What it is all about...

[Kukri]

[tillergirl]

Getting Ready on the East Coast’, LNER poster, 1923-1947.

Poster produced for London & North Eastern Railway to promote rail travel to the East Coast of England. Artwork by Frank Mason (1876-1965), who was educated at HMS Conway and spent time at sea. He painted marine and coastal subjects. In addition to designing railway posters, he was also involved in engineering and shipbuilding in Leeds and Hartlepool.

To promote Yachtsmen's Tickets?

[Kukri]

I think the Yachtsman’s Ticket was specifically GER thing, and I think Francis Cooke had a hand in it. The idea was that you could travel down from Liverpool Street to one coastal station, and return from another, paying only the difference in the return fare between the two places.

This certainly worked better when there were stations at Benfleet, Leigh, Fambridge, Burnham, Bradwell, Maldon*, Tollesbury*, Hythe, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea*, Walton, Harwich, Manningtree, Ipswich ( with a GER ferry* to Pin Mill*and Shotley*), Woodbridge, Aldeburgh*, Southwold* and Lowestoft.

Those with a * are no more.,,

[tillergirl]

I am sure GER started them but once the NER took them over I thought the tickets carried on before the war. Perhaps not. But the LNER did a lot of nice psoters - as indeed did the GWR.

[Kukri]

I think you are right. The LNER carried them on, and built the Brightlingsea as their Pin Mill- Shotley- Felixstowe ferry in 1925. It’s somewhere in either Cooke or Griffiths...

My ex featured in an LNER seat back poster of Woodbridge...

And here’s Fid Harnack on the same theme from the Yachting Monthly ;

[tillergirl]

Cooke I think. I had forgotten about that Ferry. Quite a thought that it was worthwhile to have a ferry down to Shotley. There must have been some optimism for that and Tollesbury Pier for that matter.

Ah - found it: Cooke "'Cerainly the nearest station (to Pin Mill) is at Ipswich, six or seven miles away, but there is a service of motor-cars to and from Chelmonisto, and, as an alternative route, the Great Eastern Company's steamers ply between Ipswich and Harwich, dropping passengers at Pin Mill en route...... the scenery is unapproachable - at any rate on the East Coast.'

[Kukri]

Well done!

I think that Tony Ward’s grandfather was the LNER boatman at Pin Mill. There’s a title! A sort of station master with no station!

I don’t know where I got that from. I have checked the 1930s «*Pilots Guide” (excellent book) SVC Messum’s “East Coast Rivers” ( the “slim volume” in The Riddle of the Sands) from 1903 and Dick Wynne’s Cooke Booke. Cooke mentions that the «*railway steamer*» had been replaced by motor omnibuses.

[DavidofMersea]

I think the Yachtsman’s Ticket was specifically GER thing, and I think Francis Cooke had a hand in it. The idea was that you could travel down from Liverpool Street to one coastal station, and return from another, paying only the difference in the return fare between the two places.

This certainly worked better when there were stations at Benfleet, Leigh, Fambridge, Burnham, Bradwell, Maldon*, Tollesbury*, Hythe, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea*, Walton, Harwich, Manningtree, Ipswich ( with a GER ferry* to Pin Mill*and Shotley*), Woodbridge, Aldeburgh*, Southwold* and Lowestoft.

Those with a * are no more.,,

The late Maurice Griffiths talks about how he used these tickets in one of his books ...... I can't remember which book, perhaps somebody else can

[Gladys]

Well done!

I think that Tony Ward’s grandfather was the LNER boatman at Pin Mill. There’s a title! A sort of station master with no station!

There were a number of stations across the Railway system without trains, probably the most "famous" was Dartmouth... Linked by ferry to Kingswear.

[Jan Harber]

In the First of the Tide (published by Conway Maritime Press in 1979) MG describes travelling from Liverpool Street to Maldon with his crew on what he describes as 'yachtsmen's weekend tickets'. As already mentioned these tickets enabled 'sailing men' (he doesn't mention women) to 'return from a different station free, or on paying a mileage excess if the point of return was farther than the departure point.' He says this '...was a relic of Great Eastern days made as a concession through the applications of the Cruising Association...' On that occasion MG was taking Nightfall round to Aldeburgh and for his homeward journey took the branch line to Saxmundham and thence 'the express to London.'

In 1932 Southern Railway published a book entitled Yachting on the Sunshine Coast – A volume of Information compiled, written and illustrated by Chas Pears.

Charles Pears (1873 to 1958) was an accomplished marine artist and sailor, married in his later years to Peter Gerard (whose first husband was Maurice Griffiths).

His book is mainly about the South Coast but does cover Erith, Greenhithe, Gravesend, Queenborough, Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Upper Medway, Whitstable and Harty Ferry, Margate and Broadstairs and Ramsgate, all of which could be accessed by Southern Rail in those days.

His description of Q'borough opens thus: "There is one objection to Q'borough – the Bone Mill; do not be persuaded to anchor there for the night with a wind from anywhere between E and S or you will suffer untold agonies, the stench of the mill making life almost unbearable.'

Chas Pears Book Cover.jpg

Chas Pears Harty Ferry.jpg