Help with Left Luggage service Axminster 1974

[LocateLaura]

Hello,
I hope this is ok to ask.
I am an Investigator with Locate International, a UK Registered Charity dedicated to helping families of unsolved missing person cases, find their loved ones. As well as this we aim to give identities to unidentified bodies/remains.
My Team is working on a case from 1974, the lady used the 'Left Luggage' facility at Axminster Railway Station.

On the 9th September 1974 she left some suitcases at the Left Luggage department shortly after the arrival of the 9:30am Waterloo - Axminster service.

Can anyone tell me anything about this service: was it free, used frequently, would they have had records/logs of it?
Basically any nugget of info would be greatly received! If possible I will attach a newspaper article from the time, there is a name of a 'Senior Railwayman'

Thanks in advance
Laura
Locate International

 

[Dr Hoo]

I have no special knowledge of Axminster but as a manager of moderately sized stations in that era the left luggage activity would be linked in with parcels office and the same clerk or Porter would look after both activities. Leave bag, pay for ticket, pay more if you delayed collecting it.

The tickets had serial numbers and a tag with the same number would be tied (or often pasted) to the item. The number would be written into a book with the date so than any excess charge could be calculated for ‘extra days’. If this all sounds a bit informal that’s how it seemed to me back in those far off pre-computer days.

Hope this helps.

 

[LocateLaura]

@Dr Hoo Thanks for replying!
The police found/searched the bags deposited at Left Luggage, I guess a few days after doing their initial investigations.

Appreciate your insight.

Any other help would be appreciated!

 

[WesternLancer]

@Dr Hoo Thanks for replying!
The police found/searched the bags deposited at Left Luggage, I guess a few days after doing their initial investigations.

Appreciate your insight.

Any other help would be appreciated!

What sort of other info might be helpful Laura. Can you elaborate at all?

It occurs to me to think that in those days if you checked something in as left luggage it’s unlikely there would be any sort of security check of the contents especially at a smaller station. Though having said that I may be wrong given the mainland IRA bombing campaign issues at the time.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Oct 2025 ==

Also if Axminster station buildings still survive I expect someone on this forum would know which room(s) the parcels and left luggage facilities were in in the days when such a service was still offered.

 

[Gloster]

I would suspect that the left luggage office was the parcels office and left luggage was probably just put on a separate lot of shelves at the back. The interaction between the lady and the railwayman would only have needed to be brief and would end with him handing her the receipt and taking the cases to the shelves while she left. As said by Dr Hoo he would have written it up in one of the ledgers used by BR, but that would have long disappeared unless taken by the police for the coroner; I presume they took the cases.

I would think that the railwayman was probably of the grade of Senior Railman, which has been slightly misheard by the journalist. I would doubt that he is still alive.

 

[WesternLancer]

It occurs to me that it may be possible to find former staff from the station, if alive, or younger staff who may have spoken to older colleagues in the past, that recalled the incident by asking for a letter to be published as an appeal in the railway pension fund’s magazine called ‘Penfriend’ assuming it’s still published.
I think that gets sent to railway pensioners which would be most former staff.

That’s this. Seem to recall it has stories of wider interest and human interest as well as stuff about the actual pension.

Penfriend | Newsletters | Railways Pension Scheme

Check out Penfriend online today - your newsletter if you've already started taking your pension from the Scheme.

www.railwayspensions.co.uk

 

[Taunton]

I suspect that 'senior railwayman', lower case, is just a bit of description, maybe confirmed by the presiding coroner, from a journalist who seems to have taken all possible details in the inquest. Although we now have 'Senior Railman' as a job grade, then it would have been 'porter', who essentially, especially at a station like Axminster, would have been general duties staff, collecting tickets, even handling heavy freight.

The Left Luggage facility was a standard way to leave things there, either in advance of a journey or afterwards, or for a few hours while you went around the town. A few stations, such as main London ones, still have it, though beyond the nominal charges that used to be levied, such as one shilling. The facility was quite well known and used. It went along with the substantial parcels traffic by train, items arriving 'to be called for', and such like. Lady Muck would arrive by train with heavy baggage, put it in there, and have their family return later by car to pick it up. The porter would carry it to the car, when for a decidedly ill-paid job in those times a small tip might be offered. In this case, with an American traveller involved, unusual there in that era, there might be a considerable expectation of one.

