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A personal view of Grantham Station in the 1960s

by John Clayson

On Thursday afternoons during the early 1960s my father and I were regular visitors to the railway station at Grantham.  I grew up in Leicester, where we lived in a flat above Dad's cycle shop on the Belgrave Road.  We were not far from the former Great Northern Railway’s Leicester Belgrave Road terminus from which, until 1953, there had been a direct (though infrequent) train service to Grantham via the GN and L&NW joint line through Melton Mowbray.

Thursday was Leicester’s ‘half day’ closing for shops and an opportunity for Dad to go out and about - sometimes, during school holidays, with me 'in tow'.  While there was quite a lot of railway interest around Leicester at the time, there was little high speed action and few classic or 'named' steam locomotives.  So, given fine weather, just after midday on Thursdays we would often leave Mum in charge of the shop for the last half hour or so and catch the Midland Red bus to Grantham, the 12 o'clock departure from St Margaret's Bus Station.  Arriving at Grantham station an hour later, there was usually plenty going on to keep both of us well occupied until teatime.

Like many boys of his generation, growing up in the 1920s and 30s, Dad was captivated by the well-publicised, high-speed exploits of motor racing aces, long-distance aviation pioneers and the main line railways.  He was born in 1916 at Tunnel Cottages (now Tunnel Hill Cottages) situated above the entrance to Hunsbury Hill Tunnel in Northampton.  Some of his earliest memories were of trains struggling up from Northampton Castle station into the tunnel.  Passenger trains hauled by London & North Western Railway ‘Claughton’ locomotives, and freight trains by L&NWR 'Super D' 0-8-0s.  He also remembered his grandfather taking him on his cycle crossbar the few miles to Banbury Lane level crossing near Blisworth to see the expresses speed past on the so-called ‘Premier Line’ linking Euston Station in London with Birmingham, the North West of England and Scotland.  I visited this spot for the first time in 2009, finding that it still was a meeting place of country road with farmstead, canal-side wharf and high speed railway.  Though the level crossing was no more, a new bridge having recently replaced it, it was possible to imagine the activity that held the interest of my father as a young boy in the early 1920s with its busy signal box, crossing gates opening and closing, and traffic passing by on road, rail and canal.

In the mid-1950s, having given up the sport of cycling because of a health condition (chronic sinusitis) which affected his ability to train effectively, Dad became a keen amateur photographer.  He particularly enjoyed taking landscape views and candid portraits.  His trusty Leica M3 camera went nearly everywhere and, at home, hours were spent processing film and making enlargements.

On our early visits to Grantham he struck up a friendly relationship with the Carriage & Wagon Examiners and the Passenger Shunters who occupied adjacent cabins at the south end of the down platform.  Photographs were taken and a week or two later we would return to Grantham with a selection of prints which were distributed and appreciated by the staff.  Over a period of time our circle of contacts widened and, with that growing friendship, opportunities to take more pictures.

This is Joe Chappell, one of the Carriage & Wagon Examiners, cleaning out a carbide lamp. This type of lamp burns acetylene gas, which is generated internally from water and a chemical called calcium carbide. The acetylene gave an intense white light by which the examiners could see to do their work at night. Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
This is Joe Chappell, one of the Carriage & Wagon Examiners, cleaning out a carbide lamp. This type of lamp burns acetylene gas, which is generated internally from water and a chemical called calcium carbide. The acetylene gave an intense white light by which the examiners could see to do their work at night.
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
Carriage & Wagon Examiner Tom Bellamy reads the racing pages of the Daily Mail in the Examiners' cabin at the south end of platform 3. Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
Carriage & Wagon Examiner Tom Bellamy reads the racing pages of the Daily Mail in the Examiners' cabin at the south end of platform 3 on 22nd August 1963.
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
Taking a break in the Passenger Shunters' cabin at the south end of the ‘down’ platform on 15th August 1963. On the table, among the lunch boxes and tea cans, are a cribbage board and a set of dominoes. Left to right: Driver Albert Bottomley, Passenger Shunter Gilbert Needham, Driver Ted Matsell and Passenger Shunter Dennis (Dick) Knight. Passenger Shunters assisted with locomotive changes and arranged the coaches in the carriage sidings at the south end of the station into train formations. Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
Taking a break in the Passenger Shunters' cabin at the south end of the ‘down’ platform on 15th August 1963. On the table, among the lunch boxes and tea cans, are a cribbage board and a set of dominoes.
Left to right: Driver Albert Bottomley, Passenger Shunter Gilbert Needham, Driver Ted Matsell and Passenger Shunter Dennis (Dick) Knight.
Passenger Shunters assisted with locomotive changes and arranged the coaches in the carriage sidings at the south end of the station into train formations.
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson

