Unidentified crossing keeper's cottage

[lazonbytunnel]

Any thought on this one? Similar cottages with the same angled chimneys have been noted in Northamptonshire but perhaps the design was widespread.

 

[Gloster]

Two thoughts:

The style of the barge boards may be typical of a railway company or even a specific line.

Can you read the car registration? I know that car’s move, but it might suggest an area.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Hmm... There are a few clues here:

1) Can anyone read the car registrations and see if both are from a similar area? There wasn't a lot of long distance motoring in the days of such vehicles, so if both are from one area that should narrow it down.

2) The architectural style of the cottage may point to a specific railway company? The chimney sort of says Midland Railway to me?

3) The unusual height of the signal suggests some kind of sighting issue, but the flat landscape - itself a clue - and the fact of a crossing in the first place would seem to rule out something like a bridge or a tunnel.

 

[lazonbytunnel]

The nearest car registration is believed to be a KPF Surrey reg. I don't thnk the further one is legible unfortunately.

 

[Gloster]

The closest style that I find see with the bargeboards is the Great Northern, so I fear that you are at one of the numerous crossings in Lincolnshire and the surrounding area, although this is only a balance of probabilities. It is possible that you are close to a station or former station, which would justify something more than the usual rudimentary bargeboards.

 

[WesternLancer]

could the last bit of the closest car registration be 745 or 74S ? - eg ??? 745

does the signal style help? I am aware that pregrouping and pre nationalisation signal styles differed. But it's not a GNR cast concrete post - maybe just a BR standard style perhaps?

 

[Prime586]

I've found a couple of examples of those barge boards on North Staffs Railway crossing keepers cottages too (such as this one at Aston-by-Stone). They also weren't everse to the diagonal chimneys either.

 

[Gloster]

Looking at Aston-by-Stone on Streetview makes me think that the barge boards are similar, but not identical. So it is not guaranteed Knotty.

I don’t think that the car being a Surrey registration matters any longer: that does not look like Surrey, or LSWR or LBSCR equipment.

 

[The exile]

But it's not a GNR cast concrete post -

Nor a somersault signal, by the looks of things, so anywhere that retained those into the 60s is out.
Telegraph pole seems unusually tall too - although that may be just to get the wires over the crossing.

 

[John Webb]

Possibly the Midland Railway from the bargeboards? The MR stationmaster's house in St Albans:
Former stationmaster's house

© Copyright Ian Capper and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Taking into account the flat landscape, possibly on the Midland and Great Northern Joint line?
The signal post appears to be a standard LMS upper quadrant signal that became BR's standard signal except on the WR. It appears to have at least two guy wires, so is therefore of some height.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The first car is a Morris 10 Series 3 produced 1946-8 so a post WW2 view at least.

 

[Malaxa]

The registration looks to me like KJH, which was issued in Hertfordshire in 1948. The forward vehicle has the two letter code for authorities issuing fewer registrations per year.

 

[Prime586]

The forward vehicle has the two letter code for authorities issuing fewer registrations per year.

It looks like a pre-war sports saloon like a Riley Kestrel, so may have dated from before the third letter was introduced in the area it was registered.

 

[Llanigraham]

A very quick search of the photo in Google Lens comes up with exactly the same photo labelled as Dauntsey Road crossing.

Tip:
Right click on the photo and in the part screen that comes up click on the Google Lens line.

 

[swt_passenger]

A very quick search of the photo in Google Lens comes up with exactly the same photo labelled as Dauntsey Road crossing.

Tip:
Right click on the photo and in the part screen that comes up click on the Google Lens line.

I don’t think it’s the same as the Dauntsey Rd that a simple Google search comes up with though. The chimney breast is visible on the end wall, but the original has a window there.

 

[Prime586]

I don’t think it’s the same as the Dauntsey Rd that a simple Google search comes up with though. The chimney breast is visible on the end wall, but the original has a window there.

The photo on steampicturelibrary.com? The building is also 90 degrees off compared to the photo in the OP (the gable end is facing the road, whereas in the 'Dauntsey Rd' photo it's facing the trackbed). The telegraph poles don't match either, and the signal is missing.

However, I'm not even sure that photo is actually of the Dauntsey Rd crossing. The line is long gone, but the crossing keepter's cottage still exists and looks nothing like the one in that photo.

