NOTES

PL = PLATE REFERENCE IN KEITH MONTAGUE’S BOOK " PRIVATE OWNER WAGONS FROM THE GLOUCESTER RAILWAY CARRIAGE AND WAGON COMPANY LTD" OXFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY 1981 SBN 86093 124 2

POPE = PAGE REFERENCE FROM IAN POPE'S BOOK " PRIVATE OWNER WAGONS IN THE FOREST OF DEAN" LIGHTMOOR PRESS 2002 ISBN 1 899889 09 4

POPE G =PAGE REFERENCE FROM IAN POPE'S BOOK " PRIVATE OWNER WAGONS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE" LIGHTMOOR PRESS 2006 ISBN 1 899889 23 X

TURTON = DATA FROM THE PRIVATE OWNER WAGON COLLECTION BOOKS OF KEITH TURTON, ALSO PUBLISHED BY THE LIGHTMOOR PRESS

G = MODEL WAGON FITTED WITH GRCW "G" PLATES

ROBBIE'S ROLLING STOCK

Robbie's Rolling Stock also embraces N and 00 gauge carriages and wagons but from the point of view of Gloucester RCW's output I will be focussing this feature on livery variants of the Dapol steel underframed seven plank open coal wagon with two side doors and one end door and also the five plank variant with just two side doors. Click on pictures of packaging below to visit Robbie's own website.

OWNER

FLEET NO

TARE

LOAD

DATE

DATA SOURCE

FIDELITY TO SOURCE MATERIAL

7 PLANK OPEN WAGONS SIDE DOORS AND ONE END DOOR

In February 1889 a repairing contract was taken out with Gloucester RCW for three 6-ton wagons over seven years suggesting that Edward John Burtt was already running wagons in his own name and that they possibly came from a different manufacturer. This repairing contract was renewed in January 1896 for a further seven years and again for a similar term in January 1903.

In January 1890 a secondhand 7 ton wagon was taken by Burtt on hire from Gloucester RCW while in November 1892 a secondhand 6 ton was taken on simple hire for three years with the note that the hire cost was a reduction suggesting that this was a renewed hire. This vehicle was also the first in the fleet with sprung steel rather than wooden "dumb" buffers.

In December 1893 the GRCW order books refer to a new 10 ton wagon bought on seven years deferred purchase - most likely fleet number 5.

The next order came in July 1899 for one new 10 ton wagon on seven years deferred purchase. This was most likely Burtt fleet number 6, a five planker with raised fixed ends photographed at Bristol Road in October 1899. The livery was yellow lettering shaded red on black and it was registered with the Midland Railway in addition to carrying the Gloucester RCW owner's number 34988. it survived until 1948.

10 ton Burtt fleet number 4 was acquired from Gloucester RCW in September 1900 on a seven years deferred purchase arrangement and was fitted with a lifting top plank above the side doors. Registered with the Midland Railway as 34317 on 17 September 1900, Burtt 4 also carried the Gloucester RCW Owner's Number 35781 and was the subject of a repair contract taken out in October 1907 for 7 years.

A similar repair contract, taken out in December 1900, probably referred to fleet number 5 and it would seem that this was renewed again in December 1907 for 7 years and one month.

A further order came in September 1903 with the acquisition of wagon 7. It does appear that there was some logic to Burtt's wagon numbering system as it is possible that the three 6-ton wagons owned pre 1889 were 1-3 and that hired in 1890 became number 4. Then came number 5 in 1893 and 6 in 1899. The new number 4 acquired in September 1900 could have replaced the hire wagon. Then came fleet number 7 in September 1903 for which a repair contract was renewed in 1910.

After 1903 it is impossible to ascribe numbers to the wagons acquired. In November 1906 a single 10 ton secondhand wagon was taken on 7 years hire while in December 1909 an 8 ton wagon was bought secondhand on 7 years deferred purchase. A repair contract for this wagon was renewed for 7 years in 1916. A secondhand 8 ton wagon was bought on deferred purchase in February 1918 and finally, as far as the existing records of Gloucester RCW are concerned, in January 1920 a 10 ton wagon was purchased secondhand on five years deferred terms at £24 10/- per annum plus £70 cash.

