VILLAGERS are campaigning to restore Railway King George Hudson’s grave in a North Yorkshire village - and his reputation.

The Victorian entrepreneur, who secured York’s future as a railway city by ensuring the East Coast route from London to Edinburgh ran through the city rather than Leeds, was buried in the churchyard at Scrayingham in 1871.

His grave and memorials to other members of his family were last restored in 1935, and have suffered the ravages of time, according to the Friends of Scrayingham and Leppington, a community group.

“The current state of his grave is not befitting of a man who once earned the epithet of The Railway King,” said one of the group’s members, Matthew Wells.

“The Friends believe that the grave of their most famous resident should be restored to its former glory, with the grey granite tombstone cleaned, the surround rebuilt and and repaired, and a low cast iron railing installed, similar to the one that adorned the grave when it was first constructed.”

He said the cost of the restoration was estimated at between £7,000 and £11,000, and the group had already raised just over £2,000, with £1,000 pledged towards the project by the Railway Heritage Trust.

Now the group, which is staging an exhibition about Hudson in the church, is planning two major fundraising events.

On Sunday April 23, St George’s Day, it is staging a 4.5-mile walk along the route of the River Derwent to Howsham, where Hudson was brought up, and back to Scrayingham, with shorter distances also available. Cream teas will be sold in the village to raise funds.

On the evening of Friday June 23, the Friends will present a concert entitled George Hudson And All That Brass at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Scrayingham.

The event will feature the York Railway Institute Band, directed by David Lancaster, and will be introduced by actor and storyteller Chris Cade, portraying Hudson.

Tickets costing £12.50 in advance, to include supper and a non-alcoholic punch, can be bought from Friends members or emailing secretary@sandl.org.

Friends member Mervyn Stone said that despite his reputation for financial malpractice, George Hudson was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, railway entrepreneur of his time.

Serving as Lord Mayor of York three times,he built a railway empire which rapidly grew to more than 1,000 miles by 1844, earning him the epithet The Railway King. But by 1849, suspicions about his business practices saw him fall from grace. He sold his assets to try in vain to repay his debts, and was later briefly jailed.

He settled his debt with the North Eastern Railway in 1871, just before dying of a heart attack in London. His body was returned to York by rail, from where it went by horse drawn carriage to Scrayingham.