GWR publicity collection
Souvenirs
Many handbills or specially prepared booklets were handed out at various shows and exhibitions attended by the Great Western Railway, or to visitors to the Swindon Works. We have a few examples in our collection.
Royal visit to Swindon, April 28th, 1924
This souvenir has the grand title of Visit of Their Majesties the King and Queen to Swindon - April 28th, 1924. At the foot of the cover it is noted as being the Authorised Programme and priced at sixpence. The 15 page booklet was well produced by Kelly & Kelly of London and includes at the rear a large fold-out plan of the Swindon works which is printed on light-weight paper. This is almost identical to that published in the 1927 guide to the works but it does not include the large Carriage Shop and new gasometer which were later additions. This earlier map is scaled as being 4 chains to the inch and has a rather more ornate compass device.
The detailed itinerary of the visit is included together with a description of the various places and departments visited and a number of high quality photogravure plates, some of which were taken from postcards published by the GWR, with portraits of the King and Queen, the Mayor of Swindon, and the then Chief Mechanical Engineer, C.B. Collett. The visit included not only the works but also the Victoria Hospital, and the route of the drive from the station to the hospital and thence the works was listed with various timings. The entire visit was timetabled to last from arrival to final departure at Swindon Station from 2:10 until 4:30 p.m., with over an hour being allowed for a tour of the works. The journey from the works to the station was made on the footplate of locomotive No.4082 Windsor Castle which must have been rather crowded with King George V and Queen Mary, the Chairman of the GWR, the General Manager, and the Chief Mechanical Engineer, plus the driver and fireman!
British Empire Exhibition, Wembley 1924-5
The largest display mounted by the GWR at a public exhibition was at the British Empire Exhibition staged at Wembley in 1924-5. The recently built Caerphilly Castle was placed on show from May to October 1924, and during the same period in 1925 its place was taken by Pendennis Castle. The new book Caerphilly Castle and a jigsaw of the engine, the first of the Chad Valley produced GWR jigsaw titles, were on sale alongside other GWR publications. A full size replica signal box, complete with signalmen who demonstrated it working. Editions of souvenir booklets containing fold-out maps of the GWR system were given to visitors in both years. The signal box souvenir booklet remained unchanged for both years at 30 pages, but the souvenir of the Great Western Railway booklet was revised and much improved for the 1925 season, although it no longer contained coloured images. It was increased from 20 to over 40 pages and now included some advertising for GWR sale publications. All the souvenir booklets were noted as being printed by Kelly & Kelly of London. All three souvenir books contained similar large fold-out maps of the GWR system at the back. The 1925 Exhibition Souvenir map was slightly updated from that of the 1924 edition by having the location of 'Cathedral Cities or important ancient ecclesiastical buildings' marked, presumably as a result of the newly published Cathedrals book.
Exhibition souvenir, 1924 edition
Exhibition souvenir, 1925 edition
Signal Box souvenir, 1925 edition
Whilst not stictly a souvenir, this booklet was produced for distribution at the British Empire Exhibition. As the title suggests, it was aimed at business visitors and sought to publicise the goods handling capabilities of the GWR. Various photographs and chapters illustrated railway facilities and GWR docks, and it sought to promote the building of factories and other commercial premises close to the GWR so as to enjoy the benefits that would provide. As with the other booklets produced for the exhibition, a large fold out map of the GWR system was attached inside the back cover.
Booklet dated April, 1924
A Silver Anniversary 1929
This well produced twenty page booklet was published in July 1929 to celebrate the silver anniversary of the inaugural run of the Cornish Riviera Express which had taken place on July 1st, 1904. The booklet contained many photogtaphs and details of the train, the timings and history of the service were all covered in detail. A map on the last page showed both the original route from Paddington via Swindon and Bristol, and that taken from 1906 via Newbury and Castle Cary which reduced the distance by 19 miles.
Centenary celebrations 1935
Celebration banquets
To mark its centenary in 1935 the Great Western Railway held two formal banquets, one in Bristol University's Great Hall on 31st August and the other in Grosvenor House in London on 30th October. Large booklets measuring almost 12½" x 8¾", were produced to be distributed as a souvenir to the invited guests. They were printed by J.J.Keliher & Co., Ltd. of Southwark, London S.E.1 to a high standard on heavy paper and bound together with a ribbon. The majority of the illustrations included were printed separately and glued loosely to the appropriate pages. Whilst they followed the same format, the booklets for the two events differed in content slightly. The Bristol version is sub-titled Bristol and its Association with the G.W.R. 1835 - 1935 and relates the early history of the company from the 1832 meeting of local businessmen at which the proposal to build a railway from Bristol to London was first discussed, the appointment of Isambard Kindom Brunel as engineer, the first railway journey between Bristol and Bath in August 1840, and the evolution of Temple Meads station. The London one is more concerned with the building of the line, the Severn Tunnel, early engine drivers, Paddington Station and how the company grew.
Included with the London booklet were a large guest list, which suggested there were 114 tables at the event, and a copy of the menu. The menu was well presented and, at the rear, contained a synopsis of the centenary film "The Romance of a Railway" which was to be shown after the banquet.
