[speaker001:] for a while I was in the Air Force and then... I lived in various parts of the country. But coming back to live in like to call it, er in nineteen seventy five. And I know perfectly well that there's no way that er I could get my wife to move out of the town, she loves it. And so so indeed do I. Anyhow, er this evening very happy to provide a few pictures for you to have a look at, and hopefully with a bit of information. If there's anything you want to er er to ask me about, please don't hesitate to er to butt in at any time. Erm can you all reasonably see what er what's going on?
[Gerry:] Right this is er merely a map erm where we're dealing with... er local people. It's er it's not so necessary probably er as where at times I've given talks in various parts of the country on on this area. Er but erm this gives an idea of the railway lines that er well basically were in this area, erm I suppose er still round about nineteen fifty sixty time. Some of them had er already gone. But that's that's er basically what was was around. And of course er the Nottingham, Lincoln y Lincoln line here. The er main East Coast Main Line over here. The er mass of lines in the Nottingham area, and so on. And that is a real subject in itself, and I think you've probably had John talking to you. Have you not? Er John's erm quite a whiz on that one. Erm anyhow, this evening, I'm proposing to just merely cover this particular area, particularly. Erm and then just coming along here and er as far as and and just coming back to there. Erm let's have a look and see what we can we've got. Erm well as many of you know the first one of the first things that you see, if you're c approaching the town from from the A six one two, from er. Or from, er is that building, which is the old crossing keeper's house or cottage. Erm it has been altered somewhat since the original er railway days, but nevertheless it retains quite a bit of the old character erm and er the high pitched roofs erm and the. Interestingly, of different styles on that. It's not such an attractive house as the station master's house, but nevertheless er it is one of only two railway buildings now left er in this town. And of course as many of you will know, the railway line er used to run just in front, here. There's another picture of it, as one er goes past on the road. And again. Very steeply pitched roof. Now if you want to go and have a look at the other oth the oth other building, at er railway er the Railway, erm going down Road, er again a pointer to that one time this er town did have er a railway, er is of course the Arms. I think that's they've altered that, they've put a porch over there haven't they, since er I took that one. Er but er that was very much the local, er in Victorian times. Er for the er the station. There again erm I think there's still on the windows here, there's still reference to one of the coal merchants I think isn't there? Have a look anyhow. Erm looking across from the Arms, one can see that, what I can only describe as a delightful bit of architecture, erm perhaps I'm a little bit er of a philistine, but er I think it's one of the nicest, most attractive buildings in the town. Erm you know I like Georgian and I like a lot of other architecture but that I think has got tremendous character. Er and of course was the old station master's er house. The erm well let's see, again the steeply pitched roof, the er the chimney's, er the barge-boards, the finials, er and the er angled fencing, which was characteristic of the Railway er post about nineteen O seven. And also the Railway used it and er it was used elsewhere, and it's interesting this, I noticed that erm B R have recently erected er er this type of fencing er which is adds insult to injury possibly, on the at er. Er but i you know it's rather nice actually. Erm anyhow, that was the sort of site er a few years ago. See it's very very attractive, the erm stonework and so on and the slate roofs. And er er it didn't used to be erm white barge-boarding, er nor white erm fencing. But nevertheless I think it looks very attractive in that way. Just note the er the entrance round there in the in the hedge, er from the new building nearby. There's another picture of it where... er... this was er... about five or six years ago this was taken, and you can see there, going along to the end of the er of this fencing, the post there which was one of the er of the posts er to which the gates, the crossing gates were attached. There you have a brick wall. Now once upon a time, there was a railway. Looking back you can see the riverside erm and basically just er here was the railway, and the entrance to the goods yard, er coal offices etcetera, or at least one of the entrances, was on that side. Coming back to look at this erm er, as I say, very attractive building, again, and you can see there's still a bit of work there. And er to go back and you can see it here. nice lamp and as I say, these er the barge-boarding. Excellent erm brickwork as well, just just proud there. Now you can see here, again, we've still got er some gateposts. That actually is a a railway gate post unless they've changed it, which I don't think they have. On that one was taken a little bit earlier, you can see they certainly had one of the old er gates there. And looking... up that er driveway er now they've got that house there, you can see er what the view is, say up that entrance. And there again, much the same. And just take note of that. And that's what it looked like in nineteen seventy seven. Er one had the gateway, cobbled stone, approach to the railway station. Terrible shame in my opinion that that building was demolished, allowed to go to wrack and ruin, er and then then demolished. There you have the er individual walkway th along there, and the entrance along here er up the yard. The old... sort of double erm er... goods shed. Er and er vehicles would go down, it drops down inside there, and there's planking er at obviously, level erm on either side er of this arch er this erm er wide way er through to the bottom. And I'll show you a bit more in a little while. There is another picture, taken on a different day, showing, again in about nineteen seventy eight. Seventy seven seventy eight, the remains of quite a substantial goods shed, for a relatively small place. Now I daresay most of you know that, really the population of or, was pretty static in the er well from eighteen fifty to about nineteen fifty, or even nineteen sixty. Erm round about three and a quarter thousand. Very little change. They had er seventeen or nineteen pubs, I can never quite remember. Er for that population. Er and er of course a number were closed in the er early part of this century, and more er coming along. We've still got about ten or eleven I think, haven't we? Erm really the railway was closed in nineteen fifty nine, for passenger traffic. Just about the time that Dougie started er building substantially in the town and doubled to population to its present six and a half thousand or so. Er whether or not it