NEWSLETTER 10 FEBRUARY 2021 Local History Cafe

Sir John Moore Foundation,

The train ‘not’ standing … Alan Condie details the demise of railway links to Appleby Magna he nearest railway stations to Appleby were and on the Ashby & Joint Railway. The line opened on 1st August T 1873. It left the to Burton line at Moira by way of a triangular connection, with passenger facilities being provided at , Measham, Horse Power Snarestone, , , Shenton, Stoke Golding and Higham The horse was on the Hill, with connections to both Stations at Nuneaton. the main By the turn of the transport in 19th Century most of Appleby up until the Appleby Farmers 100 years ago were sending milk to L o n d o n v i a Snarestone Station. In addition goods f a c i l i t i e s t h e r e provided means of t r a n s p o r t f o r livestock, produce, grain, and coal in Night driving b u l k w a s o f t e n p u r c h a s e d a n d Appleby only Snarestone Station 1890’s © The Battlefield Line had one street delivered, farmers lamp ... collecting their own supplies expressly for use by the threshing contractor when Page 2 visiting their farms with the traction engine. Passenger services on the Joint Railway line had never really caught on and it was no surprise when these were discontinued on 12th April 1931. In the meantime the Road Traffic Acts and the interest, financial and otherwise, taken in the major bus Companies by the Railways paved the way for the easy replacement of those passenger trains by buses. © Alan Condie

The Biscuit Bus 1 2 3 Page 4.

HISTORY MYSTERY MOTORWAY VIEWS HISTORY CAFE Blacksmithing … a look back at Last months object A farmer’s view of Next Months meeting horse transport was a gas fire “brick” motorway is at 10.00 a.m. on from around 1910 … construction 16th February on Page 5 LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021

Driving in the Appleby in the early dark ... 20th century .. Memories of Aubury Moore Reggie Eyres memories of horse drawn drays ... ights on vehicles were a real dim affair in the early 20th century. All they could do L was to show that a vehicle was present. Carriages had a light, powered by a candle, and even then just one on the right hand side only. Bicycles had an oil lamp, using Golza oil, no rear light. The oil lamp gave off very little light and it was often safer to go cycling in the dark by the light of the moon. For the summer months it was not necessary for horse drawn vehicles to have a light, and that was often true in the d a r k e r w i n t e r months too. © Gail Thornton

C a r s s o o n h a d ost of the milk from the village had to acetylene lamps. be taken to Snarestone station for the T h e g a s b e i n g M morning train to the dairy. Other milk formed by water was collected by dray for the d r i p p i n g o n t o dairy. Edkins, an farmer contracted carbide . for this transport and the driver of the dray This gave a white was Billy Hall whose brother John later light and with the became my brother in law. The dray was a a i d o f s u i t a b l e part double decked affair pulled by three reflectors gave a horses abreast, Bonnie, Prince and Striver. good beam well in Three good horses, a rusty dray and a rotten front of the car. At driver. Bonnie was the dam of the other two the beginning of the and ran in the shafts in the centre with her 2 0 t h c e n t u r y sons in the side chains. The outfit probably bicycles had small carried thirty to forty seventeen-gallon milk acetylene lamps. churns and coming down the country lanes at The main trouble a canter it was a pretty awesome sight to was putting on too meet on a bike. These horses were a cross much water and ending up with no light and a between Carthorses and Carriage horses and sloppy white mess in the carbine chamber. could go at a fair lick, especially when the Paraffin lamps were also used on cars, mainly churns were empty. The noise of their for side lights and to give a glimmer when the passing was appalling. carbide failed.

History mystery ???

This month’s History Mystery Object is something Group Member Andrew Moore’s great grandfather used. He was wheel wright In ...

