LMS Route: Evesham to Birmingham

Camp Hill Station: mrch498

The photograph is known to have been taken in 1932, most likely on a Sunday when there would have been no activity. It is understood that it was taken to show off the new buffer stops in the foreground, but fortunately also captured three sidings full of coal wagons, one line of which is partly obscured. Note that in this instance only four of the wagon doors can be seen open.

The Back Row
From left to right: LMS; Griff Colliery, Nuneaton; George Harwood, Birmingham; Alfred Jukes, Birmingham; George Harwood, (2); Cannock and Rugeley Colliery (C.R.C.), Cannock Chase; George Harwood, and Griff Colliery. Information on Griff Colliery can be found 'here' on my pages in the Miscellaneous section of the website. George Harwood was a fairly large coal merchant based at Camp Hill but also had siding space at Solihull and possibly elsewhere. After the coal trade collapsed in the 1950s Harwood continued trading in oil and other liquid fuels. He is still in business and can be found in a 2019 directory at 1186 Stratford road, Birmingham Alfred Jukes can be found within the Camp Hill site together with a builders photo of one of his wagons. The Cannock and Rugeley Colliery was a very large and long lasting colliery near Rugeley at the northernmost point of the Cannock Chase coalfield and was connected by a mineral branch from the former L&NWR/South Staffordshire line.

The Middle Row
This is partly obscured but those that can be identified: Merry and Cuninghame, Binley Colliery, Coventry; George Harwood, Griff Colliery (2)Information on Merry and Cunninghame can also be found in my pages 'here'. AE Matthews was apparently a local merchant of which little is known. Kimberley Beddoes & Co Ltd of Bromford Road, Oldbury were a medium sized coal merchant and like many others they deserted the coal trade when it was in decline but carried on in the liquid fuel trade, finally succumbing to voluntary liquidation in 1973. The solitary wagon which can be identified in the foreground also belongs to the company. Birmingham Cooperative Society, a further wagon painted in identical fashion can also be seen in a section devoted to this wagon owner on my pages 'here', together with an extended description of the wagon owner. Desford Colliery was located between Desford and Bagworth stations on the Leicester to Burton-on-Trent line of the Midland Railway It was sunk by Joseph J. Ellis , an Austrian-born London Jeweller and Leicestershire landowner with an adapted name to confuse(and influence) others that he was a member of the industrious Ellis family, major quarrymasters and coal merchants in that county and many other parts of the East Midlands.

The Front Row
Edward Richardson, Birmingham; Desford Colliery, (D.C.); Birmingham Co-operative Society, Edward Richardson, Desford Colliery, A.E. Matthews & Co, Birmingham; Kimberley Beddoes, Birmingham; Edward Richardson was a Birmingham coal merchant of which little is known.

Keith Turton

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