would have survived, I I wouldn't know. Anyhow that as I say, was the er goods shed. Er that erm was in use er as I say until the closure. Now there's a picture of the station, and you can see that we've got the post, the cobbled entrance, on this on the left hand side was the station master's house, the garden. You'll notice that the the erm fencing is vertical. Erm and that was normal practice until the early part of the century, about nineteen O seven I think it was that the started using the er forty five degree angles, style. But er er vegetable garden, and the lot. There's over here there's er a passenger station. Four wheeled coaches er in here. Some goods er wagons on that side, erm lovely ladies in the long dresses and so on. Er on this right hand side you've got erm various advertisements for er Belfast and Northern Ireland and er and sort of er away days and and so on. Erm various signals. The main er sort of booking place, er waiting rooms and so on. Er normal practice for the railway was to have the main er part of the buildings on the town side, and you got a er smaller building on the other side of the tracks over there. There's er part of the er goods shed over there. And we've got lamp house, er signal box and the white gate and er woodwork there. Now that er merely shows that that is a cattle dock. A lot of quite a lot o cattle traffic in those days, agriculture and cattle traffic, and the normal practice er in certainly in the last century, er to avoid disease, was to use a lime wash. Er they didn't have the er the normal erm antiseptic washes, which sort of came in later on. Er Brothers of were manufacturers of sheep dips and various disinfectants. And of course as I say those those were around, but erm the reason that is all white, is that it was erm er when the cattle had been got out of the way, they er whacked a fair amount of of lime wash all over things er to er to kill any any nasties there. Erm here you have a handsome cab. And that cab you'll see in other photographs we've got. Erm that plied to the 's Head Hotel. Er and again, you'll see on one of the 's photographs I've got, it shows, just to the right hand side as you're looking at the front of the main archway, erm it had the legend, Railway, parcels receiving office. So if you wanted to er send parcels via the Railway, anywhere in the country, Then you could take your parcels into er the 's Head er sort of office there, erm and they were ferried down here. You didn't actually have to come down er with er to the station to. Erm a number of er sort of billboards up here, various signals, erm lamps. Quite an interesting picture er and for anybody who is interested in sort of modelling this scene, get is right, er that's a very very valuable photograph. Erm it's off a er an ordinary postcard that was produced many many years ago, quite common. Erm round about nineteen O five I think that was. Now as you let's have a look at er the track layout of the place. Erm want to run to about half past eight or We'll see how we go. Erm coming in from er on the A six one two from, er we've come to over the level crossing there. Now this is a er an ordinance survey map of about nineteen fifteen. And at that time, single track over that level crossing erm and the track became double as one went up past about Close, isn't it now, over here? Erm 's Meadow, Close, erm and er then we've got the double track runs into the station up here, past the cattle pens which you saw those white things on the photograph, various signal posts, the goods shed, there, erm an engine shed, a small engine shed which was built to accommodate, normally only one loco. Erm and a little siding by the er track to accommodate erm a loco which was largely used for er coaling purposes, of the locomotive. And and on the er here you've got erm siding with that that erm circular object is called a wagon turntable. And goods wagons that needed to be unloaded, er would be brought into, er at least unloaded erm er perhaps for the distribution of items in the town, would be brought onto that turntable erm and normally horse, purely a horse hook would be er put on er and swung round, and the wagon, or the wagons, a couple of wagons perhaps, would be taken at right angles into that er goods shed for unloading. And the there was there was a central say walkway or carriageway down the middle there. Er well not quite central, erm and the er s wooden staging inside the goods shed, er was at wagon height. So the er the items could be loa unloaded straight out of their packages and and whatever. Erm there was also an interesting erm stubby bit of railway track there. Perhaps if I move on I think we've perhaps got one a little bit bigger. Oh no. Erm I'll go back a minute. Er there's another little stubby bit of track there, and that er provided er what was termed end loading facilities, er so that erm Er in the old days er the sort of lord of the manor er would have a er horse a horses and carriage. Erm and er they had what they call carriage trucks, which were er flat trucks basically, or thereabouts. Which could be attached to passenger trains, and the er the actual er gentleman's carriage, er horse-drawn carriage, could be loaded onto this flat truck, and er the er would be transported to be available er at his destin in his or her destination. Erm and er it was er it was a ramp basically, er up here, so that one could run straight off that ramp, onto this flat truck. And that's a that's one of the what that was used for. Erm as you I say, initially er it was a single track into the station, over crossing. And erm in between the wars, erm it was made double track, er up towards over there. By just merely putting in an additional point, or turnout, here, er to er to make that say double track. That's er well that's all there. That's a er map I acquired off the Water Board I think from somewhere.. Erm the slightly larger erm Engine shed here as I say. Erm cattle pens, goods shed, The main station building here, the erm station master's house here. A signal box, the platforms on both sides, the smaller building on the North side of the station. Erm a weighed a weighing machine, a weighing office over here, and coal offices were situated there. Erm I will give a little bit of history of dates, and what things were altered and when in a bit. Erm the the railway track, erm once it was extended through to and I say I'll give you the details on that in a minute, erm went over the er Road, and then the track that was nearest to er the town, was curved in and joined that other line erm and er went off to to. And there's a book on engine sheds, and er engine sheds, which was published some years ago I think by publishing company, er which gives track plans to help people. But looked at a er at any ordinance survey map, they'd have seen that they got the track plan wrong. Erm that is that is what it should be. Erm some additional sidings, mills over here, some additional sidings were put in, in the early part of this century, and they came off the this track erm just this side of on the left