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Anyone recognise this place?

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Wyvern

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http://www.jjb.uk.com/trains/quiz/nobodyknows.jpg

nobodyknows.jpg
 
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455driver

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Any idea what area it is in/ when the photo was taken, that would narrow it down a bit?
 

DaveNewcastle

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I think there a few clues (though I'm not clever enough to deduce anything from them):

The view is looking south or west.
The style of the 3 chimneys in the lower building are unusual and not found throughout the UK (poss Midlands?).
The rightmost of these 3 chimneys, and the central stack on the main building have a cement render which probably dates it after 1960.
The noticeboard in the foreground (on the track-facing side of the lower building) appears to have a banner heading of 3 letters and/or symbols.
The chiseled stone guttering around the lower building is not common in the south east of england (but others may correct me on that).
The land seems to be so flat with a slight ridge in the far-right, that its likely to be in an aluvial plain.

- - - Afterthoughts - - - -

The roof of the lower building has been relatively recently re-tiled (the angle of the pitch and sun would highlight many more irregularities of an old roof) and given new lead flashing on the ridge; they might not even be slate. That should restrict the date further.
And there's likely to have been a bridge from where the picture was taken.
 
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DaveNewcastle

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The image may indeed have come from Wikipedia (or perhaps it had been posted there more more recently), but I cannot agree with the Wikipedia statement that it is Birtley Station.

Here is Birtley Station (a very different shape): http://sine.ncl.ac.uk/view_image.asp?digital_doc_id=4341

And here is the view from the bridge today (the line curves in the opposite direction): http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=birtley&hl=en&ll=54.895322,-1.585325&spn=0.019818,0.052357&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=20.929552,53.613281&t=h&hnear=Birtley,+Tyne+and+Wear,+United+Kingdom&z=15&layer=c&cbll=54.895322,-1.585325&panoid=kqKPMP3GXsxt5ZNZ8u-XZg&cbp=12,152.85,,1,4.13
 

John Webb

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The small window in the near end of the nearest part of the building looks rather like windows in some Settle and Carlisle station buildings. But the buildings don't look S&C otherwise.So possibly ex-Midland or another LMS constitute company, so LMS on the poster board?

I wonder if this is on the old Furness Railway system? They were fond of heavy stone buildings and chimney stacks.
 

Peter Mugridge

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The stonework on the buildings doers suggest the northern part of the Midland Railway to me?

The style of the roof and chimneys suggests around the 1860s - virtually identical to the style on the main building of my old school which is of that vintage, although the school is in Berkshire.
 

Yew

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Thanks to the wonders of Google, I have found where it is. However I'm not sure if thats cheating.
 

DaveNewcastle

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Does this help? :D
Well, you've done well to transform the evidence to fit the circumstances!
But I think that's the only compliment I'll pay you, so far, anyway. I think we're still missing the substantive part of the station on the east side of the line (now on the left of your reversed image).

Thanks to the wonders of Google, I have found where it is. However I'm not sure if thats cheating.
I'm sure Wyvern's question is a genuine request for knowledge, and (s)he would be delighted to have the question answered.
 

DaveNewcastle

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142094

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I know the bridge next to where Birtley station used to be very well, and the original picture does not appear to be Birtley. In fact IIRC the line bends away to the right when looking south.
 

PaxVobiscum

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Actually, to be perfectly serious for once, I find it so hard to get a connection to the railforums.co.uk server that it is quite hard to keep up to speed with the progress of a thread. This might explain some of the comments which do not appear to have taken note of very recent posts.

I am finding about a 30% or less success rate in getting in here at the moment, usually I just get an error message instead:

PS: this took me 4 shots - make that 25%
 

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I'm sorry to say that all you have done is repeat the incorrect response which bolli posted from the same unreliable source in post #4 (the reasons for rejecting that are in the follow-up replies and is even refered to in that Wikipedia entry as questionable).
And the poster of the photo even states in a subsequent photo he posted of Birtley Station that it isn't Birtley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birtley_2_Station_geograph-2228937-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
 

DaveNewcastle

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I'm far from persuaded that the image posted by Wyvern was taken anywhere near Birtley! The architectural details are (relatively) alien to the area.

But in the event that the archivist had simply mixed that image with others from elsewhere in the same area, then I've reposted the request on another forum where historians of the North East like to discuss the built environment past and present using visual clues.
I'll advise if there are any useful replies.
 

DaveNewcastle

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I think you have it, wareylad ! Good work!

And welcome to the forum! That's an excellent first post - straight to the point, accurate, and precisely what was asked for. You've put the rest of us to shame!.

There's another image of the station in the 1950's, perhaps at the same time, here : www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1792205 That image was posted by the same person, Ben Brooksbank, who was attributed in Wikipedia with the Birtley description!
 
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Wyvern

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Many thanks, everyone, for your help. Ben Brooksbank was the photographer but appears to have misremembered where he took it, so the date he puts may also be wrong. Wikimedia Commons does not apparently delete images posted in error but it should have been put in a category as "misidentified". THere is a discussion here

Someone else identified the letters on the notice board as "LMS" so that fits, as Berrington and Eye was a joint LNWR/GWR station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford line.

So it seems a very likely hypothesis.

Anyone who is interested inold railway photographs may click on the Ben Brooksbank category
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Someone else identified the letters on the notice board as "LMS" so that fits, as Berrington and Eye was a joint LNWR/GWR station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford line.

Berrington and Eye closed railway station has featured in some of the legs on the "Closed Stations Journey" quiz on the quiz forum, but that quiz requires line knowledge of closed stations without the need for pictorial representations.

Still, I have found this particular thread quite interesting, with clues scattered around to help with actual identification.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Interesting that the Shrewsbury & Hereford was built under what we would call a PFI arrangement today.
Thomas Brassey built it for free and then leased it out for 8 years before the LNWR and GWR took it over.
He also operated the line.
 

rdwarr

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I love the fact that, if you put the image into Google, you get a page of wrong answers. Easy to detect cheating that way;)
 
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