 

[WesternLancer]

However, I'm not even sure that photo is actually of the Dauntsey Rd crossing. The line is long gone, but the crossing keepter's cottage still exists and looks nothing like the one in that photo.

Yes, that modernised cottage in the modern pic is built with stone blocks - the OP's pic here in post #1 looks like brick built - so it's either a different place or the stone built structure in your link (with modern roofing) is more or less a complete re-build on the site - which seems unlikely.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The line to Dauntsey was closed in 1933 - the Malmesbury branch was connected to the Badminton line instead. It wouldn't have LMS / BR style signalling either.

 

[Snow1964]

The line to Dauntsey was closed in 1933 - the Malmesbury branch was connected to the Badminton line instead. It wouldn't have LMS / BR style signalling either.

Definitely not Malmesbury branch, the topography of the area in photograph is too flat.

 

[edwin_m]

The photo on steampicturelibrary.com? The building is also 90 degrees off compared to the photo in the OP (the gable end is facing the road, whereas in the 'Dauntsey Rd' photo it's facing the trackbed). The telegraph poles don't match either, and the signal is missing.

However, I'm not even sure that photo is actually of the Dauntsey Rd crossing. The line is long gone, but the crossing keepter's cottage still exists and looks nothing like the one in that photo.

The two links here could be the same building, in heavily rebuilt form and from a different angle. But it's not the one in the OP.

 

[Gloster]

A lot of crossing keepers looked very similar. They were only cheaply erected accommodation for one of the lowest grades of staff, so the railway company wasn’t going to spend a lot of money building a large cottage or beautifying it. There were exceptions, mostly when in it had to blend in with better quality buildings, which is why I wondered if the decorative bargeboards were because it was near a station.

 

[LYradial]

Is it my imagination or does the crossing have a set of wicket gates, seems a bit unusual.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Oct 2024 ==

Is it my imagination or does the crossing have a set of wicket gates, seems a bit unusual.

Also the finial at the apex of the barge boards is the same as the one on the st albans pic

 

[stuving]

The existing building is in the local vernacular style, as you can see by having look round Great Somerford,. The current building that is confidently identified (e.g. on Geograph) as Great Somerford station house is in exactly the same style.

 

[Gloster]

The existing building is in the local vernacular style, as you can see by having look round Great Somerford,. The current building that is confidently identified (e.g. on Geograph) as Great Somerford station house is in exactly the same style.

Which gives another possibility. Find out which contractor built the Malmesbury branch and investigate other lines built by them. It was not unknown for a contractor to build buildings, particularly minor ones, to a standard design unless the company instructed otherwise. The same applies to architects.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The 1938 1 inch OS map shows the line has already been lifted beyond Great Somerford to Dauntsey - we've established it is a post WW2 view. Plus the signalling is wrong.

OS Swindon and Devizes

 

[John Webb]

I spent a while on the Geograph site last night and none of the remaining crossing keeper's cottages left along the line of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway match the photo - they are in a much simpler style of building.

It would seem from the size of the gates we have a double track railway. Could the cottage be at the end of other station buildings and the tall signal needed because of a footbridge linking the platforms?

 

[Taunton]

It looks like a pre-war sports saloon like a Riley Kestrel

The further car is a Citroen TA, unusually built both prewar and postwar. Although a Citroen brand they had a factory in Slough, the site of which is now the area Citroen main dealer showroom and their UK head office.

Citroën Traction Avant - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Gloster]

I have a feeling that the gates are an LNER, possibly GNR, style and the signal is probably either an LNER or LMS tubular type. I think that this is one that will only be identified if somebody actually recognises the location.

 

[thesignalman]

Is it my imagination or does the crossing have a set of wicket gates, seems a bit unusual.

Certainly unusual on the North Staffs, who (curiously) preferred turnstiles, so although I also thought the bargeboards were similar to those used by them, the NS can almost certainly be ruled out.

John

 

[BrianW]

Found this- also North Staffs by 'Googling' on < Railway Crossing Keepers Cottage> and images, took me to this: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1297504?section=comments-and-photos

However it's red brick and tile, with stone features-but does have the chimneys on the diagonal.

The OP's photo looks more buff brick redolent of GER or LNER, esp with the flat topography, poss Lincs?

The barge boards are pretty distinctive- I've searched thousands of images online, with nothing similar enough.

Is there a 'railway architecture' forum?