Documents relating to Allen Edmondson [1906]

Allen Edmondson, aged 35, of Bottoms, Walsden, killed when the buffer of the 2:55 train from Manchester to Hull hit his head.

He had started working as a platelayer two or three weeks earlier. He was previously a weaver for Messrs Dugdale of Walsden.

His crew were alerted to the oncoming train and moved off the tracks. He realised that he had left his pick on the track, went to retrieve it and was hit by the train.

He was married with a young family

Inquest into the death of Allen Edmondson, platelayer, of 752 Rochdale Road, Walsden, who was killed on the railway at Gauxholme when he was hit by the Manchester to Hull express train, aged 35.

He was a platelayer for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company and had been in that employment just over a fortnight. Before that he was a weaver.

His wife was Ellen Edmondson.

[His team were] alerted to the oncoming train about 3:30 and moved off the tracks. Allen went to retrieve his pick from the track and was hit by the train.

His co-workers found him dead, lying next to the track, bleeding from the head. He had been using a spade which he took with him when alerted to the train, as per regulations, but then realised he'd left his pick behind.

Mary Fielden, who laid out the body, said his left arm was broken from the elbow to the shoulder, his head was badly cut, on the right side above the temple, and he was bleeding from the ears.

Summing up, the Coroner said that the deceased was a conscientious man, and, knowing he ought not to have left his pick there, he ran back. Not having been long on the work he could not properly estimate the speed of the train and the danger he was running.

A verdict of fracture of the skull by being accidentally knocked down by a train while at his work was returned

The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company paid £169 compensation to the widow, Ellen Edmondson, and four young children of Allen Edmondson, who was killed on the 4th of June at Walsden while working as a platelayer.

This was to be paid at 15s a week for the first six months then 7s 6d thereafter. The children were Willie (12), Ada (5), Clara (3) and Mary (8 months)