Benskins Watford Railway

[hayfield]

Being born and bread on the southern outskirts of Watford topics about the town are of interest especially railway related. A recent article in a thread had an old lorry which reminded me of my uncles lorry which he used to supply both his green grocers shop and stall in Watford market. I looked at an old map to try and locate the garage he used to store it which was just behind the pub/hotel in market place which was accessed from Market street. Just out of interest I started scrolling down (south) to pickup the railway

 

Living just off the mainline south of Bushey and Oxhey station I remember the coal trains shunting in the sidings supplying the Gas Works in Lower High Street. I went to School in West Watford by train which meant changing trains at Watford High Street station, The smell of hops when brewing was occuring was a lasting memory from waiting at the station. My only memory of goods trains was the odd oil train going to the power station on the surviving part of the Rickmansworth branch, otherwise it was just the old slow electric trains running between Watford Junction and Euston/ Croxley Green/Broad street and of course the odd Bakerloo train

 

Anyway as the map (1940 ish) reached Watford High Street  I noticed Benskins had a small railway complex, which I was totally unaware of. I knew about the Rickmansworth Branch as I cycled to Ricky and back several times along the now disused track bed, and remembered crossing the track bed on cross country runs when at school

 

Map of the complex page 12 just over half way down

Strange how things happen, it looks like a reasonable size and virtually goes right up to the High Street. The station itself is quite compact and for the most in a cutting, often thought it might make an interesting small layout with a junction at one end, now with a private owners sidings alongside could be even more interesting

[Dava]

There is 5 pages on this system in Peaty's 'Brewery Railways' inc map & 2 pictures

 

Here they are scanned, each on a sep page, hope they are the right way up owing to my scanner limitation.

 

The ale loading dock on p4 is an attractive feature to model.

 

Dava

Benskins Brewery Railway.Peaty.pdf Benskins 2.pdf Benskins 3.pdf Benskins 4.pdf Benskins 5.pdf

Edited March 18, 2020 by Dava
updates & uploads

[hayfield]

Dava

 

Please, I remember my dad telling me towards the end only Colne Spring Ale (Barley Wine) was brewed there

[Pacific231G]

Suitably compressed, Benskin's Brewery railway looks like an ideal inpsiration for a smallish shunting layout

The developing track plan appears very clearly in OS 25 mile to the inch maps of the area -Hertfordshire XLIV.6 (Bushey; Watford Rural; Watford)- and these  that can be easily downloaded fom the National Library of Scotland's map site. The OS maps also show the development of the transfer sidings with the LNWR's Rickmansworth branch including signalbox and signal posts. The track layout itself doesn't seem to have changed a lot over its lifetime

 

In 1898, the trackplan was slightly simpler than that from the 1940s shown in the sketch

https://maps.nls.uk/view/104202196

By 1914 it was much the same

https://maps.nls.uk/view/104202193

and in 1939  the brewery layouts itself was pretty much the same but the interchange sidings for it and possibly other private sidings down the branch had grown

https://maps.nls.uk/view/104202190

 

The sketch does give more of an idea of what each siding was likely used for and the overall layout of the brewery though the OS maps are probably more precise for the actual positions of track.

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_02_2013/post-10483-0-49256700-1361707683.jpg

 

What is rather intriguing is that, though it doesn't appear on any of the 25inch maps and may just be wheel ruts, aerial photos of the brewery taken in 1931 do appear to show traces of a line extending from the brewery yard across the High Street and past a pub to the brewery's other buildings the other side of the High Street. Unfortunately the earliest 25inch map of the brewery is not in the NLS map collection. What the Britain from Above aerials also seem to show is that the railway was not much if at all used beyond the "tunnel" as the brewery yard is full of other vehicles. There are though plenty of open wagons on the private sidings west of the "tunnel" where the line appears to pass under the tun rooms. There is no sign of a loco to work the internal system but, given the number of dray horses around, there would have been no shortage of 1 HP motive power. 

 

Though it says little about the brewery's use of rail transport and is mostly about its horses and lorries this history does include several photos showing the track in situ

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=2ahUKEwj2htzh96PoAhX0QhUIHUn5BCQQFjABegQIAhAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.breweryhistory.com%2Fjournal%2Farchive%2F133%2FBenskins.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0ykyi8PMC8eLslpwazoeIs

Edited March 18, 2020 by Pacific231G

[Dava]

Scans posted in #2 above.

