Tuesday Treasures - July 2025

TUESDAY 29 JULY

Corporate Image on the Railways – 3

We recently blogged on the BR publication that introduced in 1964 the double arrow symbol and much else along with new rolling stock, new uniforms and new station signage.

Today our blog tracks back to the earlier period of BR and the objects involved tell us more than meets the eye about the importance placed upon company corporate identity and respect within an organisation’s very senior members.

From our Great Western Trust Museum & Archive collection, we illustrate three photos of a modest set of four coffee cups with saucers and a sugar bowl.

The colour tone is pale, in a blue/grey with an emblem of the second version, introduced June 1956, of the lion holding a locomotive wheel (the first had the lion striding over that wheel) and three wavy lines beneath.

We believe this emblem is specific to the BR Shipping and International Services Department. That said, however, the original and all-embracing 1947 Transport Act, swept up in pursuit of the ideological ‘fully co-ordinated transport system’ not only railways, but road transport, shipping, hotels and even canals! That ‘wavy line’ reflected shipping and canals.

The images include the base of the saucer, which shows that they were of the ‘Royal Tuscan’ design made in England and were fine bone china, together with a winged crown motif. Certainly these items are of significant quality, and this alone leads us to speculate that they were commissioned for restricted use, potentially, that of first class passengers on BR ships, or maybe more likely to have been the preserve of very senior BR staff, perhaps even the directors themselves in the Shipping and International Services Department?

To underpin that assumption is the fact that they clearly are a set, and were acquired by the donor at a long ago railwayana auction. How could such a set survived complete had they been randomly gathered over time, and would even those aboard ships have retained such fine condition? Our further assumption, or best guess, is that like so many GWR and BR artefacts, they were ‘saved’ from oblivion, by a caring individual employee, who either kept them as a personal memento of their employment or were just lucky to find them complete, by happenstance. We do know that in the BR era alone, even GWR chinaware was sold to the public at Paddington station, and the Trust have a set of the GWR gold rimmed side plates to prove it!!

All that apart, we must conclude with focus upon our key title Corporate Image and surely, however modest and rather understated the motif on this china is, it reflects a respect for the organisation held by those individuals, passengers or senior staff, who were blessed to have use of them. Maybe there are other examples awaiting our discovery? We will be delighted to hear of them and even perhaps, staff reminiscences of their true location and use? Never say never, is the Trustees’ motto!

The GWR ship St Patrick, photographed on 12 March 1948. She had been built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead and launched in 1947 to replace the earlier St Patrick which had been bombed and sunk in the Irish Sea in June 1941

TUESDAY 22 JULY

Where art, railway and social histories meet

The Great Western Trust is fortunate to hold a vast collection of items relating to hotels, restaurant cars and other catering facilities. Some years ago we were given an archive of over two hundred menus, wine lists and other information, all originating from British Transport Hotels and named trains from the 1950s and 60s. More than forty hotels are represented, the bulk of the large estate operated by BTH after nationalisation of the railways in 1948. This particular collection was rescued from the rubbish skip by Bernard Slatter who worked at BRB Headquarters and had the foresight to save it from oblivion.

Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool

We show a selection here which includes two items from the former GWR who had the smallest number of hotels of any of the ‘big four’ companies. It is pleasing to realise that all three of these hotels – the Great Western Royal at Paddington, the Manor House at Moretonhampstead and the Tregenna Castle at St Ives – are still operating albeit under very different ownership.

Midland Hotel, Bradford

Midland Hotel, Bradford

For many years, British railway companies used established artists to produce images for publicity purposes. The Grand National Week Dinner Dance from the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool (ex L&NWR and LMS) has very distinctive artwork by Arthur Hundleby 1923-2017. From the Midland Hotel, Bradford (ex Midland and LMS) we have a very eye-catching menu for Coronation Day, 2 June 1953. The artist is Joan Hassall 1906-1988 who was the daughter of John Hassall, famous for his image of the fisherman on ‘Skegness is so Bracing’, one of the most well-known posters from the early twentieth century.

TUESDAY 15 JULY

Wolverhampton Stafford Road Works under Churchward as Locomotive Superintendent

In a previous Tuesday Treasure Blog in 2023 we focused upon the Churchward era at Swindon, specifically a commercial company postcard image of an American Loco dated April 1912. Our Blog today moves us earlier, to the GWR’s other major Locomotive Works at Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, between 1903 and 1906.

So much of the extensive Great Western Trust (GWT) collection has come to us for its permanent preservation from ex-railwaymen who appreciated the historic importance of what they had acquired, and considered it deserved future security coupled with the intention that current and future students of the GWR would then have the opportunity to delve back into primary source archives like those we illustrate today.

In fact, our benefactor this time was much more than a retired railwayman, albeit he had many stories to tell of firing ex GWR locos in the Black Country, but he became a very early Great Western Society (GWS) member, number 52 no less. Mike Lewis was that man, now sadly departed, but before his declining health reached crisis, he invited Trustees to his home in the Black Country to retrieve a vast array of material. Part of that trove included multiple rolls of very fragile drawings which were stored in an outbuilding at the Works and to his horror he found day paid labourers charged to empty and destroy its contents when the Works were closed and derelict. Of those, more coverage will be in a future Blog as part of the wider story of the GWS/GWT archive of locomotive and civil engineering drawings and our conservation and digital scanning work associated with recording their content.

Today, we focus upon four photographs that were made into postcards and one was then actually posted by the GWR Stafford Road Works employees. Clearly, such images were, in that era, a popular, if unofficial means by which fellow workers could have a record of their comradeship in their workplace. So we illustrate those four, and however faded some images may be, they powerfully prove quite how many men, and boys to, were employed, but more so, their cramped conditions!

