Difference between revisions of "J.P.Harvey's Corn Mill"

J.P. Harvey's private sidings

A 1928 GWRGreat Western Railway plan shows 'Messrs. Harvey's Shed' and the 1938 OSOrdnance Survey map shows the corn mill and the fence separating it from the goods yard, and its position in relation to the GWRGreat Western Railway goods sheds, which now serve as Kidderminster Railway Museum and the Carriage Repair Works. The layout of the private sidings can also be seen.^{[note 1]}

Just before the corn mill, a small siding turns towards what appears to be a sand or gravel pit. This may be J.H. Smith's siding which was listed in the RCHRailway Clearing House 1938 Handbook of Stations as having a business at Kidderminster accessed via J.P. Harvey's siding.

In 1943 two additional sidings were added in the area marked "310 1.624". One was a third siding for Harveys adjacent to the two shown on the map, and the other next to it was the Summerfield Siding.

The company employed a shunting horse which was used to move wagons around the private siding.^[1]

Between 1973 and 1977, ex J.P. Harvey 'GRANO' grain hopper van 42239 was resident on the SVRSevern Valley Railway.

Business history

• Josiah Peart Harvey of Wotton Underedge (sic), Gloucestershire, was described as a miller and grocer in an 1858 indenture.^[2]
• A Mr. J. P. Harvey was described as a corn dealer by 1867 in a report of a theft by one Harvey Broomfield, a boy of "very bad character".^[3]
• Josiah P. Harvey of Oxford Street was listed in the Kidderminster Poll Book 1868.^[4]
• An 1876 directory refers to "corn, seed, salt & oilcake merchant, & dealer in guano & other manures".^[5]
• A Mr. Josiah Peart Harvey was established as a corn merchant by 1880 and gave land in Kidderminster for Church Street Baptist Church to be built.^[6] He was a noted temperance advocate and had given up the former maltsters' business.^[7]
• In 1891 Kidderminster Town Council condemned 418 sacks of flour after it was found that Harvey were storing them in a 'shed in the railway yard' that they were also using for artificial fertiliser manufacture. The sacks had been placed there temporarily 'owing to their putting new machinery into the mill'.^[8]
• An advertisement dates the Limited Company business back at least as far as 1916.^[9]
• A 1928 GWRGreat Western Railway plan shows 'Messrs. Harvey's Shed' next to the cattle pens and the goods shed that is now Kidderminster Railway Museum
• A 1928 invoice shows a flour mill in Mill Street, offices and warehouse in Oxford Street, and corn mills and manure works at the Railway Station, Kidderminster. A 1936 contemporary report refers to "J P Harvey & Co, of Kidderminster and Evesham".^[10] J.P. Harvey (Wholesale Grain) Limited's registered address was 'P.O. Box 12, Station Mills, Kidderminster".
• A 1937 GWRGreat Western Railway Traffic Research Committee report notes that due to "an active road transport policy being pursued" by J.P.Harvey, "Payments to GWRGreat Western Railway dropped from £8755 in 1931 to £4912 in 1936, notwithstanding extension of business".^[11]

Taken together they suggest Station Mill(s) was a form of the address at the station, and continuing operation of the mill on the site for a long period as part of a wider and long established business in several locations in Kidderminster and elsewhere.

• 

  J.P. Harvey invoice dated 1928

See also

• Private sidings connected to the Severn Valley Railway
• Wagons formerly resident on the SVR

Notes

1. ↑ The map is a composite of two OSOrdnance Survey 25in maps, both revised and published circa 1938. It is not clear if the apparent slight discontinuity in the sidings at the boundary of the map is simply due to printing differences or if some change in the layout of Harvey's sidings had taken place around that time.

References

1. ↑ Turley (2005) p. 83.
2. ↑ London Gazette, 15 October 1858 (Retrieved 13 September 2020)
3. ↑ County Express; Brierley Hill, Stourbridge, Kidderminster, and Dudley News, 6 April 1867 in the British Newspaper Archive
4. ↑ Kidderminster Poll Book 1868 (Retrieved 12 September 2020)
5. ↑ University of Leicester, 'Post Office Directory of Worcestershire, 1876', p. 996
6. ↑ Milton Hall Baptist Church, Church history (Retrieved 12 September 2020)
7. ↑ Winskill, Paul Turner, 'Temperance Standard Bearers of the Nineteenth Century: A Biographical and Statistical Temperance Dictionary' (1898) via Google Books, p. 15
8. ↑ Worcester Journal - Saturday 9 May 1891 on the British Newspaper Archive
9. ↑ Abergavenny Chronicle, 20 October 1916 via The National Library of Wales (Retrieved 12 September 2020)
10. ↑ Evesham Journal, 13 January 2011 (Retrieved 12 September 2020)
11. ↑ Minutes of meeting of the GWRGreat Western Railway Worcester Division Traffic Research Committee, held by The National Archive

Links