Here's an old door sign from the era, up for auction, stating 'Parcels and Left Luggage'.

BR(S) Enamel Platform Sign PARCELS & LEFT LUGGAGE. - Enamel Signs Railway

BR(S) enamel Platform Sign PARCELS & LEFT LUGGAGE. Double sided, Dark green in original wooden frame measuring 26 inches x 14 inches. Ex Purley...

www.gwra.co.uk

 

[The exile]

The Left Luggage facility was a standard way to leave things there, either in advance of a journey or afterwards, or for a few hours while you went around the town.

The other classic use was on arrival while you went in search of somewhere to stay (or cooled your heels between the arrival of your overnight holiday extra train and your landlady letting you check in) or to bridge the hours between being chucked out of your B&B and the departure of your train several hours later.

 

[Taunton]

The other classic use was on arrival while you went in search of somewhere to stay (or cooled your heels between the arrival of your overnight holiday extra train and your landlady letting you check in) or to bridge the hours between being chucked out of your B&B and the departure of your train several hours later.

The one I recall was London Victoria, where the office was overwhelmed on the arrival of boat trains from Dover. It was sufficiently busy to have separate counters for 'In' and 'Out', huge racking inside, and sometimes a staff of four or more. Axminster would not be up to this scale, and their few such items might be just put in the corner of the ticket office.

 

[Gloster]

I suspect that 'senior railwayman', lower case, is just a bit of description, maybe confirmed by the presiding coroner, from a journalist who seems to have taken all possible details in the inquest. Although we now have 'Senior Railman' as a job grade, then it would have been 'porter', who essentially, especially at a station like Axminster, would have been general duties staff, collecting tickets, even handling heavy freight.

The Left Luggage facility was a standard way to leave things there, either in advance of a journey or afterwards, or for a few hours while you went around the town. A few stations, such as main London ones, still have it, though beyond the nominal charges that used to be levied, such as one shilling. The facility was quite well known and used. It went along with the substantial parcels traffic by train, items arriving 'to be called for', and such like. Lady Muck would arrive by train with heavy baggage, put it in there, and have their family return later by car to pick it up. The porter would carry it to the car, when for a decidedly ill-paid job in those times a small tip might be offered. In this case, with an American traveller involved, unusual there in that era, there might be a considerable expectation of one.

Here's an old door sign from the era, up for auction, stating 'Parcels and Left Luggage'.

BR(S) Enamel Platform Sign PARCELS & LEFT LUGGAGE. - Enamel Signs Railway

BR(S) enamel Platform Sign PARCELS & LEFT LUGGAGE. Double sided, Dark green in original wooden frame measuring 26 inches x 14 inches. Ex Purley...

www.gwra.co.uk

I believe that the new grades of Railman/Leading Railman/Senior Railman were introduced around 1968. My recollection of a few years later is that a Parcels Office would generally be dealt with by a Senior Railman.

 

[The exile]

The one I recall was London Victoria, where the office was overwhelmed on the arrival of boat trains from Dover. It was sufficiently busy to have separate counters for 'In' and 'Out', huge racking inside, and sometimes a staff of four

I had to pick up a trunk from Victoria in 1989 which I had sent passengers’ luggage in advance from Germany. That service still existed internationally (in that direction) but for the onward leg to Bath (routed via Chichester) it was Red Star at three times the price and about twice the journey time. I recall an enormous, gloomy “cavern” - but have no recollection of where in the station it was.

 

[WesternLancer]

I had to pick up a trunk from Victoria in 1989 which I had sent passengers’ luggage in advance from Germany. That service still existed internationally (in that direction) but for the onward leg to Bath (routed via Chichester) it was Red Star at three times the price and about twice the journey time. I recall an enormous, gloomy “cavern” - but have no recollection of where in the station it was.

