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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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Stratford on Avon Station
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Historical background
The East & West Junction Railway's (E&WJR)
initial presence in Stratford upon Avon reflected the paucity of the Company.
Having failed to raise sufficient funds to open the line from Fenny Compton
direct to Stratford upon Avon, the company had to have two bites to achieve
their goal. First, they just managed to open on 1st June 1871 its initial, and
inconsequential section, of 6¼ miles of single line track between Fenny
Compton and Kineton. Then through a hastily organised Act of Parliament the
same year the Company was given more time to build the remainder of the line to
Stratford upon Avon. This section of line was some 9¼ miles long and was
opened on the 1st July 1873. Then, having reached Stratford upon Avon, the
E&WJR hadn't sufficient funds to build their own station and were compelled
to use, for a fee of £112 per annum (to cover all expenses including
locomotive water supply), the facilities of the Great Western Railway's
(GWR) station known as 'Stratford & Honeybourne'. This sorry state of
affairs continued until June 1875 when the E&WJR opened their own
facilities, said to be a temporary structure. Finally, in 1876 the E&WJR
was able to open its own permanent station in Stratford after an inspection by
a Board of Trade Inspector in January of that year.
The opening of a permanent station was however very much
clouded by the E&WJR's financial situation as in the previous year the
Court of Chancery appointed a receiver to manage the E&WJR's affairs from
29th January 1875. This situation was to last for another twenty-seven years as
the receivership wasn't lifted until 1902. The new Beyer Peacock locomotives
delivered to head the services between Blisworth and Stratford upon Avon, for
which payment had not been made, had to be returned to the makers and sold on
to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. The railway's inability to
finance the purchase of locomotives in order to run its passenger services
meant that from 31st July 1877 it was compelled to withdraw its passenger
service which lasted until 12th March 1885. Given the state of its finances,
which were brought about not just by being under capitalised when first built,
but also by its inability to make a profit due to the railway running through a
rural area with a very low density in population, one would have thought the
situation was not encouraging for any allied railway proposal to extend the
line. However, such an initiative did take place with the Directors of
E&WJR sponsoring a line, the Evesham, Redditch and Stratford-upon-Avon
Junction Railway (ER&SJR) which ran west from Stratford to a junction
at Broom on the Evesham and Redditch Railway. This line was authorised
on 5th August 1873 and opened on 2nd June 1879, initially only to Binton but
soon extended to Stratford upon Avon. Although the ER&SJR had running
powers over the Midland Railway line to Redditch they only exercised the
use of five chains into the confines of Broom station. The strategy behind this
extension was to generate additional traffic routed over the Midland Railway's
line to Evesham and beyond.
The ER&SJR was, from the outset, operated by the
E&WJR, despite the fact that it couldn't operate services from Stratford
upon Avon to Blisworth in its own name. The short journey of seven miles to
Broom was well within the capacity of the 0-6-0ST it
could just manage to purchase from Beyer Peacock. Stratford upon Avon station
was therefore in the unique position of being a terminus for two railways, at
separate times, one from each direction. When first opened in 1873 for services
to and from Blisworth it was a terminus for the E&WJR, but these services
had to cease in 1877 due to its finances. From 1879 it was the terminus for the
ER&SJR's passenger services to and from Broom. In the intervening two years
the station saw no passenger services using its facilities. The only other link
it had to the 'outside world' was was the short connecting line to the GWR's
single line branch between Stratford on Avon and Honeybourne. However not
surprisingly, the ER&SJR did not receive any receipts from the E&WJR in
respect of the running rights which led it entering into receivership on 2nd
January 1886. Fortuitously, this was preceded by the E&WJR being able to
raise sufficient funds to purchase locomotives from Beyer Peacock and to
recommence its own passenger services from Blisworth so from 22nd March 1885
(some sources reference the date as the 2nd March) which ran through to Broom.
When the Blisworth to Broom passenger service was restored the first train to
be hauled was by the French 2-4-0 'Ceres', one of two locomotives probably of
the Buddicom/Allen/Crewe type either hired or purchased from Thomas Brassey in
1885. The other locomotive being 'La Savoie' an 0-6-0.
The London North Western Railway (LNWR) showed some
interest in exploiting the heritage of Stratford upon Avon by introducing
trains from Euston via Blisworth, but using their own locomotives in 1873.
These were 2-4-0 'Jumbos' hauling vacuumed equipped LNWR coaches running from
Blisworth to Stratford upon Avon with the E&WJR supplying pilot drivers as
the E&WJR's locomotives did not have vacuum brakes. They began to operate
Shakespeare Specials' on Summer Saturdays in 1890. A special notice was posted
in the LNWR timetables drawing attention to this service. The E&WJR and its
successor, the Stratford Midland Junction Railway, (SMJ) to focus on the
burgeoning tourist potential of the district particularly on the traffic from
America. They issued a pamphlet on 'England's Greatest Poet' and called the
line 'The Shakespeare Route'. They also introduced an omnibus between the
station and the town at Stratford. Another patriotic American bought a house
built by Thomas Rogers at Stratford in 1596 and called it Harvard House, a
place for the 'stars and stripes' to hang in Stratford. It was opened by the
American Ambassador and the Great Central Railway (GCR) ran a special
train from Marylebone for the occasion calling it the 'Harvard Special' with
British and American flags on the front of the locomotive and a wreath of
laurels. The loco was 4-4-2 No 1086 which brought the corridor coaches from
London to Woodford where an SMJ engine 0-6-0 No 18
hauled the train forward to Stratford. It was a great publicity boost for the
S&MJR.
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East & West Junction
The Act for making the East & West Junction Railway
(E&WJR) from the Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway to the Great
Western Railway at Stratford-on-Avon was passed on 23rd June 1864. The new
railway planned to use the Stratford branch terminus of the Oxford Worcester
and Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR) at Sancta Lane. Running powers were obtained
and a simple junction was constructed between the two railways just to the
south of the terminus location. However on 1st January 1863, eighteen months
before this Act had been passed, Sancta Lane station had been shut to
passengers. The closure of the terminus was the inevitable consequence of the
connection between the OWWR branch and the Stratford-on-Avon Railway (SoAR),
which entered the town from the north. The connection between these two
railways had been completed on 24th July 1861 and they started to rationalise
their passenger facilities in the following year. This initially involved the
construction of a new temporary station structure adjacent to the Alcester
Road, which was nearer to the centre of town than the Sancta Lane site. Then at
the end of 1865, the station building from the (SoAR) terminus at Birmingham
Road was moved and re-erected at the Alcester Road station forming a more
permanent replacement structure.
By the time the E&WJR finally opened their line from
Kineton to Stratford on 1st July 1873, they no longer wanted to use the
junction with the Great Western Railway (GWR) for their passenger services. The
E&WJR had plans to extend west from Stratford to connect with the Evesham
& Redditch Railway at Broom and had commenced construction of a temporary
passenger terminus on their own line. This Stratford station was incomplete
when the official inspection of their line occurred on 28th June 1873. While
when a second inspection took place on 4th July 1873, it was noted that the
link to the GWR was only for goods and minerals. Goods traffic on the E&WJR
had been expected to be heavy. In particular, iron ore quarried in
Northamptonshire was being transported by the LNWR, via Birmingham, to the
blast furnaces in South Wales. The E&WJR provided a more direct route, so
to facilitate this traffic the E&WJR constructed exchange sidings adjacent
to the junction with the GWR at Stratford. Wagons were to be deposited here
before being collected by GWR goods trains and taken south to Honeybourne
junction and onwards to South Wales. The GWR objected to the extra traffic on
their single track branch insisting that this traffic should instead be
transferred to their main line at Fenny Compton (this would be financially
better for the GWR as a greater proportion of the mileage would be on GWR
tracks). An alternative route over the Midland Railway became available when
the E&WJR extension to Broom was opened on 2nd June 1879, but by then
higher quality and cheaper Spanish ore was being directly imported to South
Wales.
Plans from 1873 show that although the junction with the GWR
at Stratford was authorised as a double track junction (This was in accordance
with Board of Trade requirements for running junctions – even between
single track lines), only a single line connection had been made. At some time
prior to 1885, the authorised double track junction arrangement was
constructed, as seen in the plan 'gwrsanct2465'. Signalling for the junction
was provided by McKenzie & Holland and they built a signal box with 14
levers to control the switches (points) and signals at the junction. This
signal box was called ‘East & West Junction Signal Box’ and
initially had a wooden nameplate. A replacement cast iron nameplate was ordered
for the signal box on 18th July 1899 (order 210). The signal box was
constructed to their type 1 design with a twelve foot three inch square locking
room on the ground floor. This locking room was brick built with a wide arched
window on each side. The operating floor above was reached by an external
staircase and had two up / two across pane windows on three sides (see 'gwrsanct2481'
and 'gwr-smjsa1552'). The signal box had
a hipped roof. This design dates the signal box to before 1876 and it was most
probably opened at the same time that the authorised double track junction was
completed.
