Iron Duke wrote:I have recently heard an interesting story about Silver Link and wondered if anyone could throw any light on it?
Sometime in 1935 Silver Link was positioned in the yard close to the old maltings on the up side.
Locals came to see the locomotive and children were provided with "Silver Link" toffees, does anyone know about this?
Assuming that this was after the record run in September, did she go on some sort of tour of the main line perhaps as a publicity stunt?
ID
I have searched through the LNER magazines for that year, and I wonder if it was actually associated with that 110th anniversary of the opening of the S&D publicity run on Sep 27th?
The special train ran from Kings Cross to Grantham and back, and no doubt the loco spent a short time at Grantham between the down and up journeys. There would obviously be a great deal of publicity and promotional material associated with the service launch, and as the 27th appears to have been a Saturday, maybe those in the know were tipped off on the day and visited the sidings in the afternoon?
There is no mention of toffees, but jigsaw puzzles, postcards and cut-out models were produced as the publicity machine went into overdrive.
Just a thought, it being a significant, highly publicised event, mightn't the local paper have had something about it? Maybe they've something in their archives. That's if the same newspaper still exists.
I have searched the online newspaper archives that are available on the family history sites I subscribe to, and there are articles about the record breaking run on the 27th; but nothing on the details of what happened after the down journey was complete.
There may be something in the local newspaper which covered the Grantham area, but I presume their archives are not digitised, and so looking through the hardcopy would be the only way.
Try the british museum website they hold copies of most newspapers and most of is scaned , I would assume that most modern material is now received in digital form eg books/magazines/papers.
It might also be worth while checking the internet for Grantham. Old trade directories. Was there a leading sweet manufacturer there who might just have got involved for publicity purposes?
my dear departed Mam would often tell me of Silver Link toffees whenever such an A4 or The Silver Jubilee was mentioned at home. I have a feeling they may have been made by Sharps. it would be fun to find ou
Sharps seem to have been based in York, which would be logical. However, trying to discover anything about their history seems to be rather difficult. The brand name would appear to have been bought by Monkhill Confectionery who were later to become part of Cadburys, but then sold off again to Tangerine Confectionery.
Where is the emoticon which describes "pulling my hair out" ?