hand side of the level crossing, erm and went er up to a dead end er just along in the right hand side, er over now towards where factory is. Erm or bakery. And then er they returned the line, or double track round here, er and bringing so goods wagons could be brought round into the sort of unloading area er of 's mill. Of course 's was a very important customer of the of the railway. Now let's give a little bit of er of information. The er there were many railways erm were contemplated in the eighteen thirties and forties and beyond. And erm the er there was a Nottingham, Lincoln and Hull line I think, proposed in eighteen thirty. Erm... but this line involving,, er was actually er part of a much bigger scheme that was put forward about eighteen forty, and really involved er a line from near Cross to, on to, on to, and then up to and connecting. Basically sort of cutting across country, about twenty eight miles I think it was. Er as an original project. Erm the... er In eighteen thirty nine, the... the railway came to Nottingham, er from Derby, and er there were three companies, the, the er Railway I think it was, and the er Railway or er sorry Railway. And they amalgamated in eighteen forty four to become the Railway. And er a certain George known as the Railway King was very keen to to get er across into to Lincoln and certainly in various other parts of East Anglia, to sort of spike other people's guns and to erm er to obtain the traffic for his own er benefit, and for his shareholder's benefit perhaps. Erm and erm the Railway, er opened the Nottingham, Newark, Lincoln railway line in eighteen forty six. he whole thing was built in a year, quite incredible. In in those days. Erm because it crossed the Trent quite a number of times, and quite a number of trestle er wooden bridges were involved in that construction. But the whole lot was done and opened I think it was er in August, eighteen forty six. And... one of the say one of the proposals was that there should be this er line from, and through this town, and over to join the er Nottingham, Lincoln line er at. What was built in eighteen forty seven, and opened in eighteen forty seven, was merely a small branch line, of two and a half, three miles, from this town, to, where it say er er made a er a connection and and a small junction there. There was no station actually at at that time. Erm the station was opened er and trains began to run in eighteen forty seven. But very quickly it was er all all the promises of much traffic. Say the town had only got three and a bit thousand people anyhow, three thousand people, erm there was very very little actual passenger traffic. Er even in the early eighteen well late eighteen forties, early eighteen fifties. And after a matter of a couple of years of use, er the service had already been curtailed, from nine trains down to five per day, erm and er shortly the passenger service was completely withdrawn. Or at least it was withdrawn as far as er railway engines were concerned. They did in fact get a horse erm and er they had a small carriage, er and er a horse made the odd er visit up the line, from time to time. Er but erm the So the railway line erm still carried a little bit of er of freight traffic, but erm it wasn't quite abandoned, but even some of the er station buildings were removed erm to er to. So that's that's really what happened, and it wasn't until eighteen sixty, or eighteen fifty eight, fifty nine in time, that the Railway directors agreed to reopen this branch line, as they'd been basically promised a lot more traffic. Erm it was still pretty marginal er but er at least it was opened and erm in eighteen er it carried on until, in eighteen seventy, seventy one, the line was extended back to or a station roughly halfway between the two. Then er through to erm, and on to. In those days there wasn't a great deal of of mining, I mean wasn't open, and er there was a tremendous amount, well there's a fair amount of of traffic agricultural traffic, and I mean one had to accept that virtually everything came in, all coal, road stone, erm... goods required er for well 's who were going at the time, they er they used the railway. Erm and the various er food s food stores er again, virtually everything came in. And of course in due course er time er the town had a gas station, erm or a gas, not a gas station, erm... er a gas works. Erm and so again coal was was brought in erm for that. Erm anyhow so that is sort of the background. And the railway er it operated, I suppose, pretty marginally, certainly for the rest of er last century. Erm in nineteen O two I think it was, I've got the details at home, erm sidings were put in for 's. They paid a bit and the Railway paid a bit. And the idea here was that one would be for incoming goods, and one would be for empty wagons or the other way round, er going out. Erm and of course the the wagons as I say would would come up right along side that er road. Now that's a picture which er many of you will be very familiar of with. Erm and it shows it's er just about the turn of the century that is. And er there you have a a s a signal. Erm the level crossing gates here, 's Mill on the left hand side, erm a er sort of lean to er over the erm sort of loading bay, or unloading bay there. Erm a typical er signal box and a rather pretty little station master's house, there. And that I say that picture has appeared on everything, even on china, I think you can buy some at erm can't you even with that on it. It's a very very well known photograph. Again, about the turn of the century, erm looking up towards. The track across here, the crossing gates. Er signal box there, the er lower quadrant signal here. There's a round spot on the back which was used before they had er a white er sort of a black erm stripe, er vertical stripe erm on the er on it there. You can see at the back here, erm a barrow crossing, er which could be used er to get erm heavy items on a on a wheelbarrow, or trolley, over the tracks er from the platforms. Erm various lamps, the station b main station building, the s the subsidiary station building there. er in the background there's the engine shed, erm and a few er one or two, there's a loco there I think. Erm one or two bits and pieces anyhow. And on the right hand side, there's the goods shed. Erm in nineteen fourteen, erm 's, who had a water turbine er as their sort of main motive power for their er milling operations, erm put in or had had, er not only this line, siding, but they had one put in round the back here, erm because that was to provide coal, for steam boilers which were er put in to augment the water power. Erm that later on, the signal box that used to be here was moved over to the other side, that's all that's there for. And er that shows it later on when that one at the back had been taken out. Now erm last century er goods came up er the Trent to er and er by sailing barge er and er this sort of equipment was used to er to collect er items from the holds of these er barges, erm put on wagons, horse-drawn er and er some steam