In July 1888 GWR letters identify the goods traffic from the
exchange sidings as being light (see 'gwrsanct3922'). One suggested locking the
frame with an Annett’s Key (which would be attached to the relevant single
line train staffs). This would save the wages of the signalman. Another letter
dated December 1888 suggested the track could be simplified, dispensing with
the double junction arrangement (see 'gwrsanct3920'). The work was agreed in
January 1889, but before it could be actioned, the Armagh rail disaster had
resulted in the passing of the Regulation of Railways Act on 30th August 1889.
The planned work was reviewed in the light of these Regulations and initially
complete disconnection of the junction was proposed. Correspondence with the
E&WJR during 1890 shows that they did not want the junction to be
disconnected, but also refused to pay anything towards the any alterations or
the annual operating costs, which were estimated as £107 (see 'gwrsanct3921'). In September 1891 analysis
of the goods traffic receipts were used to justify retaining the junction (see
'gwrsanct3919'). Receipts from the
E&WJR Loco Coal alone had amounted to £924 for the preceding year,
while the estimated cost of interlocking the switches and signals was only
£325. As a result the junction was retained but became a gated exchange
siding.
In April 1896, concerns was raised regarding the East &
West Junction signal box (see 'gwrsanct3918'). What was done is unknown,
but the signal box was still in situ when the branch line was doubled in 1908.
The doubling required more switches and signals at the junction and a
replacement GW stud frame with 18 levers at 5½ inch centres was
installed in the existing signal box. The signal box name was changed to
‘S&M Junction Signal Box’, with the replacement nameplate ordered
on 8th February 1917 (order 281).
The Great Western Railway issued operating instructions for
specific locations when these were required. Those issued in March 1921 for
working traffic to and from the E&WJR Exchange Sidings at Stratford can be
seen at 'gwrsanct3923'. After the
grouping in 1923 the signal box at the junction was again renamed, becoming
‘Stratford-upon-Avon LMS Junc.’.
Major changes occurred in April 1960 with the construction
of a new curve to the south which provided a direct route for iron ore traffic
from Banbury to South Wales. The original junction was reduced to a single
facing switch connection on the ex-GWR down line with a trailing cross-over
provided to the up line. The Stratford-upon-Avon LM Junc. signal box was closed
on Sunday 24th April 1960 when the new Evesham Road Crossing Signal Box opened.
This replaced the three existing signal boxes at; Evesham Road Crossing,
Stratford-upon-Avon LM Junc. and Stratford-upon-Avon Old Town (see Evesham Road
Crossing for more details).
The junction was closed on Monday 1st March 1965.
Robert Ferris
The history of the station
By the time the East & West opened their line on 1st
July 1873 the town had already had three stations built by two other lines. The
first was Sancta Lane (the original name of what is now Sanctus Road), a
terminus station built by the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton
Railway's (OWWR) branch terminus built in a field called 'Ladye Meadow'. It
was constructed from the outset as a 'narrow gauge' (4 foot 8½ inches)
railway and was a simple layout comprising engine shed, 40 foot turntable,
goods shed and single platform with a run round loop to release the locomotive.
The second railway to arrive in Stratford upon Avon was the mixed gauge line
from Hatton opened on 9th October 1860 by the independent Stratford on Avon
Railway Company (SRC) with its terminal being adjacent to Birmingham Road.
The obvious advantage of joining the two branch lines was quickly recognised
and a new station was opened adjacent to Alcester Road on 24th July 1861 with
the Birmingham Road station being relegated to goods traffic and the occasional
excursion traffic, the latter ceasing in 1869. Sancta Lane was closed with its
facilities moved to the new GWR station off Alcester Road. From the 1st August
1861 through services commenced between Leamington and Malvern thereby offering
the citizens of Stratford upon Avon services to Birmingham, London, and to the
South West and Wales. It was against this monopoly that the E&WJR and its
successors had to contend with.
The E&WJR station was also at a disadvantage by being
some distance from the centre of the town compared to the GWR station.
Nevertheless the Stratford Herald of Tuesday 4th July 1873 made note that the
station was small but substantially constructed in brick on land formerly known
as Church Farm. 'At the entrance to the station stand two line old
elms.' Being a single line the station only required one platform to be
built. This was a common practice on many railways in the 19th century as
evident at Shipston on Stour on the GWR and
on the LNWR at Milverton Leamington.
There was a large assembly of the towns people at the
station to welcome her, centre stage on this occasion prominently occupied by
local novelist Marie Corelli. Another highly feted occasion each year was the
annual Mop Fair which pressed hard on the local railway services. The E&WJR
and subsequent companies had to hire coaches from many different railway
companies which presented some novelty in terms of variety at the station. The
E&WJR were never in very much of a financially secure position to develop
their competition with the GWR. The supportive through coach of the GCR was
introduced in the summer of 1902. This was running the shortest route to London
of 89½ miles. Authorised running powers held by GCR were never used much
apart from the occasional excursions.
Entrance to the station for both passengers and goods was
from New Street which in turn was off College Lane. The entrance to the main
building led into the booking hall, off which was the general waiting room, the
ladies waiting room including an en-suite toilet, the station master's office
and the booking and parcels office, this being accessed only via the kiosk as
the door to the office was accessed from outside, off the up platform. At the
Broom end of the structure was a store room whilst at the Fenny Compton end of
the building was door leading into the tea room and counter with another ladies
toilet being accessed from the tea room. The tap room, for the serving of good
ales and beers, was accessed by staff from the kitchen and for customers from
the approach roadway outside the station. Also at this end of the building was
the Guard's and lamp rooms. The down platform was directly opposite the up
platform but was separated by a much wider space than was normal. This space in
railway parlance was the 'six-foot' as it approximated to this dimension. In
this instance however it was at least double this distance. Services to Broom
which were served by the down platform were few and far between and this was
reflected in the very small waiting room erected on
the platform. Passengers accessed the down waiting room by a 'level' crossing
which was located at the Broom end of the two platforms.
Effective changes came with the formation of the S&MJR
in I908. An extra half an acre of land was purchased to extend the facilities
of the engine shed. Additional cover was erected over two lines alongside the
main building and a hoist was obtained from Cowan & Sheldon. This area also
enclosed the sheerlegs making work on the engines more comfortable for the
fitters. A carriage shed was rebuilt as a wagon repair shop, this was situated
on the opposite side of the new turntable (51 foot 8 inches) to the water
softening plant. A new covered carriage shed was built further down on the
other side of the line towards Broom Junction but this was later removed by the
LMS. The turntable itself was rebuilt to accommodate the locomotives of the
GCR, whilst the station platform and loop were extended. An electric generator
was installed to supply power to all of the station area including the
marshalling yard. Steam power for this was raised with a locomotive type boiler
that charged a generator and stored power in a large accumulator at the rear of
the workshop. It also powered a new 25hp horizontal saw for timber work. The
only refreshment rooms on the E&WJR, later SMJ were at Stratford.
Emphasising the railway as a purely local company the head offices were above
the 'up' side ground floor of these station buildings. With through running of
longer bogie coaches the SMJ rebuilt the platforms and extended them in 1910.
Arthur Jordan noted in his book on the SMJ. 'A new carriage shed and two
additional sidings were added at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1910 at a cost of
£250 and in that same year the station loop was lengthened, as was the
Down platform, at a cost of £75. A new signal box was erected at the west
end of the Up platform and the original East & West box was released for
other purposes.'. The carriage shed and sidings were located in the
triangle between the line to Broom, the exchange sidings and the GWR line to
Honeybourne, by then upgraded to main line standard.
During the period of LMS ownership the locomotive shed was
entirely rebuilt in very unflattering corrugated iron or asbestos. The
passenger service between Stratford and Broom ceased 16th June 1947. In 1950
British Railways informed Stratford RDC that passenger train booking between
Blisworth and Stratford were two tickets per day, from Ettington one per month,
from Kineton one per day. It was therefore their intention to withdraw the
service. This came about on 7th April 1952 but it was on the 5th, that the last
scheduled passenger ran with the 6:40pm to Blisworth with 200 passengers.
Engine diagrams on the day were for ex-LMS 4F 0-6-0 No 44525 working the last
train from Stratford to Blisworth with ex-MR 3F 0-6-0 No 43822 worked the last
train to Stratford from Blisworth. Driver Ernest Smith was accompanied on the
footplate by the Mayor of Stratford upon Avon as far as Ettington on the
outward journey. The goods service, for which the line was promoted was much
more successful and continued until 1965. Coal merchants still operated from
Stratford; Hutchings & Co, Alcester Co-op and Dingley's Time and
Fertiliser. The main private siding was for Lucy & Nephew which was a
continuation of the Goods Shed siding; also near the Goods Shed was the
accommodation crossing to Mr Carter's farm.