The answer will be in our March Newsletter LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021

The road ahead: Appleby has its Getting away first street lamp … from It’s not always quiet in the countryside ... Appleby ... Early days of caravan e think of village roads as Become a relatively quiet and safe but holidays ... W as these extracts show newsletter even before the rise in motor contributor vehicles all was not peaceful, even in Appleby Magna. On more than one occasion if a person was We always welcome seriously ill, even dying, it became the concern of everybody. Straw stories and memories to would be strewn thickly in the feature in our newsletter. road outside the house to dampen Our topics for the next any vibration. In some cases larger vehicles like traction three months are: engines travelling through the School memories, village with threshing or cultivating You can trace the origin of caravans back to the time of Farming and Countryside machinery would be asked to go another route to avoid passing the Charles Dickens (there is a Rituals. We especially sick person’s house. Early roads reference in “The Old Curiosity love your family stories in Appleby were little more than Shop”), although they really cobble stones pressed into mud, started to gain popularity in the and we value input from which left them brick hard in early twentieth century. our readers. summer and muddy quagmires in the winter months. Residents of Appleby Magna, their We also invite comments village being situated pretty and suggestions about As if that wasn’t enough, there much equidistant from any coastline in the , our content and format was very little street lighting and things were made worse by were probably some of the earliest Send your thoughts inadequately lit vehicles. There users of personal caravans. There b e i n g t w o f a i r l y l o c a l memories and stories to was no electricity in country places and not much in towns. It m a n u f a c t u r e r s b a s e d i n the Editor. was only just emerging. There was . Of course this was at first a pursuit for the more well The email is: one street lamp, outside Bates’ shop at the corner of Bowleys off of the village. A caravan in [email protected] Lane and Church 1930 cost up to £150 ! Street. It was run on paraffin The Caravan Club was formed in which meant it 1907 and by 1912 it boasted 267 had to be filled members. Initially the preserve of and trimmed on the well-off, by the start of the a regular basis. 1920s mass production had made Each evening a t h e m c h e a p e r a n d m o r e man from the a c c e s s i b l e a n d c a r s w e re v i l l a g e w a s becoming better at towing them charged with too. l i g h t i n g t h e fl a m e a n d By 1947 the first static caravans extinguishing it started to appear. They were e a r l y e a c h made from hardboard and not the morning. It most robust of things and after a w a s n ’ t u n t i l few seasons they had a tendency electricity came to warp! They were also pretty to the village in basic, fitted with gas lighting, a Trapped ... 1948 was a the early 20th coal fire for heating and a single testing year for public century that the street light was gas burner to cook on but no transport .. replaced and Church Street had a bathroom or running water. lamp fitted by the Church gate. LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021

Daily transport around Appleby in the 1950’s ... Duncan Saunders has his memories of the village …

n the early 1950s Appleby was served by two bus timetables. The Midland Red No 722 went from Ashby to I Snarestone, Appleby, Measham and then back to Ashby and would stop to pick up wherever it was needed; two examples being at Lodge farm, Snarestone and Whitehouse farm at the top of Birds Hill. First thing in the morning and then at about 4.15 from Ashby, the service was perfect for pupils going to and from Ashby. For more adventurous trips there was the X99 hourly service from through to Birmingham along the old A453. For Appleby folk this meant a walk along Rectory Lane or Measham road; the pull in and bus stop at the end of Measham Road can still be seen. I remember that , when on the Parish council, we A vintage Daimler asked for the X99 to come through Appleby but nothing advertisement that appeared happened. in magazines and newspapers If you needed goods transported then small lorry transport was serviced by Fowkes on Top Street, Jones 'the coal' on Rectory Lane and Nixons at the Old Hall walled gardens off New Road. Nixons also ran a vehicle scrap yard. Mark Nixon ran the village car repair garage at the same site.

If a taxi service was required then Horace or his father, Aubrey morning and living at Eastgate would oblige, unofficially I think. House we would hear and see the activity. When in the 1960s the winters were much harder it was often necessary to light a fire under the lorries to try to unfreeze the Very few residents had motor diesel; there was no additive in the fuel in those days. Also, if a transport but several of the lorry would not start then Peter Fowkes from Jubilee Farm was workmen had motorbikes or called upon to bring tractor and chains to give a lorry a tow start s c o o t e r s . R e l i a n t t h re e down Top Street. This would always happen very early in the w h e e l e r s w e re p o p u l a r because they could be driven on a motorcycle licence.

My daily transport was a large Daimler from the 1930s whilst my wife had, at various times, a Morris Traveller, and Austin A35 or a Fiat 500.

