Virgin Pendolino Tilts At Lichfield
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| Photo: Charles Moorhen |
Virgin Trains Class 390154 EMU Pendolino tilting train which will, a few days after this photo was taken, carry the name, 'Matthew Flinders', is seen flashing at speed through Lichfield Trent Valley station on the 7th July 2014.
Please note: Second Virgin Penolino photo at bottom of page
Mystery of the Missing Body
There is an interesting mystery surrounding Captain Matthew Flinders. Even more so due to the fact that it has a UK railway connection.
Matthew Flinders was born on the 16th March 1774 in Donington, Lincolnshire, England, the son of a surgeon, and became a navigator and map maker, circumnavigating Australia in 1795. He said his love of the sea came from reading the novel, Robinson Crusoe.
However, Flinders' career as a Royal Navy officer was short. He died at the age of 40, on the 19th July 1814 from kidney disease at his London home, 14 London Street - later renamed Maple Street - now the site of the BT Tower.
It is at this point that the mystery begins.
Matthew Flinders was buried in St. James's Church burial ground, opened in 1788 in Piccadilly, London. When Flinders' sister-in-law, Isabella Tyler, went to visit his grave a mere 28 years after his death, the location of his burial plot was already lost. Nothing remained to suggest that he had ever been laid to rest there.
In 1878 the cemetery became St. James's Gardens when built over to allow for the expansion of Euston Station.
Rumours abounded as to what had happened to the burials disturbed during the Euston expansion. What happened to the coffin and body of Captain Matthew Flinders? Some people believed that he was in fact lying beneath platform 4. Others say it could well have been platform 12, while others 'knew for a fact' that it was platform 15.
Now fast-forward 205 years to January 2019, and the excavation site for the proposed HS2 line to be built between London and Birmingham.
Archaeologists respectfully unearthing graves from the lost site of St. James's cemetery, of which there are estimated to be around 40,000, they came across a grave with a coffin nameplate laying on the skeleton.
Other nameplates had also been uncovered in the area, but they were made of tin and totally rusted and illegible. This particular nameplate however had been made from lead and still in excellent condition.
The name on the coffin nameplate was none other than the explorer, cartographer and navigator - Captain Matthew Flinders.
The life of Captain Matthew Flinders was highlighted recently on the BBC TV programme, 'Britain's Biggest Dig'.
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On the same day that I photographed Class 390154 Pendolino EMU flashing through Lichfield, I managed to capture this shot of Class 390010 just as I was about to leave for home.
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| Class 390010 Virgin Pendolino at Lichfield Photo: Charles Moorhen |
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