Stafford death crash: School trip that ended in tragedy

When it came it shook his young family to its core. The nine-year-old Stafford schoolgirl was one of three people killed in a rail crash on a trip to York.

Fifty years ago this week, rescuers raced to try to help the passengers aboard the train, that became known as the Lollipop Express, after a bridge collapsed from under it at Cheadle Hulme, near Manchester.

Christine was one of two children who died. The other was nine-year-old Louis Stevens, whose family now lives in Belgium. A British Rail employee, named in the original news reports as a Mr Pedley from Burton upon Trent, also died while 11 people, including children, were injured.

The train had 234 children from St Austin's Roman Catholic School, Yarnfield County Primary, Cooper Perry County Primary and Gnosall County Primary.

Dozens of ambulances from Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester went to their aid.

Meanwhile back in Stafford, families waited for answers.

John Heffernan, Christine's brother, was two years old.

"This was a time long before the internet and 24 hour news," he said. "My father, Liam, stood at Stafford station for several hours before he found out Christine had been killed.

"I don't know how he did it, waiting there like that.

"The official report said the driver had been going too fast through maintenance works," said the digital marketing sales director, of Mendip Avenue.

Christine's father, now 88, and mother, Mary, 87, never got over the loss of their eldest child.

Every Christmas, two six-inch trees that Christine bought are given pride of place among the decorations.

Mr Heffernan did not go to church as often after the funeral, although he never turned his back on his faith.

And the Heffernan family, including Christine's other siblings, Tom, Liam, Mary-Ann and Theresa, will join other families for a special remembrance mass at St Austin's Catholic Church on June 6. The remembrance event has been delayed because of the half term holidays.

The tragedy happened at 9.40am on May 28, 1964, an hour and 45 minutes after the train had left Gnosall.

The nine-coach train was going through Cheadle Hulme station when part of a railway bridge beneath it collapsed.

Gordon Leese, who was a 40-year-old English teacher at Gnosall County Primary, said at the time: "All the people in our party were flung from their seats.

"At the time the children were sitting around chatting and interesting themselves in the journey.

"A lot of them are railway-minded.

"There seats were torn away but there was absolutely no panic.

"Our part of the train ended up overhanging a bridge."

He gathered the children along with another teacher, Margaret Batham, and they took the children away from the scene to a local park.

Youngsters were then taken to a Methodist mission hall to be checked by doctors.

When reporters arrived, they were singing 10 Green Bottles, reciting nursery rhymes and playing games.

The Express & Star's front page that day reported: "As coaches sank through the gap, the forward part of the train continued around a bend and as it did so, the last coach toppled."

The bridge, it later emerged, was a temporary one.

It had been there six months as part of a road widening scheme being carried out by Cheshire County Council.

The steel girders on which the track was fastened were supported by timber.

Drivers were told to obey a 10mph speed limit.

Reporter Eric Jones was on the scene: "The train broke apart as the rear coaches ploughed deeper into the railway platform. Two hundred yards up the line another coach lay on its side and the one immediately in front had all the corridor side ripped out."

Dozens of children were trapped under the wreckage.

Along the lines near the station were clothing, footwear and bags containing the packed lunches they were taking to York. The plan was for them to have spent a day visiting a railway museum, castle and taking a trip along the River Ouse.

Ambulances ran a ferry service between the scene and Stockport Infirmary, four miles away.

Everyone was out of the wreckage within 65 minutes.

The last to be rescued was nine-year-old John Gibson.

An ambulance worker described him as 'the toughest little kid we've ever seen'.

In the following days the children would be praised as 'brave' and 'wonderful' by volunteers, who initially feared they would be too traumatised to take a train back to Stafford after what had happened to them.

Police tried to inform as many people back home as possible about what had happened.

The Staffordshire County Show was interrupted with a message over the public address system giving news of the crash.

It stated that as far as they knew at that time, 12.25pm, the children from Gnosall County Primary and Seighford County Primary were all safe and they were making further inquiries about the others.

British Rail put on a special train to return uninjured children to their homes. Four had to stay in Stockport Infirmary in a serious condition. Susan Middleton, just 11 years old, lost a leg. Another 13 were treated in casualty.

Tensions ran high back in Stafford as families waited for news. Father Michael McKenna, then the priest at St Austin's was criticised by British Railways police inspector Leslie Clark for informing relatives about injuries and a death. He said he felt it was his responsibility to inform them and that it was better coming from him than someone else.

All the while, Liam Heffernan waited. And waited. When the news came it was the most devastating imaginable for any father.

Despite his grief, the unimaginable loss, the hospital orderly took the time to thank a GP, a Dr Dempsey, who had waited with him all that time.

"I would like to thank the doctor for what he did," Mr Heffernan told the Express & Star the very next day.

"He waited with me, brought me home and then looked after my wife."

It was a tragedy that affected the whole of Stafford.

John Heffernan said: "The impact on the Irish community, who worshipped at St Austin's, was massive.

"There were so many Stafford families involved.

"So there was a lot of support too, in amongst all the pain and heartache it brought."

The remembrance mass at St Austin's Catholic Church is at 10am on June 6 followed by a rose planting at St Austin's school. Families who wish to remember the children killed in the tragedy are invited to attend.

Emily Keedwell, head teacher of St Austin's school, said: "This is an opportunity to remember past pupils and to bring families together.

"Many families may no longer be in the Stafford area but we are trying to contact as many as possible."