As farm diversification grew a n d B a r n s h e a t h F a r m developed there was a real increase in heavy traffic going along Top Street and New Road and it was sterling and p e r s i s t e n t w o r k b y t h e A p p l e b y H e r i t a g e a n d Environment Movement, that eventually prevented much of this transport from going through the village and Duncan’s early daily transport was a Daimler EL24 1937 passing Sir John Moore School; all heavy transport had to leave Barnsheath via Snarestone. LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021 The biscuit bus ... Lambing ... Appleby Magna fields would be filled with the Taken from Allan Condie’s study of bleating of new born lambs Appleby Magna around this time of year …

he Biscuit factory at Ashby de la Zouch, owned by Meredith & Drew, who later Spring comes T became part of the United Biscuits empire, relied on a workforce drawn from a knocking … wide area. Transport was provided initially by Midland “Red” as part of the normal service Anne Silins’ Country Diary pattern, taking into account workers’ journeys. Appleby Magna was one of the many villages t wasn’t until after that were on the pick up circuit. When at t h e m i d d l e o f its height, the first bus to the village was I February that we around 5:30 am. However, as demand got the first promise of changed there was an inevitable Spring. It usually came reduction in service. The need to without warning, like attract a workforce from a wider a thief in the night. area resulted in works transport The magic of it crept being contracted to Machins of through the windows Ashby and at certain times their one morning, telling vehicles operated via Appleby m e S p r i n g w a s Village according to demand. waiting outside. As I However, sometimes those requiring trudged down the transport to work had to walk to the driveway to catch the main A453 to avail themselves of the bus, I would see the first facility. Clutsam & Kemp also provided snowdrops, gleaming white buses at one time for their workforce and among the dead leaves. All the Brown’s Blue provided these on a private hire hedgerow birds were busily intent basis. upon their Spring business; - mating, flirting, building nests and just singing songs. The earth was awakening from her winter sleep. I would stand and wait for the bus with my face turned up to the sky, rejoicing that spring was near and the sun had returned. There were many long days and evenings spent supervising the ewes and sometimes searching for lambs in the fields.

That bad winter of 1947 - 48 brought even more concerns than usual for Grandpa. He had some sheep out in the meadows by the Snarestone brook. As the snow drifted higher This is a S 14 saloon 4340 on the he knew he had to bring them to the barns, a 4.31pm departure for Ashby via chore he had postponed too long. The snow Snarestone - the blinds have yet to had increased to such a depth and he could be reset. This was duty wait no longer. I was the only person free to and the bus was built in 1954 help and off we set, an older man and a ten year old girl.

© Nik Sanders LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021

The village The “not very good” shoe was duly taken along Blacksmith … and was inspected. That same day I was made to make another shoe under Jacks instruction Duncan Saunders recalls his years as the with a much better result. Eventually I would go along on Saturday mornings and during village blacksmith in Appleby Magna school holidays and I made several sets of shoes for him.

t was when I was about 7 or 8 I had the The next stage I had to learn was to actually great privilege of being invited to work the shoe a horse. Jack was due to shoe a horse I hand bellows for a man called Percy belonging to a lady on Blackhorse Hill. He Clamp when he was working at Snarestone made it clear that this particular animal had feet village forge, and I am certain that peaked a like dinner plates and it would be hard to make lifelong interest in blacksmithing. the nails go the wrong way! In the event the shoeing went well and so began my unofficial When I went to Loughborough University to train apprenticeship. I made good progress. as, what was called in those days, a Handicraft Teacher I spent many hours in the the engineering and forge areas as well as the silversmithing shop: with such skilled instructors these were three years of the most fulfilling experiences of my life.

Snarestone Forge daybook It was sometime during the 1980’s that The Farriers Registration Bill came into being and I managed to get on the register. From that point onwards I was able to shoe horses as well as more general blacksmithing work. I worked Snarestone Forge daybook 1932 evenings, Saturdays and school holidays for a discreet number of clients and many a time In the early 1970’s I was working at Ashby there would be a horse box pulled up outside Grammar School and the new Design Centre Eastgate House I was privileged to shoe shire there allowed me to develop skills in forging and horses, race horses, hunters and ponies until I casting and my interest in manipulating hot iron retired from my farrier work in 2005. was confirmed. Teaching was a far more relaxed occupation in these days and I was able to attend courses in decorative ironworking, instructed by master craftsmen.