Great Western Progress 1835-1935
On Saturday August 31st 1935, a special edition of The Times
GWR Centenary Number
August 31 1935
Author's collection newspaper was published as part of the celebrations to mark the centenary of the Great Western Railway. The contents of this substantial newspaper edition formed the basis of a 180 page book published by the GWR with the title Great Western Progress 1835-1935.
This book was produced for presentation rather than for sale. No author is credited but the cover carried the words Reprinted by Permission from the Great Western Railway Centenary Number of "The Times" and a foreword was written by Sir Robert Horne, then chairman of the GWR. This well produced and comprehensive book covered not only the history of the GWR but also described many aspects of its operation and services and contained many photographs. A small fold-out map of the GWR was included at the rear illustrating Brunel's original 1835 proposals for the route between London and Bristol, the GWR in 1885 and those additions as of 1935.
Railway Ribaldry
We had difficulty in categorising this book but felt that this is as good a place as any as, whist being a sale publication rather than a souvenir as such, it was commissioned and published specifically as part of the GWR centenary celebrations.
William Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist, best known for his drawings of outlandish and whimsically elaborate machines. He was born in 1872 into a family of artists living near Finsbury Park, North London. His father Thomas Robinson and brothers Thomas Heath Robinson and Charles Robinson all worked as illustrators. In the UK, the term 'Heath Robinson contraption' gained dictionary recognition around 1912 and became part of popular language during the First World War as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance.
In 1935 the Great Western Railway commissioned him to create a set of cartoons on the theme of the GWR itself, which they then published as Railway Ribaldry. The Foreword (by 'G.W.R') notes that the cartoonist was given a free hand to re-imagine the history of the line for the amusement of its customers. The result was this 96-page paper back book which contains no less than 93 full-page cartoons and 94 smaller vignettes. The book was published by the Great Western Railway in May 1935 and proved to be very popular, although it was never re-printed. Several publishers have since produced facimile versions in hard back
Duckworth Press 1974-1997
Author's collection and paper backform. Paper back versions have the same cover illustration as the original but are easily distinguished as they don't carry the cover price of 1/-.
Opened in October 2016, the Heath Robinson Museum houses the collection of original artworks owned by The William Heath Robinson Trust. It is located in Pinner, close to where the artist lived and worked.
Swindon Works Tours
Official guided tours of the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway were understandably very popular, and several different versions of souvenir guide booklets were produced from the mid 1920s continuing into British Rail days. Each booklet provided an illustrated guide to the various departments, not all of which could be visited on a tour due to the sheer size of the site. The GWR publications included a fold-out plan of the WorksClick or tap to see an image of the 1929 plan. The 1935 and 1947 booklets contained an even larger fold-out mapClick or tap to see an image of the 1935 map of the entire site with an inset plan of the Works in 1846, but this had been reduced to a double page centre-fold map and finally a single page map in the last BREL edition vividly illustrating the reducing scale of operations there.
The guide books were generally given to members of visiting parties (traditional visiting day was Wednesday) to keep as a souvenir, but the 1935 edition was advertised in the Literature of Locomotion catalogues of the time as being the 'Swindon Brochure' and priced at sixpence although this was not noted on the cover. The 1947 edition had gone up in price to 2/6 (2 shillings and sixpence), now noted on the cover. It was this final GWR version which was re-printed in 1950 by British Rail with little alteration save for re-branding and a price increase to 3/6. This book even included the same fold-out map of the works at the back, the only alterations made were to change the main title from 'G.W.R. Works Swindon' to 'British Railways (Western Region) Works, Swindon', and 'G.W.R. Works' to 'Swindon Works' on the inset map of the works in 1846.
1929
1935
1947
1950
Possibly as an interim measure, a folded leaflet was produced sometime in the mid 1950s which covered a tour of the whole works. It is not dated but the plan of the Works bears the year 1954. The next booklet to be published was dated 1954 and it describes both the Locomotive and Carriage Works. The layout and content suggest that it was produced to cater both for visitors to just the Locomotive Works, and those visiting the Swindon Works as a whole. In the later 1950s two new souvenir booklets were produced, the first covered a tour of the Locomotive Works and the second the Carriage and Wagon Works. As well as descriptive text, each booklet contained many black and white images of various departments and a plan showing the route which the respective tours followed.
A booklet was produced in 1968 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Locomotive Works and the centenary of the Carriage and Wagon Works. It is interesting to compare the plan in this booklet with those from GWR days as it shows just how much the works reduced in size over a relatively small number of years.
A larger format booklet was published by British Rail Engineering Limited in 1975 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The plan of the works in this booklet is almost identical to that from 1968.
Many different events had been arranged to take place during 1986 to mark the 150th anniversary of the GWR, one of which was to have been a major exhibition at Swindon Works. However, it was announced that the works were to be closed on 27th March 1986 and, despite much work towards it being already in hand, the exhibition was cancelled.
Folded leaflet circa 1954
Swindon Works 1954
Locomotive Works 1956
Carriage & Wagon Works 1957
Swindon Works 1968
British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) booklet from 1975
In around 1980 the Museum Division of Thamesdown Borough Council (as was) published a good facsimile version of the 1935 booklet. This version even reproduced the age related markings on the outside of the cover of what must have been the original, but the inside covers were not similarly treated and the fold out map of the works was not included.