The goods yard was located along the original exchange
sidings between the E&WJR and GWR and were on the right as you entered the
station. Adjacent to the second signal box, built by the SMJ in 1910, was the
end-loading dock and to its right, the cattle dock and pens. Between the two,
for a very brief period commencing on 23rd April 1934, was the
Ro-Railer ramp which was where this rail top road
hybrid bus metamorphosed between the two forms of traction. Moving further to
the right towards the GWR line was a goods shed which, given the volume of
traffic being handled by the railway, always appeared too small. Within the
goods shed was an internal platform and in the centre, a one-ton fixed position
manually operated crane. There were two offices provided at the goods yard for
railway personnel one each side of the main structure. Passing the goods yard
on our left as we move further to the GWR line was the coal siding which, from
the evidence seen in the aerial photo 'smjsa251' and
'smjsa288' didn't have much in the way coal wharves,
from which coal was distributed to the local population, but were apparently
served direct from the wagons themselves. Coal delivered by Private Owner
wagons owned by the local merchant, as in the case of Hutchings & Co, had
no time restriction applied whereas railway owned wagons not emptied within a
three-day period were charged as an extra fee to the merchant. Warehouse
facilities were also provided for Walkers and Warwickshire Farmers, the
latter's building being adjacent to the junction between the GWR and the
E&WJR/SMJ.
The Railway Clearing House's 1929 Handbook of Railway
Stations states Stratford-on-Avon station provided the general public and
businesses with the following services: Goods traffic; Passenger and Parcels
traffic; Furniture Vans, Carriages, Portable Engines, and Machines on Wheels;
Live Stock; Horse Boxes and Prize Cattle Vans; and Carriages (Horse-drawn - Ed)
by Passenger Trains (GPFLHC). The cranage facilities provided within the goods
yard had substantially improved from the 4 ton capacity as noted in the 1894
edition, to 13 tons which was far superior to the 5 ton capacity available at
the GWR station. The 1894 edition of The Railway Clearing House Handbook of
Railway Stations did not provide information to the same detail e.g. the number
of categories listed, and only recorded (GPFL), however its reasonable to
assume that the same facilities recorded in 1929 were offered from the outset.
As stated above the cranage capacity was only 4 tons. Interestingly, the post
1942 schematic diagram of the SMJ station and shed shown on page 52 of Arthur
Jordan's book and reproduced in image 'smjsa166a'
shows the capacity of the fixed position manually operated crane (see image 'smjsa261') as being 6 tons whilst in the shed another
crane was available but limited to a one ton capacity. The Handbook of Railway
Stations needed to be accurate in order to facilitate the transfer of goods
across the country. Therefore either the drawing is incorrect or the crane was
replaced with a crane of a lesser capacity at a date in the 1930s. The station
remained open to freight traffic until 1965. Finally the rails were removed in
1966 between Stratford upon Avon and Burton Dassett.
The four road Engine Shed was located immediately behind the
down platform and was accessed connections emanating from the line to Broom.
Parallel to the line to Broom for a short distance was a siding which led to
the coaling stage. The original turntable was
positioned immediately in front of the shed with the turntable providing access
to three of the roads into the shed. When the Great Central Railway commenced
running its locomotives into Stratford on Avon, a second
and larger turntable was built and this was positioned towards the Broom
end of the platform on the line to and from the coaling stage. Also accessed
off the turntable by a short siding was the PW and Engineering shop. A third
siding ran alongside the latter and served a variety of stores as can be seen
in 'smjsa166b'. Adjacent to the turntable was a
brick built office for the shed foreman. Behind the
shed (the Fenny Compton) end, was a two storey structure with a steel
water tank on top, one of the rooms beneath serving
as a pump room. This was accessed via a walkway which rose up from ground level
at the shed to the first floor.
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Stratford on Avon Station - A personal recollection by
Arthur Jordan
Its very rare to be given a detailed first-hand account of
the facilities and workings of a station, particularly one which closed
half-way through the 20th century. Fortunately through the eyes of Arthur
Jordan, whose mother managed Stratford upon Avon station's refreshment
facilities, we can. His book The Stratford upon Avon and Midland Junction
Railway published by OPC in 1982 gives us this opportunity. The numbers in
the brackets refer to the schematic map seen in image 'smjsa178'. Arthur's account is as follows:
'The refreshment rooms catered for all tastes and pockets
so that in the bar one could purchase a wide range of wines and spirits, cigars
and chocolates. The tea room served bread and butter with jam, toast and cakes,
at tables inlaid with blue tiles; over the mantelpiece hung an oval mirror with
gold mouldings and beneath stood a graceful wooden encased clock with inlaid
mother of pearl decoration. In winter a coal fire blazed in the fireplace with
its very ornamented cast iron fender and brass fire irons. By ordering in
advance, a cooked meal could be obtained, usually of steak, vegetables and
pudding. Yes, my mother was a great believer in filling puddings rather than
the more dainty mousses and fruit salads. General Manager Diggins and his two
young sons, together with their housekeeper. Miss Doris Prentice, frequently
lunched at the refreshment rooms before travelling to Leicester. The boys'
favourite pudding was steamed jam roll and on one occasion, as my mother took
the mouth-watering pudding to the table, it suddenly rolled off the plate and
was caught by the GM before it landed on his lap!
In those times beer was what is now called 'real ale',
delivered in thirty-six gallon wooden casks from the local Flowers brewery. In
SMJ and early LMS days the beer was drawn from the wood, but the LMS installed
a beer engine (nothing to do with class 4Fs!) after which the barrels were
stored in a cellar beneath the bar and the beer pumped up to the bar through
pipes. I hasten to explain that this was not achieved by the use of gas but by
the barmaid pulling gently on a lever whilst holding the beer mug beneath the
tap. Tap room customers were mostly railwaymen or work- men from the coal
wharves and warehouses around the station. It was seldom that any food was sold
in the tap room, except perhaps an occasional bag of potato crisps because the
men had all brought their own food from home and bought only a pint, some only
half a pint, of beer to swill it down. Vacuum flasks, or Thermos flasks as they
are popularly known, were seldom seen among workmen who carried bottles of cold
tea to drink when no facilities existed for brewing tea in a billy.
If the crockery and furnishings of the SMJ refreshment
rooms were offered for sale today they would realise a small fortune as either
Victoriana or railwayana, for they included pewter tankards and tea pots,
floral decorated cups and saucers, pewter measures for spirits, willow pattern
dinner services, ornate mantelpiece clocks, bamboo tables and elaborately
carved chair backs. There were National Cash Register Company's tills with a
mass of chased brasswork and little metal flags that popped up to indicate the
amount rung up, and a bell that rang every time the till was opened. There were
cups and jugs bearing initials or coats of arms of the Great Central Railway,
the Midland Railway and the LNER as well as the LMSR. Refreshment room takings
from the tills were banked every day, the money being placed in a leather bag
bearing a brass plate with the letters 'SMJ Refreshment Rooms' engraved upon
it. Each day similar money bags were conveyed to Stratford-upon-Avon from
outlying stations and all would be taken to the bank by the stationmaster on
foot. There were no railway police at Stratford-upon-Avon station and only very
occasionally did a town policeman get as far as the SMJ station. This was
usually on a Sunday, and we suspected that he was checking to see if the
refreshment rooms were honouring their six-day licence to sell intoxicating
liquor. Mind you, a policeman on duty given a free pint on an unlicensed day
was no offence! The refreshment rooms were broken into in 1910 when, according
to the Stratford Herald, the thief 'stole a quantity of cigarettes, chocolates
and a sixpence'. He was not a railwayman!
There were few changes at Stratford-upon-Avon station
between 1919 and the end of passenger services in 1952, so that my personal
reminiscences together with reference to the plan (see image 'smjsa177') should enable the reader to gain a clear
impression of the station, which the Great Central Railway in its brochures
described as 'The Gateway to Shakespeareland'. It had two platforms, both able
to accommodate five or six bogie coaches, and directions were Up to Ettington
and Down to Broom Junction. The loop could take a train of thirty-three wagons
plus engine and brake van. The main station buildings, which were built of
brick, were situated on the Up platform and comprised booking hall, booking and
parcels office, station- master's office, ladies' waiting room with WC, general
waiting room and refreshment rooms. A platform canopy extended the length of
the buildings, whilst on the station approach side there was a very short
canopy, approximately 15ft x 8ft.
The well-trodden wooden floor-boards of the station
buildings, except for the stationmaster's office and the refreshment rooms,
were devoid of floor-covering and every evening a porter would use a garden
syringe to settle the dust with disinfectant before sweeping the floors. This
gave the place a distinctive smell so that, after the manner of the well known
Bisto adverts of the day, one might say 'Ah - Jeyes Fluid'. All shelves and
ledges which were not regularly brushed by the clerks' sleeves, were thick with
dust, some dating from the opening of the line in 1873! Removal of the circular
lid on the iron stove in order to feed in more coal resulted in the escape of
billowing, choking smoke which then lingered for a long time, discolouring
stationery, tickets and clerks! The only filing system in the booking office
made use of stout wire spikes standing on a wooden base. To add a paper to the
file one pierced the document with the spike and since this was often done by
jabbing the spike on to the desk-top the latter resembled a piece of Gorgonzola
cheese after some fifty years of such treatment. An Edmondson ticket date
stamping machine stood by the ticket window next to the ticket case, with
folding lockable doors, and containing several racks of SMJ tickets; white for
first class single, white and yellow for return and green for third class
single, with green and buff for return. In 1921, the bookings from SMJ stations
were 627 first class; 126,135 third class and only 23 season tickets. Wooden
poster boards were affixed to any unoccupied flat piece of wall, and on these
the porters pasted the company's timetables and coloured posters extolling the
attractions of numerous resorts which would be reached by asking for a ticket
by THE SHAKESPEARE ROUTE. A feature of this station for many years were the
painstakingly chalked notices displayed to advertise excursion trains. Bill
Walton, a porter, executed these works of art, for such they were, in coloured
chalks in the Gothic style of lettering and often accompanied by illustrations
of Blackpool tower or a rail- way engine. Small bundles of handbills
proclaiming cheap day tickets, race meeting specials and seaside trips hung on
nails around the booking hall. Enamel signs advertised VIROL. MAZAWATEE TEA,
FRYS CHOCOLATE, TANGYE PUMPS, SUNLIGHT SOAP and VICTORY V GUMS and occupied any
wall space not already claimed by the railway company.
