Latest news with #Thornaby
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Death in the Yorkshire Dales: How 32 housewives and driver died when coach plunged off 'Devil's Bridge' after its brakes failed in Britain's worst ever road disaster 50 years ago
It was a housewives' day trip that turned into the stuff of nightmares. Fifty years ago today, a packed coach crashed in the Yorkshire Dales after its brakes failed, killing 32 passengers and the driver. The tragedy at Dibbles Bridge, which left a further 13 people injured, was, and remains, Britain's worst road disaster. Today, a memorial service for those killed is being held in the North Yorkshire town of Thornaby, where the 46 occupants had travelled from. The coach passengers were all friends and neighbours who had paid £2.50 for the day trip. They had packed lunches with them and had planned to enjoy high tea. The coach's driver, Roger Marriott, 35, was powerless to stop his vehicle as it gathered speed down a 1,500-yard hill and then plunged 20feet off what was known locally as 'Devil's Bridge'. For it was at that spot 50 years earlier that almost the exact same accident had occurred, killing seven and injuring 14. Today's service will be led by the Bishop of Whitby, the Right Reverend Barry Hill. The coach was a 1967 Bedford VAM5, run by Yorkshire firm Riley's Luxury Coaches. It was carrying women on a day trip to Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. The trip's organiser, Dorothy White, the mayoress of Thornaby, was among the victims. The 33 victims of the crash at Dibbles Bridge Gwendoline Dodsworth; Gladys Callaghan; Sylvia Worn; Eva Thomas; Edna Herron; Isabel Pratt; Kathleen Maud; Mabel Chisholm; Irene Groskop; Grace Harrison; Jean Smart; Roger Marriott (driver); Jennie Lowe; Jennie Butler; Rosaline Brown; Harriet Riley; Doris Howsden; Henrietta Pedley; Elsie Middleton; Elizabeth Hill; Freda Wilkinson; Ida Fisher; Dorothy White (former Thornaby mayor and trip organiser); Lilian Barclay; Henrietta Kirk; Margaret Mennell; Ada Chisholm; Hannah Forth; Eileen Ross; Hilda Gibbon; Betty Aitchison; Margaret Baldwin; Edith Woodhouse The disaster began at around 4pm on May 27. As the coach started to descend the hill on the road from Pateley Bridge, the driver realised his brakes were defective. His attempts to apply them caused them to heat up and then fail completely. An inquest would later put the brake failure down to poor maintenance. Having picked up enormous speed, the coach was unable to turn around a sharp bend near the bridge. It crashed through a parapet and plunged around 20feet into the garden of a cottage below. Landing upside down, the force of the impact crushed the roof inwards to within three feet of the chassis. One woman was thrown clear, whilst passengers who had not been killed instantly were left trapped. Firemen had to cut parts of the coach away to get to the dead and those were still alive. The injured were rushed to Airedale Hospital in nearby Keighley. Off-duty nurses and doctors were called in to work to help treat the deluge of patients. Thirty-two people died at the scene. The 14th initial survivor, 78-year-old Ada Christon, passed away later. Driver Mr Marriott survived the initial impact but succumbed to his injuries while trapped in the wreckage. His wife was among the injured. As he lay trapped, he told a woman who had rushed to help: 'My brakes failed... there was nothing there.' Elsie Townsend, who was visiting the Yorkshire Dales with her husband and children, told the Daily Mail: 'I ran to the front and saw a man trapped from his waist down and he was entangled with the engine. 'His right arm was trapped under the wreckage and his face was covered with oil, blood and shattered glass.' 'I asked if there were any children in it and he said no. I asked if he was the driver and he said yes. 'He was absolutely covered in oil. I had some tissues in my pocket and I wiped the blood, oil and glass from his face, eyes and ears.' She added: 'I sat next to him holding his hand and he started gasping for breath. I said: "Roger, you're not going to sleep are you?" 'He said: "No." And I said: "I'm holding your hand." 'It went all cold and suddenly the colour drained from his face. I called an ambulance driver but he took a look and said there was nothing he could do. 'The driver had died.' Margaret Robinson, then 35, survived with her mother. Both had head injures. Ms Robinson said: 'The coach kept going faster and faster down this very steep hill and I felt something was going to happen. 'There was a curve in the road and the driver seemed to be pulling on the wheel. 'The next thing I knew it tipped over. It seemed to go right out of control. 'We were lying on our backs with all the seats on our legs and lots of people strewn around.' Another of the injured,Mary Booth, said she could not recall the crash. She only remembered waking up on the grass next to the coach. She told the Mail how she held the hand of another survivor, Lillian McLeod as she lay nearby. The then 60-year-old said: 'She was calling my name and moaning. I stretched out and held her hand. I don't know whether it helped.' The youngest passenger was 17-year-old Madeline Pratt, who suffered head injuries but survived. She had been due to sit her A-level exams the following month and had joined her mother on the trip to have a break from revising. Her mother was killed in the crash. Back in Thornaby, 77-year-old George Watts, a friend of those on the coach, said at the time: 'It makes you feel so, so useless. These ladies did so much good, helped so many people. 'All of a sudden they are gone.' In 2022, a memorial to those killed was installed in Thornaby. The four-tonne tribute was made from stone sourced from a nearby North Yorkshire quarry. In the crash in 1925, a coach carrying a party of 40 York council officers plunged 20feet into Hebden Beck and overturned after the driver reported his brakes had burnt out. The driver, who survived, later said: 'I knew we were out of control and tried to make the best of it - but she gained speed quickly.'