Burtt & Son were mentioned in Railway Clearing House lists for 1926 but not 1933 and in 1935 the company was listed in the Gloucester edition of Kelly's Directory as "bee appliance manufacturers" and also advertised their services as picture frame manufacturers.

In 1992 I had the great fortune to meet Mr Michael Burtt of Leonard Stanley, grandson of Edward John Burtt, and he was able to tell me a great deal more about this family and its unusual trade.

Quakers by religion, the Burtt family can be traced back to 1490 when they were farmers in Fulbeck, Lincolnshire, while the distinctive spelling of their name is thought to be the result of a mistake made when filling in a register.

John Bowen Burtt, born in 1833, was a chemist by trade however and moved to Gloucester via Kettering. He is first recorded by contemporary trade directories in 1882 as living at Fawsley House, 5 Stroud Villas, Parkend Road and it is highly likely that his move from Northamptonshire was to be near his in-laws. He had married Ann Bevinton Brown, daughter of Mr Hubert Gopsill Brown ( see also Bernard Edwards and Brown, below ) who owned the sack hire business in the Lock warehouse in Gloucester Docks. John Bowen Burtt later made Kingston Villa, 50 Weston Road, the Burtt family home before his death in 1902.

John and his wife Ann were blessed with eight children, the eldest of which - Edward John - had been born in Kettering in 1860. As a young man, Edward Burtt worked for his maternal grandfather's sack hire business but became interested in bees at a time when modern bee keeping was in its infancy. Indeed, so strong was his fascination that in 1886 he founded the company of beehive manufacturers that was to bear his name for a century.

Fortunately he timed his venture well as it became one of only four beeking appliance manufacturers in Britain, covering the West Country while other firms in Uxbridge, Welwyn and Dundee supplied the South, East and North of England and Scotland respectively.

Also making his name as one of Britain's best known beekeepers, Edward John Burtt was approached for advice by apiarists living as far away as India and America. he was a Gloucestershire County Council lecturer in his chosen field and one of the founders of the Gloucestershire Beekeeper's Association, rising to the rank of honorary vice president at the time of his death in 1938.

Away from the hives, "EJ" was a champion of the adult school movement and the temperance cause while in 1892 he married Mary, the daughter of Mr Thomas Fox JP of Devizes, Wiltshire. The couple's only daughter grew up to be a lecturer at the University of Peiping in China while of their two sons, Graham joined the family business in 1919. he had been occupied with relief work during the Great War but by the time of his father's death in Nailsworth he had attained the post of honorary librarian with the Gloucestershire Beekeeper's Association.

In 1889 Edward John Burtt had rented a yard at 16 Stroud Road from George Peters but in 1904 he acquired 22-24 Stroud Road as his own. This site later expanded to include numbers 20-21 while both the Southend Mission Hall and 31 Weston Road were purchases in July 1920. The former was used up to 1950 as Burtt's packing and despatch department and store while the latter, next door to a Mrs Jennings and partly sublet to a house decorator named Philip William Berry, held the timber stocks, metal working facilities and stock breeding hives of the company until 1939.

Prior to 1953, Burtt made most of its beehive components in-house and could also supply customers with all types of equipment, bees themselves and honey. Indeed, by 1939 the company had 500 bee colonies dispersed around Gloucestershire including installations at Churcham, Minsterworth and Sapperton.

The latter site was on the spoil heap of the famous railway tunnel and was rented for £1.00 a year from the Great Western Railway. Although they did not hire out hives purely for pollination purposes as bee keepers do today, the Burtt colonies at Sapperton were close to fields of sainfoin which gave nourishing food to the bees in return for their work of fertilisation.

The years 1918-1939 also yielded some fine summers, which helped maintain the interest in bee keeping which had boomed in the Great War. However, the main memories that Michael Burtt has of those times at Sapperton is being able to watch the Great Western freight trains being banked up toward the summit!

