LMS Route: The Shakespeare Route

Ettington Limestone Company: smjel99a

Close up of image 'smjel99' showing the three side tipping narrow gauge trucks and the narrow gauge flat wagon. On the left, and above the narrow gauge wagons, can be seen Goldicote Cutting which disappears into the distance towards Clifford Sidings. Behind the trucks is a stack of the bricks used to erect the two brick built buildings. The timber building's wall facing the camera appears to have been formed by using railway sleepers erected vertically and partially sunk into the ground, a common practice across the country. Just visible above the timber building's roof is a stove pipe chimney which strongly indicates that the building is being used as the quarrymen's mess facilities. Of special note is the end of the excavation seen immediately behind the timber building. In this view, the end of the quarry is very close to the building (as it is to the rear brick building too - see image 'smjel99') yet when compared to a 2014 satellite image, the end of the excavation is some considerable distance from the remains of the brick buildings thereby supporting the suggestion that the quarry was in fact formed by the widening of the railway cutting. This might account for the reason why John Jennings, historian of the SMJ Society, notes that 'there was some unrecorded dispute between the Quarry owners and the East & West Junction Railway regarding the actual boundary between their lands. This resulted in the E&WJR placing small boundary marker plates around the site. This is the only known use of such plates by the E&WJR or SMJ'. It is the writer's assertion that this boundary dispute was in all probability related to the widening of the railway cutting as the quarry. As the cutting was widened when the quarry was extended along the cutting, the boundary of the railway would have to be continually re-established..

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