Railway Employees

Yes Ken, it has been known to flood a few times. They actually had to re-route the river to build the railway. It's the up line from Swansea that is a bit waterlogged in that picture.

Huncamunca has pointed me in the right direction to see some records on Ancestry. It has been a great help.
 
Chimp said:
Thanks Jen. At the moment all I have to go on are the names from the 1871-1911 census. These censuses only mention the professions that I have given. The railway only reached the town in 1865 or there abouts.
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I didnt even know the railways had there own upholsterers until Fiona Bruce mentioned them on an episode of the Antiques Roadshow,It sent me off looking at railway employees for my pesky Charles Henry Jackson,I couldnt find him,I suspect he got on a train never to be seen again.
Jenn
 
I have just found a report in the Hereford Journal 1858. It says that the first sod would be cut for the Knighton railway by Lady Jane Walsh on 19th August.

Anyone like to hazard a guess as to who she was or where she was from?
 
Chimp said:
I have just found a report in the Hereford Journal 1858. It says that the first sod would be cut for the Knighton railway by Lady Jane Walsh on 19th August.

Anyone like to hazard a guess as to who she was or where she was from?
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maybe the wife of Sir John Benn Walsh, who was MP for Radnorshire?

http://www.
historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/walsh-sir-john-benn-1798-1881
 
They did have a little place at Knill:

http://
lh.matthewbeckett.com/houses/lh_herefordshire_knillcourt_info_gallery.html
 
The chairman of Knighton Railway Company was Robert George Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth GBE, CB, PC. He was the great grandson of Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB MP FRS (Clive of India).

Name dropper :D
 
My maternal great grandfather became an engine driver and it was said to me by his granddaughter that drivers of "Express Engines" were superior to other drivers. I don't know whether that was true because my mother was quite conscious of status as so many of her generation were. She also said that within a working class community the express driver was quite an important man.

My second job (this was in the early 1960s) was working for a city council and as a professional trainee I was told by an old hand that when he first started having a job with the local council gave you status within your local community. I wouldn't say this was true today any more than a driver of of train today has status within his community.

It was however typical of the time before the First World War where classes were rigid, status ran with class and it was very hard to change things like that.

I hasten to add that I think that this apparent loss of status is not a bad thing and nor is it an insult to local government workers or drivers to say so. We should be valued for the contributions we make to our families and to society generally rather than solely because of the jobs we do.
 
Having some problems trying to find who was station master of Knighton Railway in 1901. Actually I have quite a few employees for all the other censuses but the 1901 is sadly lacking.
 
Chimp said:
Having some problems trying to find who was station master of Knighton Railway in 1901. Actually I have quite a few employees for all the other censuses but the 1901 is sadly lacking.
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Do you have access to any directories that you could check?
 
No, I am waiting for my book to arrive. Hopefully that will give me some ideas.

William Mills was the station master was in 1891 but he died 6th March 1894 aged 55 years. In 1911 it was William Whitford, but... 1901, not a clue. Trouble is he may not have lived in Knighton which makes it almost impossible to pin down who it was.
 
Daft Bat said:
Do you have access to any directories that you could check?
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1901 Kelly's directory for South Wales is on Ancestry

Go to UK City and County Directories 1600s-1900s, then browse and choose Wales > All Welsh Counties > 1901 Kelly's Directory, South Wales. The Knighton section begins at the bottom of image 391.

Under the heading Railway Conveyance it has 'London & North Western Railway, Knighton, Henry A. Hodder, station master'

Directories can be out of date by the time they're printed though, so this may not help with 1901 census.
 
From Welsh Newspapers Online

The Cambrian of 3 February 1905 has details of a presentation of a gold watch to Mr. H. Hodder 'for eleven years station-master at Knighton (Radnor)' when he was 'about to leave to take up the important post of stationmaster at Victoria, Swansea'.
 
Thank you very much Huncumunca. He was Henry Arthur Hodder and was living at Stowe. Stowe is a small place about a mile down the line from Knighton.

Thank you again.
 
Chimp said:
Thank you very much Huncumunca. He was Henry Arthur Hodder and was living at Stowe. Stowe is a small place about a mile down the line from Knighton.
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I see that he is enumerated at the railway station in the parish of Stowe. So was Knighton railway station in the adjoining parish? (It might have been if the river was the parish boundary.)

We have a similar situation with the town of Witney not all being in the parish of Witney. Our railway station (now gone, alas) was in the parish of Curbridge. The village of Curbridge is some way off, but the parish of Curbridge came right into Witney.
 
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