Kidsgrove and the not so 'permanent way'.
From the 1800s to the mid 1900s, the North Staffordshire town of Kidsgrove was riddled with railways associated with the many coal mines and iron works. At one time trains could leave the area we now know as Bathpool Park (the entrance to which is seen above on the lower picture) and travel out to Biddulph, a similarly industrialised town, without even traversing 'main line' railways.
Rummaging through another of my father's archive files, I came across the picture shown above. It's captioned - 'Mr Jones, he worked the pumps supplying water to Birchenwood'. That may indeed have been so, though I doubt whether the little hut seen there would have housed any such equipment in the early years of the 20th century due to the necessary bulk. I can't help wondering whether our Mr Jones here also had another occupation, that of crossing keeper or 'signalman' and that's his hut. The picture was taken on Boathorse Road, in fact just above the Harecastle tunnel portal seen in the previous posting. It can be seen that the hut sat in the 'V' of a junction, the line on the right crossed Boathorse Road on its way towards Kidsgrove, the line to our left headed in the direction of Ravenscliffe and Birchenwood. Disappearing into the distance is the continuation to Nelson pit.
Part of yesterday's walkabout idea was to try to take the same scene nowadays, hence the lower portion of this posting.
Kidsgrove and the not so 'permanent way'.
From the 1800s to the mid 1900s, the North Staffordshire town of Kidsgrove was riddled with railways associated with the many coal mines and iron works. At one time trains could leave the area we now know as Bathpool Park (the entrance to which is seen above on the lower picture) and travel out to Biddulph, a similarly industrialised town, without even traversing 'main line' railways.
Rummaging through another of my father's archive files, I came across the picture shown above. It's captioned - 'Mr Jones, he worked the pumps supplying water to Birchenwood'. That may indeed have been so, though I doubt whether the little hut seen there would have housed any such equipment in the early years of the 20th century due to the necessary bulk. I can't help wondering whether our Mr Jones here also had another occupation, that of crossing keeper or 'signalman' and that's his hut. The picture was taken on Boathorse Road, in fact just above the Harecastle tunnel portal seen in the previous posting. It can be seen that the hut sat in the 'V' of a junction, the line on the right crossed Boathorse Road on its way towards Kidsgrove, the line to our left headed in the direction of Ravenscliffe and Birchenwood. Disappearing into the distance is the continuation to Nelson pit.
Part of yesterday's walkabout idea was to try to take the same scene nowadays, hence the lower portion of this posting.