This reminds me I did the same in summer 1988 - also from Germany. I sent some packaged up belongings (but smaller than a trunk). IIRC the only option when sending it from Germany was to send it to London Victoria (although that may have been due to the price options of any alternative UK destination). My recollection of collecting it is that I went to an office or counter on the eastern side of the station (near Platform 1 somewhere) to collect it in person.

It may have been that it was actually cheaper for me to go in person to get it (Railcard discount and a student so time on my hands) than it was to investigate the forwarding of it to my nearest local Station with a Red Star parcels facility in Sussex, or simply that I decided it was better value to do this because I could combine it with some other activity in London and then collect it.

Apols to the OP as doubt this helps with things at Axminister though I can see others have posted some helpful information.

 

[LocateLaura]

What sort of other info might be helpful Laura. Can you elaborate at all?

It occurs to me to think that in those days if you checked something in as left luggage it’s unlikely there would be any sort of security check of the contents especially at a smaller station. Though having said that I may be wrong given the mainland IRA bombing campaign issues at the time.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Oct 2025 ==

Also if Axminster station buildings still survive I expect someone on this forum would know which room(s) the parcels and left luggage facilities were in in the days when such a service was still offered.

Hi, Its difficult to say exacltly what help I need (this is not at all useful I realise!)
We are just trying to put together her last movements, and also possibly try and understand why she did them, who she may have spoken to on the days leading up to her death. Its honestly very useful for me just to have this discussion here, and gather snippets from you all to get a greater understanding of this particular line of enquiry.
The bag left at Axminster contained various articles including some artists paint brushes.

I was asking about logs/records but I don't expect for one minute that these would still exist.

Would she had had to give her name at all?
It was thought that she had an American or Canadian accent. She then travelled from Axminster to Lyme Regis on the bus (about half an hour), spoke to the bus driver asking where the 'city centre' was. She was thought to be aged between 40-50 yrs old. When she was found she had a cinema ticket in her pocket from the Carlton Cinema in London's West End, dated 2 days before her death.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Oct 2025 ==

The other classic use was on arrival while you went in search of somewhere to stay (or cooled your heels between the arrival of your overnight holiday extra train and your landlady letting you check in) or to bridge the hours between being chucked out of your B&B and the departure of your train several hours later.

Well after dropping the bag off she caught a bus to Lyme Regis (half an hour) - So we wonder if she was planning to go back to collect her bag or not?
She was found in a beach hut, the death firstly investigated as murder but then it was decided that is was suicide.

 

[The exile]

I was asking about logs/records but I don't expect for one minute that these would still exist.

Would she had had to give her name at all?



Well after dropping the bag off she caught a bus to Lyme Regis (half an hour) - So we wonder if she was planning to go back to collect her bag or not?

Suspect the only things that would have existed would have been the ticket given to her and the counterfoil on the luggage. No need to give a name.
Don’t think any inference on intention can be made - it’s the sort of thing you might do if travelling with a case that you weren’t going to need till later that day (ie a day’s detour to Lyme Regis). If luggage was charged on buses still it might have been cheaper to leave it at the station.

 

[Gloster]

I doubt that there is much information that can be gleaned from the railway side of things. Any interaction between the lady and railway staff would probably have been brief and unmemorable to them. The cases and their contents would, if they remained with the railway, have eventually been sold or otherwise disposed of, but it is more likely that they were removed by the police. Any paperwork would have been uninformative and would have long since been destroyed unless requested by the police or coroner.

William Woolaghan is probably dead as a person of that name died in Devon in 1991. He was born in 1917, married a woman born in Axminster and they had a son born in Honiton in 1939.

 

[WesternLancer]

I doubt that there is much information that can be gleaned from the railway side of things. Any interaction between the lady and railway staff would probably have been brief and unmemorable to them. The cases and their contents would, if they remained with the railway, have eventually been sold or otherwise disposed of, but it is more likely that they were removed by the police. Any paperwork would have been uninformative and would have long since been destroyed unless requested by the police or coroner.