Although EJ Burtt and Son were successful as bee keeping appliance manufacturers the seasonal nature of their business forced the company to diversify from the outset. During the winter months coal was bought from Ansley Hall, Kingsbury and Cannock Chase collieries in Staffordshire as well as from Cannock and Rugeley collieries, Granville Colliery, Messrs Bolton and Co., the Hockley Hall Coal Company and the Speech House Coal Company in the Forest of Dean.

As well as hive production the Burtts extended their carpentry skills to picture framing and the making of furniture and Sunday School equipment. A surviving catalogue from 1913 - printed by Burtt Brothers of Hull, like much of their other literature - shows chairs for superintendents, adults, seniors and children as well as cupboards, collecting boxes, chalk boards, sand trays and models of buildings from the Holy Land. A Burtt's drying rack was even offered along with EJ's leaflet " A Simple Way of Drying and Airing Clothes"! Coal, wood, beehives and other finished products were transported in the firm's wagon fleet up to 1933.

By 1945 Edward John Burtt's widow Mary was still resident at 22 St Paul's Road and bee keeping was enjoying its second boom of the 20th Century. Unlike sugar, honey was never ratuoned during the Second World War and the Burtt's produce was in demand. 1947 also saw Graham Burtt's 23 year old son Michael join the firm following a period of wartime relief work, just as his father had done after the conflict with the Kaiser.

Sadly though, times were soon to change. The demand for honey dropped when sugar came off ration in the 1950s and changes in agriculture - such as the increased use of pesticides and destruction of hedgerows - made life hard for bees.

As well as converting their premises at 32 Weston Road to garages, the Burtt's began a screwdriver approach to their hive construction, using some components made by outside firms rather than making everything themselves. An excursion into poultry keeping appliances was also made at this time although this earned little cash and was soon abandoned. More seriously though, a run of bad summers in the 1960s coincided with the rise of the DIY movement and the result that the few apiarists needing hives were likely to be building their own.

EJ Burtt and Son ceased trading in Gloucester in 1974 but, like the figure of eight dance that a worker bee makes on returning to its hive, a series of coincidences was to being the firm full circle to its roots. Although Michael Burtt kept a limited trade in bee keeping appliances from Regent Street, Stonehouse, between 1974 and 1986, the remains of the Gloucester operation were transferred to Messrs E.H. Thorne of Wragby, Lincolnshire: less than 30 miles from where the Burtt's originated. Michael's son Colin has also gone back five generations jobwise and now works in market gardening in Devon - although he does still keep some bees. Most amazing of all though was the fate of 20-24 Stroud Road. From 1974 to 1980 the first lessee of the site was Mr Chris Cook, who went on to run Gloucester Antique Centre in the Lock Warehouse formerly used by Hubert Gopsill Brown!

The first Slaters model kits of Burtt wagons in 0 and 00 gauge were spotted in the April 1979 edition of Model Railway Constructor by mr Holmes, deputy branch manager of Lloyds Bank in Bristol Road and a keen model railway enthusiast who broght the Slater's advertisement to Michael Burtt's attention. Mr Burtt then got in touch with the Derbyshire firm and was subsequently presented with examples of these kits, the models being assembled by Slater's technical director Neil Jury, who wrote back to say that he and his wife had just taken up bee keeping and would like some details about hives.

BWLCH

128

6-8-12

12T

1908

PL89

131 ON PLATE

Other wagons built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company and either owned by or connected to the Crawshay Brothers have been modelled by Dapol and Hornby. Hirwain ( or Hirwaun ) is located north of Aberdare on what was once the Neath and Brecon ( later Great Western Railway ) route from Swansea to Cardiff. The lack of Railway Clearing House Commuted Charge Scheme markings might suggest that this wagon plied a short but regular route - perhaps from Hirwain to one of the South Wales Ports.

