Day They Moved A Farm - By Train! (22 April 1978)

Bletchley railway station saw some lively scenes in the days when large numbers of cattle and sheep were transported by rail.  Porters then were not just porters in the commonly conceived sense.  Often they had to be busy at the cattle dock, helping cattle men to deal with the animals.  I have heard many tales of what used to happen there, but without being able to record them to my own satisfaction.

However, some of the liveliness spilled over into my own time here, more particularly when drovers were taking animals from the station to the old cattle market in Oliver Road.

Sometimes one or more animals got away from the herd or flock and had to be chased along what even then was the town’s main shopping street.  On one occasion a beast bolted and got halfway through an open shop doorway before it was caught.  But it wasn’t a bull, nor was it a china shop.

One notable incident occurred at the station itself.  A frisky young heifer that was destined for the AI Centre at Little Horwood, somehow got away while being detrained, galloped to the main lines and was well on the way to Stoke Hammond before being rounded up, causing some hurried signalling in the meantime.

One of the most ticklish and difficult operations the railway had to deal with occurred about the year 1904 when eight British wild white cattle – all that remained anywhere in the world of an ancient breed – were being transported.  Ever since the year 1248 the herd had been confined to a 900 acre waste on the estate of the Earls of Ferres at Chartley, Staffordshire.  The estate was now to be broken up and the eight cattle were to be sold in one lot.  Lovers of the ancient and wild were greatly concerned about the possibility of the breed dying out altogether.

One who interested himself in the matter was Professor Wallace, of Edinburgh University.  A butcher at Chartley told the professor that in recent years the herd had declined first from 70 to 43 and now from 43 to just eight.  The trouble was TB.  All the animals slaughtered showed signs of it, which was not surprising considering that the herd had been shut up in one park waste for nearly 700 years and was suffering from intense in-breeding.

Professor Wallace thought the herd could be save if proper remedies were applied and suggested Tuberculin Tested foster mothers for the calves.

In the upshot he issued an appeal for someone to buy the herd and the then Duke of Bedford obliged.  The Duke had special enclosure and sheds built at Milton Bryan and arrangements were then made for the animals to be brought from Chartley by rail.  They were put into special trucks, but they nearly perished on the journey to their new home.

On arriving at Bletchley station the trucks caught fire.  The cattle had been none too happy on the way down owing to the great difference in their surroundings.  All animals are terribly afraid of fire, and these wild ones went crazy.  They had not seen many men at close quarters before, either.  This added to their terror and for some minutes the cattlemen and porters had all on to prevent the beasts from burning themselves alive.  But eventually they were got out of their trucks and in due course were successfully re-entrained for Milton Bryan, where they were put into their new pastures and homes.

As calves were born, they were put to selected TT Jersey heifers and given other special food on which they thrived.  In 1947 there were 48 healthy animals in the herd instead of the original eight sick ones.

Possibly the biggest and most efficient operation of its kind ever undertaken by a British railway took place in 1948.  This was no less than the transporting of all the stock and equipment of Home Farm, Brixworth, Northants, to Up Loaders Farm, near Bridport, Dorset, in 12 hours on a special train.

Mr. Robert Newberry was farming at Brixworth on the morning of Wednesday, March 31, and on Thursday morning he was established as a farmer 150 miles away.

Thirty trucks and seven cattle boxes were used for the removal, which was organised by the late Mr. Charles Collins, of Water Eaton Road, Bletchley, who at that time was railway services representative to the district manager at Northampton.

Livestock

Loaded first were the implements and equipment.  These included a tractor, threshing drum and elevator.  Next came three fowl houses with the fowls inside them, feeding stuffs, and furniture.  That lot totalled over 55 tons and took two and a half hours to load.  Finally came the livestock, including eight cows and heifers in milk, 21 young dairy stock, an 18 and three quarter cwt bull, 40 ewes and lambs, four pigs and a farm horse.  Mr Newberry also took his five cats and two dogs.

The train left at 6.55 p.m. passed through Northampton and Bletchley, and arrived at Oxford at 10.24 pm., one minute ahead of schedule.

At Oxford the train was handed over to the Western Region.  It departed at 11.44 p.m after the usual examination and arrived at Bridport at 6.15 the following morning in time for the next feeding and milking.

The whole job had gone through without a hitch.