Cornwall Railway Society Meeting report
Last night meeting at the Memorial Hall it was a shame - we were treated to video colection by David Tozer of both steam and diesel. Unfortunately due to the rail strike David couldn't be present but Roger Wunnen provided an excellent commentary.
Many thanks to David and Roger.
Many thanks to David and Roger.
Our President Peter Bragg provided the commentary to a collection of slides from our Millenium Collection. Peters stories and tales provided a most interesting accompaniement to the show. Many thanks to Peter for this.
Don't forget - if you missed it yesterday now is your chance today to visit the Hayle Model Railway exhibition.
A Broad Gauge Carriage Survival
at Portbury near Portishead
Michael Bussell
at Portbury near Portishead
Michael Bussell
One of the more remarkable survivors from early railway times in North Somerset was a broad gauge railway carriage that was abandoned as in poor condition by the Great Western Railway in 1890 at the erstwhile Portbury Station on the Portishead branch. Two years later the carriage body was purchased by a group of local Methodists who, my notes from 1967 record (presumably from a local newspaper article since lost), “had formerly worshipped in a chicken shed”. They no doubt carried out necessary repairs and ‘smartening up’, although having been built reportedly as a first-class carriage by the Bristol & Exeter Railway in either 1851 or 1863 (sources quote two different dates) the original was no doubt soundly constructed. The carriage’s seats and compartment partitions were stripped out to form an open room, reportedly with seating for 60 folk.
The text on a plaque fixed to a side wall of the carriage began by noting that “In 1892 Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s broad-gauge railway system (G.W.R.) was replaced by the standard gauge of 4’8½”. It continued: “this broad gauge railway carriage was used for several years as the Portbury Mission Room at the site of the present water works [?] by the railway station. It was then towed to its present position by Mr E H Shopland and his good horse “Smart”, on the erection of the present church in 1899”.
The “present church” was in fact a small chapel of brick, some 31 feet by 20 feet – but large enough to be shown by a ‘+’ on my Seventh Series One-Inch Ordnance Survey Map, sheet 155 of 1953 (grid reference ST 498754). It and the carriage were sited a few hundred yards south of the railway station, closer to Portbury village centre. They stood on the east side of the Bristol-Portishead road, then known locally as Station Road, later to be designated the A369. (The road subsequently returned to a quieter life in the 1970s when a new A369 alignment was built to Portishead, bypassing Portbury village, from the junction 19 roundabout of the M5 near Gordano Services.) The carriage, minus its chassis, stood just to the north of the chapel. Once in place there it would appear to have served the function of a church hall for feasts, celebrations and also a Sunday school for children.
The chapel and carriage continued in use until 1966, it seems, when the site was vacated. This may well have been due to declining attendances; my notes record that the site was put up for sale, and a planning application had been submitted to Long Ashton Rural District Council for planning permission, either to convert the chapel to become a small house, or to demolish it for a new house. Reading of that in the local paper encouraged me to visit and take the black-and-white photos shown below. I did not record the exact date of that visit – I think it was in autumn 1966. However, by then the route of the proposed M5 motorway had been published. The overall ‘land take’ for the wide highway was shown to pass through the site of the chapel and carriage, and this route – when subsequently approved – made the proposed conversion or redevelopment of the chapel site as a dwelling into a non-starter. I further visited the site on a pleasant spring day in May 1967 and took two colour photos. Later that year the Council announced that the carriage was to be removed for preservation. By then I had moved to London to start work. In 1969 I was in touch with a Mr John Wood in Shrewsbury who I had read was involved in plans to retrieve the carriage. He wrote to me in June 1970 to advise that the carriage had indeed been moved into a Council store in December 1969.
After that I lost track of it – no pun intended – until I read a four-page article about Portbury Methodism, the carriage, and the chapel in Posset Pieces No. 12, a periodical publication of 2012 by the Gordano Civic Society, from which some of the historical notes above were drawn. It is still in print as I type this – see https://www.gordanosociety.org.uk/pp3.html. In it I read that the carriage was then with Bristol’s M Shed Industrial Museum, still awaiting restoration after what was then four decades.
In preparation for drafting these notes and photo captions for the CRS website, I went to the Bristol Museums’ own website and searched using the term ‘Portbury’. This turned up no fewer than 221 entries, many relating to documentation on the Royal Portbury Dock, built in the late 1970s but (inexplicably) not provided with a national rail connection, via an upgrading of greater part of the mothballed Portishead branch, until 2002. In amongst these, I was pleased to find http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=139196 – Object Number J1071, “railway carriage body … dismantled into component sections for removal from site”, with colour photos of end and side wall sections and doors together with black-and-white photos, similar to mine below, of the carriage when in situ in Portbury. The plaque has, it must be hoped, also been saved and stored.