At some point I think one of the Station Inspectors, probably Phil Craft, must have asked Dad to take some group photographs of the station staff.  He also invited us behind the scenes to take pictures of staff who were not normally to be seen in the public eye.

Station Announcer Dorothy Ross on 22nd August 1963. Station announcers are ‘heard but not seen’. At Grantham they were confined in a this tiny room. The Railway Review / National Union of Railwaymen calendar is a reminder of the importance to railway staff of their trades unions. Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
Train Announcer Dorothy Ross on 22nd August 1963. Announcers are ‘heard but not seen’. At Grantham they were confined in this tiny room.
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson

Looking back, I can’t help thinking that, as a manager, the Inspector may have seen this as an opportunity to boost the team spirit of his staff, for these were uncertain days for railway employees.  For one thing, the effects of the British Railways Modernisation Plan of 1955 [see note 1 below] were really kicking in.  This set the scene for the replacement of steam locomotives by diesel and electric traction.  As a result, Grantham MPD (motive power depot, engine shed or, locally, ‘the Loco’), a major staging point for east coast main line expresses in steam days, would no longer be required.  It was winding down towards closure, which came in September 1963.

Looking south west from the north end of the down platform on 31st August 1961. Prominent on the skyline is the tall mechanical coaling plant, built of reinforced concrete in 1936-37. Wagons of coal were hoisted in turn to the top and emptied into an internal hopper above the tracks. Locomotives were placed underneath to have their tenders and bunkers replenished. To its right is the tank of the water treatment plant, a little older than the coaling plant, which supplied water for locomotives. The treatment inhibited the formation of scale inside steam locomotive boilers. The cabin near the right of the photograph was the Pilots’ Cabin, a messroom where the local men who were on main line standby pilot duty would await the call to action, and visiting locomotive crews could rest and make a brew while waiting for their return working. The bike probably belonged to caller-up and odd-job man Pete Ballaam, who would often be sent out to get pork pies from Watkin's Pork Butchers in the town for visiting crews - especially 'Cockneys' as they were referred to (from King's Cross depot) who relished this local speciality. Watkin & Sons closed in 1990 after 78 years in business. The 2 loops near the exit from the loco where prepared engines were placed was called 'London road'. There was a phone there to the North Box to tell the 'bobby' when you were ready to leave the shed. Locomotives of types WD (90059), B1, O2, L1, and V2 (60872 King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry) can be seen, and there is a fully-coaled A2/3 class pacific loco in the distance, beyond the Pilots’ Cabin. This is probably the 'standby pilot', or 'main line pilot', an express locomotive which was kept ready in case of a breakdown on the main line. It is standing on one of the lines which was part of the Grantham shed triangle (known to local railwaymen as ‘the angle’), so that it could be turned quickly (taken round the 'angle) if required to assist with a southbound train. Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
Looking south west from the north end of the down platform on 31st August 1961. Prominent on the skyline is the tall mechanical coaling plant, built of reinforced concrete in 1936-37. Wagons of coal were hoisted in turn to the top and emptied into an internal hopper above the tracks. Locomotives were placed underneath to have their tenders and bunkers replenished. To its right is the tank of the water treatment plant, a little older than the coaling plant, which supplied water for locomotives. The treatment inhibited the formation of scale inside steam locomotive boilers.
Locomotives of types WD (90059), B1, O2, L1, and V2 (60872 King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry) can be seen, and there is a fully-coaled A2/3 class pacific loco in the distance on the right, beyond the Pilots’ Cabin. This is probably the 'standby pilot', or 'main line pilot', an express locomotive which was kept ready in case of a breakdown on the main line. It is standing on one of the lines which was part of the Grantham shed triangle (known to local railwaymen as ‘'the angle'’), so that it could be turned quickly (taken round the 'angle) if required to assist with a southbound train.
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson

Goods traffic also was on the wane, and the close association there had been between the railway and the various industrial concerns in the town [see note 2 below] was coming to an end.