A number of automatic machines dispensed Nestles' or
Fry's chocolate bars or Sun Maid Raisins after the insertion of one penny; in
fact the popular name for them was 'penny-in-the-slot machines'. The price of
one penny remained stable for half a century! These penny-in-the-slot machines
were fine examples of the Victorians' ability to apply the most ornate
decoration to the most mundane pieces of equipment and the piece de resistance
was undoubtedly the weighing machine. Tall, broad, green and matronly in
appearance, it stood against the platform wall, its large dial making provision
for weight-watchers of up to twenty stone whilst a metal handrail on either
side ensured a ready means of support for those weighers overcome by the
evidence displayed on the dial before them. Red buckets, marked FIRE, hung in
clusters of four at various points around the station, and whilst never put to
their intended use for extinguishing outbreaks of fire, they provided a welcome
source of refreshment for the local bird population as well as being used for
such unapproved purposes as washing down horse buses waiting hopefully for
fares in the station yard. Sparrows used the more inaccessible corners of the
platform awning as a maternity home, and soon learned the positions where
engines were in the habit of standing whilst the crew ate their 'tommy' and
cast crumbs off the footplate.
The refreshment rooms included a bar room with a long
counter, a tea room, kitchen and tap room used mainly by railwaymen and
employees of firms having business with the railway. Railwaymen always referred
to the refreshment rooms as "The Shant', being short for shanty. When railways
were being built, and hundreds if not thousands of navvies were engaged upon
the works, the huts where they could buy liquor and food were known as
Shanties. Many of the navvies, after completing the construction, became
railwaymen, which is no doubt how the term became applied. Stratford-upon-Avon
magistrates first granted a licence *to sell ales, wines and spirits and
tobacco', at this station to a licensee named Chambers in 1874. The premises
were known as The Burke Arms, presumably after the general manager of the East
& West Junction Railway, JF Burke. Not until 1914 did the SMJ take over the
management of the refreshment rooms when the licence was transferred to A E
Diggins. General Manager, and my mother (then May Bradley) became the first
manageress.'
At the western end of the station buildings stood the
original East & West signal box, (see image 'smjsa42b'), and readers may be interested to learn
that for a time my extensive '0' gauge Hornby model railway was housed here.
Beneath the disused signal box, in what had been the locking frame loom (3) and in a lean-to shed adjoining, the Signal
& Telegraph Department was accommodated and sometimes I would be invited in
to watch the block instruments and telephones being repaired. The SMJ installed
a time-clock in the entrance to the S & T Department and here all
non-clerical staff were required to clock on and off duty. Two signal fitters
and two telegraph linesmen were responsible for signals, points and
communications between Broom Junction and Towcester. One of the men, Ted
Tookey, rode an old belt-driven Royal Enfield motorcycle which was a veteran
even in those days. Beyond the ramp of the Up platform was the new signal box
(4) of wooden conduction on a brick base
which housed the locking-frame. Just at the fool of the platform tamp, close to
the signal box, stood a small corrugated iron shed (5) which housed a Merryweather steam fire engine
costing £115 in 1909. This comprised a vertical boiler and a pump mounted
on two large carrying wheels, with an iron bar shaped like the shafts of a
rickshaw by which the appliance could be manhandled to the scene of the
conflagration. It looked very impressive with its highly polished brasswork,
gleaming red paintwork and a column of smoke and steam rising confidently from
its chimney pipe.
The old joke about keeping the fire going until the fire
engine arrived may have originated at Stratford SMJ but on at least one
occasion the Merryweather proved its worth in quelling an outbreak in the
locomotive shed when the heat was of sufficient intensity to melt the electric
Light bulbs. Fire drills were held at regular intervals and the crew consisted
of Tommy Duckett, an engine fitter, 'Tacker' Harris, a porter and George
Shirley, a goods porter. Upon the alarm signal being given, Tommy Duckett would
grab a shovelful of live coals from any available locomotive or from the
stationary boiler. He would then run with his blazing burden to the fire
station, where Tacker Harris would have the Merryweather engine out ready and
waiting with the firebox lid open for Tommy to shoot his shovelful of fire into
the box. After about ten minutes steam would be up sufficiently to work the
pump, by which time the crew had pushed their appliance to the scene of the
drill, whereupon Tacker would direct a jet of water on such objects as the
cattle pens or the glazing in the platform canopy, if either appeared to be in
need of a wash.
At the east end of the main building stood a brick-built
lamp room (6) containing drums of paraffin
and rape oil used in the signal lamps, tail lamps and guards' hand lamps. All
the signal lamps had to be collected in from the signals each week, some on
Tuesdays and the rest on Thursdays. This was a job for the porters, who were
responsible for filling the lamp reservoirs with paraffin, trimming the wicks,
cleaning the reflectors and glasses and then returning the lamps to their
signals. On the back wall of the lamp room was a rack to hold shunting poles.
Each pole could be placed in the rack and then secured with a hasp and staple
and padlock. Guards, who each had a pole, claimed that a shunting pole 'got in
their way of handling' and the men were very disconcerted if forced to use any
pole other than their own, or during the period of 'breaking-in' a new shunting
pole. A rack full of labels and a large can of glue enabled passengers' luggage
to be clearly consigned by the Shakespeare Route.
Last, along the Up platform, was the guards' room (7), a wooden hut with a corrugated iron roof. On
three inner sides were lockers in which the guards stored their 'traps', being
such items as flags, hand lamp, detonators, rule book and registered parcel
book. When the lids were closed the men could use the lockers as seats. On the
fourth wall was a stand-up desk with a notice board above, where men signing on
for duty would look for the latest instructions which might affect their turn
of duty or for trade union notices. In the corner a coal stove glowed bright
red through its iron sides when the men had stoked up for a mealtime session.
One of my boyhood joys was to take a hunk of bread and cheese and to sit with
these guards and porters at 'snap' time. I must have heard much that was not at
all suitable for boyish ears, but at least I was not spraying 'Arsenal Rules
OK' on public buildings or throwing bricks at the drivers of passing
trains.
Access to the Down platform was by a wooden sleeper
crossing (8) at the signal box end of the
station. It is amazing that no serious accident ever occurred on this crossing
because trains were shunting back and forth ceaselessly as passengers were
wishing to cross the metals between the two platforms. On the Down platform an
earlier wooden waiting shelter, bequeathed by the SMJ, was demolished by the
LMS and a brick waiting room with a fireplace and glazing on three sides
erected (9). Most stations of sufficient size
ran St John's Ambulance classes for the railwaymen and entered teams in the
district and in regional competitions organised and encouraged by the railway
companies. At Stratford, the organiser of these classes was Jack Bloxham, a
bricklayer, from the engineering department, and those who attended met weekly
in the Down platform waiting room, where various railway accidents were
simulated and treatment rendered. Raw recruits usually fell into the traps set
by the more experienced members such as taking an injured man away on a
stretcher, without having first lifted the heavy weight which was pinning him
down!
Until about 1928 an old four-wheeled carriage body (10) stood at the east end of the Down platform
having originally been a LNWR coach built in 1850 and working between London
and Birmingham. It had been purchased by the East & West Junction Railway
in 1880 and used in traffic until 1908.
The space between the Up and Down platform tracks,
commonly known to railwaymen as 'the six foot', was unusually wide, probably
fifteen or twenty feet, and in this wide space were two water columns, one for
each track. Behind the Down platform stood the engine shed (12) with four roads able to shelter eleven engines,
if the shed doors were left open. At the east end of the engine shed stood a
tall brick tower (13) topped by a large metal
water tank - providing the supply for the water columns. In SMJ days water was
pumped from the River Avon including small fish which found their way into
engine tenders and indeed into the refreshment room sink but not into the tea
— we hope! Until about 1928 the station generated its own electricity with
power from a stationary Robey boiler and a Tangye 25hp horizontal steam engine
with a dynamo housed in a building (14)
attached to the east end of the engine shed. Another wooden building (15) housed rows of large glass accumulators which
supplied current for the station lighting during the period from 10pm until 6am
when the generator was not in use. A few minutes before 10pm the lights in the
refreshment rooms would flicker followed by a noticeable reduction in voltage
as the change over to batteries took place.
