commence his carer in the L.&N.W.
Railway Company's service at Weaste, near Manchester, when he
was struck by an excursion train and instantly killed. The
courteous Station Master of Potter's Bar also, after a short
but painful illness, the result of an accident to his hand,
died on the 28th ult. The comfort is that we believe both served
the Heavenly Master here below, and were ready to enter on a
higher service above. It is almost needless to add that the
relatives have met with the deepest sympathy from all who knew
them."
The headstone that lies to the right of Herby's is that of his
mother and father, Annie passing away in 1905 and Henry reaching
the respectable age of 84, finally 'given his rest' in 1927.
None of their other children appear to be buried in the churchyard,
so Herby, who they lost first, stayed with them the longest and
remains with them still.
That he was mourned and missed is certain, and if an indication were needed then it may be found. Herby's eldest brother William, by now a railway fireman, was living at Hampden Road, Peteborough. On the 22nd October 1888, five months after Herby's death, a baby boy was born to his wife Lucy. Enabling the name of a lost brother to continue, they named him Herbert.