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Marston Green Gates

R

ragga

master brummie
View attachment 62662View attachment 62661

If you ever lived on this side of Birmingham most will remember Marston Green Station
the operation of the gates by the bobby in the signal box which was situated on the end
of the platform . Can anyone on here tell me which year the signal box & the crossing
became defunked and when the new footbridge was put into place ?? I have been back
to the Station in recent years and the old footbridge is still there . Also I Remember as
a likkle boy just a likkle way down in Elmdon road on the right there use to be a pig
farm , does anyone on here recall the pig-sties ?? you only could hear the pigs in
the distance butween the trains and the aircraft , its all gone now , i think its it was
taken over by the golf course and a large fence keeping you away from the airport .
thanking you Ragga :)
 
I spent most of my boyhood years either in or around Marston Green station and the village.

There are two footbridges at the station, neither of them are the original though, that was constructed of iron and wood.

I'm not entirely sure but i think it was replaced when the line was first electrified in the late 1960's.
 
What year do you remember ragga it how old would you be?
 
Hi Alf ............. im only 57 and i do remember the pig farm in Elmdon lane
early to mid 60s ,plus i was once invited into Marston green
signal box by the signalman when i was train spotting to
help him to turn the wheel to close the gates .
hope u r keeping well Alf happy new year .
ragga :)
 
PS............ thanks for the links Alf Warwickshire railways is a great site .
thank you ....... ragga :)
 
ragga said:
Hi Alf ............. im only 57 and i do remember the pig farm in Elmdon lane
early to mid 60s ,plus i was once invited into Marston green
signal box by the signalman when i was train spotting to
help him to turn the wheel to close the gates .
hope u r keeping well Alf happy new year .
ragga :)
Click to expand...

ragga I lived there in 1960/61 bt don't remember the gates although I saw them but I remember the Goft Club in the late 60s when I was a member and played there every week when I lived in Coleshill:)
 
Marston Green Farm. With Thanks to the Birmingham Mail. Len.
by Donna Bowater, Birmingham Mail
THE recorded history of Marston Green goes back to at least 1085, when the village was mentioned in the Domesday Book.
Known then as “Merstone”, it was likely to have been the site of an Anglo-Saxon settlement and was owned by Turchil, Earl of Warwick, who kept his estates after the 1066 conquest.
Amateur historian Pat Raymer believes the moat that surrounded Moat House Farm off Wolverton Road and Lyndon Croft is a sign of its medieval beginnings.
She said: “For a farm building to have been moated, that was done in medieval times. In more recent times, it wasn’t.
“It was to keep out intruders and also wild animals because the whole area was more forested than it is now. In those forests lived wild boars and even wolves.
“One arm of the moat would have been the stream and the rest would have been a squared-off U-shape.
“On the site is an example of medieval ridge and furrow farming, which makes up the site as a whole.
“There’s also a medieval fish pond, which houses of that nature kept in those days. Moat House Farm existed until the late 70s.”
Graham Crawford, who wrote Marston Green: From Olden Days to the Present Day, said: “The problem is, I don’t think anybody would be able to tell you how old the farms are in Marston Green.
“The road lay-out is the tracks that went from farm to farm so I would think that the farms were probably built up over the years and might just have been ramshackle places to start with.
“I would suggest there must have been farms probably 500 to 1,000 years before but I wouldn’t think they were the farms we have got now.”
According to the planning statement, Moat House Farm is close to what is believed to be a medieval manor at Marston Culey, which was the name of the village until 1830. It added the remains of the moat and fish pond had been damaged by ploughing over the years.
 
Re: Marston Green Gates

I used to be a Signal Technician based at Tyseley in the 70s and 80s and although our Depot did not cover Marston Green (it was New Street's patch), we did cover the line from Berkswell to Coventry and so I would pass by on my way to and from Coventry on the train when there was some work there.

I seem to recall 1979 (Autumn) as the date the crossing was closed and going past on the train and seeing the gates padlocked. The Signal Box did last a bit longer after the closure of the crossing but I do not have a closure date for it or a date for the erection of the footbridge.
 
With respect to the moat at Moat house farm. I lived at the farm and farmed the land until the farm was demolished. The Moat never surrounded the farm, it was a small Moat and surrounded the derelict cottages. The cottages were on the edge of Low Brook and were full of our ducks. The ducks used to drift along the Brook through Chelmsly Wood (when it was a wood) and our collie used go and bring them home every night.
 
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