The Cheltenham Flyer

The Cheltenham Flyer This wooden jigsaw in the collections shows the Cheltenham Spa Express, a steam train that used to travel between Cheltenham and London Paddington in the early years of the 20th century. The jigsaw was produced by the toy company Chad Valley for the publicity department of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the 1920s and 1930s. GWR publicity This jigsaw was produced by the GWR publicity department as one of a series to promote their train lines. GWR was one of the first British railway companies to understand the value of publicity and make a push for their brand to become a household name. Their posters and publications to promote holidays to Cornwall used the advertising line of ‘the Cornish Riviera’, a term still in use today. The Cheltenham to London line was also hugely popular. The GWR attracted people’s imagination and support by working to make the trains on this line run faster and faster, and the term the ‘Cheltenham Flyer’ was coined to describe the Cheltenham Spa Express. GWR jigsaws As part of their publicity the GWR worked with the toy company Chad Valley of Harborne in Birmingham to produce a series of jigsaws, which were published between 1924 to 1939. The jigsaws are made of wood – the tool used to cut them giving them their name, a jigsaw. The cutting The Cheltenham flyer jigsaw made for GWR blades are very thin to avoid cutting too big a gap between pieces. The early Cheltenham Spa Express jigsaws like this one are quoted as having about 150 pieces but later ones can have as many as 200 pieces. The images selected were the company’s star turns, their engines, but they also used pictures of iconic railway stations, train manufacturing sheds and scenery visible from the trains. The jigsaws were sold for a relatively low sum, as the idea was promotion rather than income generation. An American railroad owner was once heard to remark in a voice of disbelief to a GWR manager ‘and people actually pay you for your publicity?’ History of the jigsaw Jigsaws first developed in the 18th century, being made for children to learn about countries through maps. John Spilbury, a Berkshire mapmaker and engraver, is credited with producing the first puzzle in 1762. He glued maps onto thin mahogany and cedar panels and cut them up into pieces with a marquetry saw. By the mid-1780s puzzle makers had expanded their art to embrace pictures taken from magazines and newspapers, and then progressed onto alphabets, historical events and Bible stories. Three innovations helped to develop the jigsaw puzzle: the invention of offset lithography, a printing process that meant ere was a wider range of images available; the development of the interlocking pieces that mean jigsaw puzzles stay firmly together; and die cutting, which speeded up the method of manufacture. By the Victorian period adults had taken to jigsaws and were avidly collecting and making the puzzles. Well-known puzzle names such as Victory and Waddingtons as well as Chad Valley date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Cheltenham Flyer The jigsaw shows the Cheltenham Flyer crossing Maidenhead Bridge. It has an original box and would have been available to buy at station bookshops. People have told us they remember buying them (or their parents buying them!) to make up on a train journey, or to give as a gift to a relative or friend. Cigarette card celebrating the Train jigsaws were very popular in the 1930s, and speed of the Cheltenham Spa Flyer collecting the series was a popular pastime for some years. The Cheltenham Flyer (properly known as the Cheltenham Spa Express) was itself a popular train. It held the world speed record – travelling in excess of 70mph – for the fastest train on a scheduled service for a short while in the 1930s. It travelled the route between Cheltenham Spa and London Paddington, calling at smaller stations such as Stonehouse, Stroud and Kemble before reaching Swindon. From there, as now, the train could travel much faster on the mainline through to London than it could through the Gloucestershire countryside; and it was on this stretch that the record speeds were achieved. Variations There were are least three different editions of the jigsaw, with varying boxes and numbers of pieces but always with the same image on the actual puzzle. This one has the most interesting box and is still sought by collectors today. It was given to Cheltenham Borough Council by Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery in 2009. .

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