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Cheshire / Re: Norton railway station
« on: Thursday 19 July 12 21:32 BST (UK)  »
Copies of any pictures would be lovely, whilst I have clear memories of how the house used to look my daughter has grown up in the property as it is now and it would be nice to be able to show her what it was like, the photos I have do not do it justice. The farms that were in the area when I was a child may have changed since your visits. The closest was the Dixon's at Yew Tree Farm (and you are right the dogs there used to send me scurrying for cover whenever we visited), then there was the Percival's at Eanleywood Farm. In Norton Village itself was Teddy West at Lodge Farm. There were two small farms on the opposite side of the canal bridge at Warford but they shut down in the 1960's and I am sorry but I don't remember their names. There was a small white cottage just by the canal where two brothers lived that used to sell milk etc but again I can't recall their names. We uncovered two of the old lanterns that used to be used by the linesmen on the line some years ago when we dug out the footings of the old waiting room (the old fashioned type made from brass with glass windows, that held candles on the inside). I couldn't bring myself to just consign them to the skip so I had them restored and they now sit proudly on one of the carts I use for carriage driving with my horses. Next time I have that carriage out I will take a picture for you.

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Cheshire / Re: Norton railway station
« on: Thursday 19 July 12 20:53 BST (UK)  »
I definitely have the original deeds somewhere. My parents purchased the property outright in 1965 and the deeds formed part of the abstract of title. It was in the days of unregistered land so the deeds were passed on to them as part of the transfer, the land didn't become registered until 1986 when I transferred the property into my name. I do recall that it was a sale of a parcel of land from the Leverhulme estate to the railway in approx 1850 and on the property was an existing farm workers cottage the structure of which still forms part (approximately a quarter) of the existing house today.

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Cheshire / Re: Norton railway station
« on: Tuesday 17 July 12 17:16 BST (UK)  »
It would have been your grandad and grandmother that I remember calling round as a child, many an hour was spent with my mother and your grandparents discussing uses for the large garden as it was then and I do recall mention of chickens. Your grandad was also very friendly still with the two couples that lived in the railway cottages. Both husbands remained in the railways employment as linesmen until the mid sixties when they retired. I still have vivid images of them passing my house with their lamps of an evening as they went to work. Sadly they and their spouses have since died but they all lived in the cottages until their death. Like you I spent a lot of time as a child in the old signal box, pulling levers and turning the handle on the old phone. I also felt very important in my class at the old village school in Halton as I could brag to all the boys in the class that my train set was far bigger than their Hornby train sets and that I even had my own platform, ticket office and waiting room. Your memory serves you well regarding the house. Downstairs there was a kitchen and two reception rooms, a large one overlooking the old platform with a large iron leaded bay window and a smaller one with the range fire overlooking the garden at the front. The smaller room had a door leading outside into the yard where there was a toilet in the far corner. There was a door on the corner at the house side that led into a coal shed. Upstairs there were three bedrooms, mine overlooked the railway line and I would wave out of it at night to the signal man. The roof of the bay window in the room below also provided a useful means of lowering oneself out of the bedroom window at night and sneaking out to meet friends! The other two bedrooms overlooked the garden and the large pine trees at the front of the property. You are right at that time there was no inside bathroom. Outside there was the 'old gents toilets,' from its days as a station at the back of the property and of course the waiting room (complete with an old heater/brazier) and the old ticket office. Both gave me and my friends endless hours of fun. Then of course there was the platform which stretched on down past the house almost reaching the old brick signal box on the opposite side of the lines. The most magical part though in those days was the embankment opposite the house. It used to be covered with flowers in the summer and had excellent hiding places, especially if you hid behind the old concrete equipment shed that, believe it or not, is still there, albeit hidden by ivy. Behind the house it was just fields. In the one immediately behind there was an old retired farm horse, called Dinah who belonged to the farmer at the top of Norton Village, called Ste Dixon. At the end of the drive where it met the road there used to be a wooden staging for him to drop off his milk churns for daily collection. Now of course we are surrounded by houses and the farms have gone. However, the signal box is still manned and I still watch the signalmen come and go past the house as they change the shift and without exception they still wave and call out a greeting to me and my family, so in that respect little has changed. My memory of your grandparents is that they were lovely friendly people, your grandad certainly had many stories to tell of his time in the house, it was obvious that they had been very happy here. Kind regards

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Cheshire / Re: Norton railway station
« on: Monday 16 July 12 21:04 BST (UK)  »
Message to Cyndy and anyone else interested in the history of Norton railway station. I have lived in the property all my life, my parents having originally rented the same from their employers British Rail following their marriage in 1958. The property was a disused Station Masters House (I believe it closed as a Station in 1952), its interior though was still painted in the cream and dark brown/ possibly deep red colours of the old railway's lines trade mark colours and my partents kept it like that for several years after. Interestingly some of the properties internal doors still have brass fittings stamped with LWR. The previous occupants were a family by the name of Bate who I think moved out in about 1952 but its my understanding that they have called at the property on a number of occasions over the years as they maintained contact with the two linesmen who had remained in the station cottages after the station closed and I can certainly remember taking to them as a child. The main part of the house was built in 1851 when an existing farm cottage (I have no idea how old the original part of the house is, I suspect very old as the plaster on the walls is mixed with horse hair) on the Leverhulme estate was extended to convert it into a Station Masters House. My parents finally purchased the house in 1965 and demolished the old ticket office and waiting rooms. Half of the old platform was taken out in the 1970's but the platform that ran at the front of the house was retained and still exists today. Whilst the property has now been significantly changed and extended we have retained a lot of the original features. My childhood however was spent more or less in the house as it was when the Bate family left it. I still remember the old fire place in the living room complete with bread oven and the open fires in all the downstairs rooms and bedrooms. I do have the original deeds relating to the sale of the original part of the property to the railway in circa 1850 I will hunt them out and let you know the exact date when I find them. Hope this helps?

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