My younger brother has been researching the family tree and he has come across documents regarding my great grandfather on my Grandmothers side.
It appears he was employed as a platelayer on the N.E.R. and it states that Edward Cowan was killed in an accident in the course of his employment but dosent give any details as to the where or when.
We have also found out that my Great Grandmothers brother also came to grief on the N.E.R. but in more tragic circumstances. The story goes he got involved with a young lady way above his station, her family wanting better things for their daughter arranged to have her sent to school in Switzerland and she was put onto the train at Newcastle Central for London, he was so distraught he stood in front of the express she was on at Bensham and met his end. A regular spot at Bensham for this type of thing is still today known as Dead Mans Arch, the most famous suicide there was of the great Hughie Gallacher the former Newcastle United centre forward who met a similar end.
Its amazing what you come across as I had never heard that before, sooo it looks like a lot of digging up records for Wor Kid.
Genealogy
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redtoon1892
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Strawberry_Lynn
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Re: Genealogy
Dead Man's Arch & Dead Man's Crossing are two different places. Hughie Gallacher committed suicide at Dead Man's Crossing, Low Fell, on the East Coast Main Line. The word "crossing" suggests that there was/is a level crossing at Low Fell, which there isn't, and as far as I know, there never was one. There certainly wasn't in 1957, the time of Hughie's death, so the "crossing" mentioned in accounts of Hughie Gallacher's suicide could either mean the barrow crossing that was at Low Fell Station (which closed, I believe, four years earlier in 1953), or the bridge that takes Eastern Avenue over the East Coast Main Line.
Dead Man's Arch is indeed, where Bensham Station used to be. I takes a footpath under the ECML from Elysium Lane to Tynevale Terrace/Bensham Cresent. The story that I've grown up with is that a train driver - distraught at causing a fatal accident near Bensham Station - hung himself at the entrance (Bensham Cresent side) of the arch, and if you go through the arch at 12:00 Midnight on New Year's Day, you will feel the sensation of bumping into the driver's hanging body!
There used to be what must have been an old lamp bracket at the Bensham Crescent entrance of the arch. This bracket - which vaguely resembled a hangman's gibbet - in my opinion, is the foundation of the story. This bracket was removed a few years back, as it was obstructing the erection of 7'0" steel fencing that you now see all over the ECML.
Your variation of the story is very interesting, though I doubt we'll never get to the bottom of its origin, or how long it's been around. Much to my disappointment, the names Dead Man's Arch & Dead Man's Crossing do not appear on Ordinance Survey, or any other maps for that matter. They don't officially exist. And as far as I know, Bensham Station/Dead Man's Arch was never a popular suicide spot
Dead Man's Arch is indeed, where Bensham Station used to be. I takes a footpath under the ECML from Elysium Lane to Tynevale Terrace/Bensham Cresent. The story that I've grown up with is that a train driver - distraught at causing a fatal accident near Bensham Station - hung himself at the entrance (Bensham Cresent side) of the arch, and if you go through the arch at 12:00 Midnight on New Year's Day, you will feel the sensation of bumping into the driver's hanging body!
There used to be what must have been an old lamp bracket at the Bensham Crescent entrance of the arch. This bracket - which vaguely resembled a hangman's gibbet - in my opinion, is the foundation of the story. This bracket was removed a few years back, as it was obstructing the erection of 7'0" steel fencing that you now see all over the ECML.
Your variation of the story is very interesting, though I doubt we'll never get to the bottom of its origin, or how long it's been around. Much to my disappointment, the names Dead Man's Arch & Dead Man's Crossing do not appear on Ordinance Survey, or any other maps for that matter. They don't officially exist. And as far as I know, Bensham Station/Dead Man's Arch was never a popular suicide spot
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redtoon1892
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Re: Genealogy
From the "Independant".
ON A bright morning in June 1957, two young trainspotters saw a small man wearing a flat-cap standing on a footbridge over the main London-Edinburgh railtrack at Gateshead, near Newcastle. For half an hour they watched him as he paced backwards and forwards. He seemed agitated and confused, openly weeping, talking to himself and occasionally pounding the bridge-rail with his fists.
At exactly 12.08 he looked up suddenly as he heard the whistle and roar of a northbound express train. Moving quickly now, his mind apparently made up, he stepped down from the bridge, jumped over a low fence and began to clamber up the embankment. He paused briefly near the young trainspotters, smiled almost in embarrassment, and said only one word - "sorry" - before walking without hesitation on to the line and into the path of the oncoming train. His decapitated body was found 100 yards down the line, at a spot known locally as Dead Man's Crossing.
ON A bright morning in June 1957, two young trainspotters saw a small man wearing a flat-cap standing on a footbridge over the main London-Edinburgh railtrack at Gateshead, near Newcastle. For half an hour they watched him as he paced backwards and forwards. He seemed agitated and confused, openly weeping, talking to himself and occasionally pounding the bridge-rail with his fists.
At exactly 12.08 he looked up suddenly as he heard the whistle and roar of a northbound express train. Moving quickly now, his mind apparently made up, he stepped down from the bridge, jumped over a low fence and began to clamber up the embankment. He paused briefly near the young trainspotters, smiled almost in embarrassment, and said only one word - "sorry" - before walking without hesitation on to the line and into the path of the oncoming train. His decapitated body was found 100 yards down the line, at a spot known locally as Dead Man's Crossing.
Re: Genealogy
Sometimes this forum just brings back the past so vividly. I had not realised that Bensham was known for suicides, but I had experience of one there and it is crystal clear now, in spite of taking place in the early evening on Wednesday 12 April 1989. I was passenger in the train (HST) with a Kings Cross train crew working home. A blast on the horn and emergency braking and I knew exactly what to expect before I got to the door window. A youngish man. But no more details. The only part of the job I hated and they always made me think hard about life. Enough dark thoughts for tonight.