Stations like Stroud (and Macbeth)
Stations like Stroud (and Macbeth) They’re great theatre, railway stations, don’t you think? The platform as the stage with Life and Existence itself in the limelight. For it’s almost as if a state of beatitude is attained whilst sitting on that platform, regarding...
An A to Z of Women’s Past Work: the GWR in Peace and War
An A to Z of Women’s Past Work: the GWR in Peace and War A is for acetylene cutter and assembler and dismantler of automatic instruments and acetylene welder B is for booking clerk and brass lacquerer and bridge-keeper and blinds puller and boilersmith’s mate C is for...
The Refreshment Rooms at Swindon
The Refreshment Rooms at Swindon The next time you stop at Swindon and grab a coffee, you might be astonished to discover that the refreshment rooms at Swindon were both famous and infamous (also possibly remind yourself of Shelley’s poem Ozymandias with a quick...
The Rodborough GWR Bus Service
The Rodborough GWR Bus Service The GWR experimented with some local bus services in the 1920s around Painswick, Cainscross, Chalford, Kingscourt and Rodborough. I recorded some residents’ memories of Spillmans off Rodborough Hill a few years ago: red brick...
800101 and Andy and Steve
800101 and Andy and Steve 800101 stood gloomily at Gloucester station. His mood was worsened every Monday morning (and Monday mornings were bad enough anyway) by the excited chatter of two men who should know better at their age. Every Monday morning, they awaited his...
View from a Carriage Window: Fields of Ridge and Furrow near Minety
View from a Carriage Window: Fields of Ridge and Furrow near Minety Gaze out of your window between Kemble and Swindon, Look left and right between Purton and Minety, And you will see a clear pattern of ridge and furrow (‘Like corrugated fields or waves in a...