114

6-18-3

12T

1906

PL96

MARKINGS AS PER PLATE

The italic writing on the right of the body reads "Proprieters - The Cambrian Mercantile Syndicate Ltd LONDON AND YSTALYFERA. However, the left reads "Empty to Cambrian Sidings YSTRADGYNLAIS GW Railway" rather than referring to the Neath and Brecon Railway as is the case in Photograph 3259. In fact the Neath and Brecon merged with the Great Western on 1 July 1922 but the Cambrian Mercantile Syndicate ceased trading in 1914. It could be argued, nonetheless, that wagon 114 was possibly kept on by new owners and simply rebadged for GW rather than Midland running and repainted otherwise as the need arose.

The Cambrian Mercantile Syndicate Ltd began operations at its small pit between the Neath & Brecon's junction with the Midland Railway's Swansea Vale line and Ystradgynlais in 1905. Both anthracite and steam coal was raised and the company's entire wagon fleet was built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company. This comprised one hundred 10 ton wagons ordered in November 1905, 55 second hand 10 ton wagons ordered in November 1907, a further 100 new 10 ton wagons in 1909 and another 50 in 1912.

114 was part of the original batch of 10 ton wagons and retained the Gloucester RCW owners number 43546 along with the Midland registration 51690. In contrast, fleet number 277 from the 1909 batch was registered to run on Great Western metals from new and could be distinguished by angled rather than horizontal commode handles on the end door and a heavy wooden door stop on just one side. 114 is shown as new without any door stops. The 1909 batch of wagons continued to be delivered in 1910 and among them was wagon 550, which not only had two different livery combinations on a dark red background on each side but was a conversion of a Broad Gauge five plank wagon from the 1880s.

CANN & GLASS

154

6-15-2

12T

1902

PL99

156 ON PLATE

Cann & Glass was certainly operational by 1900 and was a steamship owner and coal exporter as well as a colliery agent. The maritime operation included a contract to carry Scottish coal from Burntisland in Fife to the Pool of London on behalf of the Cory owned Steamships Coal and Trading Company. At Purfleet in Essex the cargo was discharged into lighters and forwarded to Bow Creek and Lambeth. In 1907 Cann & Glass were sales agents for the Gilwen Colliery near Gurnos Junction on the Midland Railway as well as representing many other Welsh producers of what their advertisements described as "Best big vein Anthracite..machine made and washed peas, cobbles and nuts." After the establishment of the giant Amalgamated Anthracite in the 1920s, Cann & Glass continued to represent such smaller pits as Blaenhirwaun at Cross Hands, operated by S.R. Anthracite.

1900 also saw the first Cann & Glass order for distinctive red wagons from the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company Limited. This was for 15 wagons with a further forty in three batches in 1901 and another twenty ( numbered 146 to 165 ) in 1902. A final order for 20 more wagons was placed at Bristol Road in 1906 - future orders for wagons in plain black and white being fulfilled by Charles Roberts of Wakefield and Midland of Birmingham.

ALBERT CROWTHER

1

6-0-2

10T

1908

POPE G 19

MARKINGS AS PER PLATE

Despite having been in business at least as early as 1908, the first reference in Kelly's Directory to Albert Crowther, coal dealer is as late as 1923. His address is given as Bristol Road, Quedgeley - close to the Hempsted Branch - but Number 1 may have been his only wagon, purchased on seven years deferred terms and with a repair contract extending for another seven years beyond November 1915. Albert Crowther ceased to appear in Kelly's Directories after 1931.

6

6-17-3

12T

1924

POPE G 41

MARKINGS ALMOST AS PER PLATE

The Gloucester Railwaymen's Direct Coal Supply Association was part of the Labour Club and Institute at Highfield House, Barton Street, Gloucester. Wagons 1 and 2 of the fleet were built by Gloucester RCW in March 1895 as 8 ton five plankers with black lettering shaded red on varnished planks with the siderail and solebar painted grey. These wagons were plated to run on the Midland Railway and survived scrapping until 1937.

Wagon 8 - another 8 ton 5 planker - was supplied by Gloucester RCW in January 1900 and was painted lead grey with white lettering shaded grey. In December 1919 a single second hand 10 ton wagon was taken on five years simple hire while a year later another of the same type was acquired. 12 ton Number 6 was the last brand new vehicle purchased.

