OFF THE BEATEN TRACK...

Last month we featured the first of a two part series of memories by local Station Master, Brian Edge, now a resident of Crewe. This issue continues with his life and time at Kibworth.

In 1958 I left East Langton on promotion returning to my native Lancashire where I remained for about four years during which time my daughter Diane-Heather was born.

In 1962 I got the chance to return to Kibworth as Station Master. It was an opportunity that I eagerly accepted. The thought of going back to the area where I had been so happy was quite exciting. To live once more in an area where the villages had such charming names as Smeeton Westerby, Carlton Curlieu, Stonton Wyville etc. On my return I found that I knew most of the staff and they were indeed pleased that I had returned.

Kibworth Station had modern electric lighting which was the envy of many Station Masters in the Leicester Division who felt their stations had a greater claim to it than Kibworth. The lighting had been vigorously campaigned for by Mr Crowshaw a predecessor of mine at Kibworth and it was always considered to be a monument to him.

The main line through Kibworth was fairly busy, about 150 trains daily passing through. The station was built in 1859 in typical Midland Ecclesiastical/Gothic style. The architect was C A Driver. The station house and buildings were virtually identical to several others on the line. At Kibworth the house was about 12 feet from passing expresses, which thundered through at 80 miles per hour. It was an experience indeed to see the expressions on people's faces when they experienced the noise and vibrations inside the house for the first time. It was only possible to go for a week's holiday if the crockery was first removed from the pantry shelves. A fortnight away and it would all be on the floor! Strangely the noise of passing trains didn't bother us as much as the quietness when at weekends trains were suspended for engineering work.

The station was very busy for Leicester commuters, the early morning trains being so full that I recall one of the porters, Cyril Brooksby, regularly calling out "plenty of room on top!" The station dealt with large amounts of parcels traffic in the form of shop displays from Slaters and millions of day old chicks from the Harborough Road Hatchery. Ellis and Everard and George Bromley were the coal merchants who used the station yard. Coal from Gedling Colliery was always in big demand and whilst there were no coal perks here for me I did have the advantage of knowing when a wagon of the best coal had arrived, so I could get my order in.

Kibworth Station was always kept nice during my time there as can be seen from the photo. The Up (London) platform was very low and a small pair of steps was available for any passenger having difficulty alighting.

One day a train came into the platform and the very front carriage door opened and a middle aged lady stood in the doorway. I thought she needed assistance but before I could move to help her, she threw her legs outward and landed in a sitting position in the doorway with her legs dangling downwards! From there she lowered herself onto the platform, closed the carriage door and in due course the train departed. I noticed, however, that she didn't move from where she was standing so I went to her aid. She insisted on taking my arm and I noticed that she walked very slowly and very close to me indeed. I sat her down in the waiting room and she assured me she would be all right if she sat for a while. Eventually she emerged from the waiting room and I again went over to ask if she was all right. Her reply was indeed memorable. "Oh I'm not ill" she said "but you see when I got out of the train the elastic went in my breeches!" I served nearly 50 years in the St John Ambulance movement but this was the most unusual first aid that I ever gave.

We always had some excellent excursions from Kibworth, the most popular being the annual day out to the seaside of the Kibworth Working Men's Club. Mablethorpe, Skegness and Hunstanton were favourite destinations. It was a great sight seeing nearly half the village population on the platform. I doubt whether anything on that scale could ever happen again.

The Kibworth Prize Silver Band once had a competition to attend in London and they made an application for an early morning express to be specially stopped at Kibworth Station to enable them and their equipment to get to London in time. The application was considered by the Leicester Divisional Office and for some reason turned down. As a result the band had to find alternative means of reaching their destination. A couple of days after the competition, a Russian Harpist on his way to London wrongly boarded an early morning train in Kettering and landed at Kibworth with his harp! He was distraught. The person on duty reported the passenger's predicament to the Leicester Control office who promptly issued a special stop order on the very same express that had been refused to the Band. For days, in fact weeks, afterwards, if I ever passed a couple talking in the street I always seemed to catch the dreaded words "Russian Harpist!"

