NINETEEN SIXTY FOUR – PART 87
A Cold Day Out in Shropshire
Michael L. Roach
In December 2009 we stayed at Upper Sapey in the extreme north-east corner of Herefordshire as described in Part 79 about Bewdley. Just two miles to the east is the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb Racetrack which will locate Upper Sapey for some. When we arrived at our barn conversion at 4.30pm on the afternoon of Friday 11 December 2009 the outside temperature measured by the car thermometer was 4°C and we did not know it then but that was the highest temperature that we would see all week. It was cold and icy most days but there was no real snow and a lot of sunshine, indeed on the Sunday we stayed at the accommodation until after 11.00am to allow the ice to melt. We went out somewhere every day but were always glad to return safely to our warm and cosy self-catering accommodation normally in daylight, but occasionally in the dark. For those unfamiliar with a cold winter day in Britain once the time passes 3.00pm the temperature starts to drop rapidly under a cloudless sky.
For our last complete day on Thursday 17 December 2009 we decided that our eventual destination would once again be Ludlow which we had visited two days earlier on the Tuesday, which was market day. Ludlow is an interesting town in its own right but it is also located on the Newport to Shrewsbury railway line (The Welsh Marches Line), which is one of the most interesting lines left in England and Wales controlled by mechanical signal boxes and some semaphore signals.
I have always been interested in nearly everything around me in the wonderful British countryside ever since I got my first bicycle at the age of 14, and recording it on film after getting my first camera at the age of 15. I have always been particularly interested in geography, history, the built environment, architecture, civil engineering, street furniture, signage etc. I am not alone because only a couple of weeks ago Andrew and Diane Jones showed a picture of vintage road signs at Wellington (Somerset). Not forgetting of course things that move like trains.
I was up early on the 17th and saw the sun rise at 8.28am. The car thermometer read 0.5 degree and it got only a little higher all day. We were away at 10.00am and went just a short distance to visit St. Bartolomew's Church at Lower Sapey which has a wooden bell tower. The church dates back to the 1100s but was declared redundant in 1877. North for a couple of miles to Stanford Bridge to see a very early example of a reinforced concrete road bridge dating from 1905 which replaced a cast iron bridge dating from 1798. The 1905 bridge has been restored and bypassed to become just a footbridge. On via the B4202 through Worcestershire to Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire which once had a railway station on the line from Bewdley to Woofferton. I wandered down a side road to find it but without success as I had not done my homework before leaving home. In those days I only had a desktop computer. Cleobury Mortimer had a second station called Cleobury Town on the Cleobury Mortimer & Ditton Priors Light railway. We headed west on the A4117 stopping at the top of Clee Hill to admire the view. Alongside is the original head quarters of Clee Hill Plant whose machines are seen all over the country. The origins of the firm date back 150 years to the days of steam traction engines and steam road rollers. On view was an early diesel road roller, possibly a Marshall.
From Clee Hill we went south for one mile to stop at a place called Knowle to photograph a church we had passed earlier in the week. Not any old church but a “tin tabernacle” the colloquial name for a building constructed of timber framed panels covered in corrugated iron sheets dating from Victorian times. This one had just been refurbished and was looking truly immaculate, and it was one of a dozen churches looked after by The Tenbury Team Ministry. For those interested in such things one of the best examples of a corrugated iron building in Cornwall is the small church in the village of Cadgwith adjacent to the footpath that takes visitors from the main car park to the village centre.
We returned north to Clee Hill where it was still 0.5 degrees and trying to snow. It was all downhill now, nearly 1,000 feet, to the town of Ludlow where the thermometer had risen to the dizzying figure of 2.5 degrees. A long time ago a freight-only branch made that ascent from the main line to the quarries located between Clee Hill Village and Clee Hill itself. Lunch and a warm-up was taken at The Olive Branch Ludlow, now renamed The Corner House. A walk around the town produced some interesting photos. There were two butchers shops with game hanging outside – not for nothing is Ludlow called the Food and Drink Capital of the Welsh Marches.
On to Tesco's for some food and just across the road from the Tesco car park is the railway station to see one passenger train call before turning for home. A stop at Ashford Bowdler level crossing produced one passenger train, one 66xxx-hauled steel train and a working semaphore distant signal. A stop was made at Tenbury Wells for fish-and-chips (standard £5.00). It was 5.00pm when we left Tenbury and the temperature was plus 1.5 degrees but it is all uphill at the start and in the first mile out of Tenbury the B4204 doubles its height above sea level, with the result that the temperature gauge dropped four times in that mile to minus 0.5 degrees. Reaching our accommodation at 5.20pm the temperature was minus 1.5 degree. We had been out for more than 7 hours and covered just 51 miles. A great day out considering how cold it was, with good sunny periods throughout the day. I took 73 photos that day so can show only a very small selection here.
