Maw and Co's Siding
Maw and Company, often referred to as Maw & Co., was a company specialised in the manufacture of decorative floor tiles, later expanding to other ceramic wares. The company was formed in Worcester in 1850, and moved to a new factory in Ironbridge in 1862[1], providing a significant portion of the traffic at Ironbridge and Broseley station. The company quickly outgrew the cramped Ironbridge site, and a decision was taken to open a new factory downriver at Jackfield, home to several other tile factories. On opening in 1883, the Benthall Works were the largest tileworks in the world, employing 400 people and producing 20 million tiles annually. Tiles were exported across the British Empire via the Severn Valley railway, to locations including as the Maharaja's Palace, Mysore, India; St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne; and the Bank of South Africa, Johannesburg.[2]
The works had a private siding to the east of the line between 1877 and 1959. On opening, a small McKenzie and Holland wooden signal box provided access to the siding, before being demoted to ground frame status in 1893. The former signal box was replaced by a standard ground frame in 1945, before final closure of the sidings in on 18 October 1959.[3]
From 1934 the works was served by Jackfield Halt, which was initially situated west of the siding but later moved to the east of it.
References
Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, Country Railway Routes, Kidderminster to Shrewsbury
- ↑ Maw & Co, Wikipedia, accessed 7/12/2015
- ↑ M. A. Vanns, The Severn Valley Railway
- ↑ Signal Box Register, Volume 1: Great Western, revised 2011 edition, Signalling Record Society (plus correction sheet #9 )
