Great Heck - Izeria

Great Heck is a small village in Heck parish, about 7 miles (11 km) south of Selby, North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish was 201 at the 2011 census. Until 1974 it was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Selby, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council. The village was the site of the Great Heck rail crash in 2001. The name Heck derives from the Old English hæcc meaning 'hatch'.

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Selby rail crash

The Selby rail crash (also known as the Great Heck rail crash) was a railway accident that occurred on 28 February 2001 near Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire when a passenger train collided with a car which had crashed down a motorway embankment onto the railway line. The passenger train then collided with an oncoming freight train. Ten people died, including the drivers of the two trains, and 82 were injured. It remains the worst rail disaster of the 21st century in the United Kingdom. The driver of the car, Gary Hart, was convicted of ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving and sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found that he had fallen asleep while driving. Hart's insurers paid out £30 million in claims. The Health and Safety Executive investigated the accident, and made several recommendations, including research into the crashworthiness of rail vehicles. The Health and Safety Commission and Highways Agency created working groups to investigate the risks of road vehicle incursions onto railways. The Department for Transport issued a report containing guidance for assessing and mitigating the risks identified by the working groups.

Event Landmark

Heck, North Yorkshire

Heck is a civil parish in the English county of North Yorkshire. The population of this civil parish at the census 2011 was 201, a slight drop on the 2001 census figure of 209. The main settlement is Great Heck, there is also Little Heck at grid reference SE599220. Before April 1974 it was part of Osgoldcross Rural District and the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Selby, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council. It was the location of the fatal Selby rail crash in February 2001.

Landmark Neighbourhood

1.9 km

The Red House, Hensall

The Red House is a historic building in Hensall, North Yorkshire, a village in England. The house was built in 1854 by William Butterfield, as part of a group with St Paul's Church, Hensall and Hensall Primary School. It was constructed as the vicarage for the church, but later became a private house. Peter Ferriday sees the house as presaging arts and crafts architecture, saying that it "could easily be mistaken for a house by Philip Webb, and challenges the Red House [in Bexleyheath] as the first example of a conscious Victorian return to an honest unpretentious style of house-building". It is a grade II* listed building. The house is built of pinkish-brown brick with a grey slate roof. There are two storeys, three bays, and a single-story rear range. The doorway has a pointed fanlight under a pointed arch. The windows are sashes, some tripartite, those in the ground floor under header arches and pointed relieving arches, and there is a half-hipped roof dormer. Inside, there are numerous original features, including the bookshelves and fireplace in the library; fireplace and panelling in the dining room; and the staircase. There are also many original doors and some window shutters.

Art Historic Site

St Paul's Church, Hensall

St Paul's Church is the parish church of Hensall, North Yorkshire, a village in England. Until the mid-19th century, Hensall formed part of the parish of St Laurence's Church, Snaith. In 1854, St Paul's Church was completed, having been commissioned by William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe and designed by William Butterfield. Butterfield also designed the nearby Red House and Hensal Primary School. The church was given its own parish in 1855. Paul Thompson describes the church as "a compromise between Cowick and Pollington", both churches Butterfield completed in the same year for the same benefactor. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "very plain". The church was grade II* listed in 1967. The church is built of pinkish-red brick with stone dressings and a grey slate roof. It consists of a nave, narrow north and south aisles, a southwest porch, a chancel with a south chapel and a north vestry, and a northwest tower. The tower has a doorway with a pointed arch, a gabled stair turret, slit windows, two-light bell openings, a cogged eaves band, and a pyramidal roof. Inside, most original features survive, including the pews, chapel screen, piscina, Mintons floor tiles, organ, octagonal pulpit and font, and mosaic reredos, which was restored in 1970.

Church Landmark