Abel Boden
///pints.spark.worm
Abel Boden is one memorial that is noticed by many. One of the Friends group remembers visiting it as a child, her parents sent her to find it when they visited her great grandmother’s grave. The distinctive footstone was designed by Abel Boden before his death and commemorated his life as an engine driver.
Abel Boden died in Derby on the 19th September 1921, the same day as his wife, Mary Ann, who was visiting relatives in Bristol.
Newspapers of the time report that he was a “character”, a prominent Methodist who enjoyed teaching infants at the Methodist Church. “His talks were so interesting that the children delighted in them”.
He set up a coffee bar in his wife’s name at the corner of Siddals Road and Canal Street, as a way of providing non-alcoholic drinks to railway employees The coffee bar couldn’t be in his name as it was against Midland Railway Company Regulations to be involved in other business. However, his nickname became “Coffee” and by 1884 the coffee shop was recognised as a valuable asset and the Midland Railway Servants Refreshment Company was registered.
He continually pressed the Midland Railway Company to provide a building for the use of staff. This resulted in the Derby Railway Institute, now Waterfall.
The Midland Railway Company was formed by the Midland Railway (Consolidation) Act 1844 which merged the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. The Head Office was in Derby and the number of employees grew rapidly. By WWI it had just under 75,000 employees.
22,941 of those employees joined the forces and of those, 2,833 died. The Lutyens Memorial on Midland Road commemorates “the brave men of the Midland Railway who gave their lives in the Great War”.
It was one of Derby’s major employers. Rule 3 of the Midland Railway handbook stated that employees must reside where the Company required, resulting in many living in Derby. The YouTube video, ”Spirits of the Midland Railway” covers some of those buried in Nottingham Road Cemetery. This was produced by Dave Harris from the Midland Railway Study Centre at the Museum of Making.
My engine is now cold and still, no water does my boiler fill,
My coal affords its flame no more, my days of usefulness are o’er,
My wheels deny their noted speed, no more my guiding hand they need,
My whistle, too, has lost its tone, its shrill and thrilling sounds are gone,
My valves are all thrown open wide, my flanges now refuse to guide,
My clacks also, though once so strong, refuse to aid the busy throng,
No more I feel each urging breath, my steam is now condensed in death,
Life’s railway o’er each station’s passed, in death I’m stopped and rest at last,
Farewell dear friends, and cease to weep, In Christ I’m safe, in Him I sleep.