One day I was in the Kibworth North Signal-box when a local train stopped at a signal and a A fireman came up the box to sign the signalman's register. This event was to make a big impact on my life. The engineman was a Kibworth man, David Smith, and during his short visit we discovered that we both shared the same interest, i.e. collecting coins. We arranged to meet and my interest in the hobby was revitalised. As a result I formed a Numismatic Society in Crewe over 30 years ago, which is still going strong, and I also founded the successful Token Congress, now an international event. I have made hundreds of friends the world over and have written several books on coin related subjects. All of these are a direct result of that meeting with Dave Smith all those years ago. Thanks Dave. The late Brian Briggs from the Windmill Farm at Kibworth Harcourt was also quite fascinated with coins and we had many sessions sorting out different types of half-crowns of Charles I.

My wife Connie loved her time at Kibworth and was an active member of the Kibworth and Smeeton Women's Institute. She became Secretary and eventually Chairman and when she left the village was presented with a dictionary which is still in active use. The book is endorsed with good wishes from Joan Marriott, Mrs K M Day, Mabel Underwood, G N Hindley, A M Sanderson, S A Stone, E M Davis, J Mottley, K Dalton, B E R Raftery, C J Jerves, M F Carter, S C Green, A Deacon, C E Smith and I Garner. (Connie sends her best wishes to all her old friends.)

A hobby that I particularly enjoyed whilst living at Kibworth was dinghy sailing at Saddington. At the time the club was owned by the British Transport Staff Association (Leicester Division) and most members worked in the Granby Street offices in Leicester. However, when those offices closed and all the staff transferred to Nottingham I found that Connie, Diane-Heather and myself had a free run of the place for about six months, which was quite an experience. One day in 1964 I went to Saddington expecting to find the water level too low for sailing. Imagine my surprise when I found that the reservoir was empty. British Waterways had tried to repair a faulty valve at low water and the exercise had ended in disaster as the entire stock of fish, which had been confined to the remaining water were flushed through a large pipe and deposited on a nearby field where they all died.

I also supported the Leicester Hunters Speedway Team at the now defunct Blackbird Road track. Speedway was very popular in the area in those days. Does anyone still remember the Kibworth 'Rockets' cycle speedway team that rode on the recreational field? I also played table tennis in the local league for the Kibworth Working Men's Club, We had good fun playing against local village teams and I made plenty of friends as a result.

On the 20 August 1965, a serious accident occurred on the railway at East Langton Station. Whilst a heavy goods train stood at East Langton, a following overloaded coal train crashed into the back of it. The result was total devastation and when I arrived from Kibworth I found it difficult to describe the scene before me. Wagons were piled mountains high and were all over the place, and many of the heavy all-steel wagons were just torn apart by the impact which was perhaps only as slow as two miles per hour. The driver of the second train, Len Blackwell, a Leicester man, who was known to me, lost his life in the mishap. However, this was only part of the story, for simultaneously, the Midland Pullman, a crack express carrying 200 first class passengers, was speeding towards Great Bowden. The signalman at East Langton, Harold Stokes of Little Bowden, acted in textbook fashion. Considering he had just helplessly witnessed a terrible collision with all its devastation, he coolly sent the 'obstruction danger' signal to Great Bowden Signal box. The signalman there immediately threw back his signals to danger against the express but it was too late as the Pullman was already passing. The fireman of the first train, Ellis Hill, also carried out his duties most efficiently, for when he realised that all the lines were blocked he ran forward with a red flag towards the speeding express which just managed to stop some 200 yards short of the obstruction. This was the blackest event during my years at East Langton and Kibworth but is recalled in view of its being local history.

In 1966 Kibworth and East Langton Stations closed as a result of the notorious Beeching report. Only five stations remained in the county. Also to disappear was the Station Master. To commemorate the event the platelayers at Kibworth gathered on the platform, put my gold braided hat on the end of a three feet long spanner, douched it with paraffin and ceremoniously cremated it. It was the end of an era. One of the Kibworth Station signs ended up in Western Australia, taken there by the son of a Peter Wheeler, a booking clerk at Kibworth Station in the early 1950s.

I retired some eight years ago after 45 years of railway service and both Connie and I currently enjoy many active interests here in Crewe.

In conclusion, my daughter has worked for the railway for over 20 years now and a couple of years back she attended an interview for a new job. The interviewing officer asked her if she was any relation to Brian Edge. She cautiously explained that he was her father, but you can imagine her chagrin when he replied "Oh, I remember you sitting in your pram outside Kibworth Station House!" She got the job.

© Brian Edge 1997

Any comments or question please e-mail us @

stephen.poyzer@which.net or jemeny@globalnet.co.uk

 © Kibworth & District Chronicle 1998