traction engines, er to be transported around. There's another picture of one of the barges on the Trent. A steam one. Now the great er as you can see that is a just pre-first world war advertisement from 's. And erm so they were quite major users of the railway services and indeed, I think that there was at least one clerk, from the railway, employed in 's offices, all day, every day at some time. There's a picture of er er flour, going out from 's Mill er latter part of er last century, erm going out to 's bakery in the town. A steam lorry that acquired, in the er early part of the century. Erm obviously er no erm pneumatic tyres or anything on that but er quite er good old wo work horses they were. No that was er that's a picture of er 's erm er I think before they took that off they've taken that off haven't they now? Erm that was when er it had just been erm, well before they started erm altering it into flats, and so on. But you can see that in fact the railway line came round and in front actually just in in the front here. And there used to be a a lean to just there. That doorway is still there. C C eighteen sixty seven, Charles. Er it's not the date the place was built, it's the date it er the last time that that particular area was erm rebuilt. They had a number of fires over the years at 's Mill, er and one was in eighteen sixty six or sixty seven. Erm and er that rebuilding was the was when erm that part of the job was er was done. There's a picture that I obtained from actually Ruth who was who was a Miss. Erm and it shows it's the twenty I think it's the twenty second or twenty third I've got it at home, er of October nineteen fourteen, this. Erm and it's the the livery of the first full load of coal, into round the back of the er 's Mill, erm and there's there's fifteen eight ton Railway wagons there, full of coal, just erm coming. And it's an twelve twenty seven, Railway, M R on the front as as standard. And er bit misty, but that's looking out from the signal box, you can just, possibly just about make out there, and at the back erm the er er with the the erm station master's house etcetera. Er that was taken out I say in in due course, but erm er I think that er that picture I borrowed, I mean with her permission of course, erm and er I think it was hung up in the bathroom or somewhere, which was not the best place for a photograph to be really. And so I took with I say with her blessing, took a er a picture of it for posterity.. Erm that's a er rather nice picture, erm which has never been published, not at the moment anyhow. Erm and it was one that erm er Mr gave me, many years ago when I was involved with the Cricket Club, about nineteen seventy seven I think it was. He knew I was interested in railways and his grand grandfather I think, or uncle was er photographer of the town. And this was a photograph erm taken from the roof of the engine shed. And about er I'd guess about nineteen nineteen. Nineteen twenty perhaps. And you're looking up towards. I don't know why I'm not really using this er this pointer. Well perhaps cos you can't see it. Erm the er Arms over there. The cattle dock here. Er a loading gauge just here, to ensure that er anything coming out of that er er that had been loaded in the goods shed was not erm overloaded, and likely to hit tunnels and bridges and so on. There's the wagon turntable, that we mentioned. That end loading er and ramp at er the end. That's a er that's a Railway horsebox there. Erm and the line running into the goods shed there. Erm you've got er fire buckets on the end. Er a warning not to trespass or something, careful about that. Erm o a barrow crossing er between platforms there. There's a engine or carriage co er couple of carriages in there. The gates are shut over there. Signal box there. Er the er station master's house, the line disappearing off towards over there. Erm 's Mill along here, and actually, you can actually just see there's a wagon there which says, L B S C. Now that's London, Brighton and South Coast. What on earth's that doing there?
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[Gerry:] Er but er maybe it was erm collecting or delivering a load or something. Er there you have the weighbridge. Er or weigh office, and again pretty little building, er the steeply pitched roof, the barge- boarding on it, erm and er multi-coloured er brick, there's a sort of whitish brick with erm er sort of pinkish er brick work er put in to er b by way of decoration. And again you've got the same sort of thing. That's the coal er th the the coal offices. There were three, well there we were in fact four coal merchants in the in the town. there was er 's, erm 's who were probably the biggest, Samuel 's, erm 's and s. Erm I think that 's had gone out of the coal merchanting business erm probably by nineteen twenty or earlier, I think. I haven't been able to trace anything er later than that. There you've got er a line of coal wagons, and so that's those'll be coming that is a more sort of general merchandise wagons which would be parked in there, loaded or unloaded, erm er shunted across the lines and er into that goods yard, goods shed for er loading and so on. Erm lamps, kerosene, wicks and all the rest of it would be kept there. Gentlemen's toilet, there. Erm and the driveway, er over there. And again as I say it's rather a nice erm picture which erm er was given to me some time ago. A close up really, just showing you er more detail on er that wagon turntable, the buffer stops, rail built buffer stops, or just across there, fire buckets. Erm and er there's the er loading gauge and there of course is the whitewashed erm cattle dock. Er and er so there's the goods shed and the er door, the wooden door to provide excess er trucks into there. Er another picture I say really just erm closer up, erm and giving perhaps better detail. You can see the er the pattern of the darker brickworks. There's the sort of pinkish bricks. And again you can see the barge-boarding erm and rather attractive roof designs, er which er reflect er the rest of the architecture. Some of the some of the railways were very very functional, not and didn't bother too much about er what places looked like. Railway was. Er they perhaps spent too much money that way, but to be fair, the Railway was the biggest Well the Railway er on amalgamation in nineteen twenty three, was the biggest company, and biggest employer in this country. And if one goes back er and think about that wages were probably no more than two pounds a week on average, at that time, the er share capital of the Rail Railway I think I'm right in saying, was four hundred and fifty million pounds at that time. Quite a concern. They had hundreds of thousands of employees, of horses and er everything. Er massive organization. And of course if you strip everything that's profitable out of it, like the erm er the railway air services went, erm the er the er erm hotels, ferries, everything else you can think of, you're left with er with a runt that doesn't make money, and not surprisingly the government then closes it down. Still I'm mustn't get too political must I. [LAUGHTER] Er but you know you can always close things if you want to. Erm you can fiddle the books, I know that very well. Another picture show the here a little bit here. Erm some of the a adverts in er our sort of parish magazines and and so on, er fifty sixty seventy years ago, some of the names, still there. Motor Company, well that used er that erm er that's the er. Er 's, well they were well known, very big shop in the town they had. Erm where Lloyd's is isn't it. Now then Samuel. Some of 's wagons, delivering coal to Mr 's house, well no it was erm 's Manor, it was before Mr came there. Er but erm that was er the Baron's house of course at one time in the eighteen, early eighteen hundreds. Now a snow scene. Samuel, this was taken from an advertisement in one of the magazines, and one sometimes got a little bit of er of exaggeration. Er not quite certain how many he had, he had at least one wagon I know that.