Below is the report on the George Stephenson Centerary

 
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, CHESTERFIELD
THE GEORGE STEPHENSON CENTENARY

By THE RECTOR, THE Rev E. GARSTON SMITH, MA.

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, CHESTERFIELD, a benefice in the Society's patronage, came into some prominence in the North recently through its connection with George Stephenson, the" Father of Railways ",  the centenary of whose death has just been commemorated. Stephenson came to Chesterfield in 1840 at the height of his career, and was a regular worshipper in this church, built but two years previously, until his death on 12th August, 1848.
He was buried in a vault beneath the Holy Table, and the grave is marked merely by a rough slab of the Derbyshire stone flooring on which appears the simple legend 'G S 1848'.  The stained-glass east window was given in memory of Stephenson by his son, Robert, also a famous engineer and who, incidentally, is buried in Westminster Abbey.
It was fitting, therefore, that the climax of the centeneary commemoration in Chesterfield should be a Civic Service in Holy Trinity Church on Sunday, 15th August. attended officially by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors of the Borough who arrived in a procession of over two hundred representatives of railway, engineering, and mining interests with which Stephenson had been connected. Several hundred people, unable to gain admission, followed the service from loudspeakers in the church grounds, and heard a very impressive sermon by the Bishop of Derby, who not only spoke of Stephenson's amazing genius and many noble qualities of character, but stressed the fact that he was a man "who feared God and thought upon His Name. During the service an Evergreen Wreath was laid on the tomb on behalf of the British Railways Executive and Railway Trade Unions, alongside the other floral tributes which had been placed there earlier in the commemoration by the Mayor, on behalf of the citizens of Chesterfield, and by Captain Gregson, President of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, of which Stephenson was the founder.
The life-story of George Stephenson reads more like fiction than sober fact, and is a remarkable account of perseverance and courage in the long struggle against the handicap of poverty and lack of education, not to mention popular prejudice against mechanical transport. He was born in 1781 at Wylam, near Gateshead, in a two-roomed cottage of unplastered walls, clay floor, and bare rafters overhead, and was one of six children of 'Bob' Stephenson, an engineman employed in a colliery at a wage of only 12s. per week. George started work at eight years of age as herd-boy looking after cows, at 2d. per day, but utilized the leisure of this occupation to make clay models of engines. Later, he was hoeing turnips at 4d. per day, and at eighteen years of age could neither read nor write. He was determined, however, to overcome these handi-caps, and took lessons at night from a village school-master for which he paid 4d. per week. At nineteen, he says, " I was proud to be able to write my own name, 'and at twenty-one, because of his remarkable skill in repairing engines he became brakesman at a coalmine at what was then the princely wage of /1 per week. His great success came, of course, in 1829 when his locomotive, the" Rocket "won the prize of~5O0 in the Rainhill Trials for the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, easily defeating the other entries by hauling a loaded train at the unheard-of speed of 29 m.p.h.
Stephenson then uncoupled his engine from the loaded coaches and drove it along the line at the then terrifying speed of 35 m.p.h., which required no little courage considering the engine and the condition of the track. As a result of this demonstration, Stephenson received an order for eight locomotives, and in 1830 the first railway line in the modern sense was opened, assuring the triumph of his system of railway locomotion. He rapidly became world-famous and was consulted personally by many of the reigning sovereigns in Europe of whom he was the honoured guest. He remained unaffected. however, by these successes, refusing an English knighthood and preferring to remain in a humble status, while he also retained his integrity by indignantly rejecting all offers to make a fortune by unworthy speculation in railway development.
It is not always remembered that he invented a miner's safety-lamp at the same time as Sir Humphrey Davy, who received the sole credit and the premium of £2,000 offered by the Government, although it is now realized that both men reached the goal independently, Davy, working on scientific principles, and Stephenson by trial and error, relying on his ingenuity to over-come his lack of scientific knowledge.
Holy Trinity Church is naturally very proud to be the guardian of the remains of this great man, and it may be of interest to readers of Church and People to know that a Committee of Engineers, supported by the Mayor, have launched an appeal for funds to complete the Chancel of the church as a memorial to George Stephenson. By this means his grave will be brought into a more prominent position in the main aisle, without disturbing his remains, and a fitting monument (to be known as the Stephenson Chancel) provided to one to whom the whole world owes a great debt.
The church is also proud of the fact that it provides in Chesterfield a centre of simple, spiritual Evangelical worship. and one is glad to report that its ministry and services are valued by a large and increasing number of people in the town and district beyond.

Stone marking the grave of George Stephenson under the East Window.