A MEMORY FROM 1946… GERRY PARKER REMEMBERS THE GREAT WESTERN ❤️🚂
Every so often, someone shares a story with us that gives us another precious piece of The Great Western’s history.
Gerry Parker’s earliest memory of coming here dates all the way back to 1946.
As a young boy, Gerry would travel from Bishop’s Itchington by pony and trap, making his way over to Alcock’s Butchers in Harbury before heading back towards Deppers Bridge.
And on the journey home, he would call in here.
Except Gerry remembers very clearly that they didn’t call it The Great Western in those days.
They simply called it “The Station.”
Gerry would arrive in the pony and trap with a crate of empty beer bottles from his father. The empties would be exchanged for a fresh crate of full bottles, loaded onto the trap and taken home to Bishop’s Itchington.
Such an everyday errand at the time — but 80 years later, an extraordinary memory.
And the history surrounding Gerry’s story makes it even more special.
Just beside The Great Western stood Southam Road & Harbury Station, which had opened in 1852 and was still very much a working railway station when Gerry made those childhood journeys.
So just imagine the scene in 1946…
A young Gerry Parker, setting off from Bishop’s Itchington in a pony and trap, travelling to Alcock’s Butchers in Harbury, then making his way back through the Warwickshire countryside towards Deppers Bridge.
Steam trains passing nearby, the railway alive with passengers and goods, and a stop at the place everyone simply knew as “The Station” to exchange his dad’s empty beer bottles for a full crate before climbing back onto the pony and trap and heading home again.
And 80 years later, Gerry can still remember it.
These are the stories we absolutely treasure.
The Great Western is so much more than bricks and mortar. It holds the footsteps, journeys, conversations and everyday lives of generations of people who have passed through its doors.
And sometimes we are incredibly lucky to have someone like Gerry walk back through our doors and give us another little piece of that history.
Thank you, Gerry Parker, for sharing your earliest memory of The Great Western — all the way back in 1946. ❤️
And now we’d love to hear from you…
Do you remember Alcock’s Butchers in Harbury?
Did you or your family know The Great Western simply as “The Station”?
Do you have old photographs, stories or memories of Deppers Bridge, the railway or The Great Western from years gone by?
Please share them with us. Every memory is another little piece of our history, and we would love to preserve as many of them as we can. ❤️🚂