[The paragraph above was written on the evening of Thursday 8 January 2026 by the light of a torch during a 9-hour electricity outage after the passage of storm “Galetti” when wind speeds in Cornwall and the IoS reached 99mph]
Writing about a fine cold day in Winter with lots of sunshine reminds me that in many ways I prefer a day like that to a fine hot day in Summer. Fine days are fewer in number in Winter and a real bonus when they do occur and for a photographer the light is often crystal clear; and when the sun does set at the end of the afternoon one can return home to a cosy room warmed by an open fire or log burner.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Milestones by Mervyn Benford. A Shire Book. ISBN 0747805261
Cornish Milestones by Ian Thompson. ISBN 978 0906 294 789
For our last complete day on Thursday 17 December 2009 we decided that our eventual destination would once again be Ludlow which we had visited two days earlier on the Tuesday, which was market day. Ludlow is an interesting town in its own right but it is also located on the Newport to Shrewsbury railway line (The Welsh Marches Line), which is one of the most interesting lines left in England and Wales controlled by mechanical signal boxes and some semaphore signals.
I have always been interested in nearly everything around me in the wonderful British countryside ever since I got my first bicycle at the age of 14, and recording it on film after getting my first camera at the age of 15. I have always been particularly interested in geography, history, the built environment, architecture, civil engineering, street furniture, signage etc. I am not alone because only a couple of weeks ago Andrew and Diane Jones showed a picture of vintage road signs at Wellington (Somerset). Not forgetting of course things that move like trains.
I was up early on the 17th and saw the sun rise at 8.28am. The car thermometer read 0.5 degree and it got only a little higher all day. We were away at 10.00am and went just a short distance to visit St. Bartolomew's Church at Lower Sapey which has a wooden bell tower. The church dates back to the 1100s but was declared redundant in 1877. North for a couple of miles to Stanford Bridge to see a very early example of a reinforced concrete road bridge dating from 1905 which replaced a cast iron bridge dating from 1798. The 1905 bridge has been restored and bypassed to become just a footbridge. On via the B4202 through Worcestershire to Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire which once had a railway station on the line from Bewdley to Woofferton. I wandered down a side road to find it but without success as I had not done my homework before leaving home. In those days I only had a desktop computer. Cleobury Mortimer had a second station called Cleobury Town on the Cleobury Mortimer & Ditton Priors Light railway. We headed west on the A4117 stopping at the top of Clee Hill to admire the view. Alongside is the original head quarters of Clee Hill Plant whose machines are seen all over the country. The origins of the firm date back 150 years to the days of steam traction engines and steam road rollers. On view was an early diesel road roller, possibly a Marshall.
From Clee Hill we went south for one mile to stop at a place called Knowle to photograph a church we had passed earlier in the week. Not any old church but a “tin tabernacle” the colloquial name for a building constructed of timber framed panels covered in corrugated iron sheets dating from Victorian times. This one had just been refurbished and was looking truly immaculate, and it was one of a dozen churches looked after by The Tenbury Team Ministry. For those interested in such things one of the best examples of a corrugated iron building in Cornwall is the small church in the village of Cadgwith adjacent to the footpath that takes visitors from the main car park to the village centre.
We returned north to Clee Hill where it was still 0.5 degrees and trying to snow. It was all downhill now, nearly 1,000 feet, to the town of Ludlow where the thermometer had risen to the dizzying figure of 2.5 degrees. A long time ago a freight-only branch made that ascent from the main line to the quarries located between Clee Hill Village and Clee Hill itself. Lunch and a warm-up was taken at The Olive Branch Ludlow, now renamed The Corner House. A walk around the town produced some interesting photos. There were two butchers shops with game hanging outside – not for nothing is Ludlow called the Food and Drink Capital of the Welsh Marches.
On to Tesco's for some food and just across the road from the Tesco car park is the railway station to see one passenger train call before turning for home. A stop at Ashford Bowdler level crossing produced one passenger train, one 66xxx-hauled steel train and a working semaphore distant signal. A stop was made at Tenbury Wells for fish-and-chips (standard £5.00). It was 5.00pm when we left Tenbury and the temperature was plus 1.5 degrees but it is all uphill at the start and in the first mile out of Tenbury the B4204 doubles its height above sea level, with the result that the temperature gauge dropped four times in that mile to minus 0.5 degrees. Reaching our accommodation at 5.20pm the temperature was minus 1.5 degree. We had been out for more than 7 hours and covered just 51 miles. A great day out considering how cold it was, with good sunny periods throughout the day. I took 73 photos that day so can show only a very small selection here.
