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Hockley Goods Depot
| Hockley Station (28) |
Hockley Goods
Yard (137) |
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Brief Overview of Hockley Depot
Hockley Goods Depot was located just to the north of Hockley
No 2 tunnel and just over a mile from Snow Hill station. Situated alongside the
GWR main line between Wolverhampton to Birmingham Hockley Goods Depot was the
principal GWR goods station for general traffic in the area. The line between
Wolverhampton and Priestfield, which was two miles to the south of
Wolverhampton, was opened in November 1854 with Hockley passenger station
opening at the same time. Its believed that the goods facility also opened late
1854 early 1855. Both Broad Gauge and Narrow (Standard) Gauge traffic were
handled, largely through traffic to and from Wolverhampton though a couple of
services in each direction ran far north as Manchester; and in the south;
trains ran to Leamington, Didcot, Reading, Basingstoke or Paddington. In
addition there were a small number of trains running between Hockley and
Wolverhampton, including West Midland railway company traffic.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Hockley had two large
sheds, Inwards and Outwards, the former being at the Birmingham (south) end of
the yard and the latter at Wolverhampton (north) end of the yard. The Inwards
shed was served by two dead-end lines with a third entering the shed.
Subsequently at the south end of the Inwards shed a four storey brick warehouse
was erected. The Outwards shed contained six roads, five serving platform faces
and all being through roads continuing through and beyond the shed and
converging outside the northern end of the shed to connect with the approach
roads to the Inwards shed. The main shunting yard, consisting of a dozen or so
roads, was located between the passenger station and the two sheds. Accessing
Hockley Goods station by road was via Pitsford Street which formed the Western
edge of the yard. The yard was bounded in the north by All Saints Street and
and in the south by Vyse Street. The depot measured some three-quarters of mile
long by two to three hundred yards wide. Due to the lie of the ground, Hockley
was effectively built on an embankment. In the centre running off at right
angles and below track level was Icknield Road. Initially only the passenger
station was built over Icknield Road but as the goods amenities grew and with
them additional sidings, so the bridge over Icknield Road grew wider.
Running approximately parallel to Icknield Road was All
Saints Street in the north and Vyse Street in the south, all three connected by
Pitsford Street. All Saints Street and Vyse Street passed over the railway at
either end of the yard whilst Icknield Road in the centre passed under the
yard. A siding off the main shunting yard ran under All Saints Street to a
wagon hoist which served the higher level canal basin. There was a further
goods yard situated on the north-eastern side of the passenger station, known
as the 'Round Yard'. Round Yard was a milage yard handling full load traffic
and occasionally livestock, through the cattle pens which extended along the
eastern edge of the yard, alongside All Saints Street. By the late 1920s
Hockley had over a thousand permanent staff under a very senior goods agent.
There were more than 160 clerks of various grades and types to handle the mass
of paperwork generated each day. Some thirty inspectors and foremen to organise
and supervise the work, fifteen shunters in the yard, about 350 men in and
around the sheds, with a similar number of carters, motor drivers and van
guards for the collection and delivery of the goods. The GWR also employed 7
boatmen who operated from the canal basin. In 1928 four hundred and sixty-one
horse-drawn vehicles were employed pulled by two hundred and seventy horses
supported by forty-one road vehicles.
Frank Popplewell
In response to the first article written by Frank Popplewell
in the Great Western Railway Journal, Kenneth J Harrison of Christchurch
in Dorset wrote 'Frank Poppelwell's evocative article about Birmingham
(Hockley) Goods Station is a nice mix of historical detail and anecdote,
encapsulating the image of an important, but less glamorous, Great Western
function. The somewhat obdurate nature of the GWR from the 1850s onwards can be
illustrated by my experience when I started work at Hockley at the beginning of
World War II. It was the practice to subject new young clerks to initiation
rites, which could take on different forms, one of which was to require the
victim to search the goods decks for a 'bag of sparks', said to be needed
urgently by 'Wilders Fireworks' to complete an order by the 5th of November. In
my case it was to locate an apparently vital document which had gone missing.
My long walk between departments in the extensive Hockley complex failed to
find any trace of the 'Fog Book'. There was, of course, hearty laughter all
round and a youthful red face. Having suffered this humiliation. I was less
than compliant when instructed by a senior clerk to 'Go and fetch the Farm
Book'. In those days nothing seemed less likely than that the industrial
cauldron in which Hockley was situated could have anything to do with farming.
'On no! I won't be caught out again', I said. A grim-faced senior clerk deputed
another young hopeful to perform the task and. much to my chagrin, he soon
reappeared carrying a rather well handled foolscap book, from which the legend
on a white label unmistakably proclaimed it to be the Farm Book. Another
humiliation, another red face, more laughter - but now the grim face changed to
a kindly smile and explanations were forthcoming. The Round Yard at Hockley,
which Frank mentions in his article, was situated on the up side with the only
entrance at the north end of the passenger station. It seems that when the
depot first opened, a major portion of the traffic dealt with was agricultural
and included cattle and other farm animals being transported to and from the
small farms common in the area at the time. These comings and goings were
recorded in the Farm Book. but, although the bucolic nature of the traffic
changed to steel, timber, pig iron, machinery, and so on, during the years of
industrialisation, in good old Great Western style, it began as the Farm Book
and so it was — probably to the end of its days'.
A Mr L Foxon of Tewkesbury Gloucestershire also
wrote, 'Hockley Goods was certainly in operation prior to 1862. In an
exercise to establish the prime cost of boatage. it appeared in an 1855 list of
stations in the Northern Alliance Agreements 1854/6 (PRO RAIL 2 50/752 page
36). Handsworth & Smethwick is mentioned in the same documents on 21st
December 1854. I only have before me a few notes from these agreements, an
examination of the full document could well find a slightly earlier mention of
Hockley Goods. Thos. Bantock (the GWR cartage and boatage agent) had 8 boats,
out of a total of 51 at Hockley on 1st May 1860 (PRO 188 42)'.
People wishing to learn more about Hockley Station and
its goods yard, particularly what it was like to work there from 1935 until
1967 when it closed, should read the six articles by Frank Popplewell in the
Great Western Railway Journal. I would like to take this opportunity of
crediting Frank Popplewell as being the source for much of the rich information
provided in the captions to the photographs.
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Views of Hockley Goods Yard and Sidings
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Internal views of Hockley Depot's Goods Sheds
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Hockley Depots Cartage and Road Distribution
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Second World War Damage, Repairs and Rebuilding
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Hockley Depot's Offices
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Hockley Goods Yard - The End
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GWR Publications on Railhead Distribution
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Maps of Hockley Station and Goods Depot
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Hockley Goods
Yard (137) |
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