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[Gerry:] Erm very common, you know s seventy three, twenty five, eighteen, erm they very often started at sort of seventy three or something like that. To give the impression before. Erm I say I don't know how many he did have. Erm er but that er is a model of one that I made. Er and er I I think it's a fairly accurate representation. Erm that is er four millimetres to the foot, erm so not very big. But that's on to scale there. I I work to a pretty scale on these things. eighteen point eight three millimetres between the tracks. 's and all the rest of it, and er pictured just by the er er just by the station master's house. I'll stop in about five minutes if that's alright.
[speaker001:] Fine.
[Gerry:] Erm again, L M S yard there, residents. I think that's where Dr lives now isn't it. [break in recording] In the nineteen sixties an awful lot of er of stuff went, er or was just allowed to er to get into bad repair, and of course er B R weren't terribly interested so they just abandoned it. You can see again this er this decorative work on there, and again most attractive er chimneys. The er gents toilet. A bit spartan but there it is.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[Gerry:] And er the ladies one look er there we are again. Going round the other side, where the sun was shining that way better. Very attractive for modelling purposes this. Looking close close up. There you can see the sort of leaded light windows. And the basically the whitish colour of the er the brick work. The doors to the waiting room etcetera, or to the booking office. Inside. Used to be panelled there I think. But er rather dirty yellow buff interior. And again that's looking at the same time in nineteen seventy se seventy seven, seventy eight time, it's looking back into that er er driveway, and if you can remember the sort of the Victorian or Edwardian er photograph that er I showed you before, of er virtually that er that view. Going back to seeing to to looking at the erm goods shed. There you can see the main entrance. And that's where you went down slightly, er or erm carts, lorries, anything else went down there. Erm normally there was a er horse and cart here. Er certainly until the I think probably until the end of the war. Erm I believe there ha there was a comma or a Yeah, I think there was a comma vehicle that was used, er later on. It may have come from York I don't know. Er I suppose that's where they er did a lot of the office work, a wooden shed built on to it. You can see the buttresses, and again the rather attractive brickwork that even even on a goods shed, a functional goods shed. Now that's the entrance and there is where the er there used to be the erm er... wagon turntable out here, and the entrance for the trucks was er through that doorway. I won't say through the door, looks as if it has been. But er there. I'm afraid the er er the end loading ramp and a lot of the other stuff had gone by then. Interior. There you can see the er wooden staging, and this is where the wagons were brought in, er and were unloaded onto this wooden staging, and the delivery vehicles would come down this er sort of rampway, erm between er well either side, the staging either side. And you can just see some of the er you can just see the timberwork on the in the roofing. There you can see the staging, and that is where the er wagons came in along here. More pictures of the roof timbers. Outside, that was some stabling I think there. And er internal roof-work of the stabling. Just er recessed there to avoid it getting damaged with things passing on the side. And we're now now walking round the back and er sort of now pointing towards the Arms. And you'll notice the er er again the brickwork and the buttressing along there. Now having just walked away er up towards erm... er crossing end, there's the. And that's the remains of the cattle dock here. Er I'm afraid a lot of it had gone by that time. That was to hang Mr on. Or Dr. In fact there're two of them, there and one there. And that's erm crossing house up there. And you can see that's where the main tracks where and this is of course where we had er sort of sidings and er other things and er and the main yard. Erm odd pictures of the engine shed, taken from somebody's back garden I suppose now. Er but you can see the er the the engine shed as it was. Single road. Accommodate er one locomotive only. They normally had here, er just the one erm locomotive little O four four tank engine, Johnson. Erm built before the turn of the century. And and er they also had er normally a little O six O tank er which was er spent a lot of it's time at er a at at the what is what is now er Castle. Er shunting there. As I say, that er train would nip off to Nottingham I think every Monday I think it was, and get vacuum cleaned out. Er and then return. what I've never seen, there's the that's the er tank, water tank at the top. What I've never seen, is a photograph from the other end. If anybody can tell me what was at the other end, apart from a hole, then not carefully, er I'd be very grateful. I I guess there was probably a lean to or something like that. But er i just don't know, maybe erm a sand store. But as I say, I've never seen anything, and I've never been able to find anybody who can provide that answer for me. There is a coal truck, that was parked there, and they would load up coal er from there as as necessary. Er into the er into the bunker. In actual fact in later times erm, possibly when that er when this was no longer in use, erm they er put five, instead of two or three coal rails, on the bunker, erm they put five on at least a couple of the engines. To so it could accommodate more coal, erm and not have to return to base so frequently. Erm there's another picture, showing the er water er water crane, with a barrel. Er and the erm and the hose and er and and lighting and so on. And this was a little stage er for people to go and to erm transfer coal across. Now you can see on there, there's something at the back isn't there?