It remains to be seen whether this rare survivor of broad gauge rolling stock will eventually be restored
The text on a plaque fixed to a side wall of the carriage began by noting that “In 1892 Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s broad-gauge railway system (G.W.R.) was replaced by the standard gauge of 4’8½”. It continued: “this broad gauge railway carriage was used for several years as the Portbury Mission Room at the site of the present water works [?] by the railway station. It was then towed to its present position by Mr E H Shopland and his good horse “Smart”, on the erection of the present church in 1899”.
The “present church” was in fact a small chapel of brick, some 31 feet by 20 feet – but large enough to be shown by a ‘+’ on my Seventh Series One-Inch Ordnance Survey Map, sheet 155 of 1953 (grid reference ST 498754). It and the carriage were sited a few hundred yards south of the railway station, closer to Portbury village centre. They stood on the east side of the Bristol-Portishead road, then known locally as Station Road, later to be designated the A369. (The road subsequently returned to a quieter life in the 1970s when a new A369 alignment was built to Portishead, bypassing Portbury village, from the junction 19 roundabout of the M5 near Gordano Services.) The carriage, minus its chassis, stood just to the north of the chapel. Once in place there it would appear to have served the function of a church hall for feasts, celebrations and also a Sunday school for children.
The chapel and carriage continued in use until 1966, it seems, when the site was vacated. This may well have been due to declining attendances; my notes record that the site was put up for sale, and a planning application had been submitted to Long Ashton Rural District Council for planning permission, either to convert the chapel to become a small house, or to demolish it for a new house. Reading of that in the local paper encouraged me to visit and take the black-and-white photos shown below. I did not record the exact date of that visit – I think it was in autumn 1966. However, by then the route of the proposed M5 motorway had been published. The overall ‘land take’ for the wide highway was shown to pass through the site of the chapel and carriage, and this route – when subsequently approved – made the proposed conversion or redevelopment of the chapel site as a dwelling into a non-starter. I further visited the site on a pleasant spring day in May 1967 and took two colour photos. Later that year the Council announced that the carriage was to be removed for preservation. By then I had moved to London to start work. In 1969 I was in touch with a Mr John Wood in Shrewsbury who I had read was involved in plans to retrieve the carriage. He wrote to me in June 1970 to advise that the carriage had indeed been moved into a Council store in December 1969.
After that I lost track of it – no pun intended – until I read a four-page article about Portbury Methodism, the carriage, and the chapel in Posset Pieces No. 12, a periodical publication of 2012 by the Gordano Civic Society, from which some of the historical notes above were drawn. It is still in print as I type this – see https://www.gordanosociety.org.uk/pp3.html. In it I read that the carriage was then with Bristol’s M Shed Industrial Museum, still awaiting restoration after what was then four decades.
In preparation for drafting these notes and photo captions for the CRS website, I went to the Bristol Museums’ own website and searched using the term ‘Portbury’. This turned up no fewer than 221 entries, many relating to documentation on the Royal Portbury Dock, built in the late 1970s but (inexplicably) not provided with a national rail connection, via an upgrading of greater part of the mothballed Portishead branch, until 2002. In amongst these, I was pleased to find http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=139196 – Object Number J1071, “railway carriage body … dismantled into component sections for removal from site”, with colour photos of end and side wall sections and doors together with black-and-white photos, similar to mine below, of the carriage when in situ in Portbury. The plaque has, it must be hoped, also been saved and stored.
It remains to be seen whether this rare survivor of broad gauge rolling stock will eventually be restored
1 Colour 2 A colour view of the chapel and the carriage from the other (west) side of the A369 in May 1967. Copyright Michael Bussell.
2. A second colour view from slightly further north. Copyright Michael Bussell.
3. The Portbury Methodist Church signboard, which had been uprooted and was lying against a wall of the now-disused chapel. Copyright Michael Bussell.
4. The first of three views of the carriage from the west.
5. Second view from the west and slightly further south. Copyright Michael Bessell.
6. Third view from the west, further south again.
7. Portbury BG Coach BW. The first of two views of the carriage from the east. Copyright Michael Bessell.
8. Second view from the east and slightly further north. The doors and windows clearly show that the carriage was built with four compartments, although their interiors had been stripped out for use by the Methodists. Copyright Michael Bessell.
9. The north-west corner of the carriage with the chapel beyond. Copyright Michael Bessell.
10 BW 18 The south side of the carriage from the east. The carriage roof is of corrugated iron, by now looking rather ‘tired’. Copyright Michael Bessell.
11. A colour view of the broad gauge coach. Copyright Michael Bessell.
12. A second colour view of the broad gauge coach. Copyright Michael Bessell.
13. Portbury station following trackside vegetation clearance seen on the 21st November 2015 Copyright David field
We and all railway historians will forever be gratful to people like Michael who took pictures and have kept records of extremely interesting finds. Many thanks indeed to Michael Bessell.
Bugle box
Roger Winnen
Roger Winnen
The remains of Bugle Signal Box seen on 4th April 1975. Copyright Roger Winnen
Many thanks Roger.