Memories of Marlborough Station
Compiled from the recollections of Richard James
Introduction
Ihave no clear recollection as to how I reacted to the news that my cosy little existence in the small Shropshire market town of Much Wenlock would soon come to an end. Being eight years old it was probably a combination of tears and tantrums. How could my parents do this to me? Dad had a new job and that was it!
Wenlock was all I knew having lived there from the age of two when my father Fred James took up the post of Station Master in 1953. Our house was part of the station building so my playground was a real railway, hurtling up and down the platform on my tricycle, climbing the ornamental rockery that towered up behind the run-round loop and hours spent either in the signal box or on the footplate of panniers and prairies.
I considered staff members like Ted Tipton, Landy Edwards, Fred Clarke and Bert Bostock to be part of the family- especially Bert as he was the Wellington based driver who would get me up on the engine, plonk me on the wooden tip up seat and take me for a quick trip as the loco ran round its coaches or on occasion the ‘long distance’ run up to Longville with the goods. The latter involved going through Presthope tunnel, the approach to which made me a little nervous especially one day riding on a large prairie Bert said ‘I hope she fits in the hole’! I was to discover our new station also had a tunnel, one that I would pass through many times by train, on foot, and even by car!
My father’s new job was Station Master at Marlborough in Wiltshire, on the line that was once part of the Midland and South Western Junction Railway (MSWJR) from Cheltenham to Andover before it was absorbed by the GWR in the 1923 grouping. By the time of our move however, it was on borrowed time, a financial basket case and a shadow of a once through route between Southampton and the Midlands, now limping on with one through train a day and a handful of local services. I am sure I am not alone in wishing I had asked my parents more questions about decisions made in their lives, none more the
case of my father with the blindingly obvious one of why on earth he took the position! He no doubt saw his existing job as doomed and therefore considered a move south to be the best option. Ironically Much Wenlock would close in 1962, outliving the passenger service at Marlborough by a year!
What follows is not another history of the railways of Marlborough as that has already been laid out in fascinating detail by fine authors such as Mike Barnsley, Colin Maggs, and Kevin Robertson. These are my own, my personal recollections of the last few years of Marlborough station’s existence, some of the staff I fondly remember and the slow march to its obliteration.
Opposite: My favourite Marlborough photo is depicting the afternoon ritual of the two trains crossing and the associated burst of activity with passengers heading home and what I recall as respectable volumes of parcel traffic being unloaded. My father in his familiar trilby hat is seen walking past the first coach of the Southampton service. On the platform to the right of 31809 is the auxiliary token hut with a carrying hoop propped up against the wall. On the opposite platform, the Andover fireman appears to be observing activity in the guards van whilst Harold’s dog Jill, now getting on in years, rests up against the wall of the Refreshment Room hopefully enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun. Maybe the days of retrieving coins that Harold would throw over into the field opposite are over. Mike Fox photographed the scene on Wednesday 7 June 1961.
This page: It is going home time! 31809 is once again in charge of the Southampton service but on a different 1961 date and taken by a different photographer. In the lower view is a full barrow load of parcels - and flying mail bags by the look of it! Both R E Toop
Top right: Spotters memories.... .
Opposite: Looks like the rain has stopped and the washing has been taken in. No 6395 about to depart with the final 5.45pm Swindon to Andover Junction service. Photographer John Beckett has an audience - an unknown family and the fireman. Driver Fred Bennett is just visible in a pale or even white shirt! No 6395 itself has an observer sitting on the brick wall next to the steps up to the house-me! At 9.24pm or thereabouts on Sunday evening 10 September 1961 I stood on the platform outside the ‘Fresher’ as No 6395 emerged out of the dark by the signal box with the final train to Swindon, the 8.35pm from Andover Junction. Its lamp on the top bracket casting a glow on a small wreath hung underneath. Within a couple of minutes it was on its way, this time the red tail lamp indicating its progress, accompanied by the clatter from the up starter signal as it was returned to its on position and the spectacle glass changing from green to red. With school the next day I had been allowed to stay up late but still had time to observe from my bedroom window the carriage lights progressing towards Ogbourne.‘I shall not pass this way again’ as the words from a Quaker saying goes. For the signalman on duty there would be the usual half hour wait until the train out of section bell code was received from Swindon Town ‘B’ box, those at Ogbourne and Chiseldon being switched out on a Sunday. A final entry in the train register, book off duty and head no doubt to the ‘Fresher’ for a pint with Dad and a few others to reflect on it all. John Beckett
This page: This was Andover Junction station prior to the departure of the 8.35pm service. The town’s Mayor, Councillor B P E Machin has been
carefully assisted up on to the buffer beam by no doubt a rather reluctant Station Master. On the right in the jacket is driver Fred Bennett. The chap in the middle with the stick must be eighty-seven year old Thomas Winchcombe from Ogbourne St George. On the 27 July 1881 the line from Swindon Town to Marlborough opened for traffic, the same day a seven year old Thomas travelled from Ogbourne to Marlborough on the train with his mother. They walked back. Eighty years later he was on the last train but for whatever reason the timetable shows it didn’t stop at Ogbourne. Hopefully he got a lift home from Marlborough! Andover Museum
The 4.03pm service is once again on the headshunt but for the final time. It is Saturday 9 September 1961 and what I thought eternal turned out to be ephemeral. A gleaming Mogul No 6395 passes with the 2.30pm goods from Andover Junction to Swindon Town. Normally on a Saturday it would run as engine and brake van only but as this is a final run it has cleared empty wagons from the MOD at Ludgershall. I would look forward with eager anticipation to weekends to see if an ex works loco like No 6395 would appear on a running in turn. A wonderful contrast to the usual grimy variety like that of No 5570 on the headshunt. Mark Warburton courtesy Mrs M Warburton
TRAINS NO MORE.
From an important independent cross-country route through the status of a vital link between the Midlands and the South coast and ending up as a rural backwater, the erstwhile Midland & South Western Junction line through Marlborough had witnessed it all. Here for the first time is a
personal account of the station and its environs in its final years and compiled by someone who really was in the know, Richard James the son of the last Marlborough station master.
ISBN 978-1-913893-64-4
£19.95
