Lightmoor, a comparison across the ages !!

The two photographs that follow are taken in Woodlands Lane just off  Holywell Lane on the edge of the new Lightmoor estate, many, many years ago for much of the length of  Holywell Lane and Woodlands Lane there was one long row of squatters cottages. They were built in the 1800's when an obscure law meant if you could get some walls up, a roof on and smoke coming out of a chimney between nightfall and daybreak you could stay on the land, but beyond that you had no rights.

Many cottages were "improved" over the years and became quite substantial structures and were still being lived in come the 1960's, at which point the residents were turfed out and the cottages demolished as the council at the time deemed them unfit for human habitation and the residents would be much better on one of the boroughs shiney new housing estates. The demolition wasn't really very thorough, out-houses, brick walls or in some cases substantial parts of cottages still exist now hidden in the undergrowth along parts of Holywell Lane. However one cottage on Woodlands Lane survived intact and today has "listed status" and is currently protected by being fenced off to keep the vandals away while funding is sought to restore it and bring it back into community use.

The comaprison in the first photograph shows the difference across 100/150 years or so, the cottage represented those at the bottom of the social ladder of their time, they were squatters, they had no rights, no money, their properties were tiny and worthless and built from what ever scrap could be found locally. The roofs in the background are on the new Lightmoor Estate, built on what was (before EU quotas, our Government and the big supermarkets chains made farming unviable for many) "Prime Farmland" by the Bournville Trust, who are trying to create an "instant community" some of the houses are worth in excess of £250,000, currently really only an estate for the up and coming those with "money", those with it all, (we await the "affordable housing" on this new estate with interest).

Now if the two sets of people, those that did live there and those that now do could some how co-exist, across time, what would they think of each other!!

The path you can see trodden down in the grass behind the squatters cottage , was once part of a canal basin and branch off the Shropshire Grand Union Canal, now long since filled in. It ran across the back of the squatters cottages, those that lived in them would try and earn a living from the canal and the local farms. Behind the trees in the centre of the photograph is all that remains of the canal, the following photographs show all that is left, it was emptied and part filled in, buts its towpath and the outline of the canal itself can still be seen and it has a little water, in the winter and when its being raining alot, this particular branch of the canal finished at the boundary fence of what was the Johnson's Pipe Works.

Hero from Lancaster DS660.

In a posting on the 23.05.2012 I mentioned that during our wanderings around the Battlefields of  The Somme, we came across the crew of Lancaster D660 buried in a CWGC Cemetery at Grevillers.

During the original search for information on the internet about DS660 and her crew I came across some pictures of  NAV P/O Chester Armstrong,  records do not show an age for Chester Armstrong, but looking at the photographs I doubt he is much older than the oldest known member of the crew Frederick Leonard Yates who was 28 years old.

                                       NAV P/O Chester Armstrong






                                                   (copywrite, Aircrew Remembrance Society).

Manufacturing, it has all disappeared !!

Its not just a Dawley problem or even just a Telford problem, its one that has effected large parts of the UK and in fact many parts of the "developed world", manufacturing is in decline and has moved to the third world or developing countries.

As living standards increased and prices went up, wages increased to compensate, and the prices of the manufactured goods then went up to pay for the increases in wages, its a visous circle.

We had it good for a long time, probaly to long and all at the expense of much of the rest of the world, when the good times arrived we grabbed it all and then some more, now the rest of the world  wants its time at the top and it will be at our expense, we can't all be top dog.

Will they make the same mistakes as we did, profit driven with little or no investment in new technologies to make manufacturing cheaper, because the quick fix, dispensing with the "expendable" workforce to keep short term profits up was easier than looking to and planning for the future, short term gain ultimately looses you it all. Only history yet to come will reveal if they make the same mistakes.

The three pictures that follow are of the now empty site of Johnsons Pipe Works in Dawley, (currently being "redeveloped as a housing estate") once one of the four biggest employers in Dawley, which between them at their peak employed 2000 people out of a total population of just 8000. All four companies and the jobs they provided have now all gone, will the jobs ever come back in some form, so far they havn't and are unlikely to for some considerable time.

