The sign is handed over
Photo: G. Fellowes 8-Dec-05
Photo: G. Fellowes 8-Dec-05
Back in the Summer we were contacted by Paul Starling (GWS member No. 3423) to enquire whether the Society might be interested in looking after the blue enamel GWR running-in board from Lodge Hill station. The station on the former Cheddar Valley line had been purchased as a field centre by Bristol Grammar School, where Paul had been the teacher in charge of the school railway society. One of the Bristol Group Committee, Robert Heron had been a pupil of BGS and a member of its, now sadly defunct, railway society. The station had subsequently been sold to developers, and houses have been built on the site, although some of the materials have found their way into the station extension at Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway.
Paul was concerned that with his retirement all memory of the sign would be lost. It had found its way to the cellars under the school, where the railway society used to have a model layout but which are now used for storage of old school records etc.
The sign was described as a standard GWR blue enamel type with white lettering, 8'-9" by 1'-9", rather well worn with a slightly rusty lower edge where many years of rain must have accumulated.
Bristol Group conducted discussions with BGS' headmaster, Dr David Mascord and its Facilities Manager, Alastair Dixon-Patterson on behalf of the Great Western Trust, and were delighted to be presented with the sign on 8th December by three pupils from the school, Sam Raymond, Imogen Fry and Luke Addison.
Alastair Dixon-Patterson commented that “When the school was approached by the Great Western Trust, they offered to take it on and look after it, and we felt they were probably the best people to take on such a historic piece.”
The donation was subsequently reported in the local paper - the Bristol Evening Post - on 19th December under the headline Historic railway sign is on track for museum arrival.
