recollections of a magical childhood
Introduction:
This website has been developed by Clive and Trevor, who are cousins and who enjoyed a very special childhood. During a period stretching from around 1956 to 1966, they spent almost every holiday and the majority of their weekends together. They have met infrequently since then but they have always kept in touch. When they were both in their sixties they began an exchange of emails that recalled those years and the special memories they shared. The email exchanges started somewhere around August 2012 and initially were just compiled in a Word document. The process of transferring them to a website, the one you are now looking at, began on 27th October 2012. On this, and the following pages, those emails, and all that followed have been set out as they were written, together with childhood photos and images that were also exchanged. These images can all be clicked on so that they will open in a new tab in their full-sized glory.
Clive’s contributions are white on a black background or vice versa whereas Trevor’s are green on a black background or blue on a white background. Others' contributions are in red.
There are many, many links to videos and other relevant websites that bring those memories alive for them. They hope you enjoy it too.
First email from Clive to Trevor
When you look back on our childhoods together, do you feel nostalgic in a good way? I admit that I really like coming across a picture of a particular Dinky toy or Tri-ang engine we had and it takes me right back to those special times.
If you feel the same I thought it might be nice if we try to send each other, alternately, an image that conjures up those years and means a lot, especially to us. Are you up for that?
Yes, I do often reflect on our young past. All those Corgi and Dinky toys. When I see them on these antiques collectors' programmes fetching so much money! Probably could have retired on it!! If only we'd known!
I also really miss the age of steam. I'm not really a buff anymore I suppose but I do regret that that age has passed. I remember when we were about 10 or 11 trying to go to sleep in the back bedroom at Rose Walk and getting up to watch a Bulleid engine hammering past on the embankment with a glow of the fire around the cab in the night. The sound used to make the windows vibrate. Oh, and those days at Bournemouth station... kept us fascinated for many days. Just imagine if we'd had digital cameras then how many interesting shots we could have taken! Instead, we had a Brownie with about 8 pictures on it which then cost quite a lot to develop. Or even the box camera, where the subject in the viewfinder was travelling in the opposite direction to reality!! Then there was our train set. Many hot Summer days spent indoors just to keep the timetable running. Have you noticed how many more appropriate locos are available now than when we were into it? Mind you they cost around £100 now. I don't think Helen would be too excited about me splashing out on one of those every week.
On and off I've learnt more about the history of the railway system around Bournemouth and regret that we didn't know much about the line from Ringwood through West Moors (just up the road from Ferndown) through Wimborne to Poole which closed, well about the time we began to find women more interesting! And there is still the trackbed of the line from Ringwood through Hurn to Christchurch in existence (Hurn station is now a pub and closed as a station in about 1936). We knew nothing of all that.
I'll have to do the research re Ringwood West Moors line. I didn’t know about that at all.
Glad you're up for a bit of nostalgia. I'll kick things off with this Tri-ang X04 Motor. I'll make no comment until you've looked at it yourself but that, and the rest of the extensive site, will take you right back.
You can give me any recollections you have and another link (or image, video, etc.) to something else. I'll then respond to your recollections and add my own re the link you have sent. Not as complicated as I've made it sound!!
It looks like the miniature railway at Poole Park which is still there though now operated by a petrol-engined fake steam loco and also a representation of the HST.I don't know what the S in S M R stood for.....Steam Miniature Railway perhaps?
You were dead right - Poole Park Steam Miniature Railway - numerous photos here. The loco was called Vanguard apparently and is now at Kirby Green - see sidebar here
[Left:] Another photo of the Christchurch Miniature Railway located at the Wick Ferry Holiday Camp. Various signage in the background of the photos states the fare was 1/- for adults and 9d for children, it was open Monday to Friday 11 am till 5.30 pm and Saturday and Sunday 11 am till 2.30 pm (always a good idea to close early on the busiest days!) and there are also adverts for a baby-sitting service and passenger boat trips. [Right:] The locomotive still survives and runs on the Eastleigh Lakeside Steam Railway near Southampton.
The engine above is 34086 "219 Squadron" and below is some stuff about it and the sad fate that befell it. We may well have seen it at Eastleigh Shed but that story is for another day.........