During that time I had moved to Eastgate House in Appleby Magna and was able to set up my own forge in part of the old gig house. I started principally making wrought iron gates and large weather vanes. I am proud to say all these items were bespoke.

A few years later my wife decided she would like to have a horse as she had ridden extensively as a youngster. The purchase was made and stables built, but naturally the horse needed shoes. At first we used Jack Wheatley from , but I must add that as the very nature of teaching as I had a forge the shoeing was done on site as it changed, with much more administration and were. At the end of one of these shoeing written planning added to the workload, there sessions Jack gave me a length of shoeing iron to was nothing like heating up a piece of iron to make a shoe and to bring it along to the forge at white heat and hammering it hard, to relieve the Twycross the following week. weeks stress. LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER

The trouble with sheep dog was killed on the newly opened road. The workmen who had been feeding her motorways sandwiches had been replaced by cars … she wasn’t to know. The M42 and the Phizackaleas’ Farm We first heard rumours of a proposed motorway I n 1 9 8 9 w e which might have to come through our land in realised that the the late 1960’s. It was to take traffic from f a r m h o u s e , Appleby Magna to the south of Birmingham. At which had once that time there were five possible routes, and we been a former all travelled to the first public enquiry at Warton coaching inn, Orton in 1971. We discovered it was going to was marooned be built, but not until 1984, which left our farm by the motorway blighted by the proposal for the next 13 years. and we could no l o n g e r s t a y there. This image was taken from horseback by Duncan Saunders It was sold along and shows the construction of with its Salt Street Bridle Path bridge impressive over the M42 gardens only to be demolished without ceremony to make way for a McDonalds and a service station

The art of the Before the start and during the building of the motorway my life seemed to be an endless Blacksmith … series of meetings to haggle with land agents and motorway engineers. Under a spreading chestnut tree

The village smithy stands; In the summer of 1984 fleets of yellow earth The smith, a mighty man is he, moving machines arrived and a line was cleared With large and sinewy hands; for one and half miles through our land. Hedges

© BBC TV Enterprises

And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands. and trees being felled as if they were His hair is crisp, and black, and long, matchsticks. It was another two frustrating His face is like the tan; years until the motorway finally opened in 1986. His brow is wet with honest sweat, In these intervening years it meant some milking He earns whate'er he can, times had to be carried out without water and at And looks the whole world in the face, one point a barn fire caused by workmen For he owes not any man. sleeping in the building. I think one of the more sad events I can recall is when my much beloved Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1807–1882 LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021

Leaking The Road to Morocco ... away ... Things didn’t quite go according to plan !

Marina ean Turnbull, who is a current member of Applebly’s local history Sketchley cafe, recalls a road trip that almost happened not soon after she reports on a J was married ... transport story “Bob and I were married when I finished at university. That was at the tender age of 21! Bob was a mature student doing A levels at Kettering she came Tech., so we were in rented accommodation in Corby. across. I'd managed to get w e n t t o a job in the British Snarestone Steel Works I c a n a l t h i s computer Dept. but afternoon and had a didn't like the job. shock. Part of the c a n a l w a l l h a d Then Bob c o l l a p s e d t h i s magnanimously m o r n i n g a n d suggested that I t h o u s a n d s o f went out to Spain g a l l o n s h a v e for a year to brush flooded into the up my Spanish and l o w e r fi e l d . then go into Volunteers were just teaching. fi n i s h i n g a s I © Light Straw arrived. They had While I was in Madrid he bought an old J2 ex post office diesel van with managed to block a plan to convert it into a camper van, come out to Spain and drive one section but the down to Morocco. After a lot of setbacks and delays, he set off and water was just a promptly broke down at the first roundabout outside Corby! few inches deep, with some barges He did finally make it to Madrid but we had to call off our plans to go to proud of the water. Morocco. The experience certainly brushed up my technical Spanish for car parts! A section of a canal drained sweeping the towpath away w i t h i t a f t e r i t s p r a n g a leak. A huge hole emerged in the side of the Ashby C a n a l , w a s h i n g a w a y t h e towpath and l e a v i n g boats sat on This gaping the muddy h o l e i n bottom of a Snarestone watercourse. c a n a l i s many feet deep and right By the 10th through the canal bed. When I December 2020 was there the water still running work had already but a barrier had been put in begun to repair the place I think a lot of fish have hole. been lost, including some pike. LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021

