The Day the Restored Castle Fire Brick Sentinel Made a Triumphant Return to Buckley!"
Precinct Way Car Park, Buckley
26 August 2006
(Mr J Brian Lewis died on 30th August 2010)
This Sentinel was sold by Castle Fire Brick after twenty years' service. The Sentinel fleet at Castle was in operation from the late 1930s until 1956. They delivered all over the place: to Liverpool, Manchester and in 1940 up the Llandudno Great Orme, where petrol-driven lorries had insufficient power. The Sentinel would proceed fully loaded until half way up and incouple to make the rest of the first leg, returning for the rest of the load. The vehicle is now (2006) owned by Stuart Gray from Hitching and on the week end it returned to Buckley with Mr Gray of Hitching, his son, Chris and a friend, it was due at the Salop Steam fair where it later paraded with the rest of Britain's finest old vehicles. Victor Jenkins, son of the driver, Frank Jenkins, and Hilary Jones, daughter of the fireman or "second man", Walter Lewis, were both there and had their photos taken with the Sentinel their fathers used to work in. Walter Lewis was a fireman for twenty years. Also at Buckley were some cars of the same vintage as the Sentinel, owned locally. This certainly was a day to savour and remember - ed.
Sentinel UJ 9497
In April 2005, Archdeacon T.W. Pritchard came to tea primarily to read the original text of my grandfather's Diary for inclusion, in part, into his forthcoming book The Making of Buckley.
On leaving he asked me if I remembered the Castle Firebrick Co Ltd (hereinafter CFBC) Sentinels.
Since my late father, Cllr. George Lewis, was Company Secretary (from 1936) and a Director (from 1953), I was familiar with them and replied that I recollected that they had been sold for scrap in the 1950s.
Later that day, I had doubts. I entered "Castle Fire Brick Co Ltd Sentinels" into Google and got nothing. It then struck me that I should try their place of origin - Sentinel Works, Shrewsbury. That brought up "Sentinel Owners' Club", so I copied my message to its site.
On the 5th April 2005 at 7.55 p.m. I received the following message from Justin Goold saying "Just saw your message on the Sentinel forum. What a coincidence……I have just bought UJ 9497."!
Justin was anxious to gather as much background information as he could about the waggon's original commercial owners from 1937 to 1955. All of this can be read in the splendid article by Alan Barnes in the September 2006 edition of Old Glory. My job was, of course, to collect it together.
My first source was Sir Nigel Vernon Bt, who had been a member of the CFBC Board with my father. Although, I regret to say, physically incapacitated, his memory is as sharp as ever and he kindly gave me much information and, more helpfully, put me on the track of former employees, who would have further information.
In response to a letter from me to the Chester Chronicle on 30th December 2005,many of the former CFBC employees, who knew the waggon intimately, contacted me and with remarkable effect.
Ernest Scott, who provided a wealth of information, remains in the memory. After telling me that my father employed him, in 1942, as a clerk at the Top Yard to book the waggons in and out, I asked what the salary was and to which he replied "Ten shillings a week".
The problem for Justin was to establish what was the correct form of the original CFBC livery, since the gold leaf for the great 'Castle' on the apron alone, an icon for the North West, was to cost £2000.
Unfortunately, in spite of much debate and help given by my respondees, it is still not correct, since the phrase "Lane End Works" (I am grateful to Mr Hopwood for confirming this with a photograph) has crept into the address on the body and is the result of a red-herring created by one of the subsequent owners. I hope Mr Gray, the present owner, will have this removed.
When that is done, the waggon is in as good shape, following the amazing skill of the Goold family, as any 'Buckleyite', who remembers it working, could wish.
Like Topsy, it all just "growed"!
I have been photographed at last year's Shropshire Steam Rally standing before UJ 9497's sister BEV 467, holding my father's copy of the CFBC Refractories Brochure and which details the products which the Sentinels would have customarily carried to the docks at Liverpool for dispatch to the ends of the earth.
Justin Goold provided me with a photograph of the waggon in all stages of the restoration. It has been a fascinating odyssey.
Then, on Saturday 26th August 2006, she came back home, to Ithaca, as it were.
The event was organised by the enthusiasm and aplomb of Paul Davies, Carol Shone and the Buckley Society and was widely reported in the Press.
A large crowd of around 150 people made up of former firemen, the children and relations of the former drivers and firemen (Victor and Hilary, now rightly celebrities), the children of former managers and clerks and secretaries and many others - stood in the Buckley Precinct Car Park to witness her civic welcome by the Mayor of Buckley.
The evocative surnames - Cropper, Johnson, Hughes, Fox, Jones, Murphy, Hayes, Alletson, Whitley, Kelsall, Villar, Roberts, Peers, Hume, Groves, Gutteridge - could all be heard in the conversation.
When we heard her whistle and she suddenly appeared on Brunswick Road, it was a heart-stopping moment.
The Mayor, Mr Ken Iball, whose family has been in the town for generations, said to me "I never thought I would live to see this auspicious day."
Because of its unique demographic mix -those who came long ago from the Potteries, South Wales and Cornwall, to name but a few locations, to work in the clay industry - Buckley is like nowhere else.
The icon returned and the 'family' came out to welcome her back. At least three of that 'family' were in their 90s. Reminiscence was ubiquitous.
Paul Davies writes of the day: 'A lady approached me today saying "This is true Buckley, this is what Buckley is about."'
As she puffed off, past Oak House (Villar), up the Pinfold Lane, after visiting the former CFBC office and Ewloe Wood (Alletson) and having been escorted there by a cavalcade of classic cars of her own vintage (kindly organised by Mr Harris), she looked so slender and so graceful - truly the "Darcey Bussell' of the Steam World and, mysteriously, the soul of 'old Buckley' had returned with her for a few hours.
Above all else it is the sound of her that stirs the emotions.
Au revoir !
Brian Lewis. September 2006.
Author: Lewis, J Brian
Tags
Year = 2006
Month = August
Day = 26
Event = Historic
Transport = Lorry
Work = Transport
Extra = 2000s
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