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Goods train of orange juice, 1964.

Coleford May 1964

Bob wrote: "... The illustration is of a goods train arriving at Coleford railway station in May 1964. The train mostly comprises open wagons which have been loaded at Avonmouth Docks with barrels of imported orange juice destined for Beechams Foods factory at Coleford. Another train load of juice is already stabled in the line adjacent to the loading bank, and a further load will be brought up from Parkend later in the day.
Beyond the railway, on the site of what is now the Kings Meade sheltered housing development, is what I believe to be an opencast coal mine, possibly abandoned.
The view is looking south eastwards from a position opposite the goods shed which now houses the Coleford Railway Museum. My queries are as follows :-

From which country(ies) was orange juice for Beechams being imported at the time of this photograph? ·

What was the name of the opencast coal mining site visible beyond the railway, extending up the valley towards Milkwall, and was this one of the many such sites in the Forest where the contractor went into administration after the coal had been extracted?

Finally, may I add one further query re. the Coleford Secondary Schools' special train to London for the Festival of Britain in 1951 (already long featured on your website): Could you possibly put out an appeal for confirmation of the date when this train ran, also any details re. the route and destination (Paddington or Kensington Olympia). I have been given to understand from a long retired Lydney locoman that the short train of 2 or 3 coaches which ran from Coleford was later tacked onto the rear of an express at Lydney Junction".

Dave Nash added: "... The opencast mining took place on land belonging to Edenwall farm which was the property of The Ludlam family. The mining took place over quite a large area of the farmland. Following the purchase of the Bells Grammar school buildings and playing fields by Henry Ludlam to create Bells Club the fields which had been opencast mined and later levelled off were used to create the Bells Golf course which is known today as The Royal Forest of Dean Golf Club".

Royston Pritchard added: "... No the contractor on this opencast site did n't go bust. The land was reinstated so succesfully that Henry Ludlam went on to win county and national cereal grain competitions. But the people who did go bust were the ones who built the golf course. It then came back under Henry Ludlam's control".

Peter Essex added: "... Through the amazingly extensive knowledge of Ian Pope the identification of Edenwall can also be confirmed on here where you can view a Map Click on the map on or near Coleford Station for a closeup. On the same website you can then click on E for further detail of Edenwalls history up to 1944. Then click on C for a bit of information on how Edenwall linked to Coalway Hill. I also wonder if the possible slagheap away in the distance to the southeast partly hidden by trees might be Bixslades. As for where the oranges came from I imagine someone could be found who was working at the erstwhile Carters at this time. Wikipedia under Ribena suggests Florida as the source until U boats became a peril, whilst eattheseasons indicates that today Spain Cyprus and Turkey are likely".

Bill Nash added (May 2014): "...The date of the mining events don't seem to me to add up. Henry Ludlam allowed the mining at Edenwall (very late 1960's) long after they finished using the steam locos on the mineral line through Coleford. The station closed in the very early sixties - I remember going to the station to pick up my brother's school trunk which had be sent home PLA (passengers luggage in advance) !!! He couldn't get a train to Coleford by then but his trunk could!!! ".

Claudio added (August 2017): "Orange Juice Concentrates (or rather, Comminuted Orange Juice Concentrates) for the production of Orange Squash were imported mainly from Israel but also from Spain and Cyprus. A minor supplier was also Sicily. Dr Vernon Charley, the "inventor" of Ribena, developed a way to produce Orange juice that contained a percentage of fruit peel and Essential Oil. The Comminuted Orange Concentrates (up to 4:1) were the bases for Carter\'s Orange Squash".

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