place

Radstock rail accident

1876 disasters in the United Kingdom1876 in England19th century in SomersetHistory of SomersetRadstock
Railway accidents and incidents in SomersetRailway accidents in 1876Somerset and Dorset Joint RailwayTrain collisions in EnglandUse British English from February 2014

The Radstock rail accident took place on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway in south west England, on 7 August 1876. Two trains collided on a single track section, resulting in fifteen passengers being killed. It was difficult to assign blame to any individual for the crash. The underlying cause was that the Somerset and Dorset Railway was essentially bankrupt at the time of the crash. The infrastructure was inadequate to the demands of the traffic and the staff were inadequately trained for their duties.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Radstock rail accident (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Radstock rail accident
St Julian's Road,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Radstock rail accidentContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.302 ° E -2.41 °
placeShow on map

Address

St Julian's Road
BA2 8NE
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Share experience

Nearby Places

Writhlington School

Writhlington School is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–18 in Writhlington, Bath and North East Somerset, England. It is the main secondary school in the Radstock area, providing further education to local children and some pupils who live outside the catchment area. The school became an academy in October 2011. Around 70% of year 11 pupils apply to attend sixth form. The school is notable for its orchid project, which has won numerous awards including a gold medal at the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show. The school has also won awards in business with their enterprise companies. It is one of the few state schools to have its own non-compulsory Combined Cadet Force (CCF) with over 150 pupils involved from years 9 to 13. In March 2017, the school received a "requires improvement" critical status rating from Ofsted. This is currently still in place. A turf-cutting ceremony was held at the start of a major rebuilding programme funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. It is designed to increase the capacity of the school to 1,300+ pupils and was due for completion in January 2010. The school moved into the new building in April 2010. The British Council for School Environments, an education charity which pioneers and supports the creation of effective and efficient learning environments, declared the Writhlington School project as Winner of the Excellence in Design for Teaching and Learning: Secondary New Build and Winner of the Badge in Excellence in Design for Virtual Learning.

Ammerdown House, Kilmersdon
Ammerdown House, Kilmersdon

Ammerdown House in Kilmersdon, Somerset, England, was built in 1788. It has been designated as Grade I listed building.It was built as a country house with stables and an adjacent formal garden within landscaped parkland in emparked landscape by James Wyatt for Thomas Samuel Jolliffe. The house has been handed down through the Jolliffe family to William Jolliffe, a politician, who was made Baron Hylton in the mid-19th century; the house was enlarged in 1855 & 1877, with further alteration to the west front being undertaken in 1901, possibly by Sir Edwin Lutyens.A pair of lodges, gate piers and gates, associated with Ammerdown House, which were also built in 1788–94 by James Wyatt, are Grade II* listed buildings and on the English Heritage Heritage at Risk Register. Since 1973 the stables have been significantly altered and converted into a study centre.The orangery and walled garden were built around 1793.In 1853 John Twyford Jolliffe & Thomas Robert Jolliffe, the children of the builder of the house, Thomas Samuel Jolliffe, built a 150-foot (46 m) high column, known as the Ammerdown Park Column, Ammerdown Lighthouse or the Jolliffe Column. It was a near replica of Eddystone Lighthouse with a glass dome or viewing lantern which could be illuminated. It is a Grade II* listed building. In the late 19th century a local quarry owner, John Turner of Faulkland, took out a lawsuit against his neighbour Hedworth Jolliffe, 2nd Baron Hylton who owned Ammerdown House in Kilmersdon. When Turner lost he erected a tower of around 180 feet (55 m) high to rival the column at Ammerdown, with a dance hall and tea garden at the base. When Turner died in 1894, Lord Hylton bought the structure to demolish it. The base and dance hall were converted into workers cottages and eventually demolished in 1969.The gardens include gothic fountains and statues surrounded by mature yews nearly 4 metres (13.1 ft) high, hedging, Portugal laurels and honeysuckles trained over wired umbrellas. Spring colour is provided by daffodils, cowslips and magnolia with roses, dahlias and wild orchids flowering in the summer. The gardens are listed, Grade II*, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.The current residents of the house are Diana Jolliffe, daughter in law of the 5th Baron Hylton, the current Lord Hylton, and her children. The family estate covers many of the villages around including Kilmersdon, although much of the former residential property of the estate is run by a charitable housing association set up by the current Lord Hylton.