Guest Book: Page 8

add to our guestbook

Previous  :  Page 8  :  Next

Hello there - I have got a old water colour poster by George Beeny, it is a Navy blue red piping steam train and the number of the train is 1531, and it also has a slogan saying "to save L.S.D. travel by L.M.S". I have had this poster now for a good few number of years and I can't find nothing out about it, and I was wondering if you you could help me, it is a very nice picture and well painted it is a shame that I don't no a lot about as I think it may be dated at about 1968 going by the data I have received. And so if you can help me in any way I would be truly grateful. And yes I do think the time you have spent on improving your site was worthwhile and I think there should be more sites like it as the Railways are a very important issue in are British history and heritage.

Thanks a lot. Wade Crosweller from Brighton Aged 15

Dear Mike - I have recently come across your Warwickshire Railways website, and spent far longer than I should browsing it. Fascinating as I was born and brought up at Leamington. I have quite a few pictures which might be of interest to you - which I took in the late 60s/ early 70s of buildings etc. I know that there are some of Leamington Avenue (these have already been scanned Milverton - particularly goods shed / signal box Kenilworth Coventry ( a couple taken inside the old goods shed Lapworth (the station buildings before demolition Stratford on Avon (GWR) If these are of any interest, let me know and I will sort them out and scan them (gradually as I have the time).

Best wishes David Churchill

I have taken David up on his kind offer as whilst 1968 is our declared time line, photos taken of structures in the early 1970s are very rarely different to those taken ten years previously and therefore worth viewing.

In response to Peter's earlier email, I asked what was the story behind his interest in Hockley and his reply is below.

Dear Mike.

Thank you for your reply. It's a long story as they say which started off with us tracing our family history. Our parents married in All Saints Church Hockley (slap bang in the middle of GWR Hockley Depot) in 1937 and we had made one or two sorties to the area. We found out quite a bit (or so we thought) about Hockley but when I happened upon your site I realised we knew nothing.

The quality of the site itself is top drawer (did I read somewhere that its your son's handiwork?) and the photos and the information are staggering. There's no other word for it.

We went on another sortie recently armed with the photos and they gave us carte blanche everywhere we went, so its not just we who are impressed. People were fetching ladders to see things and offering transport and cups of tea and it all caused quite a stir.

I can't understand why so much has been demolished but whoever had the foresight to take those photographs has done us all a very great service. As I'm sure you know its all still there today in spirit and even though superficially its gone everything has left its mark and is still traceable from your photos. Sorry to bang on, I bet you wish you hadn't asked! Let me finish, if I may, by giving you an example?

Before warwickshirerailways I, like everybody else, would walk up All Saints Street from Lodge Road and see a railway bridge straddling a couple of local lines, a day care centre on the left down the hill, an old school now being used by the council on the right, next to the school a caged area where a Church probably once stood and a blue wall.

Now when I walk up all Saints Street I set out from Scribbans bakery and watch the no 32 tram picking up the kids ready to turn into All Saints Street and passing the Hydraulic public house on the corner. As I progress I look left down All Saints Road and see the round yard and Hockley Station with Frank Popplewell eating his sandwiches on the platform. There are 15 or twenty tracks and hundreds of wagons spread as far as the eye can see.

On the right of All Saints Street are a few terraced houses butted onto the old school and next to the school and obscured from the road by trees is All Saints Church. Looming over the Church sitting atop of the blue brick wall is an enormous hydraulic lift used to raise railway wagons from the tracks below up to the level of the canal basins behind the Church. This after they have made the journey from the goods yard via the tunnels that run under All Saints Street. (They are hauled past the veterinary quarters and the old water tank which serves stations for miles around and the stables on the left before being unloaded either from the first uncovered basin platform or its covered twin a short distance away.

A little further on up All Saints Street, this time on the left, is the invoice office somehow built into the side of the bridge and disappearing inside the roof of the top shed. Its light, spacious modern design a lesson in open plan. Back on the right a little further on are the workshops which tower over everything and see everything in the yard except perhaps the amenities building which is tucked into the corner next to the top shed just across the road. As I get to the end of the road I have to turn back just to see it all again.

I think your website is wonderful even though I am sorry to report that I haven't the slightest interest in trains. Goodness knows what a railway enthusiast thinks of it? Heaven I shouldn't wonder.

Very many thanks. Peter

Peter - Thanks for the story which I have put up on the guestbook page as I think it demonstrates exactly what the site was intended to do - to provoke memories for everyone not just the railway enthusiast.

My son built the 'skeleton' of the site with the navigation etc but I have pulled together the rest which means scanning the photos, writing the captions etc and then loading these on the site. Of late I have been getting some help from Robert Ferris who has worked on the Alcester to Bearley line. The photos of Hockley etc are from a variety of sources but the majority and the information behind the captions come from two Great Western Journal publications listed in the bibliography.

Wonderful site - found it through the Towcester Railway History link. The SMJ is a big favourite of mine, and although I have seen quite a few of your images, it is great to see a few more previously unknown shots. Can you clear up one mystery for me ? I have long thought that Bidford station had a siding behind the station platform - one of the shots shows what looks like a wooden stop block there behind the fence. However I cannot find confirmation of this in track plans etc - and indeed have been told some time ago that there were only ever the two sidings for the brick works etc under after the road bridge.

Barry Taylor

Hi Barry - My evidence shows there never was a siding behind the station although I agree that photo 'smjboa1' does show what appears to be a wooden stop block. I would go further and say that I can see a set of rails in front too. However these and the wooden buffer stop are at platform height so some two foot above the running line and are therefore unlikely to be evidence of a siding. Most likely they only resemble what we think they are and must have been used for some other purpose now lost in the mists of time. Can anyone offer an explanation?

Barry replied to my thoughts as follows:

Hi Mike - Thanks for your thoughts on Bidford

I have looked at this 'problem' on many occasions over several years, and I have however come to the conclusion that there was in fact a siding behind the platform. My (admittedly circumstantial !) evidence is:

a) as agreed there does appear to be a set of stop blocks, and probably rails in situ

b) apart from the handrails indicating a foot access down alongside the bridge, there seems to also be an approach road curving down from presumably overbridge road level, behind the trees, and then alongside the siding - entirely consistent with road traffic access to a siding, rather than just to the platform . This area does however seem to be grassed over in later views

c) the OPC view from the road bridge looking down along the platform does show rather a strange, and otherwise unnecessary, widening of the railway fenced area beyond the platform end - again consistent with a siding connection off the running line at this point

d) this possible siding could just have risen behind the platform to the level behind the nameboard and would have passed through what is seen to be a fence at right angles to the running line at the platform end - take a look at the photo on page 52 of the Riley / Simpson SNJ book, which (I think ! ) shows a slightly lower ground level at the foot of this fence (ie: lower than the platform at that point)

e) finally - and perhaps stretching the theory a bit - there are fruit baskets on the ground alongside the 'siding' indicating the probable (and highly likely) traffic source.

All a bit hypothetical I agree - but I think that it is highly likely on that evidence that there may well have been a siding there for a limited time at least.

Kind regards Barry

Previous  :  Page 8  :  Next