Hever Railway deaths

My transcript of Hever Kent burial register for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks has lead me to research a number of railway deaths between 1867 and 1888.
The line which opened to the public in 1888 was a branch line from a junction south of Edenbridge at Hurst Green. The line ran south of Hever Station  under Mark Beech in Hever parish by means of the Mark Beech tunnel to Cowden station see Derek Hayward's images.
The present day Hever Station buildings are no longer manned but in private commercial ownership. Views of the former goods yards north and south of station platforms and the straight line to Edenbridge Town station can be found at Derek Hayward's website.
The landowner's locally had been insistent that the railway companies involved should provide high quality buildings and the presence at Mark Beech of a local brickmaker and farmer and meant that brick and local stone ensured that durable and sizeable station buildings and goods yards were a feature of the construction. Althought passenger travel began in October 1888 a great deal of construction had preceded this and the Mark Beech tunnel which has both left and right track curves and deep ventilation shafts required a substantial workforce. Views inside the tunnel including an image of a ventilation shaft are available on Adrian Backshall's blog.
In the Hever burial register the small village has four readily identifiable burials.
On 31 August 1867 Henry Sneyers a 37 year old "Railway worker killed by an accident when residing at Hever" was interred. The presence of Belgian Railway construction workers is in contrast to the construction work at both Polhill and Sevenoaks where Irish and foreign workers were opposed in strike action which threatened to delay the Sevenoaks Tunnel.
The subsequent three deaths in the period when construction would have been at its height are self explanatory and indicate that a hutted encampment was housing men at Hever.
On 2 June 1886 Samuel Shepherd was buried. He was about 45 years of age "a Navvy". I wonder whether this Samuel is the prisoner in the 1881 census of Nottingham Prison inmates which suggests he may originate from Hucknall a mining district in Notttinghamshire.
On 25 February 1887 Abraham Brown alias Smith is buried aged 24 of Stanhoe Lynn, an area of Kings Lynn.
On 27 October 1887 Joseph Varney of the Railway Huts aged 25 is buried.
It is interesting that Mark Beech houses a family whose husband and father gives his occupation in the 1881 census as Colliery Instructor. A native of Hanley Staffordshire William Boyle had resided in Edenbridge a year earlier when his daughter was born there.
Sadly these construction deaths were not the only ones on the line. To the south of Mark Beech tunnel lies Cowden Station and the site on the line of the 1994 Cowden rail crash.
As in the series of Sevenoaks and district burial registers a small village in the case of Hever a mile distant from it's station has in the parish churchyard a number of graves relating to railway construction. The coming of the railway brings into the parish employment including line maintence work and a Station Master.
My transcript of the Hever burial register is available at Kent Online Parish Clerks Hever parish page Hever Burials 1813-1904.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020