If you drive through the village of Jackfield, you will come to a dog-leg in the road as you cross, what was once, the Great Western Railway line.
This level-crossing is claimed, at 38 feet (11.5 metres), to be the widest in Britain. Although the railway line opened in 1862, it is likely that the wide gates were added later, as industry in the area expanded.
The current gates remain as a feature but are not the originals. During the last restoration in 2019, it was found that little of the wood was either original, or in very good condition, so it was decided to recreate them using past photographs as a guide (the original blueprints are long-gone).
Unfortunately, after the latest renovation, the signal post was retained but the metal signal arm was not. I must admit that for many years I thought this was an original, but closer inspection showed that it was made out of tin plate. However, I still liked it.
The main Great Western Railway line running from Bridgnorth through to Shrewsbury was only single-track. The reason for the wide level crossing was merely due to a complex set of sidings, which primarily served another tile manufacturer in the village: Craven Dunnill, who had the Jackfield Encaustic Tile Works purpose-built in 1872.
The Craven Dunnill factory opened some 12 years before the Maw family moved their tile works from Benthall to Jackfield (see Secret Ironbridge: Maw or less); a site also chosen due to its proximity to the railway, for easy transportation of raw materials in, and finished goods out.
To the west of the level crossing was a small railway platform which served W.P. Jones, another long-gone brick and tile works (as seen in the centre of the above map). The remains of the platform can still be seen in the undergrowth.
The sidings were controlled by sets of large levers on frames that opened and closed sets of points in the rails using interlinking rods or cables. These frames were mounted outside on the ground and were called, understandably, ‘ground frames’ (as opposed to those mounted inside signal boxes). There were three sets of ground frames at Jackfield, and the middle set were located by these level crossing gates.
The South ground frame was located close to the entrance to the Craven Dunnill factory, adjacent to another level crossing with crossing gates. The North ground frame was located near a small railway bridge that is the subject of the next Secret Ironbridge instalment.
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