Returning to Grantham

[61070]

Here are two more of my father's photographs taken at Grantham in the early 1960s for interest.

The b/w photo taken on 3rd October 1963 in the down side buffet (at 4:05pm, according to the clock) is a bit of a period piece. The newspaper headlines are Missing Christine Witness Mystery – Paul Mann has no plans to return and ‘Lucky’ Gordon in box today. The enquiry report by Lord Denning into the ‘Profumo Affair’ had been published in September. The trial of Christine Keeler, in which she was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice, had just commenced. I remember, at the age of 9, wondering what all the fuss was about, and my parents changing the subject when I persisted with enquiring what a 'call-girl' was!

Back in those days of innocence 90189 rumbles through on 21/06/1962 with ironstone for Scunthorpe from the quarries on the High Dyke branch.

[stembok]

61070: the Refreshment Room photograph a photo capturing times past - marvellous. I remember those sugar dispensers giving a measured amount when tipped to cut down waste and spillage and people dipping wet spoons in -yuck!. The furniture built to last a thousand years. A cup of tea around 6d at that time I seem to remember. Lastly the chap in his cloth cap reading his broadsheet, Wonder where he was bound for. I was told that some of the old ironstone workings in the High Dyke area were later used for cold storage purposes after mining was abandoned.

[R. pike]

Both are superb photos. The detail is fantastic.

[52D]

Surely thats not Khaki paint showing on the cylinder covers but its definitely a dub dee as i remember them.

[Bryan]

I remember those sugar dispensers giving a measured amount when tipped to cut down waste and spillage and people dipping wet spoons in -yuck!.

I was in a cafe last week that had those.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Christine & Mandy!! all over the TV and papers for weeks, at 12, Boring! ----- WD, much more interesting, wobbly handrails, stripes running down the boiler, no numbers on the cab, no totem on the tender, as a model you could paint it like a tiger, any old bit of wire for the handrails, forget the transfers, wonderful ---b***** wonderful
manna

[61070]

A cup of tea around 6d at that time I seem to remember.

You're spot on stembok - 6d it was, as you can see in the first of these photos, taken on 30/04/1964 in the larger up side Refreshment Room at Grantham. Looking at the second picture, taken there too on 21/05/1964, you could get a box of Milk Tray for 2/-, and there is also a confection called 'Today' on the shelf. I can't remember that - does anyone else? I'm not sure that I would be tempted by the 'Canister draught Worthington 'E'' though ... and is that a whisky called 'Royal Scot' on the extreme left? Surely not! Should be banished to the likes of Rugby or Stafford.

OK, let's go out and watch the trains again. Here's The Tees Tyne Pullman on 30/04/1964, and the second man's giving someone a wave - probably the bobby in the Yard Box.

Perhaps another grubby old WD'll come clanking through soon.

[stembok]

61070: These photographs are a fascinating social insight in themselves. The odd mix of 19thC room and the 1960s 'new look' wallpaper and decor, so typical of BR at that time. Sort of an uneasy half way house, probably the result of financial constraints. Worthy E on keg. Up here we might have had Youngers or McEwans, or in my case a waxed carton of Kia Ora orange juice. . But where are those square Lyons individual fruit pies secreted on that counter? I think we should be told. The horror when their price inceased from 10d to one shilling. What was the world coming to!
PS On the display cabinet are the BR and LNER totems side by side. Its a wonder GNR isn't there somewhere

[61070]

Having suggested that a WD would soon be along - and especially for admirers, like manna, of grimy and dilapidated examples - here are two of the finest that 40E, Colwick, could provide.

The first photo shows 90304 on 15th August 1963. Fitters have neglected to replace the section of boiler cladding where the boiler meets the smokebox. Waiting on the platform are Passenger Shunter George Harrison, with pipe (and probably waiting to use the boarded crossing), having a word with Porter Harry Hart. On the kiosk in the background is an advert for the Mivvi - an 'ice cream on a stick with a frozen strawberry-juice shell' - made by Lyons Maid.

The second picture, of 90383, was taken at 2:40pm (according to a station clock) on 9th April 1964.

By chance, at the time their pictures were taken these locomotives were each about 13 months away from their respective dates of withdrawal from service.

[StevieG]

...And behind the heads of those two good gents in the first photo, on the back wall, something about Walpamur paints, perhaps.

[giner]

And in the photo of the two ladies behind the counter, Good News chocolates on the back shelf and Cadbury's Easter Eggs in the display case, which fits nicely with the date of the photo. Superb stuff again, 61070 - hope you've got hundreds of these photos.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Did you think I would miss out on these wonderful photo's, no way! Filthy dirty WD's, they were all like that we'r'nt they, can't remember a clean one, we had plenty coming through Wood Green, all day every day! seemed like every 10 minutes, in each direction, loved that clank! a great time in railway history, and we lived through it
manna

[61070]

Yes giner, there are a few more to go at yet …

StevieG - I'm sure that it is an advert for Walpamur paint in the 15th August 1963 picture. It's a brand name that I remember because there was a wallpaper shop a few doors down from where we used to live at that time which stocked it. The name has intrigued me and, thanks to the Internet, I now know that WalPaMur is a shortened version of the name of The Wall Paper Manufacturers' Company (of Darwen, Lancs.); see http://cottontown.org/page.cfm?LANGUAGE=eng&pageID=1325 . You live and learn.

That area of Grantham station seems to have been a bit of an advertising mecca for paint manufacturers because, by 16th April 1964 (see study of a Station Inspector - I think - with barrow below) the same board was advertising Snowcem ('the effect is dazzling'). Snowcem was (is?) an exterior paint which I think was a comparatively new product at that time. Back again to 15th August 1963, when a different Snowcem advert ('it costs so little') was on another board a few yards along the platform (see next photo). Perhaps the staff of the BR department who sold station advertising space had entertained a few paint manufacturers' marketing people to nice lunches.

Interrupting our admiration of the art of advertising, another grimy Colwick WD clanks through on 1st August 1963. Looking carefully at the 'clean' area around the cabside number, evidence of old layers of paint can be seen - including at least one former number which cannot be 90510. It's slightly larger than the BR numerals and seems to end in '75'. I noticed this only when I was 'cleaning up' the photo today. Is there a list anywhere of earlier numbers borne by these engines?

[giner]

In the first of the three 'new' additions, I see a London Underground map on the wall. I wonder if there were many London commuters from Grantham in those days. On that lovely grimy Dubber I'd plump for 90175 for one of those underlying numbers - sorry, the old minces were about to give out after that.

[Bill Bedford]

In the first of the three 'new' additions, I see a London Underground map on the wall. I wonder if there were many London commuters from Grantham in those days.

Commuters don't need Underground maps, they should know where they are going......
Tourists OTOH never know where they are.
Where there many tourists in Grantham in those days?