[speaker001:] Oh yes.
[Gerry:] But I I don't know what it is. I suspect it's er it's it's er it's some sort of little office at a guess. But I would very very much like to er to find out er and get a picture of what is up there. Or somebody could tell me. Now that's a bit of a grotty picture put er it's useful to er er to give an idea of what was there. Now after the er there was a incident at erm the er engine shed, er the stabling of the locomotive was transferred away, erm and it used to travel at the end of the day over to the er or, or er engine shed, where it er stayed for the stayed for the night. Er and this is a picture of it and the engine shed, with some ex- locos. Er which were normal at that time. Erm and er and basically that engine shed is where 's clothing factory is, erm just er at the side of Road,. And by the Hill Bridge. A nineteen twenty four timetable, erm not many trains between er and er and. I say originally there were four, but by nineteen er thir nineteen twenty nine, erm basically the passenger service had ceased, although er we did get there were minor special and so on, that that were run and race days, the stations and the er were used, but basically erm er the er the line beyond er was er virtually entirely erm colliery er and and goods traffic. But I say it it it became er quite increasingly important right up to its closure er of of er particularly for for catering for Bl for erm pit. Er and indeed er a a triangle or a curve was put in near to er bring to bring trains or enable trains to er er to turn round or go round and face Nottingham or come from Nottingham from yard, and so on. there's quite a quite a good service as you can see er between erm at least er junction and. virtually everything. And that was maintained right through to the end. Erm a late picture, say on or about the day befor when it packed up which was erm July nineteen fifty nine for passenger servicing. And that was a sad day, erm and I've got the details, I think it was nineteen eighty one, er that it was finally bulldozed. And I think a lot of that er of the hard core and er went, and was buried near the rifle range, up erm at 's place. Er just off Road. I think I'm right in that. You can see that erm... good job of the knocking all the er stonework down and so on. Rather sad. Now let's move along the line. Erm any any questions on er itself or you know if there's anything I haven't told you, I mean there's probably quite a lot, well there's a lot I know there is. But yes anything you want to er erm please jump in. Er but if not let's move up erm to towards er towards, and this is erm this is the erm former under-bridge at, going up to Mill. Now the roadway used to come under the railway. Little humpback, bridge here, erm and used I say used to go through to er Mill itself just er quarter of a mile along the track. Erm the er the road was later just moved to the left hand side of that bridge, and er no longer having to have that restriction. But that is still in place as you can see. Er a fairly light railway, erm but er but adequate. That's taken from just re wh basically where the roadway is now. And that's the trail looking towards. Now let's move up to the next port of call, which is Station. I should say it's convenient for neither I should imagine. Erm single track shown on this ordnance survey map. Again about nineteen er I think nineteen fifteen, maybe a little bit earlier. Erm a passing loop there, for trains to be able to just pull in and let anything going the other way, because it was mainly single track from er from onwards. Erm and a little bay there for er goods traffic to go into the sort of station. Station platform, the bridge there, and the station master's house, there. A little head shunt at the end to protect anything running back onto the er main line. Erm slightly nearer picture. Er and I think erm er a bit later date actually. No it's probably about the same. That one's a bit later date, and you can see that they've double the track here. Erm just made it a er does it's not double track er very far, but they have actually double tracked that. And this is erm in the nineteen forties nineteen fifties. When there was a fair amount of er goods traffic particularly coal from. That er that line I think went to just er a bit further up and erm er I say not an any matter of er another couple of hundred yards I think before there was only a single track. Er that is the station master's house at Station. And er it's now the part of the you can er go to a picnic area along here. You know you can walk through there back to. You can just see the remains of the platform there. And er platform over here. Er this has been altered quite a lot since then, but you can still see the er gate that was er to the yard of the station. Moving on, to. Again, er early nineteen hundreds, and you can see single track coming in from here, and interesting bit of track work here, erm station up here. Double track through the station. Erm goods shed, er and er siding along here. So interesting type of track work there. Now when the was opened, er it was decided to er to put in a line, erm just near to connect with, and pick up some of the trade for the for Railway, cos the or the had already decided to get some from that end as well. Er going up to erm and so on. So a line was put in, up to Colliery. And there you have, not a very good picture, but you can see this was th with the goods shed as per the last ordnance survey map. Slightly altered configuration, but er tracks put in there, erm and er to house quite a lot of wagons and to er allow trains to er to just be held there until they could move up to erm cos that's single track beyond there. That was the quite enlarged quite enlarged er sidings, erm these haven't been changed here, but additional sidings on this side er and I say that curve up here. Erm just look at that one that er goods shed, that's er that's interesting cos er there's still remains of that there. There you can see Station. Station master's house there. Erm and the I can never remember the name of that road over there. Er... o this is Road down here isn't it? Anyhow, erm that's in a cutting there. And you can see the track layout. I say in interesting, if you built that in a model, people wouldn't believe you. There's a picture in early B R days, of a I think erm special probably from. And showing that even if the er station isn't actually used for passenger traffic, er it's well kept.... Now let's look down from the bridge. And there you see again in early B R days, er the er the station master's house, and er er and the station itself, over here, the goods shed over there, the various track works coming across, the er line up to round here, and as I say the various sidings