GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hockley Station: gwrhd709a

Close up of image 'gwrhd709' showing Box Vans and open wagons at Platform No 2 within Top shed being loaded. The process of collection and transhipment was a very structured affair reflecting the number of items being distributed to many hundreds of places in the country via tens of thousands of vehicles. At Hockley the process started with the cartage team delivering the goods collected from customers throughout the town. Unloaded by a team of four - a checker who was in charge, a call-offer and two goods porters, as the caller-offer unloaded the goods he would check these against the consignment notes and call out the details of the sender and the destination to the checker who would endorse the paperwork that all was correct. The Checker would then advise the call-offer as to which wagon the items should be sent to for loading. The call-offer would then load the consignment on to a trolley and tell him the deck and wagon he should take the goods to. All checkers were advised in writing for each shift the location of each wagon and their destinations. Not until all items to be sent had been received would the wagon or Van be loaded.

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