LMS Route: Stratford Midland Junction - The Shakespeare Route

SMJ Miscellaneous: smj_gen387

A Brighton Town Council Poster advertising the resort overprinted with the Shakespeare Route logo and SMJ contact details. Barry Taylor writes 'this technique was probably used by many railway companies and personalised to their own lines. I seem to remember reading somewhere that there was a through SMJ coach to Victoria station in London, via Blisworth and presumably Willesden and the West London line - this would make sense of a destination of Brighton if it were in SMJ days'.

Dick Bodily writes 'probably using a regular SMJ service with a change of trains to a LNWR excursion at Blisworth. I wonder if the 'Sunny South Express' ever stopped to pick up at Blisworth? I have also been told that at least on one occasion a coach that originated on the SMJ was attached to a Brighton bound excursion at Blisworth. In 1910 the SMJR published an illustrated newspaper supplement pullout headed 'Holiday Resorts reached by the SMJR'. Unfortunately no idea what newspaper but I guess possibly the Stratford local paper or Northampton Mercury & Herald. Excursion fares were:
     Morecambe 23/-
     Hastings 23/-
     Dover 25/-
     Matlock 13/-
     Chester 16/-
     Rhyl 18/-
     Aberystwyth 20/-
     Lowestoft 25/-
     Colwyn Bay 20/-
     Southsea 20/-
     Aberdeen 60/-
     Whitby 30/-

The above information was. taken from one of the late Doug Blake's books.

Dick Bodily continues, 'A gentleman I used to know who died in 2014 year aged 104, claimed that he had travelled from Blakesley to Brighton in a through carriage that was attached to an 'express' at Blisworth. It was an excursion for Blakesley Church Choir & Bellringers. This happened sometime after 1919, probably before the Grouping. Despite his great age he had a fantastic reliable memory for detail and recalled for instance that the Church treasurer had been instructed to give each choir member 5/- for expenses at Brighton and that at Brighton station they were met by the widow of a previous vicar of Blakesley who had tragically died in a road accident. The next church excursion to the seaside was by local man Will Kingston's omnibus'.

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