that were put in to accommodate the additional er colliery and other traffic. But er considering it isn't er used for passengers, it looks in quite good nick, doesn't it really that.... But I say that er just er look at that, and look at the particular roof line. And er the the vent there, the circular vent. Now that's what it looks like more or less now. Er looking just er well that picture of that going through th station on a special. That's roughly the same place. [LAUGHTER] Well just a few yards along. Picture from the from the er bridge, and there you can see the goods sheds still there. And that's looking up towards up there. But the house is in quite good order, it has been extended. And that's er from the front view, I didn't go wandering in. But that was the entrance to the station originally. Er... I don't know whether that's listed or not, but er I'm surprised it's still there frankly. So as I say, very very very er prominent building. There's a little weighbridge or or office. Er in somebody's garden. And er you can just walk down either side of it. Er onto the trail. That's one of the see the old railway building there. Erm looking up er the er line or that is looking from the bridge erm that's going down towards er th the just it it it er cur curved round to to meet the er the line er an and the s and the station was was here. Just along the road. Er that was erm station just along here. And that's a line from between quite er steep er in quite a steep cutting. Looking towards again from the bridge over the main road, er as one gets er near near. Now moving on a little bit further, I know the talk said that I was only going up to er to, but I'm just going a little bit further. We've cut across the er A six one four here. Erm at the white post. Er and er... the line came from over here, and on that embankment there was a bridge here, er but they farmer has er removed that embankment, but has still left this part. And there's some still some one or two rather nice little bridges. Er still extant, and er now I rather like the architecture. Erm and so I wandered up there and had a look at it and photographed. Interesting four four arch bricks, and er and and very nice stonework. And the copings there, the retaining walls. You can see the brickwork there, Nicely done and er very attractive for again for modelling purposes. Going a little bit further, I'm only er just a couple here. That's up erm near Not a very good picture that, erm but a er L M S eight er eight F, up near that is. On a er coal train going towards er towards. And that's a an L M S crab also at. Again on a on a special, going towards Skegness probably, at a guess. Now what's going the other way? Erm and er this is coming in old Ordnance Survey map, coming in past the race course, at. And er single track at the time, and running double track, and platforms either side, Erm a er wedge shape platform, nice wooden building there, another building there. And and er er the platforms either side. Signal box over here. Various sidings, er and the trains from would come in to the left hand side of the top platform, erm and er would er go over here and and cut back and go out from this er this side. A little bit er... It's it's not a very good map the er Ordnance Survey map in the Nottingham Library, er local studies department. About the best I could get off them. Erm and I've I've obviously photographed it. Now there's a picture er in early B R days again, of the line coming in from here and the very attractive in my opinion, wooden er structures, the shelter there. The racecourse at the back, fencing, platform here, wooden structure here, buildings erm and er you can just see the edge of er another canopy similar to that er on this side. This is taken from the er from a sta er from a signal box er just er over sort of where I am, er here roughly in in line. And er well kept flower beds and so on. Barrow crossings here, signals and so on. There's another picture, now that's looking erm towards up there, and the branch coming in there, behind that er building. Very attractive, take note of what that looks like. A train waiting to go out go out to, er having met the er Nottingham Lincoln, or Lincoln Nottingham line which you can see just goes up the the back there. And there's that wooden building there. The train having come in from, and just going er forward well I don't know erm before back to er er to. I think that's an ex carriage actually, but it makes you realize how small these things were. In B R days, not a very good picture, but an B one Thompson, four six O B one on a erm probably a Birmingham train, er real cross country. And there's the er in the platform there just having come in. Another picture er of the... not very good, but erm best I can do, best I've got. Again see the old wooden structures, rather nice lamps and so on. That's what you've got now. Don't know whether that's an improvement upon the wooden structures. No I think not. That's where that rather nice, this is w this is the er the departure platform at. And that's the platform arrival from Nottingham to Lincoln, on the other side, the Lincoln to Nottingham one. But er not terribly pretty. There you can see that's looking up towards. Well the junction's gone completely, that was taken two or three years ago. And that's what you've got left, up there. I don't know why they bother. There's a signal box, from which the other picture was taken. No doubt a lamp and store there. Er this taken from where the signal box used to be, and that's where the line out to is over there. There's hardly a trace of it, whoops.... And there you see er... really that was the old erm remains of the platform going towards er. That's all that's left. And again that's the er er platforms as it is now looking towards. Oh and they sorry the other way round. That's the other end of it. And the er house there,. Quite a fair erm service on the Nottingham Lincoln line. Erm there's a sort of typical timetable of the nineteen twenties.. Now moving over to to, er what is Castle now, used to be quite a nice er well the the actual building... Erm that building is still here, and the bulk of that er station building is still there, er but erm I'm afraid all the er the buildings this side have gone, erm and er a lot of this has a lot of this has gone. Again you you've got er lamps erm and water columns and barrier here. In the background, erm a big goods shed which is still there. I think er it won't be long before that goes I think. There you can see, early B R days, erm as it shows it's Castle, it wasn't Castle, it was just in the old days. Water tower here. There was never a turntable at er at. Er but er rather nice er buildings here, and er canopies, which I say have been completely er