GWR internal publications
Record books
Before the days of computer systems, all reporting and recording of information was done by hand. A great many manual systems were set up to facilitate both the recording and flow of information between various offices and locations within the GWR and beyond. For example, each month all railway companies were required to send a return to the Railway Clearing House in London who managed the allocation of revenue collected by each railway company for the conveyance of passengers and goods over the lines (or for using the rolling stock) of other companies. Internally, records of receipts at stations, the recording of goods shipments sent and received, and other station housekeeping records all had to be maintaned. There were therefore many different record books and suchlike used, and we can only hold a small representative selection in our collection.
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Click or tap on any thumbnail to see some pages from each book.
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Account of Goods Forwarded and Received
This 150 page hard back book was used to keep a record of all goods shipped either from, or received at, a station. Whilst our example was a GWR record book, being printed in 1946, its first entry is not dated until May 1950. It does serve to show that nothing much changed, and the same information was required to be kept both before and after nationalisation. This book came from from Halesowen Station which was on a short branch from the Birmingham Snow Hill to Stourbridge line. There was also a link to the Halesowen Basin on the nearby Birmingham canal.
It would appear that our book was used just to record goods received. The entries in this book make for fascinating reading however as goods were being transported from far and wide, with New Haven, Neath, Immingham and Carlisle being just some of the places of origin. The type of traffic changed slowly over the years reflecting the changing face of local industry. Much traffic was generated by the nearby Walter Somers foundry with entries for forgings, tubes, plates and pig iron. It was this traffic which kept the little line staggering on, but even this dwindled with only one shipment of pig iron being recorded for each of the last three months of freight operation. The last entry is for March 1968 when all freight traffic ceased. In busier times all manner of goods were recorded, blooms, bananas, bags of bones and horses hooves being fairly regular loads.
Consignment Notes book - 1925
Consignment notes for goods to be carried at reduced rates at owner's risk, the general conditions for which were laid out on the back of each note. This particular 100 page limp back book was used at Kingsbridge in south Devon. The station was at the end of a branch and was in use from 1893 until 1963. Each page is perforated, presumably so that once filled in the main section would be given to the customer leaving the counterfoil in the book. The book was printed in 1925 and the first entry dates from the November of that year with the final one in February 1927. Every entry relates to timber products being shipped from Tollditch Sawmills in East Allington which is two or three miles inland. Destinations included High Wycombe, Paddington, Aston (LMS), Bristol and Birmingham. Possibly as every consignment was being sent by the one regular consignee most of the consignment notes have been left attached in the book.
Consignment Notes book - 1940s
Consignment notes for the carriage of merchandise by merchandise train. Each page is perforated, so that once filled in by the sender it could be removed and passed to the railway company. The book was printed with 200 pages sometime during the 1940s with few having been used.
Consignment Notes book - 1946
Consignment notes for the carriage of merchandise by merchandise train. Each page is perforated, so that once filled in the main section would be given to the customer leaving the counterfoil in the book. The book was printed in 1946 and all the used counerfoils have been removed leaving about 100 of the original 150 pages.
Daily Cash Accounts
Each day the cash takings and a statement of account from each station had to be sent to the District Cashier in a locked leather pouch which would carry a metal plate with the name of the station. An example of one which was used at Culham can be seen in the Great Western Trust Museum in Didcot. The returns in our collection come from Lyonshall in Herefordshire which first opened in 1874 and closed in 1940. All the sheets for June 1925 have been stamped as being received by the District Cashier in Worcester and have been glued together to produce a form of booklet.
Meter Index Register
The GWR liked to keep a tight control over expenditure, and one area which looks to have been scrutinised is the use of metered resources. We came across this unused book which dates from 1939 and printed on the inside cover is a reminder that The special attention of all members of the Company's staff is directed to the necessity for exercising strict economy in the use of gas, water and electricity. This, and the instructions detailing how meter readings were to be recorded is dated December 10th, 1929.