BBC News
22-05-2025
- BBC News
Thornaby man killed friend with drunken push on night out
A man who killed his friend with a drunken push on a night out has been jailed for five Tierney, 54, fatally struck his head on the pavement after being shoved by Rhyan Cooper, 29, during an argument in Stockton in September 2023, Teesside Crown Tierney's sister said he was a "kind and caring soul who wouldn't hurt a fly", adding his family were devastated by his "incomprehensible" had claimed he was acting in self-defence but was found guilty of manslaughter. Cooper and Mr Tierney had been out for a meal together in Thornaby before going for a drink at the Blue Post in Stockton at about 23:40 BST on 1 September 2023, prosecutor Michael Bunch Tierney bought drinks for them but Cooper, of Havilland Road in Thornaby, had wanted to leave and go home, with an argument then breaking out, the court heard. Cooper, who had poured his drink away under the table, wanted Mr Tierney to leave with him so decided to "irritate" and "provoke" him by prodding him and putting his empty glass on his friend's head, Judge Jonathan Carroll culminated with Mr Tierney pouring his drink over Cooper's head and the pair being removed by bouncers, the court judge said Cooper was "petulant" and "not getting [his] own way", ignored a warning to stop by the door staff and still "didn't let it go" after they had been thrown Tierney walked down an alleyway into the High Street followed by Cooper, who then used two hands to push his friend in the Tierney struck his head on the ground and fractured his skull, dying in hospital on 5 September, the court told police and the jury he had acted in self-defence but his claim was rejected. In a statement read to the court, Mr Tierney's sister said he was a "very gentle man who quietly lived his life" before it was brought to "an abrupt end" by someone who was "supposed to be his friend".She said her brother had "always been a kind and caring soul who wouldn't hurt a fly", adding he "looked out for others and was always a source of comfort".Mr Tierney's sister said she could not describe the anguish and devastation his death had caused or the "mammoth void" he had left in their said the family's hearts had been broken by an "incomprehensible" act but they took some comfort knowing Mr Tierney "was able to continue his care of others" through the donation of his organs to people "in need"."Life will never be the same without our gentle, loving brother," she said. In mitigation, the court heard Mr Tierney had been Cooper's "most important" friend and he found the death "almost impossible to deal with".Cooper, who had a previous conviction for assaulting his father in 2017, had not drunk a drop of alcohol since Mr Tierney's death, the court Carroll said both men were drunk and Mr Tierney was in "no fit state" to try and break his fall after being pushed said it should have been an "obvious risk" to Cooper that Mr Tierney could be seriously injured, adding such a scenario had happened "time and again" outside pubs when people had been judge said he accepted Cooper was "genuinely sorry" and "wished he could turn the clock back", but added Mr Tierney's family "wished that even more". Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Send your story ideas here.
BBC News
01-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Thornaby FC Women promoted nine months after team nearly axed
A football team has defied the odds to win their league - nine months after the team was nearly FC were named champions of the North-East Regional Women's League on Sunday after a 1-0 victory over i2i International Soccer promotion is extra special for the players who fought to keep their team alive after the club's previous board attempted to axe its entire women's Shauna Gatley said the player's were "absolutely buzzing" after working hard all year on the pitch. "It's been hard at times but to beat one of the next best teams in the league to win it makes it that bit better," she said."They deserve the celebrations and we've got three games still to enjoy of the season. I can't wait to get promoted now." In June 2024, first team manager Abbey Lyle said the players had been floored by the news Thornaby FC was planning to drop its female section, a move which would have left 100 players without a after backlash from its players, Thornaby established a new board of directors which immediately reinstated the women's Sunday's win, coach Claire Streeter said it was phenomenal to see the team promoted to Tier 5 - the highest the club has ever been."I am just glad that everything got resolved last summer and we were able to play our football. It has been a huge success," she said."We had a team last year who finished third in the league, so after what happened last summer we have strengthened even further and had more support than ever. I always believed we would do it this year."Thornaby's football director, Andy Campbell, said the promotion had "proved a lot of people wrong"."Doing it at home against the team who were second in the league, on Mother's Day, for women's football was an amazing opportunity," he said. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
