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.
Today, both Glyndyfrdwy village and station look rather quiet – a sleepy Dee-side spot, perhaps. But go back 100 or so years and things would have been rather different. Mills, quarries and a slate works up the valley: the area was a hive of activity. That also included timber production – something which found its way into the railway records.
Courtesy National Library of Scotland Maps.
Coming and going at Glyndyfrdwy
The railway arrived at Glyndyfrdwy in 1865. It would have made access – for both people and goods – rather easier and quicker than the existing road connections. Though only a relatively small station it was served by two passenger platforms and a limited goods yard. The latter allowed people to receive goods and livestock. This would have included coal, cattle and horse traffic coming in, no doubt with livestock going out too.
A narrow-gauge tramway ran (at its height) for three miles down to meet the railway at Glyndyfrdwy. It served the quarries and slate works further up the valley and was worked by gravity and horses pulling empties up to return. A transhipment siding at Glyndyfrdwy meant slate could leave the area by train. The quarries and works remained operational until 1947
Working timber at Glyndyfrdwy
Slate wasn’t the only thing leaving Glyndyfrdwy at scale. There was demand enough for timber that particular instructions were issued about working practices. In the 1935 service timetable issued by the Great Western Railway (GWR), operations were specified:
Glyndyfrdwy – Timber Loading
Before loading operations are commenced, the permission of the Signalman must be obtained and a clear understanding arrived at. Before permission is given all signals must be placed and kept at Danger until loading operations have ceased. The loading must cease as soon as it is necessary to accept a Down train from the box in the rear, or an Up train has left Carrog.
The permission to load and the order to cease loading must be given by the Signalman to the timber loaders by means of a shunting horn, the codes being as under:
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- Loaders asking permission to commence loading: 5 blasts.
- Signalman giving permission to commence loading, at same time exhibiting a green flag: 1 blast and 1 crow.
- Signalman requiring loading to cease, at same time exhibiting a red flag: 6 blasts
- Loaders acknowledging signal to cease loading: 1 crow.
The loaders to apply to the Signalman for a shunting horn before commencing operations in the yard.
Timber loader Rogers
Loading timber would have been heavy work – not something that could just have been handled by the staff without help. A crane was supplied for use in goods work, including in loading outgoing timber. That crane has left a small mark in the historic record.
On 18 December 1914, timber loader Rogers was working at Glyndyfrdwy. At 11.30am his arm was injured by a crane handle, and he needed three days off work. And that’s all the record provides – not very much to go on. It shows how little information was regarded by the GWR as being necessary, at least for the summary record of accidents.
It’s possible that the incident would have been similar to that shown in the posed accident prevention image. The handle spun uncontrollably when a heavy weight was being lowered, knocking the railwayman over. Might this have been timber loader Rogers’ fate?
Unfortunately we haven’t been able to find out any more about Rogers. With so little to go on, we can’t say which Rogers was involved. He might have been local to Glyndyfrdwy – but equally, he might have lived some distance away. He might not have been permanently based at Glyndyfrdwy, but instead only have been called in that day as that was when help was needed with the loading. There is no obvious fit in the records that we can point to, sadly. It may be that this single accident record is now the only remaining trace of Rogers’ life – how quickly people fade from memory and then from sight.
If you know more about any of the railway workers featured we’d be keen to hear from you – do please let us know.
1935 Chester Division Appendix to service timetables courtesy of Peter Dickinson.