“Itappearsthat, in turn,otherwriters relied upon
andused Barr ie andClinkeras thei rsource forthis
informati on (why May7,1870 hadbeenmisquoted
elsewhereast he openingdate); thus aclassic example of
howanerror hasbeenreplica tedtimeand again and, as
such, unwittingly an accepted illusion of truthhas been
created. It is atrapintowhich this writer ha sbeenknown
to fall!”
Following arrival of the‘Pines Express’fromBournemouth,ex-Midland Class‘2P’4-4-0 No.518 has just backed
down andcoupledto thestock forthe continua tion of therun northwards.IVOPETERS,COURTESY JULIAN PETERSornamental boarding.”The station was opened
“unattended by ceremony, and, except that Mr.J
Stone’s porter stores, at the bottom of Charles Street,
wereadorned with flags andascroll wishing‘Success to the Midland Railway’, therewas no
outwarddisplay to show that anything particular
was going on....The first train was timed to leave
Bath at 7.40 (am),but long beforethat hour people
began to assemble in and about the station.“
Therefollowedadescription of the inaugural
train, theBath Chroniclereporter advising that
most of the many passengers boughtaticket
“simply for the purpose of saying that they travelled
in the first train on the new line, and booked only
to Weston(the first station)–apenny ride”.
The train was eight minutes late as it “quietly
glided out of the station, the passengers getting up
afaint cheer.Atfive minutes past eight o’clock a
train from Bristol (due 7.55)came in, and with
it agreat number of those who had left Bathalittle
morethan aquarter of an hour previously”. The
driver of the incoming train was John Orfordof
20 AlbertBuildings, Bath. (A fact gained from
his obituary–Bath Chronicle,Dec 22, 1910).
It appears it might have been two well-
known railway historians,DSBarrie andCR
Clinker,who first madereference toatemporary
station at Bath. Both had been professional
railwaymen: Derek Stiven Maxwelton Barrie
(1907-1989) was, in 1948, the publicrelations
officer of the Railway Executive. Charles Ralph
Clinker (1906-1983), who joined the GWR in
1923, hadretired from his railway career in 1946.Accuracy
Jointly,they produced the book The
Somerset&Dorset Railway (first published in
1948 by The Oakwood Press, and subsequently
republished several times). Clinker,inp articular,was to become known for the
accuracy of hisresearch, while
both arestill highlyregarded
as recorders of railway history
Both men, their publisher
advised, “had lived in the
Bristol area and became
intimately acquainted with
the old Somerset&Dorset ...”
In the 1930s, Clinker served
as secretaryoft he Bristol
Railway Circle.
In describing the arrival
of the Midland Railway in
Bath they stated: “...and had
been opened for passenger
traffic toatemporary
terminus at Bath on August
4, 1869 and for goods on
September1oft he same year;
the present (Queen Square)
terminus at Bath was brought
into use on May 7, 1870.”
Note also theirreference
to the title Queen Square
–ofwhich moreinPart2
next month.
What Barrie and Clinker
did not state or clarify–and herein, perhaps, lies
the crux of much of what has since been written
–was whether the location of the temporaryand
permanent stations at Bathwere, in effect,one
and the same (ie–‘temporary’because itcould
not –because of the works still to becompleted
as at August 4, 1869–yet beconsidered as
‘permanent’?).
In 1960,publisher and author David St
John Thomas, in hisbook ARegional History
of the Railways of Great Britain (Volume1–The West Country),repeated whatBarrie and
Clinker had written. In 1967, Robin Atthill,
author of the classic historyThe Somerset &
DorsetRailway(first published by David &
Charles with severalreprints), alsoreferredto
the opening dateasMay 7, 1870.Furthermore,
in describing the railway on the westernside of
the RiverAvon at Bath (that is, on the opposite
side of theriver to that wherethe terminus was
built), Atthill added: “Hereabouts was the site
of the temporaryterminus usedbythe Midland
from August 4, 1869 to May 7,1870, between the
signalbox...andthetwo engine sheds”.
The reality was that building the new railway
‘hereabouts’(toquote Atthill)had required the
ground levelstoberaisedby between9and
12ft.
Duringat least the firsthalf of 1870, the area
‘hereabouts‘remained oneofi ntense activity,
with the contractor’s largeworkforce engaged
in constructing theMidlandRailwayengine
shed ononeside of therunning lines and
adding to thefacilities forming the goods yard
on theother,togetherwith allthe associated
groundworks, tracklaying, andbuildings.
The amountofmaterial necessarytor aise
the ground level (mostly usingstone excavated
fromadeepcutting aboutamile to thewest),
was such that,forexample, the concrete
foundations for the walls to theengine shed
could be cast on the leveloft he ground,but
would finish up being covered bymany feet
of infill!So, by any stretch of theimagination,
‘hereabouts’wasnot alocation which might have
proved suitable fora‘temporaryterminus’.
Moving forwardacentury, on buying
the (then) derelict station from BritishRailin
1972,Bath City Council obtainedafull set of
all the plans and drawingsof the stationplus its
environs as then held by BR in the old ‘Bristol
&Exeter’headquarters adjoiningTemple
Meads station.
As anemployee of thecity council atthat
time, the writerwasresponsible for collecting
and indexing the documents. Many of these
wereoriginal contractdrawings dated and
signed on behalf of theMidlandRailwayCo
and by the contractor.Some even includedafew
hand-written notes, most likelyadded during52 •TheRailway Magazine•August2019
HISTORICSTATIONS
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ey.