Great Northern Railway and London & North Western Railway Joint Line from Market Harborough to Bottesford and Saxondale via Melton Mowbray

John O'Gaunt

Before reaching the next station a fine bridge spanned the road from Great Dalby to Twyford, but this has now been demolished. The next station was on the south side of the road from Twyford and Burrough on the Hill and was named Twyford and Burrough when first opened. It was soon found that the name caused confusion with other stations of the same name, so a change was made to John O'Gaunt. Even this did not suit everyone, a local vicar wrote to the Joint Line Committee protesting as he wished the station to be named Hungerton. The name adopted derives from a fox covert near the tiny hamlet of Marefield and the covert is of the same nature - tiny. The facilities at the station followed the standard pattern, but here there was only a station master's house, no staff cottages being provided.

The traffic at this station was similar to that at Great Dalby, but an account given to the author by Mrs C. Spencer, of Melton Mowbray gives a good illustration of the war years. She worked at John O'Gaunt from 1942 to 1949, when she retired. For the first train of the day, which started from John O'Gaunt for Leicester (previously starting from Lowesby) there would be collected at the booking office window about £1, mostly from workmen's fares to Leicester. War traffic from soldiers at Burrough Court camp, could be as much as £40 for men going on leave whilst ordinary passengers provided a taking of £10 to £15 per day during the period mentioned. Parcels traffic was heavy, both in and out. There was a practice that any known local person would be allowed the delivery fee for taking parcels to near neighbours, there being no official delivery. Outward going parcels receipts could amount to as much as £3 per day. Three coal merchants used the goods yard for stands and their turnover averaged a wagon ( 12 tons) per day. The merchants had to pay for each weigh on the railway weigh-bridges it not being computed at an annual charge. Grain traffic was heavy in the season from harvest to the Spring and would average a wagon per day for this period. Horse-box traffic was good, but spasmodic, the busiest days were when horses were dispatched to the Newmarket sales, Mrs Spencer remembers a gross value of horses in a single consignment to reach £50,000. Cattle traffic consisted of more coming in than going out, the cattle came mainly from Ireland, going to the farms for final fattening. Sheep came seasonally from Cumberland for wintering and fattening, arriving usually in September .

A vivid account of the milk traffic at John O'Gaunt was given by Mrs Spencer's husband. He worked all his working life at the milk depot there and remembers well the dispatch by rail, first by 16 gallon churns and later by rail tanker. In the tanker days an average of 8,000 gallons per day were sent by the afternoon train, which, on Sundays was a milk special, conveying nothing else and starting from John O'Gaunt. (Earlier the Sundays only started back at Harby and Stathern.) On week days the milk was handed to the L.N.W. main line at Northampton, but on Sundays the special train ran to Rugby.

Marefield

Under the control of John O'Gaunt were the Marefield Junctions, North and South, (West Junction was Great Northern) and between the station and North Junction the largest structure of its kind on the line existed. The John O'Gaunt Viaduct was built of brick and consisted of twelve arches and two land arches, it had an average height of about sixty feet. 

The three junctions formed an almost perfectly proportioned triangle and reference to the accompanying map and photograph will show how evenly the lines diverged, that to the right to Leicester, to the left to Welham Junction. The field boundary in the picture was the line from West to South Junction, disused from 1916. Even the signal box is well placed, it will be observed that it faces the main line, of L.N.W . pattern and probably built in the way it was to show some disregard for the Great Northern line branching off. Behind and to the left of the signal box is the fox covert giving the name to John O'Gaunt Station.

Near the Marefield Junctions can be seen the early troubles in the construction of the line, the spreading embankments. From the North Junction the Market Harborough line begins its real climb, this section to Tilton was the hardest for the L.N. W. coal trains.

"Sticking in section" used to be a regular feature, more so if there happened to be a check at Marefield. Railwaymen and locals alike recall the roar of the L.N.W. 0-8-Os climbing the "bank". Given a clear road the driver used to open out north of John O'Gaunt Station to get a "run" at the tricky part. It is said that John O'Gaunt station awning was permanently thick with cinders thrown from the engines. If a "sticking" occurred the train had to be divided and taken to Tilton in two portions and then reformed into a train. Tilton was the summit of the Joint Line.

Tilton Station

Tilton Station was two miles from Marefield North Junction, the layout here was according to the standard pattern and it was on the north side of the road from Tilton to Launde. The irregular way in which the Joint Committee named their stations was well illustrated here, but in a different fashion. The station was in the parish of Halstead, which is between the station and the village of Tilton, so, at least, why the name should not be a double one is difficult to guess. The Committee was consistent in its inconsistency. Tilton village was a mile and a half away. The approach to the station was sharply inclined, with the staff dwellings between it and the public road. In the case of Tilton there were additional sidings on the down side. These served a loading drop where ironstone was brought from the high ground west of the line. A narrow gauge line worked by steam engines conveyed the stone to the drop. The whole of the area up to Tilton village has been turned over and the stone extracted, the overburden being restored after, so that to-day it would be difficult to see that quarrying had taken place. The mine was not large, some 25 wagons per day being sent to the works at Stanton, Staveley, Parkgate and Renishaw. In the last years of working the stone was sent to Holwell Iron Works.

After the mine was worked out on the west side of the line a new mine was started on the east side. Here the movement to the drop was done by motor lorry and the siding reached by an over-line bridge at the north end of the station yard. The mine belonged to Messrs Stewart and Lloyd whose monthly bill for rail charges averaged around £5,000 to £6,000 in the best days.

The staff at Tilton consisted of the station master, three porters and two signalmen (three signalmen in the better period). The last station master gradually had first one station put under his control and then another until he became the area agent for all stations south of Melton Mowbray and the Leicester line, with the exception of Leicester. During this time the divisional supervision was centred first at Rugby, then Nottingham, and Leicester, it was whilst under the control of Leicester that the line was closed. The Operation Assistant at Leicester at the time had started his railway career at John O'Gaunt Station when the last station master at Tilton was signalman there.

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