When tons of earth slipped down in ‘gruesome accident’
Nicola Rippon recalls a tale about Nottingham Road cemetery that has entered local folklore
WHEN Derby City Council asked members of the public for their views on plans to give the unsightly cemetery retaining wall on Nottingham Road a facelift, for many Derbeians it revived stories told by grandparents of a dramatic incident that occurred on the very same section of road between the wars, of open coffins spilling bodies and bones.
In the mid-1920s, part of the banking that separated the cemetery from the road below collapsed, exposing coffins and causing some of them to slip down the slope to road level.
It gave rise to a tale that went down through the generations, an event which captured many an imagination, and inspired countless colourful and fanciful stories.
So many that, decades later, it seemed as if almost every Derbeian had at least one forebear who had witnessed the collapse.
The fall occurred on March 14, 1924, and, remarkably, did not make too many headlines. The Derby Telegraph of that day gave it only a few lines and reported it in a matter-of-fact manner.
The paper noted that the “Gruesome Accident” had been due to “a heavy fall of earth … where the road is being widened and banking erected on the cemetery side”.
There was no modern retaining wall. Instead, the cemetery was bounded by a low stone wall, similar in style to that which currently separates the entrance to the cemetery from the main road.
Behind it was a long, a very steep slope, and the small wall was all that stood between the earth and the road.
The cause of the incident was not entirely clear, although the Derby Telegraph’s short report noted that Derby Corporation had been widening Nottingham Road and creating a pavement on its south side. Prior to the accident, soil was being removed from the perimeter and new banking created. Just before 9am that morning, an area of land became unstable, and many tons of earth slipped down on to the road below.
The newspaper reported few details, only that “this afternoon tarpaulin sheets had been used to cover the somewhat gruesome sight”.
Given the location and time of the incident, it was fortunate that no injuries were reported. There were probably more than a few witnesses, and this would explain why, despite a very minimal newspaper report, news of the accident spread quickly across the town.
The newspaper did print a rather alarming quote from an un-named foreman in charge of operations who, apparently, claimed that such incidents were common and that “it is dangerous work, and it occasionally gets the better of us”.
Four days later, however, it appeared that the person who had given the quote was not a foreman after all. A letter was printed, from Mr W. Allsebrook, of 122 Cobden Street, the official foreman on site, refuted the claim, noting that he had “been too busy with the men engaged in clearing” to speak to any reporters. The “gruesome” incident, he said, was “unfortunate … but quite unforeseen.”.
This intervention did nothing to prevent the spread of rumours in the town and, the following month, at a meeting of the council, when a report from the Cemeteries Committee was presented, Councillor Frank Porter asked whether it was true that “coffins and bones had been exposed to public view by a fall of earth on Nottingham Road at the cemetery?”.
Alderman Fletcher confirmed that this “had unfortunately happened”, but that “relatives had been consulted and were satisfied that everything possible had been done under the circumstances”.
Little else appeared in contemporary newspapers. Officially the incident was dealt with and, effectively, filed away. It was apparently concluded that the accident was not the direct result of council work, but of a natural landslip and there seems to be no real evidence to suggest otherwise. In later years, the more substantial, if rather brutal, retaining wall was constructed to prevent such potential disasters from reoccurring.
Little wonder, though, that firsthand witness accounts became second-hand rumours, imaginations ran wild embellishing the stories with each telling, and tales of bodies and bones strewn across Nottingham Road entered Derby folklore.