[The paragraph above was written on the evening of Thursday 8 January 2026 by the light of a torch during a 9-hour electricity outage after the passage of storm “Galetti” when wind speeds in Cornwall and the IoS reached 99mph]
Writing about a fine cold day in Winter with lots of sunshine reminds me that in many ways I prefer a day like that to a fine hot day in Summer. Fine days are fewer in number in Winter and a real bonus when they do occur and for a photographer the light is often crystal clear; and when the sun does set at the end of the afternoon one can return home to a cosy room warmed by an open fire or log burner.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Milestones by Mervyn Benford. A Shire Book. ISBN 0747805261
Cornish Milestones by Ian Thompson. ISBN 978 0906 294 789
This barn conversion was our holiday home at Tippins Farm, Upper Sapey, Herefordshire for which we paid £219 in 2009. It was great to see the roses still blooming at this time of year, 12 December 2009. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
This milestone was 5 miles out of Worcester on the B4204 – possibly a former turnpike road to Tenbury. The stone probably dates to 1767 when milestones became compulsory, but the cast iron sign may be later. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
Stanford Bridge – a reinforced concrete bridge across the River Teme dating from 1905, Listed Grade II, and now available to pedestrians and cyclists only. The approach road and abutments probably date from the 1790s. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
Cleobury Mortimer parish church. It was a beautiful morning in Cleobury on 17 December but bitterly cold. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
The tin tabernacle at Knowle on the B4214 one mile south of Clee Hill. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
This butcher in High Street, Ludlow was expecting to sell a lot of game birds. They would have lasted just as long outside in the cold as inside the shop in the fridge. In 2009 there was another butcher in Ludlow also selling game but it is now closed. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
Soon to be operating in Devon and Cornwall here we see 175110 heading north out of Ludlow on the afternoon of 17 December 2009. 175110 is in the colours of Arriva Trains Wales which ran the Wales & Borders Franchise from 2003 to 1018. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
The former crossing keeper's cottage at Ashford Bowdler, some three miles south of Ludlow, on the Welsh Marches Line at grid reference SO 517706. It is now called Crossing Cottage. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
There was once a station here at Ashton Bowdler but it did not last long, opening in 1854 and closing just one year later. Here an EWS class 66 passes the half-barrier crossing with a northbound steel train, possibly 6M86 the 09:23 Margam to Dee Marsh. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
This semaphore distant signal was close to the north side of the level crossing at Ashford Bowdler. The semaphore was changed to a colour light some years ago but the Google camera has not visited here since March 2009 and Streetview still shows the semaphore which was the distant for Woofferton Box 1 mile 32 chains (2464 yards) to the south of the level crossing. The signal appears to be motor-operated as one would expect at that distance from the box. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
A south bound Coradia class 175 passes the distant signal in the gathering gloom as darkness falls on the afternoon of 17 December 2009. Sunset here on that date was about 15:57 the earliest time of the whole winter. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
Many thanks as always Mike, another interesting read - great stuff.
For more of Michaels work, please click here.
For more of Michaels work, please click here.
Tamper Drag
Alan Peters
Colas Rail 70805 made an unexpected visit to Tavistock Junction yard as 0Z70 on 21st January 2025 to collect failed Colas Matisa tamper DR75406 'Eric Machel' to form the 6Z70 to Rugby where the tamper will under go repairs. Copyright Alan Peters.
An unusual place to find a locomotive nowadays. And you even managed to find a bit of sunshine! Many thanks, Alan.
More info on 31241
Roger Vinten & Roger Geach
From Roger Vinten:
31241 was repaired after the Worcester accident.
A photo of her at Exeter S.P in good condition exists online displaying domino head codes so post 1976 .
A theory :
If she received accident damage in the Exeter area was she sent away to Swindon via the triangle st Laira ?
Coupling to the damaged #2 end wouldn’t have been possible.
And with perfect timing, we see the following photo from Roger Geach:
31241 was repaired after the Worcester accident.
A photo of her at Exeter S.P in good condition exists online displaying domino head codes so post 1976 .
A theory :
If she received accident damage in the Exeter area was she sent away to Swindon via the triangle st Laira ?
Coupling to the damaged #2 end wouldn’t have been possible.
And with perfect timing, we see the following photo from Roger Geach:
Interesting to see pictures of 31241 damaged. I recall it as one of the less common Old Oak Common locos, well to me anyway. I did photograph it at Paddington on 02.06.1980 working ECS dutys vice a 31/4, seen here on ETH stock for Old Oak. The loco is quite clean. Copyright Roger Geach.
Many thanks Roger and Roger - this all adds weight to Guy V's comments about it being repaired following the Western accident. It looks very tidy there in Roger's photograph.
The last euro-imported 66
Guy Vincent
The final Euro shed imported by GB Railfreight, 66316, making its first appearance at Westbury today, 22nd January. Recent reports indicate that after several years importing locos such as this from Europe GBRf are planning to dispense with their first 20 locos, 66701-66720.
66316 at Westbury on 22.01.2026. The above images are copyright Guy Vincent (click for enlargements).
Many thanks Guy. Presumably the costs of moving a locomotive between continents are quite high, along with all the work required to make them fit to operate on UK railways. Seems a pity that DB are now offloading a number of theirs to the continent.
'The Flying Banana'
Steve Widdowson
A couple of pics today of 43301 ( Ex XC ) with 43257 seen during a crew change at Worcester SH.
43257 and 43301 at Worcester Shrub Hill with 1Q18 - the 0643 Bristol Kingsland Road - Derby RTC. 22.01.2026, copyright Steve Widdowson (click for enlargements).
Many thanks Steve, good to see a HST still at work!