S. HEALING & SONS

3

7-2-2

12T

1900

POPE G 113

5 ON PLATE

Borough Flour Mills were situated at Quay Pit on the River Avon to the west of Tewkesbury High Street. After 1844 it was served by a siding - always worked by horse power - off the Bristol & Gloucester Railway's Tewkesbury Branch. The mill produced both flour and animal feeds and, being worked by steam, required coal. Samuel Healing & Son hired two wagons from Gloucester RCW in November 1869 and sporadically hired and bought other wagons for the rest of the 19th Century and as recently as 1920. Grain, however, was brought upstream from Avonmouth via Gloucester along the River Severn and at one time Samuel Healing & Sons owned their own steamship and several powered barges.

REDGRAVE & CO

625

6-1-0

12T

1908

PL488

626 ON PLATE

Arthur Redgrave was born in London in 1862 but by 1881 his family were living in Norfolk with Arthur employed as a contractors clerk. By 1901 he was in business at 88 Belgrave Terrace, Swansea, as a colliery agent and by 1903 he was trading as Redgrave & Co. Although Arthur Redgrave's business had started in Swansea it soon spread to Cardiff. Its business address in the Welsh capital in 1909 was 84 The Exchange in Mount Stuart Square while the Swansea operation was based at Burrows Chambers. Coal was delivered as far away as the Midlands and possibly even Southampton.

Among the many Welsh mines represented, Llwynonn was one of the most productive sources of steam and manufacturing coal on the Neath & Brecon Railway at Crynant, near Neath.

In October 1903 one hundred new 10 ton wagons were ordered from the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company Limited and paid for over seven years. All subsequent orders from Gloucester were for second hand hired wagons featuring the concave word REDGRAVE sandwiched between the words SWANSEA and CARDIFF. Only the wagons ordered as new in 1903 carried the earlier convex name above the word SWANSEA.

In July 1906 sixty 10 ton wagons were hired for a period of one year and in December 1906 a further fifty wagons were hired for two years. In January 1908 fifty five 12 ton wagons were hired for a three year period, including wagons 625 and 626. Indeed, although leased by Gloucester it is possible that it was not actually built in Bristol Road, one very alien feature to GRCW design being two bulky wooden side door stops instead of the single door stop represented on the model. This was also a feature of the light grey Charles Roberts of Wakefield wagons ordered by Redgrave from 1910.

Even more intriguingly, Gloucester RCW Official Photograph 4518 of September 1924 of Order 5181 depicts Shellswell fleet number 7 as a 12 ton 7 plank wagon with cupboard rather than downward hinging side doors and therefore no stop spring.  As was the custom for new wagons, the tyre walls of the 16' 1 1/4" x 7' 7 1/4" x 4' 4 1/4" bodied vehicle were painted white and the tare weight lettered as 7-2-0.  The wooden solebars carried a G-plate to the right of the brake V-hanger and an oval  owners plate to the left with the GWR registration plate just under the word Tare.  The three wagons in Order 5181 were numbered 7, 25 and 50 and were sold to Harry T. Shellswell for £168 10/-  apiece.

Robbie's model thus in so ways more closely resembles Shellswell fleet number 32 photographed by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company in January 1927.  Although another 7 plank open coal wagon, it could only carry 10 tons and had a tare of 6-4-3 with downward hinging side doors with stop springs on each side, white wall tyres and owners plate to the right of the brake V hanger on the solebar.  To the left of the V hanger was the G plate, LMS rebuild plate and Midland Railway registration plate, while just below the Tare weight was the painted legend  " Glev/1/27".  However, this refurbished wagon, first constructed in 1894, had "Gloucester" embossed axleboxes and had first gone to J.C. Gillisbrand of Camp Hill, Birmingham before being hired out by what was then still the Gloucester Wagon Company to J. Meates & Co of Ledbury in 1900.  The wagon stayed with Meates as their fleet number 24 until 1927 when Gloucester RCW sold it on to Shellswell.  At the same time Shellswell also bought another ex Meates wagon, number 23, which became 16 in the Shellswell fleet.

