MINUTES OF THE 34^th MEETING OF AYNHO HISTORY SOCIETY HELD IN AYNHO VILLAGE HALL ON WEDNESDAY 24^th NOVEMBER 2010

Present: – Rupert Clark – Chairman

       Brian Reynolds – Treasurer

       Peter Cole – Secretary.                                

                                                                          Altogether 31 members and guests attended.

1.          Apologies

Apologies had been received from three people.

2.                   Chairman’s Report                                                           Rupert Clark

Rupert thanked Peter Brookfield for putting up the restored Cartwright Arms sign. A fee of £50 has been agreed for the restoration, which is very good.

3.            Finance Report                                                                  Brian Reynolds

Brian said that the funds stood at £878.39. He reminded members that subscriptions would be due in January.

4.             Secretary’s Report                                                                       Peter Cole

Peter said that there had been no new correspondence this month, but both of the Australians who had emailed him about the Seccull family just before the October meeting had been very grateful for the responses sent.

He had also received a request for an update from the person who had sent a postcard a year ago of an Aynho village scene, and asked if anyone had come forward from the Thompson family who had sent it in 1914. Sadly no one had.

5.             Aynho Viaduct                                                                  Peter Brookfield

Peter said that by 1900 the existing Metropolitan line out of London was becoming very congested. The Great Western Company wanted to shorten some of its routes, so between 1901 and 1906 in conjunction with the Grand Central a new line was laid between Paddington and Ashenden near Aylesbury. 

The G. W. next planned a new route from Ashenden to Aynho. This was authorised by Parliament in 1905. Just over 18 miles long, it would reduce the train times from London to Birmingham from two hours twenty minutes to just two hours. The new line would have two tunnels and two viaducts, the one at Aynho being between 51 and 58 feet high. There were two platforms at the new Aynho Park station, a ticket office at ground level (the building is still there), and five cottages for staff were built nearby. The estimated cost for the whole project was £603,150, but the final figure rose to  £642,725.

Work started on October 11^th 1906. It is recorded that in 1907 a W H Lee met his death crushed between an engine and a truck. There was an inquest at Ardley, and compensation of £75 was paid to his parents.

A station at Ardley was completed in 1910. To build the tunnels holes were drilled down to about nine

feet, and ammonal was used as an explosive to blast out the area. This chemical was later used to mine below German trenches near Ypres in World War One. Many men who worked on laying this line were killed in that war.

In 1907 work began on the Aynho viaduct. It was needed to carry the line above a flood plain. It is 400 yards long, with 24 arches.

The final rail was laid on 29^th March 1910, close to where the Nell Bridge signal box used to be. This route was used by soldiers going to the Front in 1914.

In 1926 railway workers here came out on strike in common with many in the General Strike.

When it was decided that there was insufficient time for trains to stop at every station, a slip coach was used until 1960 to transfer people to the intermediate stations.       

Improvements were made to the line in the 1930s.

Later on due to enhancements made to the main Euston to Birmingham line, this one was downgraded, and it was reduced to a single line in places. Indeed by 1970 closure of part or all of the line was considered. However in 1996 Chiltern Railways took it over. They re-doubled the line, and became so successful that they were given a twenty-year contract.

Peter showed about 70 photos illustrating parts of the line and how it was constructed and altered.

Although they were paid double the current agricultural worker’s wage, life was very hard for the navvies who built the railways. Initially they were only paid monthly, so they had to resort to being given promissory notes to get them through the month. Later they were paid in cash every two weeks. As they were on piece-work they had to toil extremely hard, and most agricultural labourers who tried it gave up after a week or two. Many navvies were completely illiterate, and were therefore often taken advantage of by unscrupulous gang masters, who deliberately miscalculated the volume of “muck”, i.e. earth, rock, rubbish or whatever shifted to underpay them.

In answer to questions Peter said that the viaduct columns were probably filled with concrete. In the early days most railway navvies were Irish, but by 1900 far more were English workers.

Keith McClellan said that he had once interviewed Ron Bowerman, and he had said that when young he applied for a railway porter’s job at Banbury, and then a vacancy had come up at Aynho, so he went there instead. He worked on hump shunting, a system whereby wagons were released from a slightly higher position, and let down through a series of points to join trucks going to different locations.

The last official steam train to run was in October 1967, with the engine Clun Castle.

Someone asked what is currently going on at Nell Bridge. Peter replied that the whole line is being upgraded to make the timings 1.5 hours from London to Birmingham.

Rupert thanked Peter for a very interesting presentation.

6.         AOB

Rupert reminded everyone that the next meeting on 26^th January 2011 would be held in the Apricot Room of the Cartwright Hotel.

7.             Forthcoming Meetings                                                                  

December                              No meeting

January 26^th 2011               The History of Musical Instruments                 Richard York

                            (This meeting will be held in the Apricot Room of the Cartwright Hotel)