Post by sean1981 on Feb 4, 2012 16:23:12 GMT
The railway that served the worth valley
I am referring to the railway before if became the charity that it now is. British rail and before that the Midland railway and then LMS.
My paternal grandmother talked about the rickety, groaning wooden structure that the train rode over after leaving Oakworth for Haworth; she said it was frightening to ride over and near the mill dam at Rouse’s and was subsequently pulled down when the line took a slightly different route to the mytholmes tunnel. Sorry rail historians if her memories were not her own but perhaps her parents. She was born in 1883 so I am not clear on that one.
My mother tells me that in the 1920s when they lived down vale mill lane, Lees, her father would sleep until the train could be heard pulling out of Oakworth on it’s way up the valley; obviously it was one of the children’s jobs to look for it (or listen) and then get grandfather a cup of tea. He would rise, wash, eat something prepared and then with another relative head down the lane in time to catch the train as it came back down heading to Keighley, where he worked as a brass founder.
True to say we did much the same when I was a child and lived in Haworth; we could stay in bed until the whistle and strong chuffing sound were heard as the train pulled out of Haworth on it’s way to Oxenhope. Needless to say it came back quickly but that did not matter since we only used it as a time piece, not needing to catch it.
The railway was one that ran 6 days a week when I was a child and so we thought it was safe to walk on the track on Sunday. We could easily get on from the foot path on Long Holme, where the path and railway are very near together with a low wall. One day when we lads walking down out of the north end of the tunnel a man shouted for us to stop! Well of course we legged it back through the tunnel and back to the path; you could get your ear clipped for this sort of thing. Our mistake was then to walk in the direction of Oakworth instead of heading back to Haworth. We got to the metal gate near the bottom of ‘the boards’ when out popped the man, evidently hiding and waiting for us. He turned out to be the foreman ganger on the railways, Fred Overend (found this out later when we worked together at the same firm.) of course we had to give our names and addresses with the promise that he would be there to see our fathers that night. Imagine the tension at home for the next few days. It turned out that this was Fred’s way of frightening lads; he never followed up on the threats.
I never admitted to Fred in later years that as young lads we had crawled under the platform at Haworth, you could get there from behind Florrie Robertshaw’s shop if you were not seen, and there had placed half pennies on the track to see what happened when the train came. Needles to say, with fingers in ears we got well back and waited to retrieve our now oval shaped pennies (or so we thought) we never thought that this was wrong, just exiting.
Name and address not supplied, just in case the railway police come looking.
John
I am referring to the railway before if became the charity that it now is. British rail and before that the Midland railway and then LMS.
My paternal grandmother talked about the rickety, groaning wooden structure that the train rode over after leaving Oakworth for Haworth; she said it was frightening to ride over and near the mill dam at Rouse’s and was subsequently pulled down when the line took a slightly different route to the mytholmes tunnel. Sorry rail historians if her memories were not her own but perhaps her parents. She was born in 1883 so I am not clear on that one.
My mother tells me that in the 1920s when they lived down vale mill lane, Lees, her father would sleep until the train could be heard pulling out of Oakworth on it’s way up the valley; obviously it was one of the children’s jobs to look for it (or listen) and then get grandfather a cup of tea. He would rise, wash, eat something prepared and then with another relative head down the lane in time to catch the train as it came back down heading to Keighley, where he worked as a brass founder.
True to say we did much the same when I was a child and lived in Haworth; we could stay in bed until the whistle and strong chuffing sound were heard as the train pulled out of Haworth on it’s way to Oxenhope. Needless to say it came back quickly but that did not matter since we only used it as a time piece, not needing to catch it.
The railway was one that ran 6 days a week when I was a child and so we thought it was safe to walk on the track on Sunday. We could easily get on from the foot path on Long Holme, where the path and railway are very near together with a low wall. One day when we lads walking down out of the north end of the tunnel a man shouted for us to stop! Well of course we legged it back through the tunnel and back to the path; you could get your ear clipped for this sort of thing. Our mistake was then to walk in the direction of Oakworth instead of heading back to Haworth. We got to the metal gate near the bottom of ‘the boards’ when out popped the man, evidently hiding and waiting for us. He turned out to be the foreman ganger on the railways, Fred Overend (found this out later when we worked together at the same firm.) of course we had to give our names and addresses with the promise that he would be there to see our fathers that night. Imagine the tension at home for the next few days. It turned out that this was Fred’s way of frightening lads; he never followed up on the threats.
I never admitted to Fred in later years that as young lads we had crawled under the platform at Haworth, you could get there from behind Florrie Robertshaw’s shop if you were not seen, and there had placed half pennies on the track to see what happened when the train came. Needles to say, with fingers in ears we got well back and waited to retrieve our now oval shaped pennies (or so we thought) we never thought that this was wrong, just exiting.
Name and address not supplied, just in case the railway police come looking.
John