Retired driver Tom Hine recalls how as a young cleaner in
the years 1912-1914, he was required to carry batteries in wooden boxes from
the charging plant to the guard's vans of the passenger trains since no
generators were fitted to the early electrically-lit carriages. Ever alert to
save on expenditure, and since demarcation disputes were unheard of on a line
for which the chairman's motto was 'unity and perseverance', the SMJ had no
hesitation in employing one of its head office clerks, who had a knowledge of
electricity, to wire the station and offices when the plant was installed. The
stationary engine also drove lathes and a water pump, until the generating of
electricity was discontinued and a supply was taken from the mains of the
Stratford-upon-Avon Electricity Company. At about the same time a connection
was made to the Corporation's water supply so that the refreshment rooms now
had two taps, one with fish and one without fish!
The original East & West Junction Railway turntable
been sited near the doors of the engine shed on number 1 road, but in 1908 a
new 51 feet 8 inch table was installed some eighty yards further away from the
shed with spurs to give wagon access to the workshops and stores of the
permanent way department and the engineering department (17). The permanent way department was responsible
for tracks and drainage whilst the engineering department looked after bridges
and buildings. It was a carpenter in the engineering department who constructed
my first wooden engine with three trucks on which I could sit and scoot along
the flagstones on the platform edge without once falling over into the 'four
foot', the space between the rails.
At the extreme west end of the engine shed was a coaling
stage (18) being a very basic structure of
wood and corrugated sheeting, and almost opposite were the carriage sidings
(19) which, until shortly after the LMS
take-over, were covered by a corrugated iron roof supported on a steel
framework. This was dismantled, after which all servicing of coaching stock was
carried out in the open air. On the north side of the station, behind the
signal box, ran the cattle dock siding which terminated in an end-loading dock
(20), in line with which was a hand winch
(21) for handling pantechnicons and farm
machines. Between this loading dock and the cattle dock (23) a wooden deck (22) resembling a level crossing was installed in
1932 for use by that unsuccessful vehicle the Ro-Railer.
For the volume of traffic handled, the goods shed was
small, taking only three wagons inside with a loading bay for one road vehicle.
A small hand-operated crane stood on the loading deck inside the shed. An
uncovered loading dock (26) made of old
sleepers and holding four goods wagons adjoined the shed and a small lean-to
office (27) accommodated the goods checker.
Several delivery drays could be accommodated at this open-air dock. Another
lean-to office at the opposite end of the shed housed the goods clerks.
One of the well-known firm of Pooley's vehicle weighbridges
(28) with a corrugated iron hut was in great
demand by coal merchants, cattle feed suppliers and hay dealers, so much so
that a railway company's weighbridgeman was employed full-time. I often spent
an afternoon helping this man by sliding the bright brass cursor along the
shiny steel graduated scale until it 'balanced' and then reading off the
weight. The tare, in other words the weight of the cart unladen, had to be
deducted from the gross laden weight to give the actual weight of the load, and
when I made a mistake in my calculations the men would try to goad me by
sneering 'Is that the best they can learn you at the Grammar School?'
Eastwards from the goods shed was a complex of ex-First
World War army huts (39) mounted on brick
piers to rail wagon height and used by W & L Dingley & Company as corn
and cattle feed stores. These warehouses were served by an extension of the
goods shed siding which crossed the station approach road and ran to a field
gate (29) giving access to a meadow which the
line crossed to reach Lucy & Nephew's flour mill astride the River Avon.
Until the coming of the East & West Junction Railway the mill had relied
upon canal and river transport for its imported grain supplies, but the River
Avon's 'Lower Navigation' fell into disuse in the mid-1800s so that all water
traffic had to reach Stratford-upon-Avon via the canal which ran from Kings
Norton. This explains Charles Lucy's willingness to sell much of the land on
which the station was built. Alter the retirement of the founder of the firm of
Lucy & Nephew. Charles Lucy, a new company was formed with Joseph Pope as
Managing Director, a conspicuous figure who wore a hard hat, similar to but
squarer than a bowler, a check jacket, breeches and highly polished brown
leather leggings and boots. Every day, without fail for twenty years or more,
Mr Pope strode across the meadow from the mill to the station where he took tea
in the refreshment room. Always the same menu, two slices of bread and butter,
cut very thinly, and one queen cake, with a pot of tea.
Railway company's locomotives were not permitted to pass
beyond the field gate (29) and originally
horses belonging to the railway's cartage agents, Hutchings & Company, were
used to pull wagons up the incline from the mill to the station yard. This was
heavy work and two or more horses were harnessed in tandem, being in the charge
of a heavily built, fearsome-looking carter named Timms. This job usually had
to be done at the end of the horses' working day when they normally expected to
be going to their stables for a well-earned feed of carrots. Understandably,
the horses resented this disruption of their daily routine and voted with their
feet not to go down to the mill. Carter Timms had to use a great deal of
persuasion to get his horses to put in overtime! In the late 1920s a Lister
stationary petrol engine was installed by Lucy's in a shed by the field gate,
and this then hauled the wagons up from the mill by means of a wire rope. A
passing loop was provided half way across the meadow and the points operated by
heavily weighted levers at ground level. Loaded wagons descended by gravity
with one mill-hand to each wagon brake and a retired mill worker recalls a
wagon having to be fished out of the river after crashing through the buffer
stop. The mill has now been demolished and in its place a block of luxury flats
named 'Lucy's Mill' stands astride the Avon where once its waters gushed
through the turbine that drove the milling machinery, and where boats from
Sharpness Docks tied up beneath the mill's central arch. These flat-dwellers
enjoy a splendid view of the river and of the six-arched viaduct which once
carried the SMJ Railway. In the same meadow through which the mill siding
passed stood a stately house (31) with a
pillared portico, for many years the residence of the Everard family; the head
of this family was a shareholder in the Fast & West Junction Railway and
Managing Director of Lucy & Nephew's mill. The house still stands but, with
additions, it is now a holiday hostel.
On the west side of the goods shed, a separate siding
served the coal yard (32) and could hold some
fifteen wagons. Coal was unloaded direct from rail wagon to delivery cart or
was stacked on the ground about fifteen feet from the track. In the coal yard,
which could be entered without much difficulty at any time of the day or night,
stood hundreds of tons of coal yet, in the days of one to two million
unemployed workers and much poverty, I do not recall anyone being apprehended
for stealing coal. Many families, particularly widows (and there were many
widows following the First World War) were so poor that they came to the coal
wharf with perambulators or an old box on wheels to buy a half hundredweight of
coal; some bought only 'slack'. Beyond the coal yard a siding served a
brick-built warehouse for Walker & Atkinson, coal and corn merchants, and a
little further on another line led to the Warwickshire Farmers' warehouse.
Stationmaster Gilkes bought a Trojan motor car, a peculiar machine with a chain
drive from a jack-shaft, and this became a matter of general interest among the
railwaymen. When my father later bought a three-wheeled Morgan car he rented
the stationmaster's garage (36) for 7s 6d (37½ pence) per year.
Beyond the Warwickshire Farmers' building lay the double
junction with the Great Western Railway main line but both SMJ lines were
blocked by 'scotch-blocks' (A scotch is a small triangular block that sits on
the rail head in order to stop a wheel passing over it). This junction was
under the control of the Stratford & Midland Junction signal box (37) situated about 100 yards to the north and
manned by a GWR signalman. It was a block post open only from 1.30pm until 9pm
each weekday, partly to handle transfer traffic between the two companies but,
more importantly, to shorten the long block section between the GWR Stratford
station and Milcote on the busy West of England main line. The same signalman
manned this box six days a week throughout the year except for one week's
annual holiday. I was friendly with this 'Bobby', as signalmen were popularly
known among railwayman, and spent many hours in the signal box learning the
bell codes and being allowed to lap them out under the bobby's directions. This
signal box was a snug place with the kettle always on the hob and tea brewed
for each new visitor be he platelayer, linesman or a fireman from a train held
at the 'peg' under Rule 55 which required the fireman of a train held at a Home
signal where track circuiting was not operating, to report to the signal box
and sign the register. There was a unique satisfaction about being in a signal
box when the weather outside was foul! The rain lashing against the many window
panes, the strong wind causing the whole box to tremble but inside the warmth
from the stove and perhaps the appetising smell of the bobby's bacon frying.
Then the startling clang of a block bell calling attention followed by the dull
tap of our reply. Next the important sound of four clangs asking 'Is the line
clear for an express train?'. With a glance at his bacon the bobby would reply
with four beats and then pull the levers to sot the road for the express he had
just accepted.
Back to the cooking but soon a couple of clangs on the
block bell would announce that the express train was entering our section and a
few minutes later 'Whoosh' and 'De da de da, de da de da, de da de da' as the
long train flashes past and the signalman peers through the rain-lashed windows
to make sure that there are no open carriage doors and that the red tail lamp
is there to signify that the train is complete. Now all is quiet once more, so
back to the cooking! Before leaving this end of the station I must mention an
ex-LNWR four-wheeled coach (38) which stood
for many years at the end of a siding near the GWR main line. This coach
belonged to the East & West Junction Railway, carrying the number 4, and
from the photograph it will be seen that a rectangular window had been cut in
the end to convert it to a directors' inspection saloon but when a new vehicle
was brought into use in 1909 this older veteran became redundant.
