"There once was an engine called Greenhithe "
Crest may not tell you much about the industrial past of Ingress Park but there were once railway lines on the estate that carried a little tank engine called "Greenhithe"
In the nineteenth century Greenhithe's situation on the river and the arrival of the South Eastern Railway's (SER) North Kent Line, ensured that the village would develop into a major industrial area. Greenhithe station opened on 30th July 1849 and was the beginning of an interesting association with railways. The industry build up in North West Kent of the mid1800's saw Dartford become renowned for its paper industry.
Greenhithe was becoming associated with the paper mills (The paper Mill Jetty was only removed from its Ingress location by Crest) and the manufacture of cement. The growth of these two industries brought much railway activity to the area, a mixture of standard and narrow gauge activities and in 1877 the Johnson Works, opened covering an enormous area south of the North Kent Line. .
GREENHITHE was one of three "W6 Special" locomotives (the others were STONE and DARENTH) with drooped footplates supplied by Peckett & Sons Ltd. of Bristol to the British Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd., Johnson’s Branch, Greenhithe. Her boiler was built of Siemens-Martin mild steel rolled at Dalzell (Motherwell); as was usual Peckett practice at the time the longitudinal seams were butt jointed with double cover plates and quadruple riveted. A riveted copper firebox and brass tubes were fitted. She was tested under power in November 1927 and dispatched a month later. GREENHITHE worked at Johnson’s Branch until early in 1959 when, on the arrival of new Sentinel diesels, it was put into store in the shed along with STONE. About October 1962 it was transferred to the Hessle Chalk Quarry. near Hull, of G. & I. Earle Ltd.
Sadly GREENHITHE
did not last long after it was moved to Hessle. Rail traffic ceased at Hessle
around February 1965 and all the track was lifted. There was no demand for
secondhand steam locos and GREENHITHE was scrapped on site during March 1965 drawing
to an end her 38 year existence.
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The Web detective (how did we research this?) 1) Google "Greenhithe" 2) Google "Hessle Quarries" 3) Contact Hessle Council 4) Send enough emails to find a man that knows. But its not quite that easy - if you want to know more click here |
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