There can't be too many people still around who can recall taking trips on the long-gone Kinver Light Railway, but reader Mr R. Martin of Cradley Heath can tell us of one — his mother Mrs Lucy Martin (nee Green). He shares her memories with us, as follows....
“I read with interest Mr Taplow's letter in the Bugle No. 931 regarding his tram treats from Dudley through the old Ryland Aqueduct at Dudley Port to West Bromwich during the 1930's. That route ran until 1939 and some other trams in parts of Birmingham until 1953 and so are still in the memories of many of your older readers. But, what also caught my attention was of his recollections of his late uncle aboard the Kinver Light Railway on his Sunday school outings, and so goes even further back to the previous decade.
Since then, the Bugle covered the sad story and the moving photograph of Pas- Lucy’s recollections of riding the Kinver Light Railway tor Hexall's funeral cortege on the way back from Kinver which had paused in one of the passing places between Stourton and the bottom of Wollaston Ridge.
“On a lighter note, generally the Kinver Light Railway was about happier times and enjoyable days out, right up until it closed, eighty years ago last February.
Well documented and with lots of photographs and postcards still available, much is known about the line, but after this amount of time there can't be too many people around who can recall being passengers on this famous four and a half mile route to the country.
Front door “Born in 1924 at 51 High Street, Amblecote, near the front of the Corbett Hospital boundary, my mother Mrs Lucy Martin (nee Green) can recall it, and also the Dudley-Stourbridge electric trams passing their front door. Eight hundred yards down the High Street past the Webb & Corbett glass factory where she later worked and adjacent to the Fish Inn was the terminus of the Kinver Light Railway and she went on it several times with her grandmother, her Aunt Sally who was aged around 20 was in service at the Fish Hotel and on Sally's day off the three would meet up at the terminus and climb aboard the open sided toast rack tram or because of its wooden benches was better known as 'the boneshaker.' Coal boat “Gran had said from time to time that before the coming of this new tram route at the turn of the century, their Sunday school outings to Kinver were aboard a horse drawn coal boat specially whitewashed out for the occasion.
“Away they went on their excursion, up through Wollaston and although Lucy wouldn't have known this, when the tram reached open country at the Ridge, it changed from running on a set of grooved rails that were laid in the tarmac to running on the grass verge on standard railway type lines, albeit on a narrower gauge of three feet six inches. That's probably why it was called The Kinver Light Railway instead of the Kinver Tram.
“Still, with day trippers and after many stops and at slow speed they eventually crossed the Kidderminster Road, the canal, and the River Stour opposite the original Stewponey Inn. Parting company with the road they were then heading across the fields to run for a few hundred yards back alongside the Staffs & Worcs Canal towpath at the Hyde.
After almost an hour they reached their destination and made straight for Stone Lane and the route up to the Edge.
Souvenir “Lucy says several hours were spent looking at the strange cave houses and exploring all over the Sandstone Edge followed by gambolling down the grassy slopes (Grandma Murphy was excused), before descending to the old café at the Compa for refreshment of tea or pop. Coffee then was only a distant rumour. On the way back a look in the High Street shops for a souvenir with whatever pocket money they had left before returning down Mill Lane to the Hyde Meadows terminus where their carriage awaited. Was it the 'boneshaker' or was it the slightly more upmarket version, she can't quite remember as it was a long time ago.
“Back at the Fish Inn and after saying goodbye to Aunt Sally they headed up the High Street for home. With the fresh air of Kinver and the open ventilation of the tram rattling along the four and a half miles back they would certainly have known they had had a tiring but good day out. For many people in London it was still the era of the Flappers and the Roaring Twenties but for the Black Country folks it was the lean years following The General Strike.
“Many families were disrupted as their fathers were away looking for work in the Yorkshire and South Wales Coalfields. Can you picture it now, with mass unemployment, radio in its infancy and still beyond the affordability of ordinary people, no TV, no cars or holidays for the majority, this was probably 'as good as it gets.' “There is a fine time line to this story because Lucy can remember this only from the age of four.
In less than two years and just a few weeks before her sixth birthday in March 1930, it was all over for the local tram network with the KLY finishing on the 8th February and the Dudley-Stourbridge route past their front door three weeks later. The petrol buses and charabancs had heralded in a new era”.
