Byline: Stephen Lewis

A neglected monument to six children who drowned on the River Ouse almost 200 years ago is to be restored as a tribute to all those who have died in York's rivers. It is just one of many small projects being carried out with the help of the York Civic Trust's City Enhancement Fund. STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

ON a summer's day in 1830, six brothers and sisters went boating on the River Ouse in York.

Nineteen-year-old Ann Rigg, her sister Eliza, 17, and her brothers Thomas, 18, John, 16, James, seven, and Charles, six, were the children of Walmgate seed merchant John Rigg and his wife Ann.

Mr and Mrs Rigg could have had no inkling of the tragedy that was about to befall them that summer's day.

Somewhere near Acomb Landing, the Rigg children's boat collided with another boat. All six children were drowned.

The tragedy caused shockwaves. Mr Rigg was a well-known local businessman: the loss he'd suffered was overwhelming. The tragedy made local and national headlines, and in York, the whole city came together to raise funds for a memorial in memory of the six children.

"The public shared the family's grief, and wanted to help in some way," says Nick Beilby, who has done some research into the tragedy.

A monument was built, in the grounds of St Lawrence's Church off Lawrence Street. It had a fine stone base and surround; a brick back with two columns, one at either side; railings around the plot; and an ornate inscription on a marble plaque.

Nick Beilby at the Rigg Monument

"Raised by friendship in memory of four sons and two daughters of John and Ann Rigg, of this city... who were drowned by their boat being run down on the River Ouse" said the inscription.

It gave the date of the tragedy - August 19, 1830 - and then launched into a poem which tried to grapple with the enormity of the Rigg family's loss.

"Mark the brief story of a Summer's Day!

"At noon, Youth, Health and Beauty launched away; "Ere eve, Death wrecked the bark, and quenched their light; "Their parents' home was desolate at night: "Each passed, alone, that gulf no eye can see; "They met, next moment, in Eternity."

The monument was completed in 1839. And over the next few decades, while the memory of the shock of the children's deaths lingered, it was well-known in York: a visitor attraction almost on a par with York Minster.

But the...