NEWSLETTER 10 FEBRUARY 2021 Local History Cafe Sir John Moore Foundation, Appleby Magna The train ‘not’ standing … Alan Condie details the demise of railway links to Appleby Magna he nearest railway stations to Appleby were Snarestone and Measham on the Ashby & Nuneaton Joint Railway. The line opened on 1st August T 1873. It left the Leicester to Burton line at Moira by way of a triangular connection, with passenger facilities being provided at Donisthorpe, Measham, Horse Power Snarestone, Shackerstone, Market Bosworth, 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 Swepstone d r i p p i n g o n t o dairy. Edkins, an Austrey 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 Newton Regis ... 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 United Kingdom, 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 Birmingham. 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 Nottingham through to Birmingham along the old A453.