C.P. TEAGUE

4 AND 6

6-8-2

10T

1906

POPE G 235

MARKINGS AS PER PLATE

Gloucester RCW Official Photograph 3266 of October 1906 shows Charles P. Teague wagon 6 as a 10 ton seven plank wagon measuring 14'5" x 7' x 4' with internal diagonal bracing, white wall tyres and wooden solebars with G-Plates inside the brake gear V-hanger and to the right of it under the G in GLOS. Unlike the model, it also had two side doors ( with no stop springs beneath ) but no end door and a tare weight of six tons exactly.

William Teague ( 1786 - 1867) was born in Redmarley, Gloucestershire, but spent most of his life in Tibberton as a builder and carpenter. By 1851 he employed six men at his workshops at New Hall. His second wife Hannah bore him seven children, the oldest of which was Charles Teague (1818 - 1914)

Charles Teague was a carpenter, wheelwright and builder and employed ten men and four boys at his inherited New Hall premises in 1861. By the 1880s his workforce had grown to 18 men and 3 boys and his workmanship was noted for its quality. Charles Teague was also known as a man of exceptional integrity, held many offices in the Methodist Church and posessed a fine singing voice. His funeral was attended by about 200 people but although he was buried before the First World War broke out his Sunday memorial service was disturbed by a military gathering.

Charles Teague also married twice, his second marriage producing Charles Palmer Teague ( 1876 - 1971 ) Charles Palmer Teague continued his father's business and in addition to being a carpenter, wheelwright, farm waggon maker and builder was a part time farmer, the village undertaker and a coal dealer - keeping wagons built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company at his yard at nearby Barber's Bridge station from 1906. Wagon 6 was purchased for £ 66.00 and the original seven year repair contract with GRCW was renewed in October 1913. This was followed by Wagon 7 in October 1907 - just one inch narrower than its predecessor - which was also bought for cash and to which similar repair arrangements applied. Charles Palmer Teague remained listed in local trade directories until 1931 although he did sign his wagons up to both RCH schemes in 1926 and 1933.

Barber's Bridge was the first station west of Gloucester on the GWR line via Newent and Dymock to Ledbury opened in 1885. However, Barber's Bridge was to lose its passing loop, Down platform and signalbox as early as 1898 although its goods yard, west of the station, continued to handle coal, livestock, fruit, eggs and milk for many decades to come. Other traffics included fertiliser, elm wood for coffins, and pitch, a by product of the oil that was brought up the Severn in barges. This was brought to Barber's Bridge by lorry and as much as 1500 tons a year was taken by rail to Cardiff and Northern England

TERRETT TAYLOR & SONS

  5

  12T

  1897

  PL 597

  3 ON PLATE

Gloucester RCW Official Photograph 1651 of December 1897 shows a 10 ton seven plank wagon measuring 14'5" x 6'11" x 4' with internal diagonal bracing, white wall tyres, a tare weight of 6-0-2 and wooden solebars with G-Plates inside the brake gear V-hanger and just to the left of it as well as above the load data under the S in GLOS. Between the tare data and the COL in COLEFORD is written "Empty to Wimberry Sidings Speech House Road."

Thomas Terrett Taylor & Sons had an ironmongers and builders business in Coleford which had been in the family since the 1830s. However, the Gloucestershire archives only make one reference to wagon 3 being purchased on 7 years deferred purchase. Fleet numbers 1,2,4 and 5 - if they existed - must have therefore somehow have not been recorded at the time or the records lost or they may have been acquired from another firm!

When I pointed this out to Robbie Burns in 2007 he immediately set about creating a Terrett Taylor & Sons number 3 ( below ) in exchange for the number 5 pictured above. How many other model railway rolling stock suppliers would offer such excellent customer care as well as attention to detail?

HARRY HOWELL BEAK

2

6-0-1

10T

1895

PL37

MARKINGS AS PER PLATE

The current Cotswold stone Kemble Station was built in 1882 to replace a basic single platform. Prior to this, Kemble and Tetbury were served by Tetbury Road station which was just down the main line towards Cheltenham from Kemble and on the Cirencester to Tetbury road. This became a goods station from1882, being also close to a wharf on the Thames & Severn Canal.

