Appendix: Railway Accommodation

As shown in the 1911 list, railway staff were accommodated throughout Ashchurch. But the Midland Railway owned property at or near the railway station, enough to accommodate the stationmaster in a dedicated house and fourteen families plus lodgers in cottages. It has been possible to establish the occupants of these, though with some gaps, over the period approximately 1870 to 1939, when this study ceases. These are presumably included in the description "land and buildings, railway and station" in Ashchurch pre-war electoral registers which qualified Percy Marriott Payne of Derby to vote in Ashchurch. He was the Chief Rating Surveyor of Midland Railway and he appears similarly in electoral registers elsewhere, for example in Yorkshire, testifying to Midland Railway's ownership of the buildings.

The Cottages

There seems to be some form of pattern here, by which certain cottages are occupied by signalmen, others by foremen, others by occupants of the Provender Stores; though not always exclusively. Care should be taken if trying to establish job/post continuity as one cottage occupant replaces another. In the case of the signalman this does not always correspond with the pattern obtained from the station lists.

This study is concerned only with the householders. There are often lodgers, usually other railwaymen, young and single men who are in Ashchurch for a short posting. These are not considered here.

Pre-war and post-war sources differ, and provide different information:-

Pre-war. Up to 1914 the main sources are the ten-yearly censuses, a selection of electoral registers and some local records. All the censuses identify the occupants of the railway cottages, variously called station, new and Midland cottages, but only those of 1881 and 1911 give the full address, with cottage number. They also show occupations. The electoral registers list (male) householders, but without specific addresses. All the cottages are shown simply as located "near the station".

Post-war there are no censuses (that for 1921, due for release at the beginning of 2022, is eagerly awaited). The electoral register gives full addresses, in the form of, for example' 1 Midland Cottages. There is no information on occupations, but this can sometimes be compensated for by the 1939 register, though people may have moved on by then; and sometimes by local records such as births and marriages.

One feature, perhaps unexpected, is that railwaymen could stay in their railway cottage after retiring from work — at least in the twentieth century. This is shown in the 1939 lists where no less than seven of the fourteen cottages were occupied by retired workers in their late 60s and 70s - four retired sigalmen, a foreman and two others. One, signalman Joseph Cooper, was still living in his cottage when he died at the age of 90.

Cottage 1
1881-1898	Francombe, Louis Alfred	Provender Stores
1901-1912	Trapp, Frederick
1918	Lowe, James Frederick
1919-1924	unoccupied, see cottage 12
1925-1939	Lowe, James Frederick	1939 retired railway worker, Ashchurch
Cottage 2
1881-1891	Bater, Charles	labourer
1911-1939	Pardoe, James	Provender Stores, 1939 retired railway servant, Ashchurch
Cottage 3
1881-1906	Chave., John	signalman
1911-1927	Bullock, Joseph	relief signalman
1928-1929	Horne, George Aubrey	1939 railway signalman Meriden
1930-1939	Huggins, Albert	1939 LMS permanent way labourer, Ashchurch
Cottage 4
1981-1909	Bassano, Henry	signalman
1911-1912	Bamford, Albert G S	signalman
1918-1939	Washbourne, Martin Wm	signalman, 1939 retired signalman Ashchurch
Cottage 5
1881-1891	Bonsey, James	signalman
1911	Smith, Richard
1918-1937	Thomas Barnett	signalman
1938-1939	Price, Charles James
1939	Ponter, William	1939 railway signal and telegraph engineer
Cottage 6
1881-1906	Robert Wickes	signalman
1911-1912	Hamlin, Robert
1914-1927	Starks, George Edward
1928-1935	Bunn, Albert Haydon	1913 signalman Birmingham
1936-1939	Rogers, John Henry	1939 signalman Ashchurch
Cottage 7
1881	Platten, Samuel	porter
1911-1939	Woolley, Frederick	coalman, night watchman, 1939 retired
Cottage 8
1881	Hanks, John	train examiner
1885-1922	Heard, Thomas	signalman
1923-1930	Langford, William	1939 signalman Gloucester
1935-	Miles, William Henry	1939 relief signalman Gloucester
1936-1939	McMillan, John Charles	1939 signalman Ashchurch
Cottage 9
1881-1909	Stacey, Henry Charles	Yard Foreman
1911-1920	Evans, Samuel Stockton	Yard Foreman
1921-1922	Clarke, Horace Walter	perh 1939 Goods Foreman Sutton-in-Ashfield
1924-1939	James Bunn	1939 Yard Foreman retired Ashchurch
Cottage 10
1881	Freeman, Charles	signalman
1909-1939	Haynes, Raymond Richard	1939 signalman (retired) Ashchurch
Cottage 11
1881	Webber, Thomas	signalman
1891-1939	Cooper, Joseph Joel	retired signalman, died Tewkesbury hospital
Cottage 12
1881-1888	Cuff, Cornelius	engine coalman
1909-1918	Malin, James	goods checker
1919-1925	Stacey, Henry Charles
1926-1939	Venn, Henry Predeth	parcels porter
James Frederick Lowe doubling up here 1919-1924 in his absence from Cottage 1
Cottage13
1881-1891	Bowles, William	goods porter/checker
1911	Weaver Frederick	under goods guard
1914-1939	Payne, William Henry	1939 signalman (retired) Aschchurch
Cottage 14
1898-1925	Harrison, John	Foreman Porter
1925-1939	Parslow, Francis Henry	1939 railway foreman Ashchurch

Not identified to specific cottage

The following have been identified as cottage residents but without knowledge of the cottage number. They will fill in some of the gaps in the table above

Bending, Norman	1898-1909	signalman
Bowyer, William	1891-1908	signalman
Cocks, Albert	1909
Dilley, William H	1909
Dones, Daniel	1901-(1908)	Provender Stores
Hampton, William	1885-1889	signalman
Johnson, Gilbert Edward	1902	booking clerk
Lee, Thomas	1885-1890	ticket collector
Mulcock, Daniel	1890-1891	engine driver
Smith, John	1902
Trapp, John	1898-1902	Provender Stores

The Stationmaster's House

There was a stationmaster's house as part of the accommodation at the railway station. The accommodation for stationmasters George Peck (1871) and William Lewin (1881) is not specified in the censuses but is clearly very close to the cottages. Thereafter:

1885-1891	William Lewin	stationmaster's house "near the station"	stationmaster
1901-1922	William Watkins	West View	stationmaster
1923-1928	Anthony Swift	West View	stationmaster
1935	George William Waite	West View	uncertain
1938-postwar	George Stanley Jones	West View	stationmaster
No record has been seen of occupation of West View between about 1891 and 1900; William Lewin had moved to his newly acquired house at Homedowns. No record has been seen of occupation of West View between 1929 and 1938 except the brief period of one year by George Waite, and he was perhaps other than the stationmaster (listed in Gotherington in 1939 as a retired railway inspector)

Page last updated: 13JUN2018