More ominously, Minister of Transport Ernest Marples had embarked upon his programme of motorway construction and Beeching-inspired railway ‘reshaping’ [see note 3 below].  Roads were being improved, but railway services were under threat.

Grantham, historically an important staging and refreshment point on the A1 Great North Road [see note 4 below], was itself ‘bypassed’ in October 1962.  The concrete-surfaced dual carriageway was part of a programme of post-war improvements to equip the A1 for safer and faster use by the mass-produced products of car manufacturing plants such as Cowley, Dagenham, Halewood, Linwood, Longbridge and Luton.  As a consequence, railway locomotive and carriage works at the likes of Brighton, Crewe, Derby, Doncaster, Eastleigh, Glasgow, Inverurie, Kilmarnock, Swindon, Wolverton and York, were in decline.

Meanwhile, men and women who had seen the railways through depression and war, and who had welcomed the post-war Labour government’s nationalisation and investment programme as a platform for a secure and stable future for the railway industry, were now facing the possibility of having to leave their home town to transfer to another part of the country, or else accept redundancy.

The creation of a photographic record to illustrate such a period of transition was never part of any plan.  Dad took the photographs purely as a hobby, gaining personal satisfaction which shines through in the creative and imaginative flair that so many of the compositions exhibit.  In retrospect, the collection also forms an archive which captures something of life on the railway at Grantham in the 1960s.

This is one of my favourite photographs. It’s a real early 1960s period piece: the young woman passenger with her stylish ‘hairdo’ yet well-worn suitcase; the ticket collector in his traditional railway staff uniform with waistcoat, shiny metal buttons and peaked cap; the young railwayman in bib-and-brace overalls with pop-star influenced quiff hairstyle idling away a few minutes looking on. George Fielding, a cleaner and fireman at Grantham loco from 17th Jan 1955 until 17th Jan 1964, recognised his friend Alan Grummitt as the young man. Alan was also a cleaner and fireman at Grantham from about 1955 until late in 1963. 19th September 1963 Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
This is one of my favourite photographs. It’s a real early 1960s period piece: the young woman passenger with her stylish ‘hairdo’ yet well-worn suitcase; the ticket collector in his traditional railway staff uniform with waistcoat, shiny metal buttons and peaked cap; the young railwayman in bib-and-brace overalls with pop-star influenced quiff hairstyle idling away a few minutes looking on.
George Fielding, a cleaner and fireman at Grantham loco from 17th Jan 1955 until 17th Jan 1964, recognised his friend Alan Grummitt as the young man. Alan was also a cleaner and fireman at Grantham from about 1955 until late in 1963.
19th September 1963
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson

Back in those days of innocence, as boy out with his father on school holiday afternoons, I was unaware of the concerns of railway staff for the future of their industry.  To me the staff we met at Grantham were kindly friends who made us welcome, and who gave my father the opportunity to enjoy the art of photography.  There was the thrill of occasional visits to signal boxes and the engine shed, still today some of the most evocative memories of my childhood.  Sometimes we were simply sitting between trains in the Examiners’ cabin, its black kettle eternally simmering on a gas ring.  On those Thursday afternoons Grantham station was, for me, a very special place.

Looking south from the end of platform 3. I have a pair of plastic binoculars at the ready! Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson
Looking south from the end of platform 3. I have a pair of plastic binoculars at the ready!
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson, © John Clayson

In 2008 Grantham Museum kindly exhibited a selection of my father's pictures as part on an exhibition on Grantham's railway history.  Through working with the museum I enjoyed the privilege of becoming reacquainted with railwaymen who remembered us from more than 40 years before - the man arriving at the station from Leicester with his camera and his young lad.  The exhibition at the museum became the point at which the past re-joined the present, and a new connection was made into the future.  From my perspective Tracks through Grantham is simply the current stage of a journey which began in the early 1960s.

