Page 18 - Jigsaw June 2019

Glance at the past.............................................................................
On the right tracks – a chance find leads Eric Franklin to...
Towards the end of last year
I was told of some very old
narrow gauge rails that had
been spotted beside the Town
Walk and was emailed pictures
of this find. The picture shows
one of these narrow gauge
rails with a 5p coin to give idea
of scale (with thanks to Tony
Sanders). I subsequently found
out that top soil was removed
from the land before gravel
digging commenced and a
narrow gauge railway took this topsoil to two mudbanks, one on each side of the pit. These rails are the remaining signs of this railway.
The train used was a diesel engine owned by Thomas Roberts from London. The company employed boys to drive the engine until they were 18 when they left, being replaced by another boy. This was done because at 18 they were eligible for a mans wage! Three of the people who worked on the mudbank were Bill Mallock, Les Jeffrey and Charlie Meadows, whilst Jack Moulton from Titchmarsh worked the drag line. There were two pump boats which removed the
gravel which was depositied in a barge and taken to the grading area by Nine Arch Bridge. (My thanks to Gerry Cornwell, who worked as a boy driving the diesel, for these details.)
The next two pictures (below) are of the gravel pits during the very harsh winter of 1962/1963, which put a stop to excavations for many weeks. Firstly is the tug which towed the barges trapped in ice by the wharf and secondly
the drag line snowed in on the workings. Finally (opposite) a distance view from the
A605 hill near the Titchmarsh turn, of the pits still being dug during the summer of 1965. Those with keen eyesight may spot the railway line to Peterborough as a thin brown line curving round this side of the pit, as well as machinery working on extraction. Islip is in the distance. (These three pictures are from the Denis Barber archive).
This short article is the direct result of someone making a chance find along the Town Walk. If there is any topic of local history you would like me to consider for one of these articles, let me know.
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