LMS Route: Stratford Midland Junction - The Shakespeare
Route
SMJ Miscellaneous: smj_gen387
A Brighton Town Council Poster advertising the resort
overprinted with the Shakespeare Route logo and SMJ contact details. Barry
Taylor writes 'this technique was probably used by many railway
companies and personalised to their own lines. I seem to remember reading
somewhere that there was a through SMJ coach to Victoria station in London, via
Blisworth and presumably Willesden and the West London line - this would make
sense of a destination of Brighton if it were in SMJ days'.
Dick Bodily writes 'probably using a regular SMJ
service with a change of trains to a LNWR excursion at Blisworth. I wonder if
the 'Sunny South Express' ever stopped to pick up at Blisworth? I have also
been told that at least on one occasion a coach that originated on the SMJ was
attached to a Brighton bound excursion at Blisworth. In 1910 the SMJR published
an illustrated newspaper supplement pullout headed 'Holiday Resorts reached by
the SMJR'. Unfortunately no idea what newspaper but I guess possibly the
Stratford local paper or Northampton Mercury & Herald. Excursion fares
were: Morecambe 23/-
Hastings 23/- Dover
25/- Matlock 13/-
Chester 16/- Rhyl 18/-
Aberystwyth 20/- Lowestoft
25/- Colwyn Bay 20/-
Southsea 20/- Aberdeen
60/- Whitby 30/-
The above information
was. taken from one of the late Doug Blake's books.
Dick Bodily continues, 'A gentleman I used to
know who died in 2014 year aged 104, claimed that he had travelled from
Blakesley to Brighton in a through carriage that was attached to an 'express'
at Blisworth. It was an excursion for Blakesley Church Choir & Bellringers.
This happened sometime after 1919, probably before the Grouping. Despite his
great age he had a fantastic reliable memory for detail and recalled for
instance that the Church treasurer had been instructed to give each choir
member 5/- for expenses at Brighton and that at Brighton station they were met
by the widow of a previous vicar of Blakesley who had tragically died in a road
accident. The next church excursion to the seaside was by local man Will
Kingston's omnibus'.
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