Events

Dudbridge Railway Station

  I often walk the cycle track below Rodborough Hill, The old Midland Railway spur from Dudbridge, And I often cycle the track on to Nailsworth, Musing on the springs and watercourses, the ancient holloways, The Roman villa, medieval ridge and furrow, the woollen mills, The occasional mill chimney, still rising high into the Stroudwater sky. But, today, I stand at the blue brick retaining wall At the old Dudbridge railway station, Watching the cars career around the roundabout, Drivers mostly oblivious of the history of Dudbridge; But when I ignore the roar of the traffic, And I find my mind’s historical eye, I can see a medieval pilgrim crossing the bridge, A packhorse with Cotswold wool a mile behind. For here I stand by the confluence of two rivers. But also, at the junction of two railway lines: The interface of water power and steam power, The inexorable march of the industrial revolution: Foundries and forges and furnaces And cranes and pulleys and chains and smoke: A century-old pandemonium at Dudbridge, Where once there was an orchard and there is still a Meadow Lane. Carefully cross the road and study the information plaques On the wall at Sainsburys; the clothier’s 1646 doorway too; The inscription at REDLERS from 1910; The information board at Kimmins Mill, Then retrace your steps carefully back to the blue brick wall, And recite these words from T.S. Eliot to yourself: “And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first...

Football and the General Strike

Football and the General Strike Plymouth Strikers v Police The 1925-26 football season ended on May 1st 1926 with Huddersfield Town, once under the tutelage of the legendary Herbert Chapman, league champions for the third year in a row. Chapman, of course, would...

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Sapperton 1926 and the General Strike

When my father grew old, his grasp for words became slower and his frustration greater. We sometimes took him for a car ride around his Gloucestershire haunts. We would end at a pub, often in Frampton Mansell, and he would sit, making a half pint last forever, with a...

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1926 with Nock and Potts on the GWR

The GWR and the General Strike May 2nd Sir Felix Pole GWR General Manager sent the following message to all GWR stations and departments: ‘The National Union of Railwaymen have intimated that railwaymen have been asked to strike without notice tomorrow night. Each...

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GWR Voices for Performance

The Voice of C.R. Clinker (clerk at Bristol) It would be wrong to give the impression that the General Strike was anything but a very serious calamity. Yet to a young man in his twenties, with only three years’ service, it provided an interlude in daily routine and a...

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The GWR 1926

  The GWR and the General Strike in Gloucestershire   May 2nd Sir Felix Pole GWR General Manager sent the following message to all GWR stations and departments: ‘The National Union of Railwaymen have intimated that railwaymen have been asked to strike...

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