Much of the information and or photographs provided on this
and other linked pages has been derived from books written by: Arthur Jordan
The Stratford upon Avon and Midland Junction Railway published by OPC;
JM Dunn's The Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway
published by The Oakwood Press; RC Riley and Bill Simpson in their book A
History of the Stratford-Upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway published
by Lamplight Publications; David Blasgrove in his book 'Warwickshire's Lost
Railways' published by Stenlake Publishing which has a brief illustrated
overview of some of the stations; and finally Geoffrey Kingscott's Lost
Railways of Warwickshire published by Countryside Books which has a section
dedicated to the SMJR with 'Now and Then' photographs. We would like to express
our thanks to the members of the SMJ Society (www.smj.me) for use of their
information and images, in particular the late John Jennings whose contribution
can be seen on many of our SMJ pages.
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Exterior view of station
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View of the station's main buildings and up platform
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View of the down platform
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Panoramic and general views of the station
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Stratford on Avon Goods Yard
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Stratford upon Avon Old Town Exchange Ground Frame
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Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous Documents and artifacts
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Locomotives and trains seen at or near Stratford upon Avon
station
E&WJR and SMJ Days - 1871 to 1922
LMS Days - 1923 to 1947 (Grouping)
BR Days - 1948 - 1965
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The last scheduled passenger service and the last special
on the SMJ
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Special Tours
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Aerial views of Stratford Old Town station and locomotive
shed
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Maps, Schematics and Diagrams
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Goods traffic at Stratford on Avon - A personal
recollection by Arthur Jordan
As stated above its very rare to be given a detailed
first-hand account of the facilities and workings of a station, particularly
one which closed half-way through the 20th century. Fortunately through the
eyes of Arthur Jordan, whose mother managed Stratford upon Avon station's
refreshment facilities, we can. His book The Stratford upon Avon and Midland
Junction Railway published by OPC in 1982 gives us this opportunity.
Arthur's account is as follows:
Tuesday was cattle market day in Stratford-upon-Avon and,
until the 1920s, the railway provided almost all the transport for animals to
the Birmingham slaughterhouses: as many as twenty trucks would be loaded at the
SMJ station. The cattle market was on the other side of the town, about a mile
away from the station, and all the cattle (mainly bullocks but including sheep
and pigs) had to be driven through the streets of the town, much to the
inconvenience of the road traffic and frequently to the alarm of pedestrians.
Men known as drovers attended all Midland cattle markets and contracted to do
the droving and loading of cattle for the dealers and butchers. They were
tough, rough characters armed with stout cudgels, loud voices and strong
language, so that if the beasts were not already frantic with fear whilst in
the sale pens, they soon became so when under the 'care' of the
drovers.
A particularly fearsome looking character, known as
'Cattle Bill', drove beasts to the SMJ station and he and his mates frequented
the Shant for beer when I overheard many of their tales and most of their foul
language. One of these tales concerned an ancestor of Cattle Bill's who used to
use the old drove roads through the Welsh mountains to the Midland grazing
lands and markets. One such tale concerned a herd of eight hundred cattle being
driven along the muddy road towards Hereford when the mail coach approached and
the impatient driver tried to force his way through the cattle. Lashing out in
all directions at the cattle he caused them to stampede and this so infuriated
the drovers that one of them knocked the coach driver from his seat and threw
him into the ditch. This sequel always seemed to please Cattle Bill's audience.
Sometimes Cattle Bill would agree to buy his mates a drink by striking a
bargain in the traditional drovers' manner, that is by slapping hands. Often he
would break into song with snatches from old drovers' drinking songs, one of
which was about a maiden betrayed by a drover and finished with this verse in
which the assembled company of the Shant would all join in the last
line:
| |
'To our house came he for a bed,
His words
were honey but his thoughts I read,
With a handy hammer I tapped his
head.
That was the end of the drover' |
The SMJ passenger and goods stations were both approached
along the same road, so it was not surprising that railway passengers were
frequently terrified as they were surrounded by wild-eyed, bellowing bullocks
and swearing, cudgel-wielding drovers. I was always frightened on my way home
from school if I encountered the drovers with or without their cattle. The
cattle dock was not large enough to pen all the animals arriving at the
station, so that milling herds of beasts would be held on the piece of ground
in front of the station building entrance, thus obliging passengers on foot to
pluck up sufficient courage to penetrate the sea of horns or, as some ladies
did, to scream and secure the protection of a drover or a railway- man.
Occasionally a beast would attempt to escape and find its way into the
railwaymen's allotments, trampling crops under hoof. However, some of the
manure shovelled up from the station yard after the departure of the cattle
train found its way to these allotments whilst some helped win prizes for the
station platform gardens.
The unfortunate animals, already terrified to the verge
of madness, were now subjected to the most sickening cruelty as they were
lambasted on all sides in an effort to load them into the cattle wagons. Sheep
were never such a problem because after one had been shoved through the wagon
doors the others would follow, but oh, pigs! Pigs brought more and more
punishment upon themselves by their pro- testing squeals and refusal to
understand what was required of them. I can to this day hear their terrified
shrieks as they were pulled by the ears, flogged across the back and kicked in
the belly to get them into the wagons. Some 18,000 head of livestock were
despatched from SMJ stations each year. Bert Russell, aged 95 years when I
talked to him, was the traffic canvasser at Stratford-upon-Avon, and he
recalled that on cattle market days all the settlements by farmers were made in
the public house near the market. Ink pots and pens stood cheek by jowl with
the beer pots and whisky glasses on a table in the bar, and cheques were made
out by the farmers to settle outstanding accounts with the railways, the cattle
drovers and amongst themselves.
Eventually a large, modern cattle market was built
adjacent to the GWR station so that cattle to be loaded at that station had to
be driven only a few hundred yards. This, coupled with the growing use of road
vehicles, soon reduced the traffic for the LMS, so that a special train was no
longer required and the one or two wagons which were loaded with cattle could
be attached to the rear of the 7.45pm passenger train to Broom Junction. After
market day the cattle dock had to be cleaned down with a hose and broom and
then 'sloshed' with disinfectant. 1 often helped or even completed this
cleaning task on my own, for which I might be given sixpence, but my mother
protested vehemently at my doing this job, because I always soaked my boots and
socks and often all my clothing- There was seldom any outwards livestock
traffic, other than on market days, but twice a year a horse breeder named Tom
Wynn would consign five or six shire horses to the railway stables at Lawley
Street goods station in Birmingham. These were beautiful, powerful looking
animals and to a small boy appeared to be of mammoth proportions with feet the
size of dustbin lids which it was wise to keep well clear of. Their manes and
tails were neatly plaited with straw and their 'socks' were snow-white whilst
their coats shone as though polished. Tom Wynn and his son would tether these
horses to the gate at the back of the Shant whilst they refreshed themselves
after their long walk in from the country, and I would run away in terror if
Tom offered to lift me on the back of one of his horses.
Although these animals had been broken-in for dray work
they had never before seen a railway station and certainly never been invited
to step inside a railway horse box; an invitation they did not readily accept.
In fact a shire horse's unwillingness to enter a horse box increased in
proportion to the amount of pulling, pushing and shouting expended upon it.
Perhaps it was the massiveness of these horses, perhaps a different attitude of
the men towards horses as compared with cattle, but I never saw a violent blow
struck at these horses. No, if a horse would not enter the horse box in a
forwards direction then the men tried inveigling it into believing that if it
allowed itself to be propelled backwards it was not going into the horse box at
all! Often this worked, but not always. l have watched, several men trying
unsuccessfully for up to half-an-hour to load one of these shire horses and
then Tacker Harris, the porter, would lead the horse away, take a turn around
the station yard, all the while stroking the horse's neck and talking to it,
and then he would come trotting up to the horse box and - IN! Once loaded,
horses were given more consideration than humans, for the horse boxes were well
padded to prevent injury to the animal and movable partitions were placed so as
to make it impossible for the horse to fall over in transit.
At the head end was a hatch to enable the horse to be fed
and a watchful eye kept on it en route; whilst railway rules required that all
animals, after twelve hours in transit, be released from their vehicles,
watered and fed. Many passengers on present day High Speed Trains on which the
buffet facilities have been suspended, might well wish that some such similar
rules required them to be fed in transit! Stratford-upon-Avon Steeplechases
were held twice a year, bringing additional traffic to the railways. The SMJ
station was nearest to the racecourse until the Great Western put in two
racecourse platforms adjacent to the course in 1930. Jockeys or stable boys
travelled with the horses in a compartment built into the horse box and would
be accompanied by a large chest displaying the stable's colours and containing
medicines and lotions required for 'servicing' the horse. These lads could be
extremely temperamental, especially after a long journey which may not have
gone entirely to plan, when their use of foul language knew no bounds.
There were no stables on the racecourse in the early days,
consequently all available stabling in the town was in great demand for the
racehorses. The stables of the local brewery, Hutchings & Co., and of
numerous other traders were turned over to accommodating racehorses. To help
meet the situation the SMJ erected stabling for twenty horses at Avonfield, the
general manager's house by the station yard. Anxious to please the racing
fraternity and in response to an appeal, the SMJ directors donated £40 to
the United Hunt Farmers' Steeplechase in 1921.
