It’s blooming freezing in here…

 

One of the pleasures of working at Chappel is the unexpected. Work started recently by Team Wednesday on what is believed to be Luggage Composite 247 of 1888. I am indebted Tony Foster who has found an iron bracket stamped GER, that we expected; and  secondly old painted coach number 63395 - that was unexpected -  but thought to be a door from another vehicle after checks were made to the Vintage Carriage Register.

Railway Heritage Register Carriage Survey Project (rhrp.org.uk)

As work progressed a pile of old newspaper cuttings was found, very fragile but just legible, some fragments have been photographed. A Sunday Pictorial February 4^th 1947 shows an American  celebrity couple, in a fashionable pose for the time.

Also found was advertising for Butlins in summer 1947 – which as you will see was rather enticing at the time .

 Even more degraded was part of a Farmers Weekly of January 10^th  - it shows under the headline “Four Lincs Farmers Fined £1200”an inexpertly high file for farmers growing banned crops of Canary Seeds . Many serious offences occur today at a lesser fine, and in the same paper “Control of Bird Seed Crops” was reported. I suppose they preferred crop production for human consumption, I guess.

Finally, the subject of his article .  “ It’s blooming freezing in here…” Rolled up in 1947 and discovered in 2021 in a pile of yellowing  fragile newsprint, from the winter of 1947. Could it be that a farmer was travelling in the coach, found a draught and eliminated it with the newspapers? Can’t be sure about that – but it is one possibility.

Winter 1947 was cruel; the Rivers Chelmer and Cam froze in Chelmsford. Ice floes on the Crouch, snow drifts aplenty. What is known that in Writtle on  January 18^th it was  -5d egress F or – 20degrees C. During February for a fortnight, day and night temperatures never rose beyond freezing point.

The Daily Mirror of February 10^th showed a chilling scene on a canal at Walsall

So, these crumped papers could have been an early attempt at insulation, it reminds us how changeable the weather can be, apparently the following summer was a splendid one !