William Woolaghan is probably dead as a person of that name died in Devon in 1991. He was born in 1917, married a woman born in Axminster and they had a son born in Honiton in 1939.

would the name of the person leaving the luggage not have been recorded in a ledger along with the left luggage ticket number? Maybe that was deemed unnecessary? Even if it was recorded with a name, I'm not sure if that makes any difference because it seems like the railway staff made a positive identification that linked with luggage with the person (unless they were mistaken) and maybe the contents of the luggage was also linked to the person when the luggage contents was investigated.

Just to be clear in my mind and I'm sure @LocateLaura can clarify - did this involve an unknown person who visited, and died in Axminster or Lyme Regis during this visit, and no one knew who they were? Hence an unidentified body? (suspected murder or death from natural causes?)

as opposed to a person going missing and this being the last confirmed sightings of the known person - here and in Lyme Regis - as detailed in the clipping ?

 

[The exile]

would the name of the person leaving the luggage not have been recorded in a ledger along with the left luggage ticket number? Maybe that was deemed unnecessary?

Don’t know about 1974 - but I’m sure it wasn’t later.

 

[Magdalia]

My Team is working on a case from 1974, the lady used the 'Left Luggage' facility at Axminster Railway Station.

Cold cases from 1974 feels very Thursday Murder Club, so I thought that I should wait until today before replying.

I do a lot of historical research on the 1960s and 1970s.

When she was found she had a cinema ticket in her pocket from the Carlton Cinema in London's West End, dated 2 days before her death.

Have you found out what film was showing? The Times doesn't list the Carlton Cinema but the Evening Standard might. Films on show at the time included The Sting and The Exorcist.

She then travelled from Axminster to Lyme Regis on the bus

Why Lyme Regis? That could be its literary connections. Part of Jane Austen's Persuasion is set in Lyme Regis, and 1974 is not long after The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles was published. Could the Lyme Regis visit have been a literary diversion while on the way to somewhere else?

On the 9th September 1974 she left some suitcases at the Left Luggage department shortly after the arrival of the 9:30am Waterloo - Axminster service.

Another thing that the journalist didn't get quite right was the train time. It departed Waterloo at 0900 and was due at Axminster at 1158.

 

[30907]

Another thing that the journalist didn't get quite right was the train time. It departed Waterloo at 0900 and was due at Axminster at 1158.

0630 Waterloo due Axminster 0937 perhaps?

 

[stuving]

removed.

 

[LocateLaura]

@WesternLancer
Yes she is and unidentified lady. She travelled from Axminster to Lyme Regis by bus. Then was found deceased in a beach hut in Lyme Regis harbour.
In her pocket she had a cinema ticket from a cinema in the West End of London.
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/cases/case-06-023874 This is the NCA website link to the case if you are interested.

Thanks all for your replies, I will go through these in the week!

 

[WesternLancer]

@WesternLancer
Yes she is and unidentified lady. She travelled from Axminster to Lyme Regis by bus. Then was found deceased in a beach hut in Lyme Regis harbour.
In her pocket she had a cinema ticket from a cinema in the West End of London.
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/cases/case-06-023874 This is the NCA website link to the case if you are interested.

Thanks all for your replies, I will go through these in the week!

Thank you Laura. And thanks for the link. A website I wasn’t familiar with.

Good luck with your efforts and your work. It’s sad to think that this person probably had relatives or friends who might never have known what happened to her and that if some link could be made perhaps some solace achieved.

FWIW the expertise on railway related matters and perhaps also buses on this forum is probably the best you will find easily available on the web.

 

[LocateLaura]

Hi @WesternLancer
Thanks for your message.

We actually have a fair number of unidentified cases where people have died on/near the tracks. So I will be keeping my account for future questions if thats ok!
Its been interesting, as someone with no knowledge of this, I am really grateful you have all taken the time to read my message.


@Magdalia I love your inquisitiveness, re the film, yes one of those 2 we have discovered. Do not know currently.
Do you know that there was a train on that day at 9am - 11:58am ? Is there a way to find out historical timetables?

 

[Gloster]

Hi @WesternLancer
Thanks for your message.