Along with the jobs the skills have also gone too. What will happen many generations down the line when or if the wheel turns full circle and it becomes cheaper to manufacture goods here once more, the skills have gone and all the old factories and the land they stood on have become housing estates!!

Empty, totally empty and so quiet 100's of jobs were once provided on this site.
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Telford Steam Railway, "merrily rotting away"

There is a pedestrian crossing point across the track between the old Station Platform and the previously mentioned abandoned wagons in Doseley, its from this point down to those wagons that the track really starts to deteriorate and as I said the sleepers are so rotten you can push your fingers into them and many of the brackets clamping the rails to the sleepers are broken as you can see from the attatched photographs.

Telford Steam Railway Trust have plans to run the line into Ironbridge, if this is what they are starting with then what time and resources they do have will be spent putting all the years of neglect right, before they can start on anything as ambitious as turning their Line to Nowhere into a Line to Somewhere






Now if you move up to the main site which is well worth giving a miss, things are poor in the extreme, the attatched photographs show the state of their site and the condition of what they have "Preserved"








A somewhat rare all wooden carriage, deteriorating so quickly now the water has got in, it will soon not be savable, I have seen one enthusiast photographing this at an open day in tears at its condition, like everything else on the site "awaiting restoration while merrily rotting away"



The above photograph of the rusting pile of metal by the side of a public path at the back of their engine shed is the chassis of a shunting engine that has been disassembled for restoration, it has been there for nearly a decade, the rest of it is lost in the undergrowth within the main site.



Just to the left of the large grey box wagon your can see the curved green boiler that belongs to the rusting chassis at the back of the engine shed, "awaiting restoration while merrily rotting away"



Just infront of the long red carriage you can make out some more green metalwork, which I believe is part of the green cab section and coal box to go with the rusting boiler and chassis, "awaiting restoration while merrily rotting away"



A bridge donated by network rail supposedly to span the Ironbridge by-pass when they run the line into Ironbridge, it will never move any further than where it is now and will eventually be scrapped. In front of the bridge there is a rather expensive looking engine removed from a diesel powered shunting engine and left to the mercy of the elements for over 18 months.




It isn't good, not at all, and this bunch carry the name of OUR TOWN, does Telford really want to be associated with this shambles, even if only by name??

Telford Steam Railway, looking after our Heritage??

I walk a lot (wouldn't guess it to look at me), with my camera in my pocket and an eye with what is around me, much of Telford was heavily industralised but as is the way with the UK in general over the past few decades all the industry has disppeared and many of the former sites have either been demolished, built on, returned to nature or an attempt (sometimes fruitless) has been made to "preserve" what is there.


One walk takes in part of the route of a former branchline railway, what track is left (about 1.5 miles) belongs to Telford Steam Railway Trust, they apparently have plans to relay the track and run the line into Ironbridge, however at the current rate of progress I can't see that happening inside the next four decades, much of the former track bed has now been a public footpath for over 30 years and houses have been built nearby.

My understanding is that once a public footpath has been in use for over 20 years then due to various laws it is nigh on impossible to get its use changed to anything other than what it is, a public footpath, getting its use change to that of a working railway line is going to be an up hill struggle(often in cases like this the Home Secretary has to get involved), a struggle that quite frankly is way beyond them!!

They can't seem to look after what they do have and their main site, the former Dawley and Horsehay Railway Station is referred by many as "The Scrapyard" much of what they have is in very poor condition. Unfortunately they do have the excellent Severn Valley Railway as near neighbours a fine example of how a Heritage Railway should be run, in fact I'd say the benchmark for the whole country. Telford Steam Railway might have Severn Valley Railway aspirations, but unfortunately a Hornby Model Railway organisation and mentality, to busy playing with their trains on their 3/4 mile piece of track that is actually operable.


The following photographs, are indicative of the general state of decay and all-round air of neglect of what Telford Steam Railway Trust have and supposedly "look after" on the nations behalf, the railway wagons abandoned on a line to nowhere and over grown with weeds just about says it all.






Difficult to see in these two photographs but many of the sleepers are so rotten you can push uour fingers into the and some of the brackets bolted to the sleepers are broken!!






Literally 20 metres from where these wagons stand abandoned, the line finishes, Telford Steam Railway Trust and their "The Line to Nowhere".