"...... A very sorry-looking unrebuilt 'Battle of Britain' class No 34086 '219 Squadron' awaits its fate at Weymouth Loco shed (above). Built at Brighton in December 1948 and delivered new to Ramsgate shed in experimental apple green livery, the loco remained unrebuilt all its life before withdrawal came at Eastleigh shed on 25th June
1966; it was scrapped by Buttigiegs at Newport in November that year. It was extremely unlucky - at the time a group of drivers and shed colleagues from Nine Elms depot (70A) had formed the Bulleid class Pacifics Preservation Society with the praiseworthy aim of purchasing a Bulleid Pacific for preservation. Initially two 'Battle of Britain' candidates and Nos 34066 'Spitfire' and 34086 '219 Squadron', were considered suitable, but in the end, the society opted for unrebuilt 'West Country' class No 34023 'Blackmoor Vale' instead. The RAF's 219 Squadron was originally founded in 1918 and disbanded in 1957. During the First World War, the squadron served as a coastal defence unit, and throughout most of the Second World War, it operated as a night fighter air defence squadron. A nameplate and enamel Squadron badge went under the hammer at GW Railwayana Auction for £22,500. The motto 'From Dusk Until Dawn' can be clearly seen on the crest..... "
Some were as young as 12 years old when they were consigned to the scrapyard! Crazy really. Some interesting data and information on this website about preservation, in general, and Barry scrapyard.
Great stuff you've sent so far. Did you look at the rest of that Tri-ang website?
Yes, I did have a good look around the Tri-ang site. I remember almost all the items illustrated from those little maroon coaches which you had, the grey track then series 3 track (which actually was really rubbish), the Jinty, the green southern electric coach with the (adapted) wrong suburban brake coach attached, Seuthe smoke units. Didn't know about the mechanical smoke puffing unit though!
Ah, the Seuthe smoke units. I remember you could choose different "flavours" and my favourite was Lavender! Whenever I smell the real thing, i.e. the plant, I think of the model railway smoke!
Remember the Bulleid engine which we persevered with using my very early Princess loco chassis (i.e. the engine, therefore, had the wrong spoked wheels)? Plenty of lead weights in the body! Plus our weathering process using oil paint which we perfected to a pretty high standard I reckon (again, I can remember the smell of that paint right now).
We'll have to try and produce a list of all the components of our combined railway set. I think we had about 13 engines in the end.
Means of travel with parents in the late 50s early 60s.....4 hours to Bournemouth by road...no M3, M27...New Forest, following lorries at 30mph! Oh and was home 74, Dale View Avenue?
You're right - it was. Mind you I remember many happy times at 27, Rose Walk - listening to the trains, cycling and exploring the rough ground behind your house.
Berrylands
Berrylands and the River Hogsmill in flood between Rose Walk and Green Lane Recreation Ground, 1937
The aerial photo of the flooding 'Hogsmill' stream behind Rose Walk in 1937 is quite remarkable! By the '50s, when it was my childhood roaming domain, there were a couple of (WW2) bomb craters not far behind No. 25 which had by then sprouted a few young Ash trees. Probably due to the flooding risk, in the late 50's I recall the stream was dredged by a JCB type digger and in the early 60's the land between Rose Walk and the Hogsmill stream was used by the council as a landfill site. Otherwise, it seems the recreation ground and surrounding areas of housing had changed very little since 1937. Between the Berrylands Hotel and the station, there were only shops on one side of the road until the late 50s early 60s.
Thanks for this - good this isn't it?
Yes, well, 27 Rose Walk has been messed about somewhat
I still have Dad's AA badge! (see left)
Where did you find that photo of Berrylands Station?! Goodness, the number of times I saw that view!
Talking about Berrylands and Rose Walk.... what about your old Model Railway Club (0 Gauge?) you used to help run? Check out item 4 on this video list. Could that be the same one?
I recall that your station was the branch line terminus below the main station in the garage.
Yes, it was run by John Hart in Surbiton Hill Park.
