‘A VERY DANGEROUS PLACE’ THE BRADENHAM CROSSING ACCIDENT OF 1929

Sitting prominently on the hilltop at West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, with a golden ball on top of its tower, the church of St Lawrence is a well-known landmark visible from trains on the line between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough. Originally built by the Wycombe Railway as an extension of its Maidenhead-High Wycombe line to Princes Risborough and Thame in 1862, this line was rebuilt as part of the Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway which was opened in 1906. It was thereby converted from a single track branch to a double track main line. In the churchyard at West Wycombe is a gravestone commemorating Edward Algernon Stone, born 16th February 1906, who was “accidentally killed 5th Dec. 1929 in the performance of his duties as a postman at Bradenham Railway Crossing”. That brief epitaph encompasses the tragic story of a 23-year-old local postman who met his demise on a public foot crossing which he used regularly on his rounds. The fatality brought into focus the safety of the crossing and led to attempts to divert the public path to prevent the recurrence of such an accident. However, this did not happen for over 70 years.

Edward Stone was brought up at Studley Green, between West Wycombe and Stokenchurch, and was the youngest of six surviving children. He had worked for the High Wycombe Post Office for three years and was employed as an auxiliary postman at West Wycombe, where one of his sisters was an assistant in the village Post Office. Since April 1927 he had been assigned to the West Wycombe–Bradenham route, which included making deliveries to various outlying farms and hamlets.

The morning of Thursday 5th December 1929 was very stormy when at 7.30am Edward Stone left the house where he lived with his brother Reginald in West Wycombe High Street to cycle the two miles to Bradenham. His