Abbots Ripton rail accident

Abbots Ripton railway station was a railway station on the East Coast Main Line in the English county of Cambridgeshire. Although trains still pass on the now electrified railway the station closed in 1958. Due to the position of the station in a cutting, it had two platforms which were staggered. These served the fast lines only, though the goods lines ran around the back of each.

Abbots Ripton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Abbots Ripton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being an historic county of England. Abbots Ripton lies approximately 4 miles (6 km) north of Huntingdon on the B1090. The parish occupied some 4,191 acres (1,696 ha) of land in 1801, which had reduced to 4,080 acres (1,651 ha) by 2011. The parish of Abbots Ripton is home to 305 residents (2011 census). The village is also notable as the location of the Abbots Ripton railway disaster in 1876 in which a Flying Scotsman train was wrecked during a blizzard. The disaster led to important safety improvements in railway signalling. The civil parish includes the nearby hamlet of Wennington, which lies one mile north of Abbots Ripton. Wennington has a population of about 60 people.

Alconbury High School is a public high school located in Alconbury, England, operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). It is a U.S. publicly funded school, and all schools within DoDEA are fully accredited by U.S. accreditation agencies. It is not funded by the HM Government's Department for Education and is not open to British Citizens and British Nationals. It mainly serves families of USAF personnel based at RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth. It is one of three DoDEA school communities that still exist for families stationed in the United Kingdom. The other two are located at RAF Lakenheath and RAF Croughton, and all three of these communities are districted as part of the West District of DoDEA Europe. There used to be other American schools in England to support families and their students, but some have closed down, and those students are bussed to nearby school communities. For example, London Central Elementary High School, which officially closed in 2007, had its students transferred to Alconbury Middle High School in the following school year (2007-2008).

Wood Walton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Wood Walton lies approximately 6 miles (10 km) north of Huntingdon and just east of the A1. Wood Walton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. The civil parish of Wood Walton is spread over a wide area, the main village dissected by the East Coast Main Line. To the north of the village in the area known as "Church End" stands the (now redundant) parish church of St Andrew, clearly visible from passing trains. The church was listed as one of Songs of Praise's favourite churches. The church dates from around 1200 and is layered in history: the south aisle was added in 1250, a clerestory was added in the 16th century, and it received a major remodelling in the 1850s. It is now in the keeping of the Friends of Friendless Churches.Further north are the earthworks of Woodwalton Castle, a motte-and-bailey castle which formerly held the manor of the parish. In 1886 a hoard of Roman coins was dug up in the parish. The village stands at the edge of Woodwalton Fen, an area of special scientific interest.

Little Stukeley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of The Stukeleys, in Cambridgeshire, England. Little Stukeley lies approximately 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Huntingdon. Little Stukeley is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. In 1931 the parish had a population of 209.The Alconbury Weald development is taking place near Little Stukeley.

The Stukeleys is a civil parish in the district of Huntingdonshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, consisting of the villages of Great Stukeley and Little Stukeley, and the new settlement of Alconbury Weald being built on the old RAF Alconbury site. The parish lies just north-west of Huntingdon. As well as the two villages, the parish also includes Huntingdon racecourse. The East Coast Main Line runs across the eastern edge of the parish. The A14 road runs south-east to north-west across the western half of the parish and has junction with the A1 road just outside the western border of the parish. Cambridgeshire County Council has its headquarters at New Shire Hall on the Alconbury Weald development in the parish.

Royal Air Force Alconbury, or more simply RAF Alconbury, is an active Royal Air Force station near Huntingdon, England. The airfield is in the civil parish of The Stukeleys, close to the villages of Great Stukeley, Little Stukeley, and Alconbury. Flying operations are no longer based at the site, with most of the land, including the runway, having been sold in 2009 to become the new settlement of Alconbury Weald.

Gamsey Wood is a 4 hectare nature reserve north-east of Woodwalton in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.The main trees in this wood are ash and field maple, but there are also several wild service trees. Spring flowers include bluebells, wood anemones and yellow archangels, and there are birds such as fieldfares and nightingales.There is access from Raveley Road by a track through Keeler farm to the reserve entrance at the north-east corner of the site.

Great Stukeley Railway Cutting is a 34.7-hectare (86-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.The site is on the verges of a stretch of the East Coast Main Line north of Huntingdon railway station. It is calcareous clay grassland which has plants which were formerly common on the Huntingdonshire claylands, but are now scarce due to agricultural use. Rabbit grazing and occasional burning maintain the habitat.There is no public access but the site can be viewed from bridges.

Woodwalton Marsh is a 0.8-hectare (2.0-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Woodwalton in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.This grassland on calcareous clay has diverse flora, including red fescue, quaking grass, knapweed, cowslip, pepper saxifrage, green-winged orchid and the rare sulphur clover. There is also a wide variety of butterflies.There is access from New Road.

The Secret Garden Party, often colloquially shortened to the SGP, is an independent arts and music festival which takes place in Abbots Ripton near Huntingdon in England. This location is on part of the grounds of a Georgian farmhouse and has its own lakes, river and landscaped gardens. The festival was launched by Fred Fellowes and James Whewell in 2004 as an alternative to the established mainstream music festivals. Since its inception the festival has increased in popularity and size, and has grown from one stage and 300 visitors in 2002, to more than 15 stages and 35,000 revellers in 2017. In March 2017, it was announced that the 2017 edition would be the last.Over its initial 15 year run, The Secret Garden Party won the UK Festival Award for Best Small-Sized Festival in 2005 and 2008, and then Award for Best Medium-Sized Festival in 2011. It also won the Act of Independence award from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) for its work with The Loop, a harm reduction charity which tested drugs on site during the event. This practice has now been adopted by some other UK festivals. In August 2021, it was announced that after a five-year hiatus, the Secret Garden Party would return in summer 2022. On relaunching, 20,000 tickets were placed on sale which sold out in under 20 minutes via a registration process that featured a questionnaire. The event took place from 21 to 24 July 2022 in Cambridgeshire, with the line-up announced each day of the festival. The festival has planned additional events for 2023 and 2024. The Secret Garden Party supports The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), which aims to prevent male suicide in the United Kingdom, as well as mental health charity My Black Dog as of 2022.

Great Stukeley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of The Stukeleys. It is 1.8 miles (2.9 km) north-west of Huntingdon. Great Stukeley is in Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as a historic county of England. It lies on the old Roman road of Ermine Street. In 1931 the parish had a population of 354.The East Coast Main Line railway runs near to Great Stukeley and serves the nearby Huntingdon railway station. The church in Great Stukeley is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew and the village war memorial is contained within its grounds.