Note: After this website was finished, I subsequently managed to discover quite a lot about the old railway layout and so have created a separate page for just this one topic. Just click the Midland and Southern Counties Joint Railway (or on the same-named box in the navigation panel)
Also, I think we used to visit this in Chingford; Chingford Model Engineering Club.
God yes! I'd forgotten all about that.
I remember it was a fairly short walk through an alleyway or two to get to the Chingford Model Engineering Club railway in Ridgeway Park from Dale View Avenue. It seems to have grown a lot since the 1950s as I only recall the track on stilts (i.e. the red loop above!).
Eastleigh
One winter, possibly 1963, we took a train from Bournemouth to Eastleigh in the snow and trespassed into the sheds. Had to hide in an engine cab to avoid being caught. I expect you remember it.
I do. We got the bus from Parley Cross (either a 16, 16A, 21, 22 or 27?) to Bournemouth Central. The train to Eastleigh was a "stopper" hauled by, possibly, a Nelson or Schools Class with old Bulleid Mk1 stock. The coaches were corridor versions and I actually remember us standing in the corridor which, that day, ran along the right-hand side of the coach. It's funny how certain images are retained.
Once we got going we took our seats and tucked into our lunch (we couldn't wait until mid-day!) of Cadbury's (or was it Bourneville?) drinking chocolate powder sandwiches, wrapped in grease-proof paper inside a brown paper bag. Those bags were more usually used for bagging the tomatoes sold from the back door and weighed on the green and cream enamel-coated scales. They hung from the hat stand in the hall on which also hung the dog's lead for Chocker or, later, Tony!!.
We did manage to slip into the sheds and were pretty gutted by the lines of engines ready to be scrapped behind the main shed.
As for the year of our visit, how about 28 December 1964 when those below were taken?
The photos could certainly have been taken around the time of our trip. We must have been pretty 'gung-ho' to have bought tickets to Eastleigh on a whim so we might walk freely into the works without so much as a clue as to how we might get in! I don't recall even looking at a map first - plus the south was covered in snow at the time. Remembering the presence of snow makes me wonder if the year might have been 1963? - that would have been about the time when they started to line up steam engines for the scrap heap, wouldn't it?!
We would have been 13/14 years old which might explain our bravado in undertaking the trip. Does that put a date on it? What think you?......girls must have been just around the corner!
Not sure if it was '63 or not. I think 1966 (see below) would have been too late for us. Earlier (see above), there are photos from December '64 and we wondered if that was the year we made this trip as they were shot when there was snow on the ground.
As for girls, I think thrusting conrods and trains entering tunnels was the closest we got to being excited about that!
"This is 71A Eastleigh M.P.Depot with 34066 Spitfire and many others waiting to be towed away. Copyright Mike Goodfield"
But others commented that it is not quite as bleak as it appears
"Only a few there are waiting for their last journey. It's the back of the Eastleigh shed. Spitfire will work on till September.The line to the right contains a few locos waiting for disposal. The rest are due to go through the works, such as a couple of ex-LMS locos and a few 9Fs. Those on the left are all working."
I think we were eventually chased out of the place and then sat in the waiting room at Eastleigh station where there was a coal fire blazing. We put our shoes as close as possible and watched them steam as they were sodden from the snow. I suspect we then just looked through our Ian Allen trainspotter books!
I seem to remember our parents and/or Nanna and Pop warning us that if we overdid this warming/drying process we would get chilblains. I suspect that when we eventually got back to Mimosa that evening, Nanna would have pulled off our wet shoes and socks (I can imagine them sticking to our legs and them getting stretched longer and longer before finally whipping off!), then running a hot bath for us to plunge into and get thoroughly warmed through. Then into some warm soft pyjamas (what material is that slightly thick wool/cotton mix?) and a dressing gown with a twisted cord belt to tie it closed. Meanwhile Pop would have been stuffing our shoes with old newspaper to help the drying process ready for the early morning boot polishing routine after which they would be soft, supple and shining like new pins!
As you've brought the subject up, I thought I'd have a look to see how we got from the Eastleigh Station to the Engine shed yard.
