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Hi

He would have been a Customs Officer.  A lot of early documents and many histories relating to smuggling refer to those employed as Customs officers in terms such as these.

The Dengie is largely low-lying and being on the coast is riddled with small creeks which of course were ideal territory for the smuggler of yore to ply his trade.

Interesting with William !   He  started off as railway police ,then signalman ,then a porter .....  he seemed to have gone down the ladder instead of up if you see what i mean .  Sorry but not from Wales are all these places in the same sort of area ..   many thanks for your help .

Hi magic nanny, 

While William appears to have gone down the grades, he may not have done.  The first Railway Policemen were responsible for signalling the trains as well as law enforcement.  This lasted until well into the latter part of the nineteenth century, when with the mechanisation of signalling many former Railway Policemen were regraded to Signalmen, with responsiblity solely for signalling the trains, as still is the case today.  In fact even today Signalmen are still often referred to "Bobbbies" by other railwaymen - a throw back to the origins of the position.

Signalmen were graded and paid according to the size of the signalbox they worked and how busy it was.  Those who remained as signalmen would aspire to be promoted to a bigger and busier signalbox and with it the increase in pay.  However, on the quieter lines it was often possible for a man to transfer to another grade and still attain more money.  So possibly this is what William did when he became a Porter.

Trealwa was on the Taff Vale's Rhondda Fawr branch which ran from Porth up to Treherbert.  Trealaw station was known for most of its existence as Tonypandy & Trealaw, as the two villages are close together and the station served both.  This was quite a busy lien with frequent coal trains running from the pits down to Cardiff and the other coastal ports.

Unfortunately railway staff records for any grade/job are few and far between these days.  For example the National Archive at Kew has only three documents relating to the Taff Vale Railway Police, only one of which gives any names of men employed as such.  This is dated 1858 and while the Rhondda Fawr branch was opened to goods traffic in 1846, the list doesn't contain details of any men stationed up this line.

I was interested to read your thread as I have been studying the railway police for a number of years now.  Do you know anything else about William, such as where he was stationed? 

Llanelly