In order to comply with the rule mentioned earlier
regarding animals in transit, it was occasionally necessary for cattle passing
through Stratford-upon-Avon to be let out of their trucks and watered. It was
an operation undertaken with great reluctance by the station staff because
animals which had already endured twelve hours of buffeting about in a draughty
cattle wagon were not easily persuaded to re-enter that torture chamber after
having been released. There was some excitement when Tacker Harris had to
render this service for a young bull, for it seems that the spell Tacker was
able to cast over shire horses was apparently ineffective over the bovine
species. The bull broke loose and, galumphing down the approach road,
disappeared into the maze of streets in the Old Town district and was never
seen again at the LMS station! I believe that the hapless Tacker heard
something about this episode from headquarters but nothing could bring
Ferdinand back. Tacker was certainly not born under Taurus!
Whereas cattle, sheep and pigs released from their wagons
were expected to re-enter when required, pigeons were released with the object
of their flying away. These were homing pigeons or racing pigeons conveyed in
baskets with special labels on which the station staff recorded the time of the
birds' release and the weather conditions. These birds were transported twenty,
fifty or even hundreds of miles from their home lofts and released at the
station to which they had been consigned, to fly back to their lofts as fast as
possible. It was understood by the railway staff that the birds should not be
released during unfavourable weather conditions, so that if they were held for
several hours the birds* drinking-water tins would need replenishing. When
releasing the birds, care had to be taken as far as possible, to avoid
obstructions such as telephone wires or signal gantries. Before setting off for
home, the birds would circle around the station several times, presumably as
part of their ritual for determining the direction they were to follow.
Arrival of theatrical traffic always caused some
excitement for me because of the special working arrangements involved and the
interesting things to be seen coming out of the scenery vans. I remember in
particular the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, when the cast and the 'props' would
arrive by special train on Sunday morning, having travelled over- night from
the town of their previous appearance. Railway staff and cartage vehicles would
be organised to unload and convey the scenery and costumes to the theatre
beside the River Avon. The special scenery rail vans would be shunted into the
cattle dock siding with the end-door vans buffered up to the end-loading dock.
Through these end-doors would come long pieces of scenery and back-drops whilst
hampers of costumes were being unloaded from other vans. The Opera Company's
stage manager and staff would be anxiously supervising every move, fearing
damage to their precious 'props' and attempting to ensure some order in the
despatch of the dray loads to the theatre.
Singers, who the night previously in their final
performance at the last theatre had looked so glamorous and zestful, now
presented a very different sight! A tedious cross-country train journey of
perhaps eight or more hours, sitting up all night and without refreshment, had
taken its toll and now they faced a walk carrying suitcases to their new
theatrical 'digs' somewhere around the town. After a few hours rest they would
be at the theatre for a rehearsal. At the end of the week the operation would
be repeated in reverse late on Saturday night, after the last performance at
Stratford's theatre. From eleven at night until one or two in the morning,
drays would be making their way through the darkened streets to the station
yard where loading of the scenery vans was taking place. The fabulous Cornish
coast scene from The Pirates of Penzance looks less fabulous when folded up,
loaded on a dray and viewed in drizzling rain by the dim light of oil
hand-lamps. Every piece of scenery had its place in the vans, somewhat like a
jig-saw puzzle, and to depart from the well-tried method of loading known to
the theatrical company's hands, might well result in an inability to get
everything loaded.
Farm wagons, similar to the one in Constable's 'The
Haywain', drawn by two or three horses in tandem, would bring their loads to
the station, often hay and straw sold to one of the railway companies for their
city stables. When the railway wagon was loaded it would be sheeted, both to
protect the load from the elements and to assist in holding it together. Next,
ropes would be passed over the load from both sides and secured to hooks fixed
on the wagon-sides. Considerable skill was called for to build the load so that
its sides were straight and each layer securely bound in to pre- vent movement
in transit. The height and width of the load had to be watched to ensure that
it would pass beneath the loading gauge hanging from a post located on one of
the goods sidings.
The handling and control of wagon sheets figures largely
in the activities of the goods department, for there were many loads carried in
open wagons, as can be seen from photographs of goods trains of bygone days.
Railway companies owned thousands of sheets and ropes. The sheets, made of
tarred canvas, were numbered and carried the owning company's initials painted
in white letters. Records were kept of the whereabouts of all wagon sheets and
users were charged sheet hire. As wagon sheets were removed from a load they
were neatly folded according to a set routine which ensured a tidy, manageable
bundle which a man could hoist on to his shoulder for carrying. Unsheeting was
easier than sheeting-up for which the sheets had to be carried up a ladder to
the top of the load and then unfolded so that they dropped down over the sides
and ends of the load. Adjustment would be required until the load was
adequately protected, after which the sheet cords could be tied to hooks or
rings on the wagon sides. Ropes and sheets did sometimes work loose in transit
and this could prove a serious hazard to other traffic, which is why signalmen,
in addition to their other responsibilities, were required to scrutinize all
passing goods trains for signs of insecure loads and to have the train stopped
if necessary.
Before a loaded wagon could be despatched, two labels
would be required, one for each side of the wagon, indicating the destination
and route, such as 'To Gloucester via Broom June & Ashchurch'. An invoice
would have to be prepared by the goods clerks showing the name and address of
both the sender and the receiver (or, as they were known to the railway
company, the consignor and the consignee) the station to which consigned, the
route, the wagon number, sheet numbers and quantity of ropes together with a
description of the goods, weight and charges and whether the charge included
delivery at the other end. One copy of the invoice would accompany the wagon,
held in a spring clip behind the label on the wagon side, and another copy
would be sent by passenger train to the station to which the load was
consigned.
Metal street nameplates and road signs were manufactured
at the Royal Label Factory in Stratford-upon-Avon and large quantities were
despatched by SMJ to destinations all over the country. When in 1935 a Minister
of Transport named Hore-Belisha introduced pedestrian crossings with the
omnipresent beacon lights (known there- after as 'Belisha beacons') the volume
of this traffic increased considerably. In SMJ days, the brewing industry
generated a consider- able tonnage of traffic for the line, with Flowers &
Sons brewery despatching eight or ten wagon loads of beer each day. One of the
Flowers was a director of the Stratford- on-Avon Railway (GWR) and such was the
anxiety of this firm not to appear to favour one company more than the other
that, for towns served equally well by either line, the brewery used both
routes in alternate weeks! Kendall & Sons were brewers' chemists, supplying
molasses to breweries throughout the land and despatching between ten and
fifteen tons of traffic daily, mainly in metal drums.
A firm manufacturing aluminium kettles and teapots, NC
Josephs Ltd., established works in Stratford-upon- Avon in the twenties and
despatched three or four van loads of utensils daily. Next, this firm went into
the food canning business under the brand name of 'Sona' and in season,
thousands of tons of fruit arrived from as far away as Scotland. The canned
goods were consigned to shops all over the land by rail until eventually the
firm's own road vehicle fleet took over the distribution. Ernie Batsford, one
of Hutchings' draymen at that time, recalls spending ail of one day unloading
raspberries from Scotland until he was sick of the sight and smell of that
fruit. After working overtime he arrived home for his cooked meal and his wife,
thinking to cheer him up after a long day's work, told him that she had cooked
his favourite, raspberry pie!
All this traffic from the brewery, Kendalls, Josephs, the
Royal Label Factory and many other firms was conveyed on horse-drawn drays of
which Hutchings & Co. possessed thirty and one covered van. In 1928 the
firm acquired its first motor lorry, a Morris Commercial, but by 1938 this had
grown to a fleet of some twelve lorries. Fork-lift trucks and palletised
loading were scarcely known anywhere in the country, much less at Stratford's
SMJ goods yard, so that most goods were packed in crates, boxes, barrels, drums
or sacks, all of which were charged for and returnable to the senders. The
conveyance of 'returned empties' placed almost as great a burden on the
railway's facilities as did the outward transport of the goods they had
contained. An empty drum occupied as much space in a railway wagon as a full
one and called for an equal amount of handling and documentation, yet the
revenue was much less.
The plastics industry as we know it today had not been
developed, and plastic and polythene bags were twenty or more years away, so
that all the sacks for grain, fertilizers, flour and the like were made from
jute. These sacks were relatively costly but hard wearing and whilst many firms
owned their own sacks and had their names printed on such as 'Lucy & Nephew
Ltd. Flour Mills, Stratford-upon- Avon', many other users hired sacks from sack
contractors. One of the largest and best known sack hire firms was Hudsons of
Gloucester with depots and agents throughout the country. Their depots were
frequently situated in rail- way goods yards, with the railway acting as
agents, and the counting and documentation of hired sacks occupied a lot of
railwaymen's time, for which the payment was 2s 6d (12½p) per 100 sacks.
For grain and Hour the sacks were very large, and when filled, weighed a little
over two hundredweight. In warehouses, mills and docks, where handling was by
hoist, they had their advantages, but on railway drays and loading decks, where
they had to be man- handled, they were real man-killers and caused many a
hernia. Most draymen and goods porters wore aprons made from these sacks, some
being simply tied with twine round the waist but others had a bib and twine
braces over the shoulders. Unless torn, these sack aprons would last almost a
lifetime.