This page is illustrated by a small selection of my father's photographs; more can be seen on many pages of this website and also on the LNER Forum, on a thread titled Returning to Grantham .


[1]  The Modernisation Plan was developed following publication of the report Modernisation and Re-Equipment of British Railways (British Transport Commission, December 1st 1954)

[2]  The following extract from The LNER Magazine illustrates the close links between the railway and its industrial customers at the operational level.

At the Goods Department, Grantham, on December 23 [1938], Mr. J. Ellis was presented with a fireside chair and a kerb from his colleagues, to mark the occasion of his retirement.  Mr. Lee, chief clerk, presided over the gathering, and the presentation was made by supervisory foreman S. Morris, who paid tribute to the work and worth of Mr. Ellis, and wished him many years of health and happiness.  Checker Ellis has been in the service of the L.N.E.R. for over 30 years, most of which have been spent at Grantham.  He served first as porter, was later sack porter, and for the past 8 years has been in charge of the railway company's work at Messrs. Ruston & Hornsby's and (also latterly) Messrs. Aveling-Barford's Works.  The staff of the Packing Shop at Messrs. Ruston & Hornsby's also presented Mr. Ellis with a pipe and a pouch of tobacco. (From the L&NER Magazine February 1939, p.104)

[3]  The Reshaping of British Railways (British Railways Board, 27th March 1963) - 'the Beeching report'.

[4]  The LNER, in its house magazine, referred to Grantham as a staging point on the Great North Road.

Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby [which] is almost a guide book to the L.N.E.R.  Herein we have the story of the five sisters of York; the mention of The George Inn at Grantham in Nicholas' journey northwards, " one of the best inns in England - The George at Grantham," and that quaint episode when shortly after resuming the journey northwards to Newark the coach overturned, and the horses, when liberated from the shafts, immediately bolted back to the stable at The George. (From the L&NER Magazine April 1936, p.208)


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2 thoughts on “A personal view of Grantham Station in the 1960s

  1. Mike Astill

    I remember travelling from Nottingham Victoria Station to Grantham for trainspotting, just after the first DMUs had been introduced. Travelling on the DMU was quite novel because, by sitting behind the driver, you could get a clear view of the track ahead. On loco hauled trains, to get a view ahead, it was necessary to pull down the carriage window, using the big leather strap, and stick your head out. There were many apocryphal stories about boys who had got their heads knocked off by indulging in this practice.

    I can recall the Pullman Expresses, usually pulled by an A4 Streak, which usually raced through Grantham non-stop as we tried to cop the names of the Loco and also the Pullman coaches. This was an almost impossible task when the trains passed through the station at high speed. The group of spotters usually organised themselves so that someone got the first carriage, someone else got the second etc. etc. I can't remember any of the names, but they always sounded very exotic to a young schoolboy.

    We usually made a special effort to get the 'boat train' home. This was a special treat because it was a very long, locomotive-hauled train which was a great contrast to the DMU which we used for our outward journey. I think that in those days the boat train was a very important train linking the ferries from Continental Europe with the Liverpool Ocean Liners.

    Reply
    1. TracksthroughGrantham1

      Hello Mike,
      Many thanks for sharing your recollections of Grantham station. From that front seat in DMUs something I especially remember was the sound made by air rushing into the vacuum brake as, on the approach to a station, the driver reached over to grip a bright, chrome-plated handle and move it over the circular brass valve. He would initially apply the brake quite hard, and you would feel it grip, and then he'd release it so as to bring the train to a gentle stop in exactly the right place.
      Talking of the Pullman cars, the added complication was that some of them - the second class cars - only had numbers e.g. 'Car No. 72'. Names and numbers were all listed at the very back of the Combined Volume, so as many as possible had to be 'acquired' as the trains sped past, then recalled and committed to paper - legibly - within a few seconds . Excellent training for both the short-term memory and speed-writing!
      I wasn't aware of the boat train service to Nottingham so thanks for mentioning it.
      Best wishes,
      John Clayson

      Reply

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