Plowden Reminiscences

By Ted Lucas

Tom Matthews of Wentnor was in charge of the coal depot at Plowden Station, for W. S. Gwilt. He came to work in a pony and trap. There was a stable for the pony and it used to graze on the land behind the office.Tom Matthews was an uncle to Dick Matthews (fireman) whose father, a brother to Tom, was the ganger in charge of the platelayers of the BCR. His name was Ned and he lived up Cwm Head, above Horderley.
For the sheep sales at Craven Arms an early morning train of truckloads of sheep was run, before the normal service. From time to time a GWR tank engine was hired, when one of the BCR engines was out of service, likewise on Shrewsbury Show days a main line large carriage was hired to cope with the extra passengers.
Bishop's Castle church Sunday school used to come to Plowden for their annual picnic at the foot of the Longmynd, my mother (Fanny Lucas) used to boil the water to make the tea. Mr. Morris of Plowden Hill had bags of wheat that came by rail for him to collect and grind into flour. The mill was run by a water wheel by the River Onny.
Many tons of stone from the Squilver Quarry were transported by the BCR from Lydham Heath to Plowden and Horderley, as were trucks of tarmacadam for the County Council from away (Clee Hill I think) to unload. As it was a solid mass in the trucks, a steam-pipe from the traction engine was used to help to remove it from the trucks. It was then loaded into trailers and pulled by the traction engine to wherever it was being laid. Milk churns (17 gallons type) were unloaded at Plowden, I can't remember who collected them.
A motor bus was also run by the BCR to replace the train at times. One evening it had a puncture outside Plowden Station and the driver (Arthur Hillman), who wore a uniform and peaked cap with B.C.T.C. (Bishop's Castle Transport Company) across the front, had to change the wheel. On board was a policeman handcuffed to a prisoner being transported to Shrewsbury Gaol. They must have missed the connection at Craven Arms. I have often wondered how they got on.
On one occasion the train became derailed at Hillend between Plowden and Horderley owing to the state of the track (at that time the real sleepers were rotting away and being replaced by green wooden sleepers cut from felled trees), anyway the train still on the line was uncoupled and went on to Bishop's Castle, returning later with all the labour that could be mustered. With hand-worked jacks (there were no mobile cranes) and after a lot of very hard work the trucks were back on the rails, the track repaired as best they could and the train away home to Bishop's Castle.
In the whinberry season my father (Will Lucas) used to buy the fruit picked by people on the Longmynd then package it and send it to a dye works in Blackburn.
Jabez Barker of Shrewsbury (timber merchants) felled a lot of timber at Myndtown, at the foot of the Longmynd. A traction engine was used to winch and load the timber onto the timber carriages, but shire horses pulled the carriages down alongside the Longmynd to Plowden Station where it was worked onto railway timber wagons (using the crane) and transported away to Shrewsbury. The horses by the way were staled at Mr. Davies' Folly Farm between Plowden and Lydbury North. In my schooldays at Plowden the BCR was a busy line, but towards the end of the 20's decade it started to decline and never got on its feet again.

Ted Lucas is the son of the last Plowden stationmaster.

Being the son of a Grocer and Farmer I saw and enjoyed much of the Bishop's Castle Railway, at that time my father kept horses for deliveries and collection of goods. I well remember riding on the Horse Dray to the Goods Shed where a daily collection was made of various goods that had arrived in one of the BCR goods vans. In this would be goods for traders in the town, most being delivered to the shops by Vaughans' horse cart. My father was very much involved in the corn trade, selling direct to farmers who would collect various feeding stuffs direct from the station by wagon and horses. The vans containing the corn etc. would be on a short length of line from the Goods Shed to buffers at the back of the station building.

Farmers would also collect wagonloads of coal at the beginning of winter from the Beddoes and Gwilt Depot at the station. These two coal merchants delivered coal around the town in horses and carts.

Monday was very much a commercial traveller's day for visiting Bishop's Castle; they would arrive on the mid-day train, and leave on the evening train back to Craven Arms. I well remember two particular traveller's who saved their cigarette cards for me, and I would rush to the train to meet them.

Attached to the train every alternate Monday would be one or two cattle trucks conveying farmers' sheep and cattle to Craven Arms market. In the trucks there was a partition, sheep probably behind the partition and cattle in the main body of the truck. These animals were loaded in the pens situated near the timber dock.
Returning on the last train from Craven Arms on these Mondays would be the local butchers' purchases of cattle and sheep for their trade. These animals would be unloaded on the passenger platform after the passengers had departed. They would be then driven to the various slaughterhouses in the town.

Two special sheep trains were run to Craven Arms in September for special sales. These trains left Bishop's Castle at 6 a.m., loading in the cattle dock. They probably had three or so wagons from Bishop's Castle, and picking up en route to Craven Arms at Lydham Heath, Eaton and Plowden. The shepherds in charge of the sheep travelled in the Guard's van with their dogs, and dogfights were not unknown.

Special Trains for the Sheep Sales and March & October Cattle Sales would leave Bishop's Castle when trainloads could be made up. Any remaining wagons were then forwarded with the normal service.

My father often bought cattle at Shrewsbury and other centres and these would be loaded to arrive at Craven Arms during the night, and then up on the first train in the morning.
From the sheep sales at Craven Arms local farmers would often buy the odd ram, and these would be transported in the passenger guard's van with other goods.

The transport of large timber, whole trees etc. was much of the railway business. I remember a couple of persons who had horse drawn timber wagons to transport the timber from the woods to the station, one was a man named Jack Eggiston who stabled his horses at the Six Bells. I well remember as a small boy returning from the High School at 3.30 p.m. to see two timber wagons, three horses at each, drawn up outside the pub, and the Waggoner's enjoying their pints.

T.R.Perkins
February 19th 1934

On Thursday week a friend of mine and I motored to Minsterley by way of Craven Arms and Lydham, so we had a good look at the BCR en route. "Carlisle" was working the train - one coach only, the L.S.W.R 6 wheeler and a few goods wagons- and looked quite smart, very clean and all the brass work polished. Alas! All else was otherwise, and the track is getting positively unsafe: the engine bends the rails as it passes, and half the sleepers are rotten, bolts sticking out 2" or so, etc etc. We went down to Bishop's Castle and had a look round: one of the old coaches that had the chain brake is now a motor shed!