The first is of the Erecting Shop about 1905, and Mike usefully annotated that one Sam Thomas, the Foreman, can be identified by his straw hat!! The real joy of that postcard however, is that it was posted to one H Holcroft of 90, The Hall, Old Swindon on 24 August 1913. He was one of those clever young men that Churchward employed at Swindon and after his apprenticeship at Wolverhampton, he was moved to Swindon, and was charged to scheme the 1361 0-6-0 saddle tank class, and famously designed and later patented, when on the LSWR, his famed 3-cylinder conjugated valve gear motion, that both Maunsell and Gresley adopted in large part.

The second image is that of the New Engine Building circa 1906 again with Sam Thomas with his straw hat, but also on the left, one George Forster, Chargeman.

The third image is of the Iron Foundry, but undated. Surely though, of the same era, and note all those caps, rolled sleeves, waistcoats and rather young boys!

The fourth and final image, is that of the Drawing Office circa 1903. Sadly the individuals are unnamed, but could one be a young Holcroft we wonder?

By happenstance, and a very dedicated GWS Member, we are blessed to possess these important items and their images of GWR men of all grades at work in the pre First World War period. We can but speculate that many of those individuals served in the Army and sadly a number perished in that conflict.

No 358 appears in a semi-dismantled state on the left hand side of the first photograph above, of Stafford Road erecting shop. This photograph shows her in full glory. She was a member of the “Beyer” class of 0-6-0 standard gauge locomotives built by Beyer, Peacock & Co. There were 30 in the class; 20 built in 1864 and ordered by Daniel Gooch and a further ten ordered in 1866 by his successor Joseph Armstrong. They were described as among the most handsome and efficient 0-6-0s ever to work on the Great Western Railway

No 358 photographed in later life after she was fitted with a superheated boiler with Belpaire firebox in December 1919. She was withdrawn in May 1930 

TUESDAY 8 JULY

GWR Staff Social & Recreational Events – No.6

It was a while ago, in January 2023, that we posted our previous Blog based upon this subject. But this time we highlight an item of crockery rather than a document from our Great Western Trust collection.

Although its undated, the fact that it has the ‘S&EU’ lettering, ie the GWR Social and Educational Union, it can be no later than 1936 when the organisation changed its title to the simpler Staff Association.

The S&EU was the 1921 successor to the GWR Temperance Union, itself formed in 1883, and deliberately widened the already expansive variety of GWR staff focused and run social activities.

The object we illustrate is a very modest china saucer with the wording ‘S&E Union Exeter’ in a ribbon design surrounding ‘GWR’. This directly shows that the Union had numerous branches over the GWR system and each were undoubtedly keen to establish their local identity. The Trust believes that other location’s china objects must have existed and would be particularly delighted to reunite our saucer with the suitably decorated Exeter cup!

Having said that the S&EU was the child of the original GWR Temperance Union, it is hardly surprising that the object is designed for non-alcoholic beverages. Of course being china, it is a wonder that it has survived to our time as it’s surely around 100 years old!

The cup however may well be beyond us now, as they are more vulnerable to breakages or cracks that render them unusable, even as keepsakes of retired GWR staff. We can but hope to be proved wrong. In fact, it does beg the question of who of the GWR staff, once kept it and no doubt, its cup, as a memento of times past.

The larger legacy of the original Temperance Union, lasted through its successor, S&EU, and even the GWR Staff Association morphed into the BR Western Region Staff Association which still made useful social welfare contributions for its staff well into the 1970s.

Staff were reminded of the change of name to Staff Association with this page of cartoons in the February 1937 edition of the Great Western Railway Magazine

How many current large scale companies have such a long lived staff recreational organisation?

TUESDAY 1 JULY

The Joy of the Journey – GWR Style: 2

In October 2021 our Blog centred on a 1926 pamphlet produced under the very forward looking and publicity focused GWR General Manager, Sir Felix Pole, entitled ‘The Joy of the Journey’ which we illustrate again today.

The cover of the 1926 edition

In that Blog we described its very contemporary, but to our eyes today social class biased, phrasing and we said that in due course we would return to this material given our extensive examples in our Great Western Trust collection.

What we are able to concentrate upon today however, is the re-use of that very particular phrasing ‘The Joy of the Journey’.

Whilst our October 2021 example dated from the Felix Pole era in 1926, our Trust collection also holds three GWR pamphlets published in March 1937, March 1938 and April 1939, under Pole’s successor as General Manger, James Milne. That said, the design is entirely different to the original, in that as illustrated, they all appeared in the form of a letter to the reader from F R Potter, then GWR Superintendent of the Line (and son of Frank Potter who had been the GWR General Manager from 1911 to 1919), in which the addressee would ‘doubtless shortly be thinking about summer holidays…’ and then extolling ‘the numerous delightful holiday playgrounds situated in Great Western Railway territory.’ Try that phrasing today perhaps?

The cover of the March 1938 edition

Helpfully, a prepaid postcard was included so that the family detailed travel enquiries could then be explored!

Only upon fully opening the pamphlet are we struck by the ‘Joy of the Journey’ banner headline. Each edition used broadly similar text to describe the multitude of the travel facilities on offer, but differing photographic images, and of which we partially illustrate the March 1938 edition. In fact our March 1937 version, being the Royal Coronation year, added very patriotically to that section ‘The Royal Road’ wishes you a Right Royal Holiday – Go Great Western’ ! Lest we forget, long years before, and based upon Queen Victoria being the first British monarch to travel by railway, and did so on the GWR, it boldly adopted ‘The Royal Road’ title!!

Inside the March 1938 edition

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