BR signs discovered on allotment plots
BR ENAMEL signs from the Colne Valley line have returned to the preserved section of the route after being found on an allotment.
An Eastern Region blue runningin board from Sible and Castle Hedingham station has gone on display in the Lottery-funded museum at the Colne Valley Railway's Castle Hedingham headquarters, approximately a mile from its original location.
It was one of three signs from the former Colne Valley & Halstead Railway acquired by the CVR after they were discovered on an allotment near the Essex/Suffolk border; the others were Birdbrook, and ‘Change for Colne Valley Line' from Haverhill, with the latter now displayed in the railway's entrance building.
Also found on the same plot were two signs from Lavenham on the nearby Long Melford-Bury St Edmunds line, a platform direction sign thought to be from Ipswich, other signs from the Gospel OakBarking line in London, and numerous advertising signs.
Use of such signs on allotments appears to have been a widespread practice. A 20ft by 6ft example reading ‘British Railways King's Cross Goods and Coal Depot' was recently unearthed in a similar location in Stevenage, raising the question of how many more are waiting to be found.
The Colne Valley signs were sent to Ipswich for resale after the line closed to passengers in December 1961, then to freight traffic between Yeldham and Halstead in 1964, and the remaining sections from Halstead to Chappel & Wakes Colne, and between Haverhill's North and South stations, in April 1965.
Paul Lemon, chairman of Colne Valley Railway Preservation Ltd, explained: “The Signal & Telegraph Department removed everything, and the totems went to collectors – but nobody wanted the running-in boards, so they went for scrap.
“In those days, you didn't buy a flat-pack shed or fence panels – you just bought a load of scrap and did it yourself.”