Shropshire railway fan Bob sets up his own museum
A few years ago Bob Handley read a book about a long-disappeared railway in the heart of the south Shropshire countryside which fired his imagination and inspired him to discover more.
And now he has gone a step further – by setting up his own little museum about it featuring pictures, information, memorabilia and artefacts.
"It comprises photographs and documentation concerning the Cleobury Mortimer to Ditton Priors Light Railway, the Abdon Clee stone quarry, and the Abdon Clee concrete works," said Bob, from Stanton Long, near Ditton Priors.
The permanent display is in a small unit at Ditton Priors that he rents, and is titled "Ditton Priors Railway and Industrial Heritage".
It takes visitors from the beginnings of the light railway in 1900, through both world wars, and until 1965.
It includes several surviving industrial items.
Among his future plans are to organise walks or tours around the historic places in the area which are put in the spotlight by his display, which is next door to Ditton Priors History Centre and is open between 1pm and 4pm on Saturdays, or at other times by request.
For Bob, it was all history on his doorstep, as he was born in August 1943 on top of Brown Clee Hill at a place known as The Pole. His early interest was anything mechanical, including tractors and military vehicles, and he later developed an interest in local history.
"Several years ago I met Keith Beddoes and Bill Smith, authors of the book 'Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway'. I was inspired by the time and effort put into creating this book, and have been collecting photos, artifacts, memorabilia and so on about the railway ever since.
"The railway was set up to transport dhustone products from Abdon Burf down to Ditton Priors station then on to Cleobury junction before it went off into the wide world."
Passenger services ended on September 24, 1938, and the line was later used by the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Ditton Priors to transport munitions. The train line finally finished service in April 1965, he added.
Products from Abdon Clee stone quarry were transported down the hill into Ditton Priors station on an incline railway which consisted of wire rope 2,000 yards long, and a large winding drum on top of the Abdon Burf.
"This was the largest self-winding drum of this type in the UK at the time. It sat on top of the Abdon Burf. It was 18 feet in diameter and about 20 feet wide.
"Hamish Cross, managing director of the quarry, started experimenting with concrete, making concrete buildings.
"To prove to people that concrete was a safe material he built himself a bungalow at Oldfield, Ditton Priors.
"The bungalow still remains today 100 years later. He also sold 50 concrete houses to the Aluminium Corporation at Dolgarrog in Wales after a dam burst had washed all the houses away. He sold 130 workman's cottages in London.
"Several buildings remain in and around Ditton Priors, Wrickton, Abdon, scattered about even today.
"He also made fence posts, troughs, kerbs, and so on. He employed 200 men in the concrete works and possibly the same amount up in the quarry. He also ran a Tarmac plant in Ditton Priors which had previously been housed up on the Abdon Burf.
"I would like to see this heritage centre kept on by Ditton Priors as a tribute to Hamish Cross and all the men who worked for him.
"Mr Cross was a man of great vision, and a brilliant inventor of his time."
