| Ref No | CALB/BIO/F205501 |
| AltRefNo | F205501 |
| Collection | Calthrop Boucicault Collection |
| Title | Material relating to the death of Boucicault's eldest son, Dion William Boucicault, in a railway accident at Abbots Ripton, on January 21, 1876, including |
| Date | 1.1876 |
| Extent | 19 items |
| Description | Material relating to the death of Boucicault's eldest son, Dion William Boucicault, in a railway accident at Abbots Ripton, on January 21, 1876, including. Item 1 -- a photocopied page (p. 309) from The History of the Great Northern Railway, 1845-1902, by Charles H. Grinling, H. V. Borley and C. Hamilton Ellis, Methuen, 1903, describing the Abbots Ripton accident;. Item 2 -- Barnett's Official Streetplan of Huntingdon and Godmanchester;. Item 3 -- a brochure about Abbots Ripton Hall Gardens, listing the plants in the gardens;. Item 4 -- a leaflet about Ramsey Rural Museum, not far from Huntingdon;. Item 5 -- 1 letter from the Huntingdonshire County Librarian and 7 letters from the Huntingdonshire County Archivist responding to an enquiry by Christopher Calthrop about the Abbots Ripton disaster; these mention an Illustrated London News article, dated 29th January 1876, about the disaster; possible efforts by Dion Boucicault to commemorate the accident in Huntingdon (including restoration of the old Grammar School, a drinking fountain, and a cross at the site of the accident); and Dion William's grave;. Item 6 -- 1 letter from the editor and 2 letters from the librarian of the Peterborough Citizen and Advertiser in response to an enquiry by Christopher Calthrop about the Abbots Ripton accident; these mention photostats provided to Calthrop, but there are not as many among these documents as are mentioned in the letters;. Item 7 -- photostat of a newspaper article describing the Abbots Ripton rail accident; it is not clear from which paper, possibly the Peterborough Citizen and Advertiser; the article is incomplete and partly illegible;. Item 8 -- 1 letter from the headmaster of Huntingdon Grammar School in response to an enquiry about Boucicault's efforts to commemorate Dion William and the Abbots Ripton accident; . Item 9 -- 1 letter from the editor of the Huntingdon newspaper The Hunts Post, saying they are unable to assist in Calthrop's research; . Item 10 -- 1 letter from a Cambridgeshire County Museums Officer requesting a picture of Dion and Dion William Boucicault and information about the restoration of the old Grammar School in Huntingdon, now the Cromwell Museum, in which Boucicault was involved;. Item 11 -- 1 letter from the archivist of the British Transport Historical Records office, informing Calthrop that he can find no reference to the memorial to Dion William which Calthrop had enquired about;. Item 12 -- 1 letter from a resident of Huntingdon, possibly from a family of stonemasons, informs Calthrop that he has no information about the Boucicault memorials, as his company's records don't go sufficiently far back;. Item 13 -- 1 letter from the British Railways Eastern Region Public Relations Officer in response to an enquiry by Calthrop about a memorial etrected by Boucicault near the Abbots Ripton crash site; . Item 14 -- 2 letters from a temporary curator of a Huntingdonshire museum in response to enquiries by Calthrop about the drinking fountain and restoration of the old Grammar School;. Item 15 -- 1 newspaper cutting from The Hunts Post, 6th February, 1969, showing a photograph of a white stone cross next to a railway track, accompanied by a letter from Christopher Calthrop asking the public for information on the whereabouts of the memorial since its removal;. Item 16 -- letters from 3 correspondents in response to Calthrop's letter to The Hunts Post;. Item 17 -- 4 letters from John Hadley, a Godmanchester resident, in response to Calthrop's letter to The Hunts Post; the correspondent includes a 5-page account of the Boucicault family's involvement in the rail disaster and Dion Boucicault's subsequent efforts to commemorate the incident; Hadley has also included a phtocopy of Plate 34 of A History of London Transport by T. C. Barker and Michael Robbins, showing a large hoarding around the Kings Cross Station construction site in 1862, with a playbill for THE COLLEEN BAWN;. Item 18 -- a list by Christopher Calthrop of steps taken to gather information about the Abbots Ripton incident and subsequent events;. Item 19 -- notes by Christopher Calthrop about the Abbots Ripton disaster and subsequent events, including excerpts from various newspapers and the "Annual Register" for 1876. |
| The letters are from the following correspondents -- Harold ?; R. V. Keyworth, Huntingdonshire County Librarian; P. G. M. Dickinson, Huntingdonshire County Archivist; J. F. J. Graves, editor of the Peterborough Citizen and Advertiser; A. E. Cleaver, Librarian of the Peterborough Citizen and Advertiser and the Peterborough Evening Telegraph; G. C. Rowntree, Headmaster of Huntingdon Grammar School; J. Goldsmith, Cambridgeshire County Museums Officer; E. Atkinson, Archivist, British Transport Historical Records; Harold Thackray; G. S. Knox, Public Relations Officer, British Railway Eastern Region Regional Headquarters; Laura Pinkney, temporary curator of a Huntingdonshire museum; Miss E. Bryant; Joy Bozeat; W. Warren; John Hadley, Godmanchester; . |
| Notes | Previous reference number: UKC/CALB/BIO/F205501 |
| Subject | Rail Accident |
| Train Accident |
| Train Collision |
| Event | Colleen Bawn, The |
| Related Person | Boucicault, Dion, (Dionysius Lardner), Mr., 1820-1890 |
| Boucicault, Dion William, Mr., 1855-1876 |
| Bourcicault, George Darley, Mr. |
| Boucicault, Darley George, Mr. |
| Related Organisation | Huntingdonshire County Library |
| Huntingdonshire County Records Office (later County of Huntingdon and Peterborough County Records Office) |
| Peterborough Citizen and Advertiser |
| The Hunts Post |
| Cambridgeshire Libraries and Information Service |
| Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon |
| British Transport Historical Records Office |
| British Railway Eastern Region Regional Headquarters |
| Category | Correspondence |
| photocopied article |
| Notes |
| Press cuttings |
| Access conditions | This material is available for consultation at the University of Kent's Special Collections & Archives reading room, Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NU (specialcollections@kent.ac.uk). |
| Copyright | Material within the archive may remain within copyright under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Special Collections & Archives staff will assist where possible in helping trace copyright holders, but it is ultimately the responsibility of users to obtain the permission of the copyright holder for reproduction of copyright material for uses other than research or private study. |
| Level | SubSeries |