Clavering Hundreds Branch
Eastern Region | Clavering Hundreds Branch | Ricking Halt | Pinchbools Halt |
The
imaginary six mile long branch would nestle in the upper reaches of the
River Stort north of Bishop Stortford with stations at Hazel End
(for the village of Farnham, the name is used to avoid confusion),
Manuden, Berden, and Clavering. Grades are insignificant, the branch
rises 67 feet giving an average grade of 1:473 (0.2%). The branch would
be similar to the nearby Thaxted Branch serving an agricultural valley
but with only 65% of the population. The economy is arable (peas, beans,
wheat, potatoes, sugar beet, and barley) farming with watercress beds
and mills. Population peaked in 1851 (3,000) and declined there after by
1901 to
2,215. Hopefully a branch would stabilise the population at about 2,500.
Comparison to Usk and Raglan suggest goods traffic, in tons, would be 40
of coal, 40 of in bound and 40 of out bound daily. There might have been
outbound mineral traffic as there were three pits in the valley working
the underlying
chalk[1],
a "lime quarry" near by,
and there is a deep stretch of
clean sand[1]
south of Little London near Berden. All stations would receive and
dispatch wagons daily making mixed trains less attractive than on the
Thaxted Branch were goods traffic was mostly to/from Thaxted. The
parcels traffic, 65 a day, could be handled by passenger trains. Theses
suggests Monday to Saturday 4 passenger trains, a goods train, possibly
an extra goods when the harvest is coming in, and no Sunday service.
Operation would be one train in steam. The above describes the Edwardian
period. As car and bus competition bit railways competed by increasing
passenger train frequency - many branches had their most frequent
passenger service in the late 1930's. The goods service would have been
more flexible and could have dropped to three times a week as required
and towards the end in practise once a week. The Thaxted Branch lost its
passenger service on 13.9.1952 and its goods service on 1.6.1953. The
weaker Clavering Branch would have closed earlier - possibly a war time
economy. |