This page is one of a series introducing railway staff who worked on the Llangollen and Corwen Railway before 1939 – you can find more here. We’ve tried to share more about the social history of the Railway in the past, via the people who kept it moving before preservation. Where we can we’ve looked at the individual and their wider working and family lives.
The workers featured were selected from staff who appear in the Railway Work, Life & Death project database of accidents to pre-1939 British and Irish railway employees. This worker is one of those featured in the leaflet produced collaboratively between the Llangollen and Corwen Railway and the Railway Work, Life & Death project, available at the Railway or as a PDF here.
Edward Hughes’ life was centred on Corwen, in Denbighshire, north Wales. Now one end of the Llangollen and Corwen Railway, in Edward’s time Corwen was a rather different place. The railway played an important part in the life of the town – and in Edward’s life.
Railway and family in Corwen
Edward David Hughes was born in Corwen on 24 January 1895. His parents, Ambrose and Hannah, had been born in Corwen in the mid-1870s. They would have at least ten children, including David, their first – and all were born in Corwen. Ambrose worked variously as a tailor and an auxiliary postman; there doesn’t appear to have been any family connection with the railway before Edward.
The coming of the railway to Corwen, in the 1860s, must have been a huge change for the town. The Great Western Railway (GWR) arrived in 1864, as part of the line linking Ruabon, Llangollen, Bala and Barmouth. However, Corwen’s position in the Dee valley attracted a rival railway, built on behalf of and operated by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The two lines met at a junction to the east of the station, with the LNWR route heading north towards Denbigh.
The station, opened in 1865, was located to the west of the current Llangollen and Corwen Railway station. Further west were the goods yard and shed, and facilities for servicing steam engines – a turntable and, until 1928, an engine shed. This offered a source of employment which was to benefit Edward. The arrival of the railways meant Corwen was better connected. There were greater opportunities for travel, leisure and work. Those possibilities continued until both routes were closed in the 1960s.
Edward Hughes and railway work
Edward joined the GWR at Corwen on 21 March 1911, aged 16. He started as an engine cleaner, the entry point grade for footplate work, and was paid one shilling and nine pence, weekly (c.£12.50 in 2026). If Edward progressed, over several years he might expect to become a fireman and then a driver.
As was common for railway staff, Edward moved for his work. His employment record notes a formal move date of 2 October 1911, to Croes Newydd, near Wrexham. However, the suspicion is that he joined the GWR at Corwen but was immediately sent to Croes Newydd. He was recorded as living there in the 1911 Census, taken on 2 April 1911. Edward was living with the Hughes family, and three other lodgers.
His record shows that on 9 June 1913 he was moved to Chester, and became a 3rd class fireman. By that point Edward was paid three shillings and sixpence (around £25 in 2026) per week. Later that month, he was moved to Manchester. Was Edward missing home? In December 1913 he requested a transfer back to Corwen, which was granted.
Home or away?
Edward remained at Corwen until April 1927, when he was moved to Bala – relatively close by. Potentially this return to Corwen and long stint in one place delayed Edward’s career progression. Remaining local, at a smaller shed with fewer staff, meant there would have been fewer opportunities for moving up a grade. Only when a fireman had accrued enough experience would he – and they were all men at this time – be considered for promotion. That then depended upon a vacancy being available. If a fireman was prepared to move to where the vacancy was, then they’d move on sooner. If they were tied to a particular place, then it could be a long wait.
It took until 9 May 1927 for Edward to have worked his way through the hierarchy to become a driver. When he got there, he was being paid 12 shillings per week (about £85 in 2026). At the same time, it looks like to get the promotion he had to move to Chester. After a bit over a year based at Chester he requested a move back to home turf, and returned to north Wales. However, as the engine shed at Corwen closed in 1928, Edward had to look a short distance away – to Bala. He’d already spent a month there in 1927, so would have been familiar with the shed and colleagues. He appears to have served out his time at Bala. He was living there in 1939, and no further moves were shown on his employment record.
The wrong staff
Edward’s employment record shows two incidents. On 5 August 1919 he received a caution, for taking the wrong staff at Glyndyfrdwy. This was a signalling issue – but potentially a fairly serious one. The staff was the thing that gave a train permission to travel along a section of line – a safety process that was supposed to ensure trains didn’t crash, especially important on a single track line. This was seen, disastrously, in the head-on crash at Abermule, in January 1921 (more on that here).
Edward’s train was heading towards Corwen. He was handed a staff – but didn’t check it, as he was supposed to. Rather than the Glyndyfrdwy-Corwen staff, he had been given the Glyndyfrdwy-Llangollen Goods Junction staff (which he must just have handed in). Neither man noticed, and Edward and his driver reached Corwen with the wrong staff. Both Edward and the signal porter at Glyndyfrdwy were cautioned for their errors.
Edward’s accident
Edward’s name surfaced in the Railway Work, Life & Death project as he had an accident. In all likelihood he would have had more than one accident over his working career. Manual roles on the railway could be very dangerous, particularly if they involved working with moving trains. However, we only have evidence of one incident involving Edward. It appears in his employment record, and in a volume of accident records held at Didcot Railway Centre (for more on the work the Railway Work, Life & Death project has been doing with Didcot, see here).
Edward’s accident took place during the First World War. Some railway roles were ‘reserved occupations’ – meaning they were deemed essential to the war effort by working at home. Footplate crews were included in the list of reserved occupations, so, on 13 July 1917, Edward was on duty at Corwen shed. At this point, he was 22 and still a fireman.
He had turned engine number 1522 on the turntable. His next step was to lock the turntable in place and ensure it didn’t drift. If it were left unlocked, it would have made it possible for engines to fall into the turntable pit. Edward lifted the locking bar over, but the handle slipped and fell back on his hand. In doing so, it cut off part of the little finger on Edward’s left hand. He was off work until 20 August, and would have received some compensation for the injury. It doesn’t seem to have affected Edward’s working life in the long-term, as he continued in the role and became a driver.
There’s more on another First World War connection on the Llangollen and Corwen Railway here. Soldiers local to Berwyn, down the line towards Llangollen, leaving to fight in the war wrote messages in the underpass at the station. Working with the excellent History Points organisation, Berwyn’s stationmaster Peter Dickinson has been conserving the graffiti, researching the men and their messages, and sharing their stories.
Edward’s wider life
We know a little bit more about Edward Hughes’ wider life. He was bilingual, speaking both English and Welsh. It’s likely that, when he returned to Corwen in 1913, he moved back in with his parents and siblings. Certainly he was living with them in 1921, in Ivy Cottage. This might have been an influential time for one of Edward’s younger brothers, John. Seeing Edward working on the railway might have opened up the possibility of a railway career – in 1921 he was a loco cleaner, following in his brother’s footsteps. By 1939 John was a fireman, and living in Bala with his wife and family.
It looks like Edward married Mary Jones in Corwen in 1923. They seem to have had a least one child, Alfred, born in 1926 – though might have had a further two children. In 1939, Edward was living in Bala with his family. He served with the Home Guard between June 1940 and April 1941. He died on duty on 20 June 1947, of cardiac failure.
If you know more about any of the railway workers featured we’d be keen to hear from you – do please let us know.