Before leaving this description of the goods yard it
would be appropriate to tell something of the enormous amount of paper work
incurred in respect of every consignment. The sender of goods, be it a small
box or several wagon loads, would be required to complete and sign a consign-
ment note. On this he would state his name and address and that of the
consignee. A description of the goods and any special requirements such as
insurance would have to be entered. The railway drayman collecting the goods
would take the consignment note and at the goods station the rail- way checker
would weigh the goods and enter the weight on the consignment note which, after
checking the number of packages, would be sent into the invoicing clerks. In
those days all railway charges were subject to control under the Railway Act
1921 which fixed standard rates for the whole country with provision for
'Exceptional Charges' below the standard rates. The Railway Rates Advisory
Committee established twenty-one classes of merchandise classified according to
value, to the bulk in relation to weight, to the risk of damage, to cost of
handling, and to the saving in cost which may result when merchandise is
forwarded in large quantities'. It is scarcely surprising that educational
classes enabling goods clerks to understand this charging system took four
years to complete.
The goods invoice for each consignment would be written
out in long-hand and computations made with the aid of ready-reckoners, for one
hardly ever saw a typewriter in a railway office and never an adding machine.
In order to pass an examination as a junior clerk I was required to attain a
certain standard of proficiency in typing and short- hand, but although I
passed the exam, never in my railway career was I called upon to make use of my
hardly-acquired talents. After completion of the invoicing there remained a
mountain of paperwork to be done at the sending station as well as that which
would fall upon the receiving station. Here the goods would be checked against
the invoice and a note made of any loss or damage. Each item would be entered
on a delivery sheet containing some twenty lines per sheet and which the
drayman would take on his rounds to secure the signature of the consignee upon
delivery of the goods. In the Goods Office would follow an involved bookkeeping
process of abstracting invoices to summary sheets and, where other railway
companies were concerned, returns to the Railway Clearing House to ensure that
each company received its correct share of the revenue. All errors, even for as
little as one penny, would be debited or credited as the case may be when
obviously the labour time consumed in this bookkeeping far exceeded in cost the
sum involved.
Stations on the SMJ system despatched some 17,000 tons of
merchandise each year and about 26,000 tons of minerals, mainly iron ore. The
Passenger Department was responsible for parcels traffic, a very different
thing from 'goods'. Parcels traffic was conveyed by passenger trains either in
the guard's van or in a parcels van, or, if a horse, then in a horse box. The
term 'parcel' covered anything from a small brown paper package weighing a few
ounces to a box of wet fish weighing two hundredweights, bicycles,
perambulators, baskets of fruit, birds in cages, animals on the hoof or in
crates or van loads of theatrical scenery. After the parcels van arrived from
Birmingham on the morning train the platform trolleys, piled high, would be
wheeled into the booking hall and the parcels sorted into heaps according to
the streets and shops to which they were addressed. By grouping the packages
together on the delivery sheet, time would be saved for the deliveryman. As a
boy I used to help with this and, later as a clerk, it was my responsibility to
enter details of each parcel on the delivery sheet. Each parcel had to be
weighed and then a porter or myself would call out in a loud voice the name and
address of the consignee, the name of the sending station, the weight and value
of the parcels stamps affixed. I enjoyed 'calling out' and the older porter was
glad of my help for his eyesight was no longer keen, although he did wear
spectacles which he had purchased at Woolworths for one shilling (5p). (Many
low paid people did not visit an optician in those days but instead could be
seen trying on spectacles at the counter in Woolworths until they found a pair
that seemed to improve their vision.) 'Calling out' improved my geography of
Britain so that at an early age I knew the whereabouts of Machynlleth and
Kirkcudbright even though they sounded like 'Makunleth' and Kirkoobry' when
called out by a porter.
Believe it or not, the charge made for each parcel as
entered on the delivery sheet was supposed to be checked and if found to be
incorrect then an appropriate document correcting the charge sent to the
originating station! Had this been done for every parcel then there would have
been the world's biggest parcel pile-up at every major station in the land,
consequently only the most glaring errors were dealt with in this manner. When
parcels were being despatched each had to be weighed and the distance from the
sending station to the receiving station calculated so that a mileage-related
charge could be computed. Contrast this with the simplicity of the Post Office
parcels service with a charge related only to the weight. There were scales of
charges according to whether the sender desired 'Owner's Risk', 'Company's
Risk' or 'Special Risk' for fragile articles. A paper stamp to the value of the
charge was then applied to the parcel with a large brush and oceans of
glue.
What sort of parcels came to Stratford-upon-Avon? Mainly
clothing from the mills of Leicestershire, Lancashire and Yorkshire; wet fish
from Gnmsby and Great Yarmouth; dead game and rabbits for the fishmonger and
for hotels; hams, pies and sausages from Palethorpes of Cambridge and Harris's
of Calne and crates of wines and spirits for the wine merchants and hotels
arrived regularly. New bicycles came from Redditch and Nottingham and
perambulators in light wooden crates. The bicycles would be well wrapped in
brown paper around the frame and handlebars and cardboard shields over the
chain and chain- wheel. The handlebars would be turned through ninety degrees
so that the machines occupied less space in the parcels vans. New bicycles were
not delivered but had to be collected from the station by the shopkeepers, but
as they found difficulty in leaving their shops unattended they would pay
sixpence (2½p) to me if I delivered a bike for them. For delivery, the
handlebars would be turned back to their normal position and it was not illegal
in those days to ride on one cycle steered with one hand and to guide a second
cycle with the other hand.
The Shakespeare Hotel served as a town parcels office for
the East & West Junction Railway in Stratford-upon-Avon and later for the
SMJ, and parcels collection and deliver}' was by an agent, EF Thorpe, until
February 1918, when he relinquished the agency. Because of difficulty in
finding another agent the SMJ decided to purchase 'a horse, covered van and
harness, at a cost of about £60,collection'. and our own staff will make
the collection'. The locomotive fore- man's daughter, Linda Matthews, was
engaged to deliver the parcels and she was to be 'paid 1/- extra for Sunday
duty tending the horse', 'This arrangement lasted until the end of 1919 when it
was minuted that 'We have now got an Army man to do the work and the horse,
van, harness etc. have been sold and realised about £7 10s 0d more than
we gave for it. The SMJ now pay 2d per parcel for collection and 3d per parcel
for delivery. Before the war we paid 1½d and 2d. There is no mention of
the fate of Linda Matthews the driver! The ex-army man was Leonard Gibbs, who
acted as parcels agent for both the SMJ and the GWR. For some years he used a
horse and covered van (possibly he bought it off the SMJ) but in LMS days he
acquired an American Overland station wagon and disposed of the horse. This
vehicle soon proved too small for the increasing volume of parcels traffic and
was replaced by a Morris Commercial van which in turn had to be supplemented by
a two-wheeled handcart with a cover over and pushed by a skeleton-like youth
for fifteen shillings (75p) per week of six days.
This lad would stagger away from the station with his
cart laden so high that he could see neither over nor round it. After pushing
this burden for a mile he would commence delivering parcels to the town's shops
and when completed he would return to the station for a second load, after
which he would assist his employer on the motor van. Outwards parcels traffic
was relatively light but regularly there were two hampers of clothing from
dry-cleaning firms with branches in the town. Sketchley, still a well known
firm, despatched only to their works at Hinckley in Leicestershire but Pullars
of Perth did in fact send their clothes to that Scottish town for processing.
Articles of clothing handed in at their Stratford branch on Monday would be
returned by Thursday having made the return journey North of the Border, as
well as being processed in a little over two clear days! I doubt if that could
be improved upon today.
In season, chips (baskets) of blackberries and straw-
berries and hampers of plums would be despatched when a consignment of perhaps
fifty or more chips would be placed on a Pooley's weighing machine, the charge
calculated and a waybill prepared to accompany the fruit on its journey. I know
for certain that not every strawberry put into the chips reached its
destination but I only ever took one at a time and so did the porter and the
guard, and who would miss just one?
At small stations, such as Stratford-upon-Avon, the
duties of the booking clerk covered the booking office, parcels office, enquiry
office, left luggage office as well as bookkeeping and computing wages and
salaries. Later when I worked at much larger stations such as Cheltenham and
Birmingham I found my duties more specialised. The mention of working out wages
and making up the pay packets each week reminds me of the primitive copying
process employed. Clerks were issued with special pencils with which to write
out the wages sheets, which then had to be copied. Next a sheet of flimsy
tissue-like paper was laid over the sheet to be copied and well wetted with a
brush dipped in a bucket of water. Both sheets, still wet, were then placed in
a large press which was screwed down tightly and left for several hours. When
removed from the press a copy of the original document was impressed upon the
tissue. At Stratford-upon-Avon LMS station the number of passenger enquiries
was out of all proportion to the volume of bookings because, although the LMS
was the largest of the big four railways (extending from London to Wick and
from Bristol to Liverpool as well as to Wales and Ireland) few places were
conveniently accessible from Stratford LMS station. Passengers preferred or
were advised to travel to Birmingham by GWR, cross from Snow Hill station to
New Street station and continue their journey by LMS from there'.
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