Harry Howell Beak - christened Henry - was born at Milbourne, Malmesbury, in 1866 as the son of a farmer. In 1881 he could be found as an apprentice grocer in Bristol but by the 1890s he was once again close to home as a coal merchant and in 1901 was living in South Cerney as a "coal and meal merchant". Despite having wagons lettered for a county station, Beak does not appear in any Gloucestershire trade directory.

In December 1891 Beak purchased a new 10 ton wagon from Gloucester RCW on seven years deferred purchase and at the end of this period took out a seven year repair contract. According to the Gloucester RCW photograph, this wagon was numbered 6 with the Gloucester RCW owner's number 23081 and a G plate on the wooden solebar inside the brake gear V-hanger.

Fleet number 2 of similar specification was bought on identical terms in 1895 and in June 1898 a 10 ton second hand wagon was bought from Gloucester RCW for cash. At this time Beak was also trading as The Kemble Coal Company, who were listed in the 1897 Kelly's Directory as being based at Tetbury Road, Somerford Keynes and Shorncote, Cricklade.

In October 1905 however there is an entry in the Gloucester RCW records of E Martin & Company taking over a repair contract with four years still to run on one 10 ton wagon late of H.H. Beak.

CHADBORN, SON & TAYLOR

1

5-13-2

8T

1902

PL 107

MARKINGS AS PER PLATE

Gloucester RCW Official Photograph 2582 of September 1902 shows an 8 ton five plank wagon measuring 14'5" x 6'11" x 3'1"' with internal diagonal bracing, white wall tyres and wooden solebars with G-Plates inside the brake gear V-hanger and just to the left of it as well as above the load data under the first E in GLOUCESTER. Unlike the model, it also had one tipping end door.

Founded by John Chadborn, the firm of Chadborn, Son & Taylor were originally stevedores who organised dockers at Sharpness and also introduced floating steam winches to unload sailing ships. John Chadborn was born around 1828/9 in Newnham, Gloucestershire and could well be the same John Chadborn that was recorded as a coal merchant in Gloucester Docks in 1868. In 1881 he was living at Barton House, Gloucester and registered as a timber merchant. John Chadborn went into partnership with his son Harry (born 1871/2) and Jim Taylor before dying in 1892. Although listed in the Kelly's Directories of 1906 and 1935 as "steam winch proprietors" they still purchased coal wagons from The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, the firm that had also built their two storey wooden offices!

Wagon number 2, outshopped from Bristol Road in April 1903, was an end tipping seven plank 10 ton wagon acquired on seven years deferred purchase and carrying Gloucester RCW owner's number 39801. A third wagon - a second hand 8 tonner - was acquired on similar terms in November 1916 although by 1927 the coal merchant's side of Chadborn, Son & Taylor had been sold to W.L. Buchanan.

Richard Frederick Cole of Fairford (1879 to 1961) as the eldest son of coal merchant Richard Cole of Cirencester and possibly started running a depot for his father at Fairford while also being a farmer.  March 1915 in fact saw him purchase two new 8 ton wagons from Gloucester RCW on seven year terms and another two were bought for cash that December.  In 1926 and 1933 the business signed up to the RCH Commuted Charge schemes and the  1938 Colliery Year Book gave his address as Coneygar Farm, Quenington although trade directories for 1935 and 1939 listed him at Fairford station yard.

What from July 1890 became the Great Western branch line from Witney to Fairford had opened in January 1873 as what had been hoped would be part of the East Gloucestershire Railway linking Cheltenham with London via Andoversford, Faringdon and Uffington.  However, railway politics and finances were to prevent this.

10

6-0-2

10T

1883?

POPE G 21

MARKINGS AS PER PLATE

The earliest reference found to his operating wagons is in March 1883 when he took twenty 7-ton wagons on seven years redemption hire from the Western Wagon Company of Bristol. These were numbered 242-261. In April 1883 Bernard Edwards took three 7-ton, five 8-ton and four 10-ton wagons on three months simple hire from the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company.

