History of Christchurch

Recording the history of the village of Christchurch (originally Brimstone Hill) in Cambridgeshire

PHOTOS

This page acts as a store for photos that don’t yet have their own pages.

Days gone by, Steam Threshing in Christchurch: Money Cross, Fred Bellamy, Percy Cross, Bill Woolner and John Miller.

Pictured is William Sparrow and his Field Marshall AJE 232 which was used to drive the threshing machine. This replaced the steam engine in the previous picture and was a major improvement from that of the steam engine which were slow, heavy and needed lighting 3 hours before use, so you could build up a head of steam.

^{A young William Sparrow with his horse all harnessed up for a days work. Possibly taken down Green Drove, Christchurch.}

Christchurch was the temporary home of this rare Bedford Val coach/bus. One of only 10 built with a special shaped and low roof to enable it to get under a very low railway bridge.

18 Oct 2015

“The Last Coach From Christchurch”… With the North Western VAL being moved a few months ago, today saw it’s stablemate of 15 years leave it’s resting place for the last time… A selection of pictures and videos depicting the move of RUW 990E (lately known and registered as KBD 435Y due to change of registration in 1982) from it’s long term preservation spot. A coach with a very intriguing history – first supplied new to Sampson’s of Hoddesdon and then quickly passed to London Transport and used on the XRM Project where for the majority of it’s life it was parked in their Chiswick works whilst they evaluated the use of possibly developing a twin-steer London Bus. This never materialised, and was the only twin-steer VAL ever owned by London Transport. The distinctive 6.5 Litre Straight Six Diesel – “Leyland 0400 Power Plus” still sounds superb and commensurate of the low mileage covered (circa 87,000). Many thanks go to Billy Young and his superb Scania Jonckheere who today wouldn’t of been possible without to help Geoff and I with this VAL’s last journey…

22 Sept 2014Some pictures and videos from ShowBus 2014, held at Duxford Imperial War Museum on Sunday 21st September 2014. Footage taken onboard the fantastic 1965 Bedford VAL 14 (twin steer) finished with Plaxtons coachwork and driven by Geoff Cochrane. Both superb examples shown belong to Kenzie’s of Shepreth and each picked up an award: Best Fifties vehicle; Best Sixties vehicle.