Lets Face it … Convoys in the More village ... Last months favourite Church FaceBook postings … Taken from Anne Silins’ affairs .. memories of village life ... Martin Jarvis Every month the SJMF Heritage adds more to Facebook posts around 15 different onvoys came through the topics. They are all based around village with lorries full of last months front some part of the museum’s archive C American soldiers. It was page story. and items the children who went to said that they all had pockets full school there may have used. of chewing gum. We children had been warned repeatedly not o u m a y This month our top to go near to the Twycross- recall in last p o s t re a c h i n g Burton road to watch the Y m o n t h s s o m e 3 5 , 5 0 0 convoys but we made our way to newsletter Martin p e o p l e w a s watch them in spite of the remembered a story a b o u t a war nings. We would hide about some grafetti c h i l d h o o d ourselves in the hedges and his mother in law m e m o r y o f watch lorry after lorry go by. had been able to Paintless Paint Some of the braver children carve at the top Books that were would yell, “got any gum, Appleby’s church. p o p u l a r i n t h e chum!”. None was ever thrown There was however 1960’s. our way, but then we didn’t really more to that story. know what “gum” was, anyway. This was closely followed by 23,500 My Grandma never heard about Martin continues: folk reading about how the desks in t h e s e e s c a p a d e s t h a n k our classroom still have inkwells. goodness, or I would have been “As promised here’s forbidden to leave the farm. a little bit more There were lots of memories of those information about being used and misused. It seems Sally Hicks and the there was a particular habit of church spire. dipping the pigtails of the girl in front into the deep blue inky murk of the A n n e , S a l l y ’ s inkwell. daughter and my wife, recalls how One post in particular though when she was a brought back fond memories to young child her many who read it. It was that of how mother used to tell as children we used to have to cover © Daily Express h e r t h a t s h e ’ d text books with paper at the start of ‘jumped over the the school year. The choices were weathervane’ on many and varied from wallpaper to atch the bus from Appleby the church. Anne pop posters of favourite bands at the to Tamworth in 1963 to see w a s a l w a y s time. C ‘The Beatles’ ... fascinated at how she’d done that not realising until she was older that it happened when the In this month renovations were taking place to the 1971 ... Pennies, bobs and half- s p i r e a n d t h e weathervane had crowns all disappear as Britain been removed and goes decimal. p l a c e d o n t h e ground! “ 1804 … British engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the first steam engine to run on rails. LOCAL HISTORY CAFE NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021

Peelings ..” Look & Learn Transport Special From our archives ...

e have been delving into our archives looking for transport related t was reported items. One we didn’t expect to find was a copy of Look and Learn. i n t h e W This was a children’s weekly magazine was filled with facts and I T a m w o r t h printed in full colour which was for the time. At the end of last year Herald in February we published it on our Facebook page. It seems it was very a popular 1 9 3 7 , t h a t a c a r magazine and many people who driven by Dennis were children at the time had fond Tooth swerved off the memories of it: ro a d b y A p p l e b y M a g n a p o n d , I remember this magazine - full of narrowly missing a u s e f u l a n d n o t s o u s e f u l m e t a l s i g n p o s t . Although the car did information. Each edition was two somersaults and eagerly awaited. landed on its side, Mr T o o t h a n d h i s Lionel Kay passenger were not injured and crawled I had that every week loved it. to safety through the So interesting different things every roof of their vehicle. week perfect for the young They did not need to inquiring mind. Steve Randon go to hospital ..

Absolutely adored Look and Learn. Particularly, reading it at The Milestone House on Melbourne Road as long as I put it back with the other publications carefully. Grandad’s instructions. Helen Newbold

Introducing Basil

Who is Basil? Basil is Sir John M o o r e F o u n d a t i o n s s c h o o l © Northcliffe Publications mouse ...

In the days before He has the run of the whole school seat belts that seems when no one else is there: No a very lucky escape children ... No teachers ... No cleaners. Watch out for Basil, he’s going to be telling tales very soon!

NEXT ISSUE THE NEWSLETTER IS EDITED BY Education Andrew Moore Education [email protected] Education www.sirjohnmoore.org.uk SirJohn Moore Foundation Heritage