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London North Western Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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Old Milverton Lineside Views
The length of line from Leek Wooton, a village outside
Kenilworth, to Old Milverton which lay just before Warwick, appeared to fire
the imagination of some local photographers including 'Stretton-Ward'. Although
the following photographs are attributed to Gordon Coltas, they are in fact,
undoubtedly the work of Stretton-Ward a local photographer whose interest in
railways started before the First World War. His collection was sold on his
death to a Leamington book shop who in turn sold them on to other collectors.
Roger Carpenter who bought some of the collection recounts that both
photographs and negatives were sold to different people which is why the same
photograph may be attributed to two or more people.
Old Milverton was a favourite location of Stretton-Ward,
probably because within a short distance of home he could take photographs with
long panoramic views. In a number of instance we have included a close up of
the original image because we believed whilst the panoramic view was evocative
there was a case to include a close up image too. With a web site we do not
have to consider costs or the limitations of space so we can just indulge
ourselves. We hope you agree.
The first six images are however from two photographs, part
of the Warwickshire Records Office collection, and show the results of an
accident which occurred on 11th June 1861 at Leek Wooton. The cause of the
accident was a poorly repaired cast iron beam which had failed although many
observers used the occurrence to criticise McConnolls 'heavy' locomotives.
McConnoll, the LNWR's Southern District Locomotive Engineer based at Wolverton,
was building significantly larger (30 tons) locomotives than were seen being
out-shopped from Crewe under Ramsbottom for use on the Northern Division.
Select an image below to view the larger version with
accompanying text:
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