GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hockley Station: gwrhd675d

Close up of image 'gwrhd675' showing the entrance to the yard and weighbridge and office during the summer of 1940. Frank Popplewell recorded in his articles in the 'Great Western Railway Journal' that H Pooley & Sons were contracted to maintain the weighbridge and that they often had their own box van stabled in the sidings for use by their visiting fitters. In fact it was most likely that Hockley's weighbridge was also manufactured by H Pooley & Son Ltd of Birmingham, London and Liverpool. The correct name for the weighbridge is 'The Pooley Weighbridge Steelyard' manufactured by Henry Pooley & Son Ltd, a firm of mechanical engineers, founded in Liverpool in the 18th century. Pooley's started to make platform scales circa 1835 when their main office was at the Albion Foundry in Liverpool until circa 1890, when it moved to John Bright Street in Birmingham. In 1913 the firm became part of the Avery organisation, but continued trading as a separate firm. Pooley's were responsible for supplying and maintaining the weights and scale of many other railway companies too.

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