A case of mistaken identity?
Whilst researching the history of Culham station we kept coming across copies of a particular print which supposedly illustrated Abingdon Road Station (1844). Whilst it has proved difficult to find an example of the original print, copies of it in both colour and black & white are referenced in a number of picture libraries. None give any indication as to the original source print, but they all have roughly the same description attached. A colour version of the print can be seen on the Getty Images website, and one is also held in the National Railway Museum Collection which may be viewed via the Science & Society Picture Library website.
Taken from My Picture Book of Railways published by Ward, Lock & Co., Author's collection
A copy of this mysterious print is included in My Picture Book of Railways published by Ward, Lock & Co., a copy of which is in the author's collection. There is no publication date given in the book, but it is inscribed To Eric from Uncle Vic, Xmas 1924. The book must have been available for some time as other copies have been seen with dedications dated two decades later. The image is captioned 'A locomotive drawing private coaches at Abingdon Road station (1844)'. What makes it more intriguing is that the image in the book is attributed thus Print supplied by Great Western Railway. You would have thought they at least would have known where it was.
In the early years of railways, flat wagons were provided to convey private coaches complete with their passengers in relative comfort. Facilities would also have been provided for the conveyance of the horses, or horses could be hired at the destination station so journeys could be continued at the far end. However, there appears to be a stage coach with many outside passengers on the leading wagon, a very exposed and precarious place to be. Stage coaches were probably never carried and passengers would have travelled inside so as to enjoy the comparative luxury of their private carriage.
The image is particularly intriguing for a number of other reasons though. It shows a toll house and the road crossing the railway on the level before disappearing into the distance. When the branch line from Didcot to Oxford was built an overbridge was provided to carry the turnpike road across the railway at Abingdon Road Station. Also, the presence of a toll house is puzzling. There were certainly toll houses on the river bridges at Culham and Clifton Hampden, and whilst the Abingdon to Dorchester turnpike road ran past the station the toll house was located close to its junction with Thame Lane which is some way distant. The year quoted as being 1844 could have been correct, and most copies of this print describe it as being in Oxfordshire which also would have been correct. However nothing shown on the print looks like Culham and there is no sign of the station buildings, so where is it? A possible clue lies in an unusual episode which took place before the railway was completed.
View of Oxford from the Abingdon road dated 1st July 1836
Engraving by John Le Keux, drawing by F.Mackenzie from 'Memorials of Oxford - volume 3' by James Ingram
Author's collection
Just north of Kennington, the roads from Kennington and Abingdon joined and continued towards Oxford as 'Abingdon Road'. A toll house had been built at the start of Abingdon Road in 1827 in order to collect tolls which were intended to help recoup the cost (over £19,000) of rebuilding Folly Bridge which was carried out between 1825 and 1827. Folly Bridge still carries Abingdon Road across the river and is a major access route into the city centre. Towards the southern end of Abingdon Road it was intended to build a bridge, later to become known as Redbridge, to carry the road over the new railway. However, the building of this bridge was delayed by a man called John Towle, who erected a paper house on the line of the proposed bridge embankment. It seems that he was something of an eccentric, regularly challenging authority, and so possibly enjoyed the opportunity to make life difficult for the railway company.
Whatever the motivation, he did succeed in delaying the building of the bridge sufficiently for its erection to be somewhat rushed in an attempt to open the line on time. On his inspection before the line was opened the railway inspector, Major-General Paisley, found that one arch of the bridge carrying the Abingdon Road over the railway was insecure and he would not pass it for use until it had been made good. He noted in his report that '... Mr Brunel explained to me that the haste with which this arch of the bridge was built was caused by the conduct of an individual in possession of part of the ground over which the embankment was carried, who after the site of the bridge had been decided on, erected what he called a 'house', which I saw but should never have guessed the use of, being a small hut of timber framework covered with brown paper, with a fireplace in it, for the purpose of claiming compensation from the Railway Company for having diminished the value of his property; and the work was delayed as the unexpected claim could not be settled until near the period of the entire completion of all other parts of the railway.' In order to allow the line to open on time it was agreed that the Abingdon Road could cross it on the level until remedial work had been completed.
Artistic licence may have gone a bit too far, not only with the carriages and locomotive, but also the whole scene. We believe it is possible that the mystery print was not inspired by Abingdon Road Station, but rather the short lived Abingdon Road Crossing. All the clues seem to fit.
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Following the opening of the railway in 1844 the toll house was removed to be replaced by one built on the north-west side of Folly Bridge itself. The toll house was designed by the architect James Gardiner, and cost £320 to build. By such careful repositioning, tolls could be extracted from passengers and goods traffic using the new railway, as they would have had to cross the bridge when going between the city and the station. It has been suggested that a temporary toll house was built close to the end of what is now Western Road whilst the new stone one on Folly Bridge was being built. By September 1850 the debt incurred in rebuilding the bridge had been paid off, and early one morning the gate was ceremonially fastened back for the last time. The gate disappeared, but the toll house still survives having been put to many uses in the following years.
Houses with tarred paper roofs were not as rare as one might think, but what made this one unusual was that it had paper walls as well as a paper roof. When Towle first built it there were only two rooms, but the house grew over time into a substantial five bedroom villa with a conservatory and veranda. The bridge embankment had been built yards from the house and only its chimney was visible at road level. The structure eventually incorporated several types of paper in its roof and walls and John Towle named it 'Paisley House' after the railway inspector. He and his wife apparently lived in the house until his death in 1885. It was last occupied by Kate Viner and her son Len, but after Len died in 1988 the house was left empty. Believe it or not, the paper house survived until 1996 when a tree fell on it.