[hayfield]

The maps are for local very interesting, I never thought that the line was first the Watford to Rickmansworth railway, though its only the past 20 years that I knew it ever existed, I knew a railway line existed from the early 60's as we ran over it doing cross country running, thought it was some sort of narrow gauge quarry line. To a youngster the slow line via Watford High street had always been there.

 

As I said the brewery was a complete surprise, as there is no sign of tracks coming off the lines, the first map shows the house I was born in but not my friends semi, nor many houses on what was the Oxhey side of the tracks, also very little activity at the bottom of the high street by Bushey Arches, But the pubs are there as is the old station building which is now an office for a car seller 

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

 

 

What is rather intriguing is that, though it doesn't appear on any of the 25inch maps and may just be wheel ruts, aerial photos of the brewery taken in 1931 do appear to show traces of a line extending from the brewery yard across the High Street and past a pub to the brewery's other buildings the other side of the High Street. Unfortunately the earliest 25inch map of the brewery is not in the NLS map collection. What the Britain from Above aerials also seem to show is that the railway was not much if at all used beyond the "tunnel" as the brewery yard is full of other vehicles. There are though plenty of open wagons on the private sidings west of the "tunnel" where the line appears to pass under the tun rooms. There is no sign of a loco to work the internal system but, given the number of dray horses around, there would have been no shortage of 1 HP motive power. 

 

Though it says little about the brewery's use of rail transport and is mostly about its horses and lorries this history does include several photos showing the track in situ

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=2ahUKEwj2htzh96PoAhX0QhUIHUn5BCQQFjABegQIAhAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.breweryhistory.com%2Fjournal%2Farchive%2F133%2FBenskins.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0ykyi8PMC8eLslpwazoeIs

 

On the other side of the High Street were some more brewery buildings, I think one of the local car dealers (Ford) had one of the buildings as Benskins was written high up on one of the walls. only became visable when the shops and houses along the High Street were demolished to widen the road Behind what is now the Fire Station, but I think it came down as the whole area  has been redeveloped. I can never remember seeing any track crossing the High Street. Looking at the 2 maps again there is a road below the Pub which went up to the larger warehouses 

[Pacific231G]

3 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

On the other side of the High Street were some more brewery buildings, I think one of the local car dealers (Ford) had one of the buildings as Benskins was written high up on one of the walls. only became visable when the shops and houses along the High Street were demolished to widen the road Behind what is now the Fire Station, but I think it came down as the whole area  has been redeveloped. I can never remember seeing any track crossing the High Street. Looking at the 2 maps again there is a road below the Pub which went up to the larger warehouses 

Hi John

You wouldn't have seen it as, if it ever did exist, it had gone from the map before the end of the 19C so wouldn't have lasted very long. However, looking at this detail from an aerial photo from the early 1930s there does seem to be a sign of rails inset into the lane opposite the brewery entrance.

The line of the railway that does appear on the 25inch maps does also point at that alleyway where I've marked a possiblr extension. 

 

Looking at ground level photos of the gate from the High Street in the 1920s there's no sign of a level crossing in the road but a newer low wall to the right  of the gate does suggest there had been something there.

 

 

 

[hayfield]

David

 

Thanks, it was where I guessed as there was no other place for it, plus the warehouse I remembered was a bit further back

 

One of the more scenic sections is just off the maps on show, the track went under the station building, high street and the shops the other side, comes out into the open only to go under a road bridge on Water lane, all in a cutting and on a curve before going behind Gladstone Road  

 

I must look up the early map for where the Rickmansworth branch enters the Junction station

[Pacific231G]

33 minutes ago, hayfield said:

David

 

Thanks, it was where I guessed as there was no other place for it, plus the warehouse I remembered was a bit further back

 

One of the more scenic sections is just off the maps on show, the track went under the station building, high street and the shops the other side, comes out into the open only to go under a road bridge on Water lane, all in a cutting and on a curve before going behind Gladstone Road  

 

I must look up the early map for where the Rickmansworth branch enters the Junction station

I only took a close up from the aerial but in the whole images you can see the Benskins sign painted on the side of a building on the eastern side of the High Street alongside the millstream. 

It alway seems to be that any area you want to study is  on the edge of two maps!

 

[hayfield]

I went to the early OS map and followed the railway, quite a bit of trackwork in the western side, I guess there had to be transfer sidings etc