A general enquiry into the GWSR put the BAG Volunteers in touch with a supporter wishing to donate 400 engineering blues to Broadway. The lead put us in touch with Mr & Mrs Loverage at Andoversford. BAG Volunteer Terry Andrews offered his services, together with his friend Paul to attempt a retrieval. Terry's email to me takes up the story:-
Hi Bill,
We met the lovely couple, Brian
& Joy Loverage at their home in Station Road, Andoversford today to collect
the blue bricks they have kindly donated to us for use at Broadway
I was joined by Jim Hirtchen, who
drove over 60 miles from Milton Keynes, at about 11.30 to help me move the
bricks from the side of the house, across their patio and through a side gate
onto a bridleway, For the first 20 foot or so we had to carry the bricks to the
patio along a path that was too narrow to use a wheelbarrow , where
we loaded them onto a small wheelbarrow that Jim sensibly brought along and stacked
them in piles of 100 brick along the side of the bridleway.
In total there were 401 blue bricks,
plus 8 large blocks used on bridge parapets and then some blue small paving
blocks. Brian and Joy agreed to have their photo taken, so I
am sending a copy of this (also includes Jim) along with several
other photos of the recovered items which we have delivered to Broadway.
Paul from Tecton, who has donated
his time and his lorry for this, arrived just before 1.00pm with his lorry and
reversed along the very narrow bridleway to where we stacked the bricks, and we
proceeded to load the lorry. In view of the very restricted access, Paul had to
use his smaller vehicle, so two trips are necessary in view of the weight of
the load. After taking the first load to Broadway, we returned to
Andoversford and loaded the second load of bricks , which Paul will
be delivered some time tomorrow.
Brian and Joy were pleased
to receive a couple of my shareholders tickets as a thank you
for donating all these items to us, and are looking forward to a day
out on our railway, we also expect them to visit us at Broadway to see how we
are getting on, and hopefully their donated bricks will be part of our platform
2!
Incidentally, Brian and Joy's house
backs on to the old railway line from Cheltenham to Bourton on the Water, and
they have actually purchased a 60ft by 60 ft section of the old trackbed, which
they have landscaped and forms part of their lovely garden.
Thank you to Brian and Joy for their
kind donation (and a nice cup of tea!) Jim for his help in
recovering and loading the bricks and Paul from Tecton for
providing his labour and transport, free of charge, we had a very
successful day,
Best wishes,
Terry
I cannot thank Terry, Paul and Jim enough for their efforts today. I am particularly fond of the Cheltenham Kingham line and it will be good to know a small piece of it is resurrected at Broadway. I don't see this as just the recovery of 400 bricks but the preservation of a piece of railway history and some fond personal memories of a great little line..
Bill
3 comments:
this would have been a brilliant line if it was preserved, going through cheltenham, bourton on the water, andoversford...
meanwhile, back to reality :D as you say, nice that another bit of a railway comes to broadway to be preserved in some way, like the mythe bricks, it's all rather fitting.
Alex
A very generous donation.
If not used at Broadway, those diamond pattern paviours might find their way to the platform at Gotherington where there are some that have seen better days.
Incidentally, I did see a further supply of them in an Architectural Salvage yard at Norton - just south of Worcester - but that was a couple of years ago.
The Kingham-Cheltenham line would have been a superb heritage line but the motor car was the "answer to everything" in the 1960s. Too late now but I agree that its wonderful to see some useful material from these and lost railway locations coming to the GWSR for a new life.
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