In June 1885 a further twenty 10-ton wagons were taken on redemption hire from the Western Wagon Company - numbered 579-590 and 659-656. In November 1885 another 15 10-ton wagons were taken on a one year simple hire from the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company.

There then appears to be a couple of years break until July 1892 when twenty more 10-ton wagons were taken on seven years redemption hire from the Western Wagon Company. These became the subject of a new contract taken out in May 1899.

In March 1893 Bernard Edwards purchased another batch of twenty 10-ton wagons over 20 years from Western Wagon and at the same time, together with Newnham bank manager Stephen Hadingham, purchased forty 10-ton wagons on seven years deferred payment. The total cost was £ 1 200 but no payments were made after June 1895. However, in that month there was a further order for Messrs Hadingham, Edwards & Boissier of Newnham for 105 10-ton wagons over seven years.

The wagons had been bought by Western Wagon from the British Wagon Company and this agreement was transferred to the Standard Wagon Company after June 1896. This could have been the 141 8-ton and 10-ton wagons listed to the Standard Wagon Company in October 1896 for which there were no payments after July 1899 and some of which in October that year were transferred to the Standard Wagon & Carriage Company Limited of Newnham. These consisted of sixty five 8 and 10 ton wagons to be paid for over three years. These wagons are the balance of the 141, the others having been sold at £ 20 apiece. 65 wagons at £ 20 each totalled £ 1 300. The wagons were bought out in May 1901.

On 17 October 1900 Bernard Edwards of Gloucester; William Boucher and Charles William Stafford Boucher of Station Road, Newnham; David Northway of Addsett House, Westbury on Severn; and Phipps Williams of 60 London Road, Gloucester, took 122 10-ton wagons over seven years. the wagons were late "Albion Co" ( probably the Albion Carriage Company Limited who had a works at Grange Court and with which Boucher had an interest ) and were re-let to Bernard Edwards and others at £33 each, a total of £ 4 026.

Edwards seems to have had fairly close links with several of the wagon building companies and may have been involved with wagon hiring. Bernard Edwards is also known to have had a brief interest in a Forest of Dean coal mine when in May 1889 he bought three quarters of the Dog Delf gale on Moseley Green but it was soon disposed of. Prior to 1896 Edwards seems to have been trading together with a Mr Knowles as the Severn and Wye opened a leger account in the title of Bernard Edwards and Knowles which was altered in 1896 to Bernard Edwards and Brown.

This partnership was with Hubert Gopsill Brown of Gloucester who was a sack contractor based at Lock Warehouse - today's Antique Centre. Bernard Edwards and Brown took 40 10-ton wagons from the Western Wagon Company in June 1899 which was a rearrangement on forty previously held by Brown. It appears that no payments were made on the wagons after March 1901 but there is a record that 20 wagons were "bought out". This probably ties in with an order for twenty 10-ton wagons with the Western Wagon Company in November 1901 to be paid for over 7 years and , again, this was a rearrangement of the remaining 20 wagons from the 1899 order.

In 1904 the Western Wagon Company sold twenty seven second hand wagons to the Dean Forest Coal Company which the Western Wagon Company had "bought Edwards and Brown sale". This was brought about due to the bankruptcy of both Edwards and Brown in January 1904. Interestingly the trustee for both estates was George Morgan who was behind the Dean Forest Coal Company.

Henry Finch was born in 1931 at Badgeworth, near Churchdown, but the 1881 census shows him as a " farmer out of business" living at Myrtle Cottage, Dowdeswell.  However, he appears as a coal merchant at Andoversford in an 1894 trade directory and in the 1901 Census was still living in Dowdeswell with his 30 year old son William John Finch, who took over the coal business and also dealt in hay by 1906. 

William John Finch continued in business until after 1939, by which era the company had purchased a number of white-lettered red wagons from Gloucester RCW.  Fleet number 14 and another 8 ton wagon ( possibly fleet number 15 ) were bought new in April 1898 on seven years deferred purchase and another pair of wagons ( one being numbered 16 ) was acquired on similar terms in December 1899.