5690 Leander, passing through Norton Junction (that’s the old Highbridges Yard, of course) at Ryders Hayes, on the Brownhills-Pelsall border, on the 4th December 1981. Image by Tim Spiers, sent in by Ian Pell.

The reach of this blog is often surprising – and is frequently demonstrated in interesting ways – and such was the case over the last weekend when I posted a couple of articles that have inspired further information to be revealed.

I’ll deal with the first here.

On Saturday, I enquired as to the odd spelling of the sign on a picture of the Anglesey Sidings signal box, in Newtown, Brownhills. As I hoped, rail expert Ian Pell was passing and posted the following comment on the original article:

Hi Bob

The simple answer is that the box was always referred to as ‘Anglesea Sidings’ from the perspective of the railway. The LNWR had a habit of spelling places as they thought they were and they often stuck. Ryders Hays is a further example, which has believe it or not at least 9(!) different spellings according to which documents you view. Both the OS maps and the Charrington map of their oil terminal refer to ‘Anglesey Wharf” or ‘Anglesey Sidings’. The photo is genuine and as far as the railway is concerned is correct. The only railway documents which do not use the Anglesea spelling appear to be the Private Siding Agreement maps, which interestingly were initially drawn-up by outside sources such as Tho. Kent & Sons. In the working timetables, and operational notices it was always ‘Anglesea’.

A further comment from Denis Jones noted witnessing a steam loco pass through Newtown, Brownhills on that line in the early 80s: Ian also had a remarkable contribution on that, too:

Hi Denis

The date for Leander’s [The loco in question] journey north was 4th December 1981. It left Light Engine from Bewdley at 09.48 for the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley and was subject to a 20 mph speed restriction, with the proviso that it ran only on main lines and avoided using any crossovers. After servicing at Butterley it was due to haul a Sheffiled to Carnforth rail tour the next day. This was its first duty after a major boiler overhaul at Bridgnorth where it had resided from 1980.

Ian also sent me a rather interesting email:

Hi Bob

Please find attached a copy of Tim Spiers photograph of 5690 ‘Leander’ passing Norton Junction on the 4th Devember 1981 on its way to Butterley.

I also attach an 1876 notice which clearly denotes ‘Anglesea Sidings’.

For the record the box was –

Anglesea Sidings SB LNW 1899 19.03.84 – Mechanical 30 LNW Type 4, 3 LNW Tumbler, 1504 Nov 1899, to grd frame on closure

Kindest regards
Ian

My particular thanks to Ian for yet another amazing contribution to this blog – little did I know that when a black and white picture of a signal box drifted past in my surfing of Facebook a few days ago that it would reveal such a wealth of information.

Cheers to everyone else who contributed, too. If you’ve anything to add, please feel free to comment or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.

It was, without question, always Anglesea – as shown in this 1876 document scanned and sent in by Ian Pell. Click through for a larger version – what a wonderful thing.