We actually have a fair number of unidentified cases where people have died on/near the tracks. So I will be keeping my account for future questions if thats ok!
Its been interesting, as someone with no knowledge of this, I am really grateful you have all taken the time to read my message.


@Magdalia I love your inquisitiveness, re the film, yes one of those 2 we have discovered. Do not know currently.
Do you know that there was a train on that day at 9am - 11:58am ? Is there a way to find out historical timetables?

I have a Working Timetable, the internal railway one, for the year up to 5 May 1974; my strong recollection is that the service changed little between 1971 and 1980. In it the 09.00 Waterloo-Exeter arrives at Axminster at 11.58; the previous train was the 06.30 Waterloo at 09.36. In the other direction the 10.10 Exeter arrived at 10.52 and the 12.20 Exeter at 13.03.

 

[Eyersey468]

Hi @WesternLancer
Thanks for your message.

We actually have a fair number of unidentified cases where people have died on/near the tracks. So I will be keeping my account for future questions if thats ok!
Its been interesting, as someone with no knowledge of this, I am really grateful you have all taken the time to read my message.


@Magdalia I love your inquisitiveness, re the film, yes one of those 2 we have discovered. Do not know currently.
Do you know that there was a train on that day at 9am - 11:58am ? Is there a way to find out historical timetables?

I'm not able to help with this case but just to say good luck and thank you for the work you put in

 

[The exile]

I have a Working Timetable, the internal railway one, for the year up to 5 May 1974; my strong recollection is that the service changed little between 1971 and 1980. In it the 09.00 Waterloo-Exeter arrives at Axminster at 11.58; the previous train was the 06.30 Waterloo at 09.36. In the other direction the 10.10 Exeter arrived at 10.52 and the 12.20 Exeter at 13.03.

Those times continued in the 1974-75 timetable.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi @WesternLancer
Thanks for your message.

We actually have a fair number of unidentified cases where people have died on/near the tracks. So I will be keeping my account for future questions if thats ok!
Its been interesting, as someone with no knowledge of this, I am really grateful you have all taken the time to read my message.


@Magdalia I love your inquisitiveness, re the film, yes one of those 2 we have discovered. Do not know currently.
Do you know that there was a train on that day at 9am - 11:58am ? Is there a way to find out historical timetables?

You won’t find a better source of collective knowledge on railways than here. From enthusiastic observers to very experienced current and former railway staff.

Only tip would be to carefully word your thread title to catch the attention of forum users when asking about cases you are working on. Not that there is anything wrong with your title here.

Good luck with what must be difficult work. But important work.

On the other matter as you’ll have seen there are timetable collectors on here who will happily just look up old timrtable info (not uncommon for novelists to ask for such info I’ve noted to help get accurate story lines) but in case you need it there are sites on line with old timetables scanned in. A very good one is: timetable world

Timetable World – Historical transport timetables and maps

timetableworld.com

There are probably historical bus timetables available too I expect. Including on that site.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Here is a picture of a list of Left Luggage from the mid 1970s. It shows the different groups of luggage and what is eligible. It also shows the price and a subsequent increase written alongside.

 

[Rescars]

Here is a picture of a list of Left Luggage from the mid 1970s. It shows the different groups of luggage and what is eligible. It also shows the price and a subsequent increase written alongside.
View attachment 191081

Going off at tangent, what a remarkable list. In the current era of cycle theft, how interesting to see so many categories of cycle being catered for, powered or otherwise. I wonder how often passengers turned up with a pair of oars - hardly the sort of thing to endear you to fellow-passengers. A non-portable radio seems by definition to be a particularly challenging item of luggage.

 

[30907]

I wonder how often passengers turned up with a pair of oars - hardly the sort of thing to endear you to fellow-passengers. A non-portable radio seems by definition to be a particularly challenging item of luggage.

Assuming they were within the luggage allowance, surely these would have gone in the Luggage Van not the passenger saloon. After all, having won one's blades on the Cam/Isis, how else would one have fetched them home when one went down?
(My Dad, being lightweight and therefore an ideal Cox, won three rudders in the 30s - I wonder how he got them home, given that there was definitely no family car?)