We must have crossed over the mainline either on the road shown just above the station or the smaller bridge lower down (right). The latter being more likely, but I don't remember what the entrance to the yard was like. As I recall, there weren't many staff about, so I don't think it was near any offices or any works activity. I don't recall walking down any steps either.
Any ideas?
I have a vague recollection of the entrance and layout but I may be getting confused with Kings Cross!
In my mind's eye, the spur off the mainline, into the shed, was North of the station. But it looks like it actually spurred off South of it. However, now I am not sure which part of the site was the shed. There's a large area marked "Works" and then another unmarked area with a road (from the bridge you mentioned) leading to houses. That seems a bit weird to be in the shed area. If the area in the South is the shed then we probably did walk South from the station and across the bridge. However, if the "Works" is the shed I cannot quite see where the entrance would be.
I seem to recall the entrance was through a gateway with a little shed/office inside a tall wall. We skirted the edge of the site (Western edge) until we were well within the shed area and then got enough courage up to wander across to the lines of locos.
I now need your help to identify the right area of the site!
I could only find this version of the Eastleigh Station area (right) this morning but it shows the route (in red) and area I think we visited. It's not near the main works which is probably why it was quiet and we were able to roam around.
If you remember, the area we visited was visible from the train when heading towards Southampton so that's why I think it's where we were. Of course, the layout of the yard/works has obviously changed, but if you drop down onto Campbell Road (the entrance road) you can edge along and look for possible entrance points.
Having said all that, I don't remember the actual entrance gates.
I think you're right and that the South Western part of the site is where we visited and why it was so quiet. Bit of a pity that we weren't adventurous enough to try and get into the Works area. We had been disciplined too well by our parents!
Campbell Road looks like the likely entry route, I agree. I wonder if those houses further down the road were built for the railway staff? It looks like some of those existing buildings are from that era. But, like you, I don't recall the entrance gates and my recollections are of Kings Cross shed.
I have found a great old aerial photo (right) and it looks like the Works would have been difficult to get into. You can see quite clearly how we might have left the station and made our way to Campbell Road. The shed is way off in the distance. The caption reads "Aerial photo of much of Eastleigh's railway infrastructure published in an 'Echo' supplement of 28th June 1950. Centre is the Bishopstoke Road railway bridge; Station Hill and Southampton Road running up the right-hand side. Bottom left are allotments, on the site of where Bishopstoke Cheese Market used to be in the 19th century; far left is part of the railway works canteen; just above, centre"
"Rebuilt Battle of Britain class No.34060 '25 Squadron' is seen backing out the Eastleigh Shed road, heading off for its next duty. In an extremely grubby condition, missing both front number and nameplates, the locomotive would only last another 2 months in service, being withdrawn in June 1967. Seen under the loco are new power rails waiting to be installed into the depot, for the new electric services bringing an end to steam operations on the 9th July 1967."
What I did stumble across was a luggage "swing bridge" construction on platform 4. A typical Victorian (?) piece of engineering to solve a problem of how to get heavy baggage from the platform level to the road level.
I do remember the luggage swing bridge - probably because it struck me/us as unusual at the time. (I presume there was/is some connection with the signal box to avoid a nasty collision when it's across the track?!)
I then got to thinking about the topography of the station. If the walkway between platforms was at the same height as the station exit, was there a drop-down to platform level? I then found a few shots taken at the time (for example, the one above left, showing that the walkway was higher than the station exit which was actually at "platform level". I compared those with Google Street View images to see how things have changed. Nice to see that they did re-use the decorative canopy supports from the original exit (you may have to zoom in on the exterior shots to see what I'm on about!).
(Above left) It would have looked like this by the time we were leaving for Bournemouth Central. I tried to find a period photo of the Waiting Room where we warmed our feet but couldn't find one.
Just had a thought I suspect that the reason you can't find the Waiting Room (with the cosy fireplace) is probably because that long pre-fabricated staff office building (5th photo) has caused it to be removed.
Yeah, I was looking for a period photo. The closest I got was a lovely photo of the platform and canopy supports (above right). You can clearly see the same supports in the photo on the left and also the door (which is red in the colour photo) and the passenger bridge.