Bellingham Bitesize - the Parcel Shed
Welcome to BELLINGHAM BITESIZE @ the old Parcel Shed, Bellingham Station, which closed to passengers on and from Monday 15th October 1956.
BELLINGHAM BITESIZE gives visitors to the Heritage Centre and Tea on the Train the chance to discover at a glance the heritage of Bellingham and the surrounding area.
The Parcel Shed is left of the BELLINGHAM (NORTH TYNE) sign. North Tyne was added to avoid confusion with Bellingham, Kent.
Next to the Parcel Shed, was a wooden hut, long demolished, where the oil lamps for the signals were filled and cleaned.
Next to the wooden hut was the signal box where tokens for the single line from Bellingham to Falstone were exchanged.
Each year, railway inspectors would tour the stations in their area and award prizes for the best station garden displays. Sunday and evening excursion trains were run to enable passengers to view these gardens.
Donald Mackenzie was Station Master at Bellingham from 1934 to 1949. A keen gardener, his beautiful station displays won many prizes. He also grew black currants, raspberries, gooseberries & strawberries in a garden level to Redesmouth Road. You walked behind the Signal Box, across the clothes drying green and down the steps to get there.
The goods yard, which is now the car park, consisted of a siding with a platform for unloading goods and livestock. With its single line and platform, Bellingham was not the busiest station, though school children travelled every day along the line from Kielder to attend school in Hexham. It was a different story on Bellingham Show day when special trains came from far and wide and people would be hanging out of the windows.
The following information comes from Alma Landles who lived at Bellingham station in the 1940s when her grandfather Donald MacKenzie (below) was Station Master. He retired in 1949, a year after nationalization.
There were two trains in the early morning; one up and one down the line. Then another train at 11 o'clock, followed by a goods train later in the day. At around 6 o'clock there would be another two trains, again, one up and one down the line. When the trains arrived at the station my grandfather would go out to meet them and I would tag along. As Station Master, he would sometimes greet VIPs on the platform as they arrived on the passenger trains.
I loved to spend time in the Station Master’s Office. There was a small chest of draws in the office which I could use as my desk and pretend to do work alongside him and the clerkess, Cissie Dodds. The cupboard in the alcove of the office had a telegraph on the top, which my grandfather used to send messages. He often allowed me to play with it and pretend to send messages.
The Signal Box was an amazing place where I would watch Mr. Dalton move the various levers to control the signals and associated points. He would sometimes let me try to move those levers. At other times I would go to the goods yard to watch the sheep being unloaded from the wagons and try to help with the animals.
I would watch the newspapers and parcels arriving and being unloaded from the Goods Vans. I loved watching the Signalman and Engine Driver ‘exchange the tablets’ as it was called. I didn't know it at the time but this was part of the safety system developed by Edward Tyer to ensure that there was only ever one train on a section of single track.
The parcel shed survived the years well, except for the large sliding door, which is now in the Heritage Centre. Over the years, dozens of people wrote their names on the door, especially children, who would record their weight, which they measured on the station scales.
Enjoy your visit to BELLINGHAM BITESIZE @ the old Parcel Shed. Now come and find Amy Daley and the real parcel shed door in the Heritage Centre!