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Messages - smithy77

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Lincolnshire / Re: Skellingthorpe airfield
« on: Friday 22 November 13 18:38 GMT (UK)  »
Oh right i didn't know that, thank you. If they develop it it makes you wonder what they will unearth under all that. Although it's said when they developed the birchwood estate that nothing turned up from it's RAF days.

That place must have held such tensions for so many in it's day, Skellingthorpe had one of the highest losses of any WW11 airfield. Hard to imagine the feelings they must have felt as they boarded their planes, on the upside the feeling of relief as they touched down again,,and not forgetting how nice those bacon and eggs must have been.

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Lincolnshire / Re: Skellingthorpe airfield
« on: Friday 22 November 13 15:48 GMT (UK)  »
Yes i had already seen those sites, but thankyou for that anyway. I have lived in Lincoln over 40 years but i don't remember much about the airfield. We used to play in the old air raid shelters as children. Also read different books on it.

Just when you walk in the woods that it has now become you often wonder how it must have been in it's wartime years.

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Lincolnshire / Skellingthorpe airfield
« on: Friday 22 November 13 15:20 GMT (UK)  »
Hello everyone, i'm just wondering if anyone has any memories or even pictures of skellingthorpe airfield. Sadly what is left of it both sides of the A46 bypass is now either sold or for sale. Sad considering the many young men who took off from there in their planes never to return again.

Many thanks Smithy.

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Lincolnshire / Re: Pyewipe Cottages or Railway Cottages, Skellingthorpe
« on: Thursday 21 November 13 21:29 GMT (UK)  »
Yes trying to find one, over the years i have put all my photos on disc, so now i have piles of cd discs with family, holidays etc all labelled photos! So having to search through, i'm off down there tomorrow or saturday anyway so will take the camera with me and get some more pics.

As for that area in pictures yes not easy to get to at all, which i suppose is part of the reason it still has some nice items down there. The old buffer stops that date 1913 are made of wooden type sleepers, that looks really strange in the middle of the wood.

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Lincolnshire / Re: Pyewipe Cottages or Railway Cottages, Skellingthorpe
« on: Wednesday 20 November 13 20:17 GMT (UK)  »
again the old pyewipe goods yard. Concrete posts are part of the old goods shed.

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Lincolnshire / Re: Pyewipe Cottages or Railway Cottages, Skellingthorpe
« on: Wednesday 20 November 13 19:44 GMT (UK)  »
One of the old lamps that stands in the old pyewipe goods yard, the actual lamp was in the top of that about 25 years ago when i first went down.

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Lincolnshire / Re: Pyewipe Cottages or Railway Cottages, Skellingthorpe
« on: Wednesday 20 November 13 18:36 GMT (UK)  »
Ah Redroger, that explains that then, most things that turn up down there are LNER. The old fire buckets they were all mostly LNER, just a few BR ones.
Still lots of reminders of it's railway days, back of the turntable you have 4 or 5 inspection pits all about 40 yards long, then there are the large wells. There was a water tower back of the inspection pits but they pulled that down about 5 years ago for some reason or other. Oddest things i have found down there were 40 gallon drums of grease,,full with wooden tops on, and the grease/lube inside looks perfect, wooden tops though they must be donkey years old, lots of BTC crockery mostly broken but a few good ones turn up. Most of the engineering stuff that was used down there is dated from about 1939 up until about 1953.

As i said you don't really get a lot of people down there as it's not east to reach really. But it's former railway days are everywhere.


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Lincolnshire / Re: Pyewipe Cottages or Railway Cottages, Skellingthorpe
« on: Tuesday 19 November 13 22:04 GMT (UK)  »
Sadly the cottages have long gone. I probably walk down there 2 or 3 times a week so over the years have come across different things. I would have liked to have seen it in the 60s. One of the old guys i knew said the canteen did a lovely breakfast (he was a engine driver), i have never seen a picture of the canteen in it's hey day sadly. There are still some old signals down there, red and white ones, lots of LNER insulators 1940s dated. Now when i first started going down there there were lots more items from the railway days but slowly things just disappear. It's surprising how much was left after the main parts of it closed. It's only when you see some of the things there you realise how big the place must have been in it's day.

Odd really there are more LNER items down there than BR. Really was a huge yard in it's day.

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Lincolnshire / Re: Pyewipe Cottages or Railway Cottages, Skellingthorpe
« on: Tuesday 19 November 13 20:59 GMT (UK)  »
Yes sure, every year i take a few pics down there throughout the season. Interesting thing about that area is that in each part you find items from a different era, it seems that over time it got smaller and smaller. Lots of fire buckets down there mostly trampled on etc now. Looks like around the turntable and engine shed was the oldest part, all the guards buildings, timekeepers etc building remains are still there. I can honestly say that in 25 years the only thing that really changes down there is that the trees are much larger now.

When i first started going down there i knew a couple of the old guys who either worked there or around there, their dead now sadly but they told me some of the stories and history of the place, certainly was not a dull place. One of the last signalman at pyewipe was a Mr Martin, nice old chap, he's dead now sadly.

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