removed. And er the level crossing of the old A one used to be here. The goods shed at the back, and the train just coming in from Lincoln there. And the old semaphore bracket signal there. Er in B R days, a lot of the er traffic between Nottingham and Lincoln and Derby, er was hauled by locomotives from Lincoln depot, and when the erm Region took that over, they closed the or the er shed down and used erm er Lincoln region locomotives. This is an old express passenger four four O, director class. Er in York station erm on a er Lincoln to Derby train. Erm very attractive er locos they were and extremely successful, they were the mainstay of er the er er line, and er outperformed many of the Robinson four six Os er that were built subsequently. Erm very attractive building, and I think in fact ten years ago when I took that photograph. Erm I don't think it's changed much. coming back er along the line. And that's how it was in earlier days. The same building. If you look at the look at that building. It's the same building. The gates, they only had a single er they didn't have gates on either side here, they just got the one set of gates. Erm plus this er er for for passengers. But there wasn't there wasn't another set this side. Wasn't room. In fact it's a very narrow er er roadway there. It still is. Little er signal box at. I managed to go in and have a chat with the signalman. Erm pretty little thing, the er boxes are very standard er in design, they're they were varying in size, but erm the er sort of double hipped roof, the finials erm the angled corners, of the windows erm the er er the rails erm and the er sort of platform there, er very very standard er all over the place. They've got quite a few of these at erm at, at the Railway Trust, they've er they've got a number of these signal boxes. They reckon they've probably got more than B R now, there. Er but a pretty little box that is. That's another view of the of the same box. Now a little bit further up the line, whoops, is junction. Now used to be er a link line between erm this er track here, and round the back, erm under Road, there's still a bridge there, er and joined up near where the rubbish tip is. Erm and er so trains could er instead of going towards Lincoln having to perhaps back up to, they would go round er a triangle basically, and be facing towards, equally if they're coming back, they didn't have to go towards Lincoln, and then back, they could erm could erm go round and er take their wares to sidings and marshalling yards. Er inside, er is a wheel which with which the erm signal box, or signalman, er could er open and shut the gates as necessary. And er a line of levers for points, for signals, and some spares inside. And that was er duly inside, you've got a fair number of spares on that. The reds where the home signals, yellow, the distance, and I this the black were points were they not. That's looking up er towards er Nottingham,.. Long time ago,. An old, a very old photograph and a bit grainy. But erm a train just coming in er from Lincoln to Nottingham.. That's gone now. The signal box and the gates have gone, taken now probably five or six years or so ago. Again typical er box, erm rather attractive, has now got the er normal lifting barriers. There you can see the er box. Erm and er the er... whatd'youcallit, the the er er the level crossing er and house., in olden days, before they built the er bridge. When the all the traffic came across the level crossing there. There's still a signal box there. erm that's now a private house isn't it? Yeah, it's a listed building. But er rather nice. And a barrow, a very common sight, and this this type of er of awning, erm very very common, er the barge-boarding er and the er and and the again the roof and the er chimneys and very interesting sort of a... In the garden erm of the sort of station master's house, is that. Very much like er the style used er in coal offices and erm weigh weighbridge at. That's still there. Erm where there's a caravan office, or caravan sales place just by the station, at, sorry at er. Erm I remember er thinking one day, erm I must get a photograph of that er building which was clearly a erm er a coal office or similar, I'll go back at the weekend and get that. I went back at the weekend and it was a pile of rubble. And that is the danger if you don't do things at the sec at the time, because er things do get er knocked down. Nice little building, little Wendy House there. [LAUGHTER]. another picture of it. just playing. But er nice little summer house there. now. And let's just w just take one or two other pictures just for interest. Just to show you a bit further on. That's what Nottingham Station i used to look like from London Road Bridge. Isn't that beautiful. [LAUGHTER]. Absolute er Changed a bit hasn't it since er Well the lines have gone, the signal box and er and so on. The old 's premises at the back. And the bridges, erm lovely O six O, and er erm four wheeled guard's, guard's van with a veranda at this end. Erm these er this is a one a of three or four photographs erm from the Society collection. We've got erm tens of thousands of photographs. Quite a number are erm there's quite a few taken in the Nottingham area in. Erm and this is one in Station, one of the spinners. Beautiful design locos. These erm finished there days really on easy graded routes such as the Nottingham Lincoln line. And er that's waiting to take a train out to Lincoln. Erm nineteen er probably just about erm nineteen nineteen, nineteen twenty time that one. There's another similar loco, Railway, one seventy eight, spinner. Nottingham behind. Underneath the old bridge over the top. Again a train to er out to Lincoln, one of the two four Os. Very much in use on the Lincoln line until certainly during the wars. Till till about the beginning of the second world war. Along with and the other guns of four four O. Mainstay of the motive power at the n, and on the Nottingham Suburban Services, erm the old er built erm er round top fire box, with the safety valves er and erm er... well no condensing here or anything on it. And that's got a bell pipe fire box, and er valves on that. Again all in Nottingham Station, on local. And there we are ladies and gentlemen, as er all things should finish with the Queen. Erm
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[Gerry:] That er concludes my little contribution to the evening's entertainment. Erm I hope it may be of some interest. Erm it is I assure you but a fraction of what I've got. [LAUGHTER] but erm they difficulty is in erm let's say keeping within a couple of hours.
[speaker001:] Well that's fantastic..
[Gerry:] Erm anyhow thank you er all very